Luke Fenhaus took the lead on an overtime restart to steal the ARCA Menards Series win from William Sawalich in Saturday night’s Calypso Lemonade 150 at Iowa Speedway.
The race was part of both the ARCA Menards Series and ARCA Menards Series East schedules, and Fenhaus will be credited with a victory in both series.
• Fenhaus becomes the 355th driver to win at least one ARCA Menards Series race. He’s the second consecutive first-time winner, joining Mid-Ohio winner Tyler Ankrum, and the second driver in 2023 to win in his first series start, joining Phoenix winner and ARCA Menards Series West regular Tyler Reif. Fenhaus becomes the 37th driver since 1979 to win in his ARCA Menards Series debut.
• Fenhaus now has two career ARCA Menards Series East victories, winning at both Nashville (Tenn.) Fairgrounds Speedway and Iowa Speedway. In both races, Fenhaus took the lead from Sawalich on an overtime restart to win.
• Fenhaus has led a total of four laps to score his two ARCA Menards Series East wins.
(18) William Sawalich dominated for 148 laps of the ARCA Menards Series Calypso Lemonade 150 at Iowa Speedway until a caution with less than two laps to go allowed (28) Luke Fenhaus to score an upset victory in overtime. (Rich Corbett Photo)
• Sawalich finished second after leading 154 of the race’s 156 laps. He started from the General Tire Pole and was not challenged until the final restart.
• Jesse Love finished third, and combined with a ninth-place finish by Frankie Muniz, now leads the ARCA Menards Series championship standings by 49 points headed into Friday’s race at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway.
• Sawalich continues to lead the ARCA Menards Series East standings, but his gap is now down to 11 points over Fenhaus.
• Three of the top four finishers – Fenhaus, Sawalich, and fourth-place finisher Lavar Scott – are full-time ARCA Menards Series East drivers.
• Scott made his second ARCA Menards Series start and collected his second fourth-place finish. He also finished fourth in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway.
• Toni Breidinger made 37 career ARCA Menards Series starts before scoring her first top-five finish earlier this season at Berlin Raceway. With her fifth-place finish at Iowa Speedway, Breidinger now has top-five finishes in two of her last three starts. She becomes the fourth female driver in ARCA Menards Series history to have multiple top-five finishes, joining Erin Crocker-Evernham, Hailie Deegan, and Natalie Decker.
• Andres Perez fought throttle-body issues throughout the first two-thirds of the race, but quick work by crew chief Jamie Jones and his Rev Racing team allowed him to stay on the lead lap while a change was made during the second race break, leading to a sixth-place result.
• Christian Rose matched his career-best ARCA Menards Series finish in seventh.
• Conner Jones finished eighth, the first driver not on the lead lap. He has finished among the top ten in all four of his ARCA Menards Series starts and in both of his ARCA Menards Series East starts in 2023.
• Muniz finished ninth in his first career start at Iowa Speedway, his seventh ARCA Menards Series top-ten finish in nine starts.
• Jon Garrett notched his second ARCA Menards Series top-ten finish of the season, matching his result at Berlin Raceway in tenth.
• The next race for the ARCA Menards Series is the Spring Hill Shooting Range 150 at Pocono Raceway on Friday, June 21.
Keyword: ARCA Notes: Fenhaus’ Iowa Breakthrough