Jake Finch wins first career ARCA Menards Series race at Talladega Superspeedway
The ARCA Menards Series race at Talladega was clean, quick, and Jake Finch led every single lap on his way to his first career win. Finch had won in the East Series, but this is his first win in the NASCAR development series on the national stage.
Jake Finch and that Venturini Motorsports No. 20 car were perfect on the day. Led every lap, pit stop was great, and the field kept it clean. While it wasn’t the most amazing ARCA race ever, it was better than the crash fest at Daytona.
The 18-year-old came up short at Daytona. However, he was able to put together a career-best performance to earn the win.
With the win, Finch is the first driver to lead every lap of an ARCA Menards Series race at Talladega. Quite the accomplishment. There were no late-race antics with his teammate Gus Dean who came up with a top-5 finish. No late restarts to worry about. It was all Finch, all the way.
There were issues for some drivers. Lavar Scott had an issue that led to him being pulled off the track. Frankie Muniz had a weird pit road issue and lost a little track position in the second half of the race. Late in this one, with five laps to go, Andy Jankowiak lost fuel pressure and slowed to a stop. He managed to get off the track and onto one of the emergency vehicle entrances to prevent a caution flag.
Jake Finch avoids controversy at Talladega
This race was about the most ideal race for a driver you will ever see at Talladega. There was no last-lap pass, no “big one,” there were not multiple restarts and baffling wrecks. None of that. Just clean, green flag racing from start to finish.
Now, this race was a bit boring. No one in the front group wanted to swing wide and try to get a second lane going. Instead, the first five or six cars remained single-file for most of the race. Even when Christian Rose pulled out of line for a last-lap pass, no one wanted to go with him.
Now, it is the ARCA Menards Series. So, I don’t expect these drivers to be able to go three-wide and race it out for multiple laps. However, the lack of action at the end of the race was disappointing. No one was willing to make the move except for Rose and he paid for it.
Jake Finch got to learn what it’s like to lead a race from start to finish. That can be valuable. A lot of drivers will have the best car on the track and not know what to do with it, or overcomplicate things. Finch did his job and he’s walking away a winner.