PJ Pedroncelli snuck away with the ARCA Overtime victory on Saturday at All American Speedway in Roseville, California, earning his first career ARCA West victory. Pedroncelli, a 31-year-old driver from Sonoma, California, took the lead away from Joey Iest off turn two on the last lap to score the victory in his No. 33 Toyota.
“We fought hard the whole race,” exclaimed Pedroncelli in victory lane. “Tried to be conservative at the beginning, got involved into some stuff … I don’t even know how this happened as we came all the way from the back. I was kinda upset that we got that last restart there. I was gonna be fine with second, but I’m happy now and we’re gonna party!”
Iest, the leader at the time of the caution flag that sent the race into overtime for Jake Drew and Jesse Love in turn four on the last lap, finished second. The California native goes into the ARCA West finale at Phoenix with six top-five and top 10 finishes, including a victory at Colorado National Speedway in July.
In ARCA, except at superspeedway tracks, if the caution comes out after the leader takes the white flag, the race will go into overtime. Overtime consists of a green – white restart followed by the checkered flag.
“It was a really hard battle as all three of us were racing really hard,” said Iest regarding the hard racing with Jesse Love and Jake Drew. “It was a really fun race there with PJ and it was tight racing with everyone.”
Pedroncelli entered the event with only seven previous starts in the division and was quite emotional at the end of his victory lane interview with TrackPass.
“It means the world. It’s really cool,” Pedroncelli added.
Trevor Huddleston took home the third spot in his No. 6 Ford.
Todd Souza and Cole Moore took home top-five finishes Saturday.
Stafford Smith, Christian Rose, Jake Drew, Takuma Koga, and Amber Slagle took home top 10s.
Jesse Love finished 12th.
Dean Thompson started on the pole in his No. 51 Thompson Pipe Ford and stayed up front for most of the event until a flat tire derailed his chances. Thompson finished four laps down in 17th.
The night ended short for Taylor Gray in the No. 17E Ford after bringing out the third yellow flag of the night on lap 46. The No. 33 of PJ Pedroncelli got into the back of Taylor Gray and the No. 80 of Brian Kamiski had nowhere to go except into the No. 17E. Gray finished 22nd out of 23 starters.
The next race for the ARCA Menards Series West will be the season finale at Phoenix Raceway on November 6th. The Arizona Lottery 100 will air live on TrackPass NBC Sports Gold.
About Me: Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. He has written for racingonfuel.com and theracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes for motorsportsnat.com and TracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.
- Jake Finch Leads General Tire 200 Wire-to-Wire at Talladega - April 20, 2024
- NCTS: Eckes Scores Second Victory of 2024 at Martinsville - April 5, 2024
- NWMT: Justin Bonsignore Noses Ron Silk for 41st Career Victory at Richmond - March 29, 2024