Dalton Sargeant surged ahead of Austin Theriault on a final restart to secure his second victory of the 2017 ARCA Racing Series season at Iowa Speedway on Saturday night.
A late race caution for the No. 2 of Eric Caudell spinning on the backstretch set up the restart with nine laps remaining. Sargeant and Theriault would battle off of pit road in pursuit of gaining the preferred line during the upcoming restart. Sargeant was able to inch ahead of Theriault during that final restart and would ultimately lead the final laps en route to his first trip to the Casey’s General Store victory lane.
“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.”
With the victory, Sargeant inches closer and closer to points leader Theriault who was able to secure his 10th Top-10 finish and fifth front row finish of the season. The victory was also the second straight for Cunningham Motorsports at the Iowa Speedway. Theriault carries a 160 point lead over Sargeant as the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards takes a weekend off before heading to Lucas Oil Raceway.
“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. “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.”
Sheldon Creed finished a career-best third whlie Michael Self and Kyle Weatherman rounded out the top-5 finishers.
