TC Daily Pit Stop: Connor Zilisch Takes First ARCA Win After Contact with Sawalich; Christian Rose, Amber Balcaen Crash Hard; Brandon Jones on Xfinity Pole
TC Daily Pit Stop: Connor Zilisch Takes First ARCA Win After Contact with Sawalich; Christian Rose, Amber Balcaen Crash Hard; Brandon Jones on Xfinity Pole
TC Daily Pit Stop: Saturday, April 27, 2024
Connor Zilisch Nudges Way to Win at Dover; First Career ARCA Win
17-year-old phenom Connor Zilisch is proving to be a quick study in the stock car ranks, and his climb up the ladder continued as he scored his first career ARCA Menards Series win in just his second ever start Friday at Dover Motor Speedway.
Zilisch took the lead from William Sawalich on a restart at Lap 109. The Pinnacle Racing Group driver made contact with Sawalich in Turn 4, which sent Sawalich into the wall and out of the race. Gio Ruggiero, the ARCA East point leader finished second.
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Video: Christian Rose, Amber Balcaen Involved in Hard Crash at Dover
Christian Rose, who came into Friday as the ARCA Menards Series point leader, is okay following a scary crash, where something broke on his No. 32 AM Racing machine, which sent him into the outside wall. As Rose’s car caught fire, Amber Balcaen made an aggressive move to avoid colliding with his wounded car.
As Balcaen turned hard left, her No. 22 machine skidded out of control and slammed into the inside wall. As she climbed from the car, Balcaen had a limp, and was helped onto a stretcher by the medical staff.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” Balcaen, who had her foot in a supported medical wrap, said. “It was a decently hard hit. I feel fine everywhere else, just gotta see what’s going on with my foot.”
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Brandon Jones Earns 10th Career Xfinity Series Pole at Dover
Brandon Jones scored his second NASCAR Xfinity Series pole of the 2024 season on Friday, and the 27-year-old racer hopes it will serve as a turnaround of his luck, which has been abysmal so far this season. The pole run marks the 10th of Jones’ NASCAR Xfinity Series career.
Riley Herbst was 0.012 sec. off of Jones’ pace and will start from the outside of the front row in the No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford. Justin Allgaier, Austin Hill, Sheldon Creed, Kyle Weatherman, Chandler Smith, Jesse Love, Taylor Gray, and AJ Allmendinger rounded out the top-10 starters for Saturday’s race.
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STARTING LINEUP
Practice Results: NASCAR Xfinity Series Bet Rivers 200 at Dover
In addition to the pole, Brandon Jones also led the way in NASCAR Xfinity Series practice at Dover Motor Speedway on Friday.
FULL PRACTICE RESULTS
NASCAR TV Schedule Saturday, April 27 at Dover Motor Speedway
We have another early morning NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session on Saturday at Dover Motor Speedway, and the NASCAR Xfinity Series race. Here’s the NASCAR TV Schedule for Saturday, April 27:
10:30 AM ET: NASCAR Cup Practice (FS1 / FOX Sports App)
11:20 AM ET: NASCAR Cup Qualifying (FS1 / FOX Sports App)
12:30 PM ET: NASCAR Xfinity RaceDay (FS1 / FOX Sports App)
1:30 PM ET: NASCAR Xfinity Race (FS1 / FOX Sports App)