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Jake Finch Claims ARCA Talladega Bragging Rights in Wild Flag-To-Flag Finish

Published 04/20/2024, 2:31 PM EDT

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Venturini Motorsports driver, Jake Finch, has clinched his first win of the ARCA Series at the Talladega Superspeedway. With the drop of the green at the 2.6-mile racetrack, the 18-year-old led the race from the get-go right until the checkered flag. It was a picture-perfect racing display with Finch bagging the win by leading all 76 laps in the race.

Interestingly this was his first start at the Talladega in the ARCA series and it turned out to be a memorable one. He did make a start this season driving the No. 20 Toyota car at Daytona, but could only manage a #11 finish in that race. In the 11 starts, Jake Finch has made in ARCA, nine of them have resulted in top-10 finishes, including today’s big win.

Jack Finch credits his win to his crew chief and spotter

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Starting on the pole, with the drop of the green flag, Finch got into an early commanding lead and was able to control the whole field behind him. It was a single file, with just his teammate Kris Wright trying his luck early in the race for the lead. With no one trying to contest for the win, Finch won the race in an empathic fashion.

Sharing his thoughts after his first ARCA Series win, he said, “That was a fun race, and I can’t thank Shanon and everybody enough. I was a nervous wreck before the race, and Shanon just told me, Hey, if you do what you’re supposed to do, we’ll kick their butts. So I think that’s what we did.”

The 18-year-old even credited his spotter, Tyler Monn, for helping him earn the win. “I think like Tyler did a spectacular job. Sometimes he didn’t talk much, and I was like, Man, can you still hear me? He’s like, I got you, I was like cool. I didn’t look at it too much, can’t wait to experience this with my friends and family tonight and such a good day.”

Although, apart from his crew chief and spotter contributions, Kris Wright also played a crucial role in Finch’s victory.

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Wright did his bit in bringing the win to Venturini camp

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Kris Wright is running a full-time schedule driving the No. 15 Venturini Motorsports car this season. Apart from Jake Finch, if someone had a shot at winning today’s race at Talladega, it was Wright. However, late in the race, he saw the drivers behind plotting a move breaking off the pack, and he certainly didn’t want to race his teammate in that situation.

Speaking after the race, he said, “You know, I made a move a little too late, but I saw the guys that were trying to break off behind me. The last thing I was going to do is let somebody else win the race other than Venturini car. I definitely could’ve made some more aggressive moves, but I wanted to keep that victory in the Venturini camp, I didn’t want it to go to the Gibbs guys, so I tried to be a team player.”

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Fending off the late charge, Kris Wright bagged himself a career-best finish, placing second. Meanwhile, Tanner Gray from Joe Gibbs Racing finishes third.

 

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Written by:

Chintan Devgania

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Chintan Mahesh Devgania is a NASCAR Writer at EssentiallySports. As someone who likes to dive deep into the sport, he often takes up less explored topics to eventually see them make their way into top stories. His report on Toyota’s young recruit, Jade Avedisian, sharing her thoughts on Late Model Racing, was an example of that.
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Edited by:

Shreya Singh