SALEM, Ind. — William Sawalich led every lap of Saturday’s ARCA Menards Series race at Salem Speedway.
It was the third consecutive year that the winning driver led the full distance from the pole.
Sawalich put together a dominant performance reminiscent of Jesse Love and Sammy Smith on his way to his fourth victory of the ARCA Menards Series season. He survived multiple restarts throughout the night and no one in the field could touch the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
Sawalich was thrilled to enjoy a relatively stress-free evening at a unique, fast facility like Salem, but made sure to extend credit for his wire-to-wire victory to everyone that helped prepare his No. 18 Starkey/SoundGear Toyota.
“My Joe Gibbs Racing team really brought me a fast Toyota Camry tonight,” Sawalich said. “I can’t thank them enough for all their hard work. We had a really, really good car tonight. Honestly, there aren’t too many complaints from me.
“It’s really easy for me as a driver on nights like this.”
Sawalich has spent the year building a rivalry with fellow young prospect Connor Zilisch. The two have come together on several occasions, with Sawalich himself being forced to watch Zilisch take checkered flags at Dover Motor Speedway, Iowa Speedway and Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Although he has enjoyed plenty of stellar races already this year, Sawalich arrived at Salem Speedway determined to show the rest of the field he and Gibbs were not to be trifled with.
Winning the pole by more than two-tenths on his first lap set a commanding tone that carried over into the Salem ARCA 200. Sawalich effortlessly gapped the field on each restart and could barely make out Andres Perez in his rearview mirror by the time the checkered flag waved.
Sawalich currently finds himself with a small deficit to Zilisch in his quest to defend his East Series crown. With another wire-to-wire showing on his résumé, Sawalich has plenty of momentum and time to usurp Zilisch in the East Series and rack up more trophies across all three ARCA divisions.
Following Perez in third was his Rev Racing teammate Lavar Scott. Will Kimmel emerged victorious in a heated three-car battle for fourth, where he was followed in the running order by Christian Rose.
The finish:
William Sawalich, Andres Perez, Lavar Scott, Will Kimmel, Christian Rose, Isaac Johnson, Cody Dennison, Ryan Roulette, Brayton Laster, Kris Wright, Michael Maples, Alex Clubb, Rita Goulet, Gus Dean, Corey Day, Toni Breidinger, Greg Van Alst, James Finch, Ed Pompa, Dale Shearer, Brad Smith, Andrew Patterson, Mike Basham, Amber Balcaen, Chris Golden.