Jake Drew Takes ARCA West Series Victory At Sonoma

Jake Drew celebrates in victory lane after winning Saturday’s ARCA Menards Series West race at Sonoma Raceway. Photo: Matt Cohen/ARCA Racing

Jake Drew last week became the 200th winner in the history of the ARCA Menards Series West when he took the checkered flag in a shortened race at Portland International Raceway.

Saturday’s General Tire 200 at Sonoma Raceway did not end with winner No. 201 in West Series history, because Drew repeated his feat from a week ago. The 22-year-old from Fullerton, California, won another shortened event to mark his second career victory.

Driving the No. 6 Ford for Bob Bruncati’s Sunrise Ford Racing operation, Drew dominated the majority of Saturday’s race, leading 48 of 56 laps in the fifth event of the West Series season.

Due to time constraints with NASCAR Cup Series practice at Sonoma scheduled to follow the General Tire 200, the race was called during a caution with eight laps to go. Last week’s event at Portland was called short due to visibility issues as rain continued to fall on the road course.

Drew, who missed out on last season’s West Series championship when he lost a tiebreaker to Jesse Love in the final race of the year at Phoenix Raceway, entered Saturday’s race as the points leader. He now has a 35-point advantage over second-place Todd Souza in the standings.

On top of his pair of wins, Drew has a top-five finish in all five West Series races thus far this season.

Making his West Series debut, Colby Howard finished second after navigating the incident that brought out the race’s final caution on lap 51.

Dale Quarterley finished third, marking the veteran racer’s best West Series result since his second-place run at California’s Irwindale Speedway in 2004.

Jack Wood finsished in fourth, with Joey Iest in fifth at Sonoma. Austin Herzog, Eric Nascimento, Souza, Tim Spurgeon and Bridget Burgess rounded out the top 10.

West Series rookie Landen Lewis, who won in his only previous series start earlier this season at Kern County Raceway Park in Bakersfield, California, was in position to battle before the race win before he and Bill McAnally Racing driver Cole Moore collided in turn 11 on lap 51 to spark a crash and bring out the race’s final caution.

Moore’s missing out on the victory was not for a lack of effort, either. On a short run in the closing stages of the race, Moore repeatedly attempted to pass Drew with bold moves but ultimately was unable to complete the pass.

Moore finished 12th, and Lewis finished 14th.

Saturday’s race featured seven cautions for a total of 29 laps run under yellow.

The West Series will take a few weeks off before returning to action at California’s Irwindale Speedway on July 2.

ARCA Menards Series West
Sonoma Raceway – Sonoma, CA
General Tire 200 – June 11, 2022

1. Jake Drew
2. Colby Howard
3. Dale Quarterley
4. Jack Wood
5. Joey Iest
6. Austin Herzog
7. Eric Nascimento
8. Todd Souza
9. Tim Spurgeon
10. Bridget Burgess
11. Vince Little
12. Cole Moore
13. Andrew Tuttle
14. Landen Lewis
15. Dean Thompson
16. Paul Pedroncelli, Jr.
17. Ryan Philpott
18. Tanner Reif
19. Takuma Koga
20. Rodd Kneeland
21. Sebastian Arias
22. Nick Joanides
23. Paul Pedroncelli
24. Brian Kamisky

 

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