Meet Ethan Tovo. Ahead of his series debut, he won the pole for the ARCA Menards Series West race at Portland International Raceway on Saturday, Aug. 8. Tovo is the son of Nitro Motorsports partner Joe Tovo and is driving the organization’s No. 70 Toyota.
Nitro has five drivers entered for the race at the 1.98-mile road course. It took the top three spots in practice and four of the five will start inside the top five. Sam Corry will start second, Mia Lovell will start third, Graham Jacobson will start fifth, and Brad McAllister will start 15th.
Corry was the fastest in the practice session earlier on Saturday with Tovo second-fastest.
Todd Souza breaks up the Nitro dominance with a fourth-place qualifying effort.
Hailie Deegan will start sixth ahead of her Bill McAnally Racing teammate Mason Massey in seventh.
Cole Denton will start eighth, with Jerry Pitts Racing teammates Caleb Shrader and Eric Johnson Jr. in ninth and 10th, respectively.
Of note, points leader Trevor Huddleston will start 14th. Also, Ryan Vargas will start 21st as he will become the first driver to contest all three ARCA series events in one weekend. Vargas finished ninth in the ARCA Menards Series and ARCA Menards Series East combination race at Iowa Speedway on Friday.
With 26 starters, all will take the green flag for the 57-lap race.
ARCA West Qualifying Results from Portland
The Portland 112 will begin at 9 p.m. ET on Saturday, the 8th, at 9 p.m. ET with live coverage provided by FloRacing.
Mark Kristl joined Frontstretch at the beginning of the 2019 NASCAR season. He is the site's ARCA Menards Series editor. Kristl is also an Eagle Scout and a proud University of Dayton alum.