Race report

ARCA

Jake Finch leads every lap in dominant Talladega ARCA win

Jake Finch took advantage of an incident-free race and cruised to his first ARCA Menards Series victory Saturday at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

Jim Utter

Edited: Apr 20, 2024, 6:57 PM

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With the field for the 76-lap race set by owner’s points, Finch started on the pole and had little trouble remaining out front.

With no cautions outside of the halftime break, the field remained mostly single file as the laps wound down. Christian Rose was the only driver in the top five that pulled out of line in attempt to challenge Finch in the final two laps but received no help and quickly fell back in line.

Finch held on for a 0.184-second win over his Venturini Motorsport teammate Kris Wright. It’s the first national series win for Finch, who also owns an ARCA East win at Dover.

Jake Finch, No. 20 Venturini Motorsports

Photo by: DBP

“I was just trying to stay locked in. It was a fun race,” Finch said. “I just can’t thank everybody enough. I was a nervous wreck before this race and Shannon (Rusrch, crew chief) told me if you do what you’re supposed to do, we’ll kick their butt. I think that’s what we did.

“Terrible burnout but I tried. I’m not too experienced yet but we’ll get there. If I keep running this No. 20 with Shannon, we’ll get a few more.”

Finch, the 18-year-old son of former NASCAR team owner James Finch, also credited his spotter, Tyler Monn, for his help in earning the win.

“He did a spectacular job. Sometimes he didn’t talk much, and I was like, ‘Man, can you still hear me?’ And he was like, ‘I gotcha.’ I can’t believe we won. It’s super cool. It’s such a good day.”

In two ARCA superspeedway wins this season, Finch has led 141 of 160 laps. He led a race-high 65 laps in the season opener at Daytona before getting involved in a late wreck.

NASCAR Truck regular Tanner Gray ended up third for Joe Gibbs Racing, Daytona ARCA winner Gus Dean was fourth and Rose rounded out the top five.

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