Sargeant beats Theriault off pit road, wins ARCA race at Iowa

Halfway through the ARCA Racing Series season, five drivers are mathematically still alive for the points championship.

But after a 1-2 finish in the Fans With Benefits 150 at Iowa Speedway on Saturday, it appears to be a two-horse race between Austin Theriault and Dalton Sargeant.

Theriault came into the night with the points lead, but Sargeant carved into that deficit with an impressive win on Newton’s 7/8-mile oval.

Sargeant won a close battle off pit road with about 10 laps to go, chose the line he got to take off the restart and then held off Theriault for his second win of the season.

“This was a really tough race overall,” said Sargeant, driver of the No. 77 Performance Plus Ford. “The biggest thing was my Cunningham Motorsports crew … getting us in and out of pit road in great shape. The car was on the free side in the beginning but it tightened up later in the race. The lane moved up where I thought I was at my best.”

Theriault though still has a lead in the points standings. He now has eight top-five and 10 top-10 finishes in 10 starts this season. Theriault has finished in the top 10 in all 12 of his career starts in the series.

“We had a motor issue right before practice and my guys worked so hard and replaced the motor in less than an hour,” said Theriault, who drives the No. 52 Ken Schrader Ford. “We got behind a little but fought hard all day to get back in it. That last battle with Dalton was pretty intense. We did what we could…he was just a little better. He had a faster car in the end.”

Sargeant’s second win of the season was his fifth top-five and ninth top-10. He joins Theriault as the only multiple winners in the series in 2017.

The win also kept a long ARCA series streak at Iowa Speedway intact. In 11 ARCA races at the track since inaugural event in 2006, there have been no repeat winners.

Rookie Sheldon Creed finished a career-best third to earn his first top-five finish of the season, and two Mitchell Motorsports drivers rounded out the top five.

Michael Self, who led 33 laps, was a contender all night and finished fourth in the No. 28 Sinclair Oil Chevrolet despite rear-end damage from an earlier spin.

Kyle Weatherman also spent time up front, leading six laps before settling for fifth in the No. 78 Turn One Condos-Mason Mitchell Motorsports Chevrolet.

Weatherman, who was making his 50th ARCA start, has finished second twice in the ARCA race at Iowa, once in 2013 and a second time in 2015.

Creed, in the No. 12 United Rentals-MDM Motorsports Toyota, led 11 laps.

“We were tight in the center and loose off,” Creed said. “It was tough racing back in the pack, but once we got into the top-five everybody’s a little racier and we got in a better groove. This track’s a lot of fun to drive. Tight in the beginning and loose in the end worked out pretty good for us tonight.”

Self now has two top-five finishes in three starts, while Weatherman claimed his third top-five tally in his seventh start. Team owner Mason Mitchell competed in his first race of the season and finished 14th.

Theriault and Sargeant created more space between the other points championship contenders.

Rookie Riley Herbst, Shane Lee, Bret Holmes and Gus Dean came into the weekend sitting in positions 3-6 in the standings but finished 12th, 11th, ninth and 10th, respectively. All four drivers came into the weekend separated by just 75 points.

Herbst, who is just 18-years-old, has only had three finishes outside the top 10 this season.

Lee, a Cunningham Motorsports teammate of Sargeant, won the pole for the race and led for the first 54 laps before falling back after a first-round pit stop. He had the fastest lap in the race at 128.78 miles per hour. His top qualifying speed was 129.4 miles per hour.

Once Sargeant took control on lap 109 of the 150-lap race, he only gave the lead up once, to Theriault, who led the 141st lap.

Sargeant was so far ahead at one point in the race, he nearly lapped Weatherman, who was in fifth place at the time. He had a seven-second lead late in the race before the final caution came out when Eric Caudell spun on the backstretch.

“The caution was the last thing I wanted to see,” Sargeant said. “It definitely made me nervous, but my guys executed the pit stop perfectly. The General Tires really performed tonight.”

With only five cars left on the lead lap, Sargeant and the rest of the lead-lap machines had no choice but to pit for four fresh tires for the final restart. From there it was a drag race down pit road between Sargeant and Theriault, each bouncing off the other to get the edge.

“I think it really did come down to that,” Theriault said. “I felt like the top line was moving a little better, and that would have been our shot to win it. We may have been able to hold him off, but he was overall a little better than us.”

Vinnie Miller finished a career-best sixth with Spencer Davis trailing in seventh. Sixteen-year-old Christian Eckes was eighth.

Zach Ralston of Springville, Iowa, finished 24th in the 26-car field. He finished 38 of the 150 total laps.

There were six different leaders in a race that lasted less than 90 minutes.