Without the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series joining the ARCA Menards Series at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, the race weekend felt like it had lost its luster.
Additionally, the victor was crowned due to a questionable call, as Connor Mosack was penalized by series officials for jumping the last restart. He didn’t serve his penalty and despite crossing the line in first, he didn’t go to victory lane; William Sawalich did.
Let’s briefly talk about the penalty. ARCA uses a restart line rather than a zone like the NASCAR national series. Additionally, I have not seen photo or video evidence of said restart violation. The remote TV broadcast failed to fully cover the incident, not even sending one of its two pit reporters to gain comment from series officials or acquire video evidence of the violation. Nothing.
Alas, despite the controversy, the results stand from Mid-Ohio. Sawalich took home the trophy, Mosack wound up as the last driver on the lead lap and Andres Perez increased his points lead.
Therefore, who stood out to make the Frontstretch ARCA Mid-Ohio power rankings?
1. Andres Perez
Perez has been a steady Eddie this season. Outside of his one pole at Charlotte Motor Speedway, he has not done anything flashy. He also has not made any mistakes.
Perez now has a 37-point lead over Greg Van Alst. Is that insurmountable? No, there are still 12 races left in the season. It is quite comfortable though. Perez almost assuredly will be the points leader after Berlin Raceway, and depending on the results there, could remain the points leader after Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.
At Mid-Ohio, Perez started eighth and finished sixth. He had a moment where his No. 2 Rev Racing Chevrolet appeared borderline out of control, but he held onto it and picked up his series-high seventh top 10.
Perez now leads the series in top 10s, total laps and total mileage. All this to say that even if his full-time competitors best him in a race or two – none did so at Mid-Ohio – he will be hard to beat for the title.
2. William Sawalich
Sawalich was the beneficiary of Mosack’s penalty, but credit to Sawalich for putting himself in that spot to take advantage of the situation. Did Sawalich have race-winning speed? Maybe, though certainly not as much as Mosack or runner up Brent Crews.
Still, the history books show Sawalich won at Mid-Ohio, becoming only the second driver to have two national series victories in 2024.
Sawalich’s victory also tightened up the owner point standings. Entering Mid-Ohio, Venturini Motorsports’ No. 20 held a 12-point lead over Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18. Sawalich gained six more points than Gio Ruggiero in the No. 20, narrowing the gap to only six. Unlike Perez’s lead in the driver standings, six is not a comfortable margin.
Sawalich takes his No. 18 Toyota to two racetracks where he scored top fives last year. He won at Berlin and finished fourth at IRP. VMS vs. JGR… haven’t we seen this before. Sawalich’s successes in 2024 – two wins, three top fives, three top 10s and a series-high 185 laps led – land him in second in these power rankings.
3. Greg Van Alst
Van Alst entered Mid-Ohio with only two ARCA road course starts, and it showed during the race. Van Alst spun and veered off track, only to rejoin the field and finish 10th as the third-highest series regular.
Keeping in mind Van Alst Motorsports does not have the manufacturer backing like JGR, VMS, or Rev, his second-place points position is impressive. He’s outrunning all full-time Venturini drivers, Rev driver Lavar Scott and AM Racing driver Christian Rose. Furthermore, in the owner standings, Van Alst’s No. 35 is solidly fifth.
Yet Van Alst presumably is hungry for more. Statistically, his average finishing position is better than both his career average and 2022 full-time performance.
So where can Van Alst improve to cut into Perez’s point lead? For starters, Van Alst has an average starting position of 16.1, his worst in the 2020s decade. Gaining almost five spots per race is good, except it’s only amounted to three top 10s and a lone top five. If his No. 35 can come out of the hauler faster, it’ll set him up to not only continue to match Perez but beat him and lower that points deficit. Will it be easy? No. But Van Alst has proven he cannot be counted out; Don’t hand the championship trophy to Perez just yet.
4. Gio Ruggiero
After Ruggiero finished second at Phoenix Raceway and then won at Five Flags Speedway to begin his ARCA campaign, Ruggiero seemed likely to win more races in 2024. Yet he hasn’t.
That’s not to say Ruggiero has performed poorly either. At Mid-Ohio, the TV broadcasters noted Ruggiero does not come from a road-racing background, so his third-place result was impressive.
Compared to Jesse Love’s absolutely dominating 2023 title run, Ruggiero has not come close to matching those results. To be fair, Love entered as a two-time ARCA Menards Series West champion and had a good amount of experience in VMS’ Toyotas.
Ruggiero on the other hand now has a combined 13 starts across the ARCA platform. Overall, he has one win, 11 top fives, 11 top 10s and 255 laps led.
If there’s a racetrack where Ruggiero can snag his first career victory, it’s at Berlin.
He finished fifth in the track’s premier 150-lap super late model race in 2023 and Venturini’s No. 20 nearly won the ’23 ARCA race there.
Ruggiero is a talented up-and-coming prospect. As he continues his development, he’ll take home more trophies and rise up these power rankings.
5. Thomas Annunziata
In his three career ARCA starts, Thomas Annunziata has an average finish of sixth. Debuting at Daytona International Speedway, he finished second. At Talladega Superspeedway, he finished 12th — not a contender for the win, but still respectable. At Mid-Ohio? He had a shot to win but came up shy with a fourth-place finish after Mosack moved him. For his performance thus far, Annunziata lands in the fifth spot in these power rankings.
Paint Scheme of the Race
For the second time in 2024, team owner Jeff McClure brought a beautiful paint scheme to his No. 44 piloted by Annunziata. At Daytona, it was a Days of Thunder throwback scheme. At Mid-Ohio, it was a throwback paint scheme to NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon.
Annunziata made a pass for the lead, ahead of penalized Mosack, only to be muscled out of the way again. Nevertheless, Annunziata wheeled his No. 44 to fourth and earned the Paint Scheme of the Race award.
Berlin hosts ARCA on Saturday, June 29 at 8 p.m. ET with live coverage provided by FloRacing.
About the author
Mark Kristl joined Frontstretch at the beginning of the 2019 NASCAR season. He is the site's ARCA Menards Series editor. Kristl is also an Eagle Scout and a proud University of Dayton alum.
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