Connor Mosack Wins at Chicagoland in ARCA

Written By Jared Haas

In the return of the ARCA Menards Series at Chicagoland Speedway, Connor Mosack captured the checkered flag, leading 71 of the 100 laps in the Ashley Furniture 150. Rounding out the top five were Lanie Buice, Landon S. Huffman, Daniel Dye and Thomas Annunziata.

Buice scored her career-best finish in the ARCA Menards Series. Pinnacle Racing Group teammates Mosack and Buice worked together to get around Annunziata, with Buice leading 5 laps. After the caution for William Sawalich, Buice selected the outside lane on the restart and lost the lead to Mosack. Buice talked about her decision to select the outside lane: "It's definitely just playing the odds. I watched the 2019 race, and the top was rolling better. I had to try it out. I was kind of hoping we'd get some more restarts after that one. I had an idea for what that top lane was gonna do in the future restarts. That was the plan for us and didn’t quite work out."

Buice reflected on what she could have done better on the final restart: “We fired off on the halfway break on our mock [qualifying] tires, so we had about three laps on them. I think them having the scuff laps on them kind of hurt us a little bit on that initial fire off. I think that was kind of the solution. Maybe if we could have gotten the lead on the restart and taken away with it with clean air. I think that could have been really good for us. But then again, I can always execute better.”

Daniel Dye kept his consistency up with SPS Racing, finishing 4th.

“This is a fairly new ARCA operation,” Dye said. “[The team] ran out [in the ARCA] West [Series], but nothing quite to this scale. [I’m] trying to help these guys build a good program,”

Dye pointed out the gap of SPS Racing's part-time team trying to keep up with full-time teams, ”We just need to be a little bit better on raw speed. We were too free tonight. The No. 9 [of Landon S. Huffman] was free too… and he looked really similar. His moments [of being loose] weren’t as big as mine."

Thomas Annunziata started on the pole for the event and led the first 24 laps. On the restart after Bobby Dale Earnhardt spun, Annunziata restarted on the front row but was passed by Mosack and Buice.

Asked whether he could have done anything differently on the restart to hold onto the lead, Annunziata said: “No. I don't think so. I had a good start on the outside lane, but Daniel [Dye] could not get to my bumper and teammates [Connor Mosack and Lanie Buice] pushed each other ahead. Nothing you can really do in that situation. They were faster than us anyway there in the end."

The term “double duty” usually refers to a driver competing in two different series in the same weekend, but Nate Moeller did double duty as a driver and a crew chief. Team owner Alex Clubb brought a third car to Chicagoland Speedway, tapping Moeller to drive the yellow-and-black No. 83 car, which was an old car that Clubb bought from Lira Racing. Moeller completed 1 lap on the racetrack and parked the No. 83 in the garage.

“[Alex Clubb is] trying to run three cars here [and] took on a big task. I think it went well for him. He got points for the No. 83 car. He got his car shaken down,” Moeller said of his day.

After getting out of his car and running down pit road, Moeller put on his headset as the crew chief of the No. 06 driven by Brayton Laster.

“I've already done it to [Laster] probably three times this year. He's used to it. He knows that I'm going to be there for him after a couple of laps," Moeller said.

Jake Bollman leads the standings by 16 points over Thomas Annunziata after the Chicagoland race.

The ARCA Menards Series will take on Lime Rock Park on July 11 on FS1.

FULL RESULTS:

  1. No. 28 Connor Mosack

  2. No. 77 Lanie Buice

  3. No. 9 Landon Huffman

  4. No. 24 Daniel Dye

  5. No. 70 Thomas Annunziata

  6. No. 15 Jade Avedisian

  7. No. 71 Andy Jankowiak

  8. No. 20 Jake Bollman

  9. No. 97 Jason Kitzmiller

  10. No. 2 Kyle Steckly — 1 lap down

  11. No. 27 Tim Richmond — 1 lap down

  12. No. 25 Gavan Boschele — 1 lap down

  13. No. 55 Isabella Robusto — 1 lap down

  14. No. 91 Morgen Baird — 2 laps down

  15. No. 69 Landon Brown — 3 laps down

  16. No. 12 Takuma Koga — 7 laps down

  17. No. 10 Dustin Hillenburg — 8 laps down

  18. No. 86 Jeff Maconi — 10 laps down

  19. No. 89 Bobby Dale Earnhardt — 11 laps down

  20. No. 06 Brayton Laster — 15 laps down

  21. No. 99 Michael Maples — 17 laps down

  22. No. 03 Alex Clubb — Out (71 laps down)

  23. No. 11 Tim Monroe — Out (74 laps down)

  24. No. 18 William Sawalich — Out (75 laps down)

  25. No. 48 Brad Smith — Out (92 laps down)

  26. No. 19 Matt Kemp — Out (95 laps down)

  27. No. 83 Nate Moeller — Out (99 laps down)

Jared Haas