KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Although the stat sheet will show Tanner Gray dominated Friday’s Reese’s 150 at Kansas Speedway, his journey to the checkered flag was anything but smooth.
Contact with Amber Balcaen on the final restart of the day left Gray with a slow leak in his left rear tire, but he still had enough car and tire to hold off Connor Zilisch, Corey Day and Andy Jankowiak in the final laps. Gray’s resolve, and his tire, lasted until the checkered flag, resulting in his second ARCA Menards Series victory of 2024.
One more lap and Gray would have been denied the victory because his left rear tire went flat just as he reached Turn One on the cooldown lap. He was fortunate the tire lasted to the finish so that he could celebrate putting together a complete race behind the wheel of Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18 Toyota.
“It’s obviously gratifying when you can come here and close these things out,” Gray said. “We’ve been in a position to win most of them this year, but I haven’t done a good a very good job on the restarts at the end. It’s been a lot of fun racing with [Joe Gibbs Racing] this year and hopefully, we can do this some more in the future.”
Gray nearly achieved a sweep of the two ARCA Menards Series events at Kansas this year.
The Tide 150 in May saw Gray lead a race-high 86 laps from the pole. Despite building a 10-second advantage at one point, Gray was not able to fend off Connor Mosack in the Pinnacle Racing Group No. 28, who made the race-winning pass with 14 laps remaining.
Instead of dealing with one PRG Chevrolet on Friday evening, Gray had to deal with two. One was piloted by Zilisch and the other, the No. 82, was piloted by Day. Both young prospects kept Gray honest throughout the Reese’s 150, with Day nearly taking the lead from Gray twice.
Contact with Day while battling for the lead initially had Gray worried about his left rear tire. The decision by Gray’s crew chief Matt Ross to leave him on track while Day pitted proved to be the correct one, as Gray held steady and survived the intense final restart to take home the win.
Of the three drivers chasing Gray, Zilisch had the best opportunity to overtake him with Gray and Jankowiak colliding in Turn One on the final lap. Despite a valiant charge, Zilisch needed an additional lap to take advantage of Gray’s tire failure after the checkered flag.
Fresh off a disappointing outing at Bristol Motor Speedway that saw his ARCA Menards Series East title hopes get erased due to a crash with Logan Misuraca, Zilisch felt Kansas was a perfect venue to properly rebound. He believed a victory was possible without Gray’s punctured tire had Balcaen not stayed out on the final restart with older tires.
“I don’t really know what the thought process was on [Balcaen’s] team staying out there,” Zilisch said. “I get it. There’s three to go and you want a chance at the win, but it’s frustrating. We had a car capable of winning there, but I’m still super proud of this Pinnacle Racing Group team. We had a good clean day and I learned a lot.”
The season-long rivalry that has followed both Gibbs and PRG continued despite the East Series championship being settled last week. Gray’s triumph at Kansas gave the Gibbs No. 18 team 10 victories in the national ARCA Menards Series this season compared to the six accumulated by the PRG No. 28.
Gray notching another win for Gibbs was dictated to him ensuring he could finish out a dominant afternoon. The circumstances may have been stressful, but Gray trusted his own experience and the speed of his car to cap off an efficient day at Kansas.
“After about five or seven laps, I thought we were a pretty dominant car,” Gray said. “This is a testament to everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing. We had a lot of adversity thrown at us throughout the race and we were able to handle it all, so I’m really proud of them.”
Lavar Scott came home third behind Gray and Zilisch, with Day and Gio Ruggiero completing the top five. The rest of the top 10 consisted of Balcaen, Jankowiak, Lawless Alan, Isaac Johnson and Jason Kitzmiller.
Only one race remains before the 2024 ARCA Menards Series season officially goes into the record books. A champion will be crowned next Saturday at Toledo Speedway during the Owens Corning 200, which airs live on FS2 at 4 p.m. ET.