After a lengthy battle with William Sawalich, Connor Zilisch proved victorious in the Atlas 150 at Iowa Speedway on Friday (June 14). It was Zilisch’s second victory of the season.
Zilisch’s win also meant another race where another full-time series regular did not find victory lane, with Andres Perez leading the way of those drivers, finishing sixth. He was joined by only Toni Breidinger and Lavar Scott as full-time drivers in the top 10, with those two drivers finishing eighth and ninth, respectively.
How does Iowa’s race stack up in this week’s Frontstretch ARCA Power Rankings?
1. Andres Perez
Perez entered Iowa as the points leader and will head to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in the same position. The difference is that he exits with a 33-point lead over second-place Greg Van Alst, compared to the 16-point gap he had entering the race, thanks in large to an early crash that took Van Alst out of the race.
Perez coasted to a sixth-place finish at Iowa, doing exactly what he’s done so well throughout the season, finishing races, and running consistently. He spent some of the race within the top five but ultimately missed out on finishing there by just one position. His top-10 finish marks his sixth straight this season.
As for Mid-Ohio, Perez has a tall hill to climb. Last season, the 18-year-old finished 15th in the event and averaged a finish of 13.5 on the two road course events the national division ran.
2. Connor Zilisch
In two ARCA national division starts this season, Zilisch has come away a perfect two-for-two, winning at Iowa this past weekend, and at Dover Motor Speedway in April. In fact, he’s never finished outside of the top two in any national division race he’s entered. Further, in all six of his combined ARCA-sanctioned starts, Zilisch has never finished worse than fourth.
Zilisch led 102 of the 150 laps at Iowa Friday evening, holding off Sawalich on a handful of restarts late in the going. Zilisch received a number of bump-and-run attempts from Sawalich but retained the lead en route to victory. He now holds a 17-point lead over Sawalich in the ARCA Menards Series East standings with three races to go.
3. William Sawalich
In just his third ARCA national division start of 2024, Sawalich crossed the line in second place at Iowa, marking the fourth time in 16 starts that he’s finished runner-up. The finish was vastly improved from his last start at Dover, where he recorded his career-worst ARCA finish, 17th, after an incident.
Sawalich led 48 of the 150 laps Friday evening and stayed inside the top three for most of the event. However, he sits in second place in the East standings and has a margin of 17 points to gain over the last three East races to have a chance to defend his championship title.
The 17-year-old is now in a stretch of six straight races in the ARCA national division, as he’ll contest Mid-Ohio, Berlin Raceway, Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, Salem Speedway and Elko Speedway in the No. 18 for Joe Gibbs Racing. As for the upcoming race at Mid-Ohio, Sawalich will look to build on a second-place finish from the same race in 2023.
4. Gio Ruggiero
If 17-year-old Gio Ruggiero displayed anything at Iowa, it was patience.
The Venturini Motorsports driver showed very good speed out of the gate, but after a mid-race spin, and then a subsequent flat tire as the field headed to the second of two race breaks, Ruggiero found himself at the rear of the field not once, but twice.
However, Ruggiero wasn’t fazed.
He worked his way back up to the top five, finishing third, and was in contention at the end as the field endured a restart with four laps to go. Despite this, the third-place finish marked Ruggiero’s worst finish in three national division races, which goes to show just how impressive the start of his career has been. He now sits in third place in the East division standings, 26 points behind the leader Zilisch.
Ruggiero is slated to run this week’s race at Mid-Ohio, but will only contest two ARCA races over the course of July and August, racing Indianapolis and the Milwaukee Mile, both East division races.
5. Lavar Scott
After some misfortune experienced by Amber Balcaen at Iowa, Lavar Scott now sits in third place in the ARCA standings after seven races. Further, he’s only seven points behind Van Alst for second. He hasn’t finished inside the top 10 since Dover, four races ago.
While Scott has capitalized on others’ misfortune, he has also started to find consistency in his own finishes, much like his Rev Racing teammate Perez. He’s found himself inside the top 10 in four of the first seven races. However, two of those finishes outside of the top 10 came after incidents at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.
Iowa wasn’t pretty for Scott, all told.
He spun late in the going to bring out a caution with less than 10 laps to go in the race. He was able to rally to a ninth-place finish despite the spin. He now heads to Mid-Ohio, a race he did not run in 2023, to contest his first road course event at the ARCA level.
Paint Scheme of the Race
For this weekend’s Paint Scheme of Race, Fast Track Racing and driver Christopher Tate take home the prize.
Tate, who made his ARCA debut, drove the No. 10 T-Top Manufacturing Toyota to a top 10 lead lap finish.
ARCA’s national division will now head to Mid-Ohio, this Friday (June 21), for the Zinnser SmartCoat 150, with FOX Sports 2 holding the broadcast. The green flag will fly at 6 p.m. ET. The next time the East division takes to the track, it’ll be on Friday, July 19, at IRP.
Josh joined Frontstretch in 2023 and currently covers the ARCA Menards Series. Born and raised in Missouri, Josh has been watching motorsports since 2005. He currently is studying for a Mass Communication degree at Lindenwood University