Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, hosted several big events last weekend, the biggest of which were the Dawn 150, won by late-charging Taylor Gray, and the Camping World Trucks O’Reilly Auto Parts 150, won by Parker Kligerman, who held off Zane Smith for the win.
On Friday, Gray was not in contention for most of the Dawn 150. Then late-race chaos changed everything about the ninth ARCA Menards Series event of the season.
Driving the No. 17 Ford Performance Ford for David Gilliland Racing, Gray moved Kris Wright out of the lead coming to two laps to go at the 13-turn, 2.258-mile road course. Armed with fresh tires, the 17-year-old Gray took the pass for the lead and coasted to his second ARCA Menards Series victory.
“First of all, I want to say sorry to Kris,” Gray said. “I didn’t want to race him like that; I wanted to race him clean. He bobbled getting into [Turn] 12, and I took the bottom, and it’s just so slick down there I lost the front and doored him. But we got the win. That’s all that matters.”
Gray led only the last two laps of what was a wild race at Mid-Ohio. The event began with rain falling all over the track, forcing teams to begin on wet radial tires. Wet conditions defined the first half of the race, as cars struggled to remain on track.
John Hunter Nemechek dominated the first portion of the race on wet tires after starting on the pole. Nemechek was in command after the mid-race break, too, until Kyle Busch Motorsports driver Sammy Smith tracked him down and took the lead with 14 laps to go. Nemechek, though, battled back to the top spot with 13 laps to go.
That’s when the madness turned up a notch. During the race break, Nick Sanchez had acquired slick tires designed for dry track conditions, a strategy call for Rev Racing that initially hurt the No. 2 Chevrolet’s speed. But as the track continued to dry, Sanchez’s tires gave him more and more of an advantage.
That change in conditions culminated in Sanchez taking the lead with nine laps to go.
But a caution with seven laps to go – and the mistake Sanchez’s team made during that caution – once again changed everything. Both Sanchez and Rev Racing teammate Rajah Caruth pitted for fresh tires. The problem was both had already changed from wet to dry tires during the race break, and ARCA Menards Series rules prohibit teams from changing slicks to more slicks.
“At the end of the day, it’s my bad and my screw-up on it,” said Matt Bucher, Sanchez’s crew chief.
Parker Chase finished second despite a late incident with Nemechek, his Venturini Motorsports teammate.
“I didn’t intentionally dump him or anything, just hard racing.” Nemechek said of Chase. “But he completely dumped me. Part of it, I guess.”
Camping World Truck Series O'Reilly 150
Kligerman, who is also a television race commentator, was a 31-year-old NASCAR truck driver-racer in this one, winning the inaugural O’Reilly Auto Parts 150 on Saturday in a highly spirited closing-laps battle with Zane Smith.
Ultimately, Kligerman held off three-time race winner Smith – the two crossing the line in close formation with Kligerman’s No. 75 Henderson Racing Chevrolet taking a .119-second margin of victory in a race that concluded with all the drama expected of a road course event.
Smith – who won at Circuit of The Americas and finished runner-up at both Sonoma, Calif., and Mid-Ohio – heads into the regular-season finale in two weeks now only two points away from clinching the 2022 Camping World Truck Series regular season championship.
Saturday’s victory is the third career series win for Kligerman and first since 2017. And he becomes the series’ 17th consecutive different winner on a road course.
“It’s hard to put into words [what this means], I was pretty emotional on the cool-down lap because this whole team, it’s like a team of second chances,” Kligerman said. “Two years ago, I thought my driving days were done. This team gave me a call, wanting to get back racing and it’s just been a steady improvement.”
Corey Heim was making it a three-truck contest for the trophy, going wheel to wheel with Kligerman and Smith for what would have been an extra $50,000 Triple Truck Challenge bonus for him when his No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota suddenly lost power. That brought out the seventh caution period of the day and left the trophy to be decided in a frantic three-lap sprint by Kligerman and Smith, who each won a stage.
Kligerman, who led a race-best 56 of the 67 laps, also earned a $50,000 bonus for his win in the third and final round of the Triple Truck Challenge. Ryan Preece (Nashville) and Heim (Gateway) were the initiative’s other winners this season.
Post-race inspection in the Camping World Trucks garage was completed without issue, confirming the official results and Kligerman’s victory. Officials indicated that no trucks were taken back to the NASCAR Research & Development Center for further inspection.
