Saturday’s ARCA Menards Series race at Ohio’s Toledo Speedway marked the finale for the series in the 2024 season.
Andres Perez scored his first career ARCA championship while William Sawalich secured the victory.
Here’s some notes following the finale:
• Sawalich (No. 18 Starkey / SoundGear Toyota) put the exclamation point on his season by claiming his ninth ARCA Menards Series victory of 2024 in the Owens Corning 200 Presented by CGS Imaging. Sawalich started from the General Tire Pole for the tenth time this season and led 192 of the race’s 200 laps, winning by 2.1 seconds over Gio Ruggiero (No. 20 First Auto Group Toyota).
• Perez (No. 2 Max Siegel Inc. Chevrolet) made history when he started his engine for the race, clinching the ARCA championship. In doing so, he became the first foreign-born driver to win the ARCA Menards Series championship. He is the 41st driver to win at least one series championship in its 72-year history. Perez spun while battling for the lead inside of the final 25 laps, but recovered to finish sixth.
• Lavar Scott (No. 6 Max Siegel Inc. Chevrolet) also made history, becoming the first Black driver to win the ARCA Menards Series Bounty Rookie Challenge rookie of the year award. Scott ended the day in fifth after an unscheduled pit stop for a flat left rear tire incurred while battling three-wide for the lead at lap 181.
• Ruggiero, who also finished second in the ASA STARS National Tour Glass City 200 at Toledo Speedway three weeks ago, earned his seventh top-five finish in 10 ARCA Menards Series starts this season. He also matched his career-best finish, set earlier this year at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway. Ruggiero was one of three drivers to lead, pacing six laps including five while battling Sawalich for the win after the race’s last restart at lap 187.
• Joe Gibbs Racing clinched the ARCA owners championship with Sawalich’s victory, the team’s 11th series win of the year. It marks the fourth time in five years the No. 18 team has won the ARCA owners championship.
• Kris Wright (No. 15 FNB Corporation / WrightTrucks.com Toyota) finished third, his seventh top-five and 12th top-10 finish of 2024. Wright finished third in the final ARCA championship standings.
• Toni Breidinger (No. 25 Sunoco Toyota) finished fourth in the ARCA championship standings, the second-highest finish in the point standings by a female driver in series history. Hailie Deegan finished third in 2020. Still nursing a nagging injury to her left foot suffered at Michigan Int’l Speedway, Breidinger finished seventh in the race, her 10th top-10 finish of the season.
• Christian Rose (No. 32 West Virginia Almost Heaven Ford) visited with mechanical engineering students on the University of Toledo’s Formula SAE team on Friday, the day before the Owens Corning 200 Presented by CGS Imaging. Rose finished tenth on Saturday and locked up fifth in the ARCA Menards Series standings.
• Cody Dennison (No. 11 TimCast.com Toyota) and Willie Mullins (No. 10 Crow Wing Recycling Toyota) finished eighth and ninth respectively, giving team owner Andy Hillenburg two cars in the top 10. It was Dennison’s second top-10 finish of the season and Mullins’s first in just two starts; he earned the General Tire Pole Award and finished 28th in his only other start at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway.
• Becca Monopoli (No. 85 Orlando Health Ford) earned his career-best ARCA Menards Series finish, 11th, in her second series start.
• Presley Sorah (No. 31 HDFive / Tatanka Services Chevrolet) finished 17th after engine failure, but even being at the track was a victory for the small RISE Motorsports team. Team co-owner Tim Goulet’s father, Ed Curran, and his aunt Mary Curran, both died earlier in the week. Goulet immediately left the track after the race to attend their services in Milwaukee.