Reaves goes back to back at Elko for ARCA Menards Series victory
Max Reaves wins the Shore Lunch 250 presented by Dutch Boy at Elko Speedway in Minnesota. Reaves scores his fifth career ARCA Menards Series win and second at Elko after he started in the rear in 20th due to an engine failure in practice.
Thomas Annunziata started on the pole for the race, his second consecutive pole in the ARCA Menards Series. 21 cars were entered.
Race Summary
As the field took pace laps, the No. 81 of Kevin Campbell pulled off.
When the green flag waved, a stackup occured on the start which gave damage to Taylor Reimer, Isabella Robusto and Jason Kitzmiller who led practice. Reaves also moved into the top 10 quickly. John Claggett in the No. 10 pulled off after four laps.
A battle for the lead already got competitive between Annunziata, Landon S. Huffman and Jake Bollman. Huffman took the lead on lap nine after moving Annunziata up the track. Bollman took second a few laps later.
The first caution came out on lap 18 for a chain reaction crash, when Alex Clubb spun after contact with Michael Maples. Nate Moeller then ran into the back of Brad Smith and damaged the nose of his No. 06 car.
The green flag came back out on lap 27. Annunziata lost more spots and fell to fifth on the restart. Reaves continued to move up passing Ty Frederickson, Kitzmiller and Annunziata to break into the top five by lap 40.
By lap 50, Huffman had pulled away to a two second lead over Bollman. Reaves also had a long battle to take fourth from Isabella Robusto before he finally took the spot. Reaves then closed on Bollman and Reimer who were battling for second.
Reimer took second from Bollman on lap 70 with the first race break coming. While in heavy lap traffic, Bollman spun Maples on the backstretch, who then made contact with Reimer. Maples had nose damage as a result.
The second caution of the race became the first race break. Willie Mullins who was in ninth, received the free pass.
The race resumed on lap 81 and Reaves pounced quickly and battled for the lead with Huffman. He took it on lap 84. Huffman however stayed in reach with Reaves afterwards.
While lapping the No. 48 Smith, Huffman would move Reaves up the track and take the lead back on lap 97. Reaves got heavy nose damage after trying to take it back again. He then began to lose ground to Huffman.
Annunziata also lost more spots falling to seventh, and made contact with the backstretch wall trying to keep Kitzmiller behind. Annunziata then lost the spot to Kitzmiller.
Huffman later got stuck behind Frederickson which allowed Reaves to close in again but couldn’t make the pass.
However, a track bar issue developed for Huffman while leading on lap 152 and came to a stop. The third caution came out afterwards. Huffman was then penalized five laps by ARCA officials for coming to a stop. Frederickson received the free pass.
The race restarted on lap 161 as Robusto got in the wall after missing a gearon the frontstretch but kept going.
Reaves began to pull away as the caution for the second break fell on lap 176. Kitzmiller got the free pass.
The race resumed with 64 to go as Reaves took off while Frederickson pounced up to second. The caution came out quickly after for Bobby Earnhardt spinning in turn four. Robusto got the free pass.
The race resumed again with 55 to go. Bollman got around Frederickson quickly for second. Bollman tried to catch Reaves but fell back.
Reaves led the rest of the race comfortably and took the checkered flag by five seconds over Bollman.
Post Race Comments
In his post race interview with Fox Sports 2, Reaves said, “No there was no doubt on this whole crew and everybody at Gibbs and my coach Bobby (Labonte). I gotta thank all these guys for putting that motor back in this thing, I knew we were going to be the winning car tonight, I knew we were going to be the one to beat. The 28 felt that too yknow getting there dooring me like that.”
Notable Results
Ty Frederickson finished in third, the hometrack hero from Minnesota who drove the No. 25 for Nitro Motorsports and received the loudest applause during driver intros.
Jason Kitzmiller finished fifth in what is his best career non superspeedway finish in ARCA competition. The West Virginia native also was fastest in practice.
Willie Mullins who usually makes the trip up to Elko from Virginia finished eighth, tying his best run at the track. Mullins’ wife Dinah grew up in Minnesota making it a special track for the family owned team to compete at.
Race Results
- 18 Max Reaves
- 20 Jake Bollman
- 25 Ty Frederickson
- 77 Taylor Reimer
- 97 Jason Kitzmiller
- 55 Isabella Robusto
- 70 Thomas Annunziata -1 Lap
- 3 Willie Mullins -3 Laps
- 12 Takuma Koga -5 Laps
- 91 Austin Vaughn -8 Laps
- 89 Bobby Earnhardt -11 Laps
- 11 Bryce Haugeberg -11 Laps
- 03 Alex Clubb -13 Laps
- 28 Landon S. Huffman -14 Laps
- 86 Jeff Maconi -18 Laps
- 48 Brad Smith -18 Laps
- 06 Nate Moeller -25 Laps
- 98 Dale Shearer -27 Laps
- 99 Michael Maples OUT
- 10 John Clagett OUT
- 81 Kevin Campbell OUT
The ARCA Menards Series will return next Friday, July 3, at Chicagoland Speedway for the Ashley Furniture 150. It will be the series’ first race at the 1.5 mile oval in Illinois since 2019.
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