William Sawalich was dominant in the ARCA Menards Series race at Salem Speedway on Saturday (July 27) night. How dominant? He posted the fastest time in practice, won the pole and led every lap en route to earning his fourth win of the season.
In his second trip to Salem, Sawalich took home the trophy, giving the No. 18 team two wins at the 0.555-mile short track in the past three years.
Sawalich became the third straight ARCA winner at Salem to lead every lap, joining victors Sammy Smith in 2022 and Jesse Love in 2023.
“My Joe Gibbs Racing team gave me a really fast Starkey Soundgear Toyota Camry,” Sawalich victoriously told FOX Sports’ Heather DeBeaux. “Can’t thank them enough for all their hard work. We had a really good car tonight. Honestly not much for complaints from me. Really easy for me as a driver on nights like this.”
Points leader Andres Perez finished second followed by his Rev Racing teammate Lavar Scott in third. Those three were the only three drivers to finish on the lead lap.
The battle from fourth to sixth place was tight in the closing stages of the race, with Will Kimmel coming home fourth, Christian Rose in fifth and Isaac Johnson in sixth.
Cody Dennison and Ryan Roulette finished seventh and eighth, both career-best results and their first national series top 10s.
Brayton Laster wound up ninth with Kris Wright rounding out the top 10 in 10th.
The 11th race of the 2024 season was one full of incidents, with Venturini Motorsports affected the most.
The first one came on the opening lap. As Toni Breidinger appeared to check up momentarily, Greg Van Alst avoided her but made contact with Amber Balcaen. The contact sent Balcaen hard into the backstretch wall, ending her night immediately.
“I was so excited for this race, we had such a good fast Icon Direct No. 22 car in practice and decent qualifying effort and I thought this was going to be a really great race and we just got turned into the wall there,” Balcaen said. “I mean we’re all fighting hard for that top lane because it’s needed for this track. But yeah unfortunately just got turned into the wall. I’m going to have to watch the footage but my crew said I didn’t do anything wrong so I don’t think I did. But we’ll have to go back to watch the footage.
“Physically fine. I really wanted to race all 200 laps on this track. Super fun racetrack, really happy ARCA comes here. I’m really bummed that we’re out early.”
On lap 89, the third caution flag flew. While it is uncertain what started it, the end result was damaged racecars for Ed Pompa, Van Alst and Jake Finch. Finch’s throttle reportedly stuck which sent his No. 20 into the fracas.
“Really right when I entered turn 3 and didn’t really know where it was at,” Finch said about his view before he joined the melee. “Then once I saw it just tried to get on the brakes as quick as I could and downshift and just locked up. Nothing I could do. I hate it for the guys and I feel like it’s pretty embarrassing moment, right? I got asked earlier in the year what my biggest embarrassing moment was racing-wise and I didn’t really have any. But that definitely was on the chart so I hate that it happened that way. Obviously didn’t mean for that to happen more or less.
“Just sucks. We had a really good racecar. Just tried to save the tires and manage our race as best we could at the end and hate that I couldn’t do anything for the Venturini guys but excited to get there at Michigan.”
Series officials changed flags from yellow to red after the incident as Dale Shearer was transported via an ambulance to a local hospital. Shearer finished 20th.
Finally on lap 133, as debutant Corey Day was racing the Rev duo hard for positions inside the top five, he tried to clear himself in front of Scott, but instead, calamity struck, which also collected Breidinger.
“I think just fresh tires there and I got under him in [turn] 1 and had a really good run, got really good down in the back-straightaway and I thought I had him clear and I guess I just didn’t,” Day said. “I think that was on me. I’ll go back and watch it but just want to say a big thanks to Mr. H and Hendrickcars.com for the support and getting me out here.
“I learned about racing around cars. I learned what not to do there. Just carried all the experience and all the laps. That way we can work on our car going into Bristol.”
Sawalich will next seek to capture the ARCA win at his home track of Elko Speedway. He won the pole and led 17 laps there last year but finished runner up to Love by 0.998 seconds.
ARCA Results from Salem
Yes, ARCA’s next race is at the shortest circuit on the schedule, 0.375-mile Elko. The Minnesota short track will host the series on Saturday, Aug. 3 at 9 p.m. ET with live coverage provided by FOX Sports 1 and 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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Would love to see Craftsmen Truck at Salem.
Rita Goulet top female race finisher at salem!
Process of elimination had everything to do with it.