Rajah Caruth driver of the No. 6 UTI-NTI-Max Siegel Inc. Chevrolet sits behind the wheel preparing the Crosley Record Pressing 200 for the ARCA Menards Series East at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville, Tennessee, on May 8, 2021. (Silas Walker/ARCA Racing)
Rajah Caruth heads to Dover International Speedway looking to pick up a win at his home track. (Silas Walker/ARCA Racing)

NOTEBOOK: Monster Opportunity Awaits East Drivers

www.arcaracing.com May 13, 2021

DOVER, Del. — The concrete high banks of Dover International Speedway have been part of the East since the series’ inaugural season of 1987. Over the years, it’s been both defining a championship season and introduced new drivers to Victory Lane.

Most recently, Harrison Burton (2017) and Sam Mayer (2019 & 2020) won both the Miles The Monster trophy and the series title in the same seasons, the first to do so since Andy Santerre back in 2005.

Austin Hill won in 2013 in just his seventh career start, after having not finished better than seventh to that point. He returned and won again in 2014 and has moved up the ladder to become a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series playoff driver. Aric Almirola, making a substitute appearance for Dale Earnhardt Inc. in 2008, drove to Victory Lane. Two years earlier, Tim Andrews – son of NASCAR Cup Series championship crew chief Paul Andrews — scored his only career win at Dover.

And Rev Racing has won three times with three different drivers since 2011.

Which brings us to Friday’s General Tire 125 for the ARCA Menards Series East.

Rajah Caruth will pilot the No. 6 UTI/NTI/Max Siegel Inc. Chevrolet for Rev Racing and look to make it for wins by four different drivers. Caruth, a member of the NASCAR Drive for Diversity driver development program, has already won three times in a Late Model this season. More importantly, the 20-year-old from Washington, D.C., will look to chip away at Sammy Smith’s championship lead.

Smith has won two of the three races, building a 15-point cushion over second-place Mason Diaz. Season-opening winner Max Gutierrez is 22 points back, and just nine points separate him and seventh-place Daniel Dye. It’s a log-jam that includes Joey Iest, Caruth and Parker Retzlaff.

Complicating things for the field is a host of drivers dropping in just to chase the checkered flag.

Car owner and former NASCAR Cup Series driver David Gilliland will race the DGR-Crosley’s No. 17 DGR Ford at Dover. He’s finished third, second and first in his last three races between the East and West since 2019, including a runner-up at Dover last year. Josh Berry, the 2020 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national champion for JR Motorsports, is in the No. 41 Solid Rock Carriers Chevrolet for Bruce Cook, and Venturini Racing is fielding cars for both 2019 West champion Jesse Love as well as Drew Dollar.

And did we mention Ty Gibbs?

The 18-year-old will be looking for redemption after a wreck ended his day at Dover after leading a race-high 104 laps. All Gibbs has done this year is win two of his four ARCA Menards Series starts and score his first NASCAR Xfinity Series in.

Gibbs will be in the No. 18 for Joe Gibbs Racing, while Smith will switch to the No. 81 for the event.

Connor Mosack will look to translate his late model success into the ARCA ranks when he makes his series debut. The 22-year-old from Charlotte, North Carolina, will drive the No. 02 Nic Taylor Custom Fit Underwear Chevrolet for Young’s Motorsports. Mosack was the rookie of the year on the CARS Late Model Stock Tour Series last year, and finished sixth in the Super Late Model division at the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway in February with four top fives in seven races.