JEFFERSON COUNTY, Wis. — The Nottestad family has won multiple championships and victories at Jefferson Speedway in Wisconsin and on Saturday night, another generation of the family claimed a historic win.
Jacob Nottestad held off tough challenges from Gabe Sommers and John DeAngelis in order to win the “Salute the Troops 100” in his first victory in the ARCA Midwest Tour.
“What a team effort! We wrenched on this thing all day, we were busy in the pits,” Nottestad said after the race. “The changes we made and to see it show is just incredible.”
Nottestad led the field to the green flag as he and Sommers were on the front row. The two battled for the top spot over the first 46 laps until the first caution flew for Luke Fenhaus’s spin in turn four.
Fenhaus would retire from the event with mechanical issues.
On the restart, Nottestad would get out ahead of Sommers until the second caution flew on lap 55 for Justin Mondiek’s spin coming out of turn two.
Sommers would get his nose out ahead of Nottestad on the restart, but was unable to take the outright lead as Nottestad quickly jumped back to the front.
DeAngelis would get by Sommers for second place on lap 61 and tried to find a way to get around Nottestad, but his numerous attempts came up short until the final caution flew on lap 74.
The final caution involved Jonathan Eilen and Levon Van Der Geest as the two got together going into turn one. Van Der Geest got the worse of it, as he had heavy damage on the left side of his car.
On the final restart, Nottestad would continue to lead as Sommers reclaimed the second spot from DeAngelis.
Fast qualifier and new track record holder Casey Johnson made a daring three-wide move out of turn four to get the third spot. However, Johnson was not able to catch the top two and challenge for the win.
At the line, it was Nottestad getting the checkered flag, followed by Sommers in second and Johnson in third.
DeAngelis finished fourth with Austin Nason rounding out the top five.
The victory also helps Nottestad in his chase to win the 2022 Kulwicki Driver Development program title.
“We are racing for Alan this year, and to win this is just a huge bonus in the point standings for that program,” Nottestad said. “Especially at our home track as well. We have a huge edge on these guys as far as laps go, but it was an awesome team effort.”
Johnson did set a new track record in qualifying with a time of 13.230, erasing Ty Majeski’s track record of 13.394 seconds that was set a year ago.
In fact, the top 11 broke the track record in qualifying.