Ty Gibbs won the ARCA Menards Series Championship by simply starting the Reese's 150. Nick Sanchez had to battle in a green-white-checkered finish to earn his first career victory in the series by beating the champ.
While Gibbs may have led the first 93 laps of the event, a late caution switched things up and an amazing finish was about to occur.
Sanchez, restarting in third place on the bottom of Row 2, took advantage of a battle between Gibbs and Corey Heim and snuck underneath the leaders entering Turn 1. He was able to hold off a charging Gibbs on the final lap to take his first checkered flag in his 22nd ARCA Menards Series start dating back to last season.
“I just tried to take the air from them. Just tried to have a good restart. My guys, I can’t say enough about this group. They gave me a hell of a piece. We were in it all day. The last restart just played in our favor," said Sanchez.
“It took us all 20 races to get here, but we got it. Doing some Xfinity racing for B.J. next year. I couldn’t be happier. Now I have a lot more confidence and a lot more to look forward to," Sanchez added.
Both Sanchez and Rajah Caruth, teammates at Rev Racing, have announced plans to run part-time schedules in the NASCAR Xfinity Series next season while competing full-time in the ARCA Menards Series.
Sanchez finished the 2021 ARCA Menards Series season third in points behind Gibbs and Heim.
Final Results:
Nick Sanchez
Ty Gibbs
Corey Heim
Drew Dollar
JP Bergeron
Kris Wright
Kyle Sieg
Dean Thompson
Rajah Caruth
Parker Chase
Connor Mosack
Scott Melton
Andy Jankowiak
Greg Van Alst
Ron Vandermeir Jr
Toni Breidinger
Zachary Tinkle
D L Wilson
Eric Caudell
Arnout Kok
Kyle Lockrow
Tony Cosentino
Brad Smith
Wayne Peterson
See the full race recap by Tadd Haislop:
Randy Covitz shares his take:
Give a few minutes to Trenton Worsham:
https://www.frontstretch.com/2021/10/23/nick-sanchez-gets-first-arca-win-ty-gibbs-wins-championship/