For the third time this season, Sean Hingorani has found victory lane in the ARCA Menards Series West. The 18-year-old won in dominating fashion at Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway after starting from the pole position and leading every lap.
“Venturini Motorsports brought me such a good race car today,” Hingorani told FloRacing. “We were able to lead wire-to-wire and dominate tonight.”
Brent Crews crossed the line second after late-race contact with Trevor Huddleston while battling for the position. Huddleston crossed the line in third after getting around Tyler Reif late in the going, who finished fourth.
“This thing was a hot rod,” Crews told FloRacing. “We struggled all night, but Cayden [Lapcevich] worked on it all night.”
Rounding out the top five, Jack Wood crossed the line in fifth. Kole Raz finished sixth, while Jaron Giannini, Rip Michels, Eric Johnson Jr and Ethan Nascimento completed the top 10. Only the top seven finished on the lead lap.
When the initial green flag waved, Hingorani wasted no time taking control of the race, as he cleared Michels by the entry of turn 1. Michels ultimately fell outside the top five before the field worked lap 4.
As Hingorani continued to build his lead to over a second by lap 12, it didn’t take long for his championship competition in Reif to reach second place. However, it was Huddleston who would get around Reif on lap 30. The field remained in a mostly orderly fashion, especially up front, for quite some time as the opening green flag run stretched until lap 55. Kyle Keller lost a tire, which brought out the first caution after he made contact with the wall.
Over the initial run, Hingorani was able to put cars a lap down that were well into the top 10.
On the first restart of the race on lap 73, the field remained much closer as they rumbled off into the first turn. Hingorani retained the lead, though, and the caution came out shortly after for the scheduled halfway break on lap 75.
After the halfway break, it was much of the same on the restart. Huddleston got the nose to the outside of Hingorani but couldn’t get beside him fully down the backstretch. Hingorani cleared the No. 50 by turn 3 and began to set sail from the field from there. However, the run ended quickly after, as Isabella Robusto was turned on the frontstretch by Eric Nascimento. Robusto’s damage ended her night early.
The ensuing restart came at lap 96, and like many times before, Hingorani cleared the outside car in Huddleston and led the way. However, it was the battle behind the leader that got interesting. Crews fought for multiple laps to get to the inside of Huddleston but couldn’t get there initially. However, Crews sent his No. 20 deep into turn 3 the next lap, making hard contact with Huddleston, sending him up the track and outside of the top five.
Despite the move he made for second, Crews was not able to reign in Hingorani, though he made a late charge with under 10 laps to go. The current championship leader led the entirety of the final green flag run and took the checkered flag.
ARCA West Results from Kern
ARCA West will return in two weeks for the final time in the 2024 season, as drivers will head to Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 8 for the Desert Diamond Casino West Valley 100 to crown a champion. The green flag is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. ET, with coverage being carried by FloRacing.
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