After encountering a late setback, William Sawalich completed an amazing comeback to score the ARCA Menards Series victory in the Shore Lunch 250 at Elko Speedway in a three-wide photo finish over Lavar Scott and Kris Wright.
Sawalich dominated the early stages of the race from the pole, as only six cars remained on the lead lap through the race’s midway break. Sawalich’s night was nearly done in, however, when he came together with lapped driver Michael Maples going into turn 1.
Escaping the incident with only minor left rear damage, Sawalich rejoined at the tail end of the exclusive group of lead lap cars with Scott inheriting the lead.
The combination of Sawalich charging from the back and new players fighting for the lead created an all-time finish just as rain and lightning began to surround Elko.
As Sawalich worked his way up to second, Scott held strong in the top spot despite challenges from Wright before a caution with 17 to go for a Ryan Roulette spin bunched the field together again.
After Scott prevailed on the restart, Sawalich tracked him down and made the pass with only three laps to go. Scott came right back at him and the two made contact racing side-by-side for the lead. Their tight battling allowed Wright to close and compete for the win.
Coming off of turn 4 coming to the checkered flag, Sawalich and Scott washed up the track bouncing off each other as Wright made it three-wide on the bottom. As all three cars crossed the line sideways, it was ultimately Sawalich who scored the victory by the narrowest of margins.
Scott continued his recent hot streak with a runner-up finish, while Wright came home as the highest-finishing Venturini Motorsports car in third.
Isabella Robusto, who suffered considerable damage in an incident just prior to the halfway break, rebounded to finish a solid fourth, while points leader Andres Perez saw his advantage diminish slightly as he finished three spots behind his teammate Scott in fifth.
EJ Tamayo came home sixth in his ARCA debut, while Venturini teammates Toni Breidinger and Sean Hingorani finished their quiet days in seventh and eighth, respectively.
Greg Van Alst ran as high as third early before fading to finish a couple of laps down in ninth, and Christian Rose overcame several problems on the day to round out the top 10 finishers.
ARCA Shore Lunch 250 Results
ARCA returns to action on Friday, Aug. 16 with the Henry Ford Health 200 at Michigan International Speedway. Race coverage will air live on FOX Sports 1 and FloRacing at 6 p.m. ET.