16-year-old Max Reaves and Joe Gibbs Racing made it two ARCA wins in a row on Saturday night (June 27) at Elko Speedway. The teenage sensation commanded most of the Shore Lunch 250, dominating the race’s second half to claim the win.
Prevented from being able to qualify due to engine issues, Reaves had to start Saturday’s race from the rear in 20th position. But that hardly fazed him, charging through traffic to run with the leaders in less than 80 laps.
“I’ve got to thank all of these guys for putting that motor back in this thing,” Reaves said in victory lane. “I knew we were going to be the winning car (Saturday), I knew we were going to be the one to beat.”
Reaves and Landon S. Huffman were the class of the field from there as the race worked toward lap 150. But when Huffman encountered mechanical issues a few laps later, Reaves took full advantage, prevailing on a pair of restarts the rest of the way to take home the win virtually unchallenged.
Jake Bollman finished second in class ahead of Ty Fredrickson, Taylor Reimer, and Jason Kitzmiller to complete the top five. Isabella Robusto ran sixth, the final car on the lead lap followed by pole sitter Thomas Annunziata, Richie Mullins, Takuma Koga, and Austin Vaughn.
Fredrickson, slotting third, had a career-best performance at age 17. In two career ARCA starts, he’s now run top five both times and posted an average finish of 3.5.
But it was Bollman, himself another teenager at age 19, who exited Saturday in the best position, widening his ARCA points lead as the season hits its halfway point.
“Overall, it was a great day. I can’t be too upset about it,” Bollman said. “Another second place, another top-three.”
Huffman, meanwhile, raised plenty of eyebrows in his ARCA Menards National Series debut on Saturday.
He started out strong, running out front early and then swapping the lead with Reaves following the first race break on lap 75. That promise, however, fell apart when his car began smoking from the right rear entering the track’s first turn.
Huffman pulled into the pits on lap 154 to fix the problem, but not before being hit with a five-lap penalty for coming to a stop on the track for intentionally attempting to bring out a caution. Huffman went on to finish 14th.
Trouble for the frontrunners continued on a lap 162 restart, with Robusto appearing to miss a shift and losing a handful of positions. She dropped to sixth on the short sprint going to the lap 175 race break.
Reaves forged ahead on the restart in front of Kitzmiller before a caution four laps later for a Bobby Earnhardt spin, moving the sixth-place running Robusto back on the lead lap via the free pass.
Reaves held onto his advantage on the restart again with 56 laps to go, leading by more than a second in front of Bollman and Fredrickson. It was smooth sailing from there as he built a 5.4-second advantage out front by the finish, a comfortable margin on this tight 0.375-mile oval.
“I knew we were going to be the winning car tonight,” Reaves said. “I knew we were going to be the one to beat. … I love Elko and I love that we got to go back-to-back this year.”
The ARCA Menards Series stays in the Midwest next week for the Ashley Furniture 150 on Friday, July 3 at Chicagoland Speedway. The race will be broadcast at 8 p.m. ET with television coverage provided by FOX Sports 1.
Brad joined Frontstretch.com in 2020 and contributes to the site's 5 Points To Ponder column and other roles as needed. A graduate of the University of Georgia's Henry W. Grady School of Journalism and Mass Communication, he has covered sports in some capacity for more than 20 years with coverage including local high school sports, college athletics and minor league hockey. Brad has received multiple awards for his work from the Georgia Press Association.
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