Tyler Reif and Central Coast Racing have their second consecutive win in the ARCA Menards Series West, as the 17-year-old took the checkered flag at Tri-City Raceway.
Reif led the early stages and held off a dominant Sean Hingorani in the late stages to capture his second win of the season and third of his West career.
“No cautions surprised me the first 75 laps, and we knew what we had to do in the last 75,” Reif told track reporters. “I practiced the outside a little bit this weekend and it definitely paid off in the end.”
Hingorani ended up second after leading much of the middle portion of the event. Jack Wood finished third with Reif’s teammate Todd Souza fourth. Rounding out the top five, Kyle Keller came home fifth.
“I wanted more for sure, it felt like we were really good all night,” Hingorani told track reporters. “I wish we had a little more at the end, something could’ve broken. It was very odd to getting drove around on the top.”
Kasey Kleyn finished sixth in his ARCA debut, with Trevor Huddleston finishing seventh. Jess Havens, also making his series debut, finished eighth with Greg Biffle finishing ninth in his first West race since 1996. Nick Joanides finished 10th despite wrecking across the finish line.
As the field took to the green flag for the first time at the track since 2003, Reif gained the lead from the outside on lap 1. By lap 5, Reif pulled away from Hingorani as the field settled in single file.
By lap 20, as Reif began to sort through lapped traffic, Hingorani reached the back bumper of the No. 13. A few laps of following later, Hingorani got his nose inside of Reif and made the pass for the lead.
Much like Reif on the opening laps, Hingorani gapped second place after passing for the lead, holding a nearly two-second lead about 10 laps after the pass. Fast forward 15 more laps and Hingorani had a lead of nearly two and a half seconds.
A largely uneventful 50 laps followed the early pass for the lead, prompting the scheduled lap 75 race break. Notable under the first run, Biffle was able to go from eighth to third and Eric Johnson Jr. lost two laps due to a suspension issue.
When the field once again saw the green flag, it was with 68 laps to go, and Hingorani jumped back out to the lead quickly. However, things looked more bleak for Reif, who fell into the clutches of Wood, moving back to third. Just as it appeared as if the field was going to ride the rest of the run out behind Hingorani, the caution flew for debris.
With 42 laps to go, the green flag flew once again. Wood had a bad jump on the outside lane, allowing Hingorani to pull away quickly and Reif to pull through to second place. The effort fell on deaf ears, however, as Hingorani pulled away once again.
Another caution quickly followed, as Biffle, who was fighting an ill-handling racecar, spun off of turn 3. He gathered it quickly, sustaining no damage, and continued on the lead lap.
Hingorani replicated his previous restarts and pulled away from the field by the time he reached turn 2. The field ran orderly up front for a few laps, but chaos further back incited yet another yellow with 24 laps to go when Havens went for a spin in turn 3.
For the first restart since the initial start of the race, someone was able to beat Hingorani. Reif made quick work on the outside of the dominant driver of the No. 5, passing him after a few laps of side-by-side racing. However, the battle for the win was not settled there. Hingorani kept Reif close but couldn’t get the bumper to him, allowing Reif to skate away freely to his second consecutive West win.
Following the action at Tri-City, ARCA West is set to take nearly two months off, returning at Madera Speedway on Saturday, Sep. 28, at 11 p.m. ET. The national division of ARCA returns next week, however, for a doubleheader at Michigan International Speedway and the Illinois State Fairgrounds, on Aug. 16 and 18, respectively.
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