Springfield, Ill. – Sunday’s (Aug. 17) ARCA Menards Series race at the Illinois State Fairgrounds was the day of the underdog, with many of the top 10 finishers being unfamiliar faces to that category.
Among the top finishers were Kelly Kovski in third, Sean Corr in fifth, Brayton Laster in seventh, Alex Clubb in eighth and Brad Smith in ninth.
Despite each of these drivers finishing inside the top 10, the 100-lap race was a tale of five very different stories for that particular group.
Kovski was the most competitive driver listed, finishing third and running inside the top five for much of the race. However, with the lack of practice and qualifying due to rain at the track earlier in the day, Kovski was forced to start from the rear of the field. He worked his way inside the top 10 by lap 5 and never looked back from there.
“It was my kind of track. Everyone was trying to be really conservative, but I knew we had to go,” Kovski told Frontstretch post-race. “The track was not in great shape, and having a dirt background really helped me.”
Kovski is no stranger to the dirt tracks of the ARCA schedule, running in the series exclusively off the pavement for the better part of the last 20 years. However, that makes him and his team an extremely part-time effort, putting them behind his competitors in track time and owners’ points each year.
“We don’t come here for good finishes,” Kovski added. “We come here to win.”
The third-place finish is his best ARCA finish since 2016, when he finished runner up at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds.
Corr had perhaps the most standard underdog day of the aforementioned group. In just his second start of the season, he crossed the line fifth, his best finish since Talladega Superspeedway in 2023. Corr is no stranger to the dirt, running both races each of the last two seasons, with Sunday’s result being his first top 10, let alone top five. Corr and Empire Racing have always operated on a limited basis, but this season running in just two of the 14 races is the fewest they have done since 2019.
“We had already planned for adjusting to a dry-slick track,” Corr said. “After the halfway break with a new set of tires, the car really came to us. The guy’s did a great job adjusting tire pressures to a dry-slick track.”
Corr plans to return to DuQuoin in a few weeks, debating on repairing some damage his No. 8 Chevrolet sustained during the race at Springfield.
Laster led Clubb and Smith as three full-time drivers who finished inside the top 10. They were the third-fifth highest full timers, trailing Lavar Scott, who finished second and points leader Brenden Queen in fourth.
Laster recorded his first top 10 of the 2025 season. The 22-year-old bested his previous career-best finish of ninth, which he recorded twice, both at Salem Speedway. Laster has endured his fair share of mechanical issues with Wayne Peterson Motorsports this season, but all stars seemed to align for both the driver and team on Sunday.
“I come from a dirt late model background, so we know we can do a lot with a little here,” Laster said. “Every race we try to find something to improve on, but it seems like we take one step forward and two steps back, but today, everyone on the team really prepared a good car.”
Laster’s performance gained WPM one spot in the owner standings from 12th to 11th, 17 points behind Clubb’s No. 03.
Laster said that Peterson is taking him and his team out for pizza after the race to celebrate the triumph.
Clubb was the only driver inside the top 10 who was purely disappointed with the outcome of the day. Clubb fell off the lead lap late in the going, struggling with speed and handling of the car.
“I’m not real happy, we didn’t run very good,” Clubb said. “The car handled bad, I hate these bump springs. So we rode around with that, and the car started to overheat. At that point, we were laps down, and it didn’t matter.”
Despite those thoughts, Clubb recorded his team’s first top 10 since an accident leaving Iowa Speedway a few weeks ago.
The 33-year-old’s eighth-place finish was his second top 10 of 2025, and best since 2024’s season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway. Clubb recorded his first top 10 at Springfield and his second ever at a dirt track.
Even so, Clubb says there will be changes coming to his racecar before the next dirt race at DuQuoin in two weeks.
Smith recorded his first top 10 of the season, finishing ninth. The finish ties his career-best finish over his 37-year ARCA career, a mark he recorded at Winchester Speedway in 2020.
Smith improved one spot in the driver standings from 10th to ninth.
The race ran very lowkey for Smith, staying behind on restarts and staying out of trouble to keep the car clean and competitive for not only this race, but also DuQuoin.
“Our strategy today was to stay back a little ways, don’t let the radiator clog with dirt, and get to the finish and let the chips fall where they may,” Smith said. “The car ran good, we ran good, and everyone raced us clean.”
Smith said that his plan for the DuQuoin race will look very similar to how today went, staying out of trouble and hoping for attrition among his competitors to better his finish.
While the front half of the field saw its fair share of issues on Sunday with mechanical gremlins, accidents and a dominant performance from victor Brent Crews, some top-10 finishers thrived.
For those underdogs driving for smaller teams, they capitalized, leaving the track recording both season-best finishes and career-best ones. While Corr and Kovski aren’t expected to compete in the next race at Madison International Speedway, Laster, Clubb and Smith can take their momentum into the Badger 200 on Friday (Aug. 22) evening.
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