ARCA Menards Series
Cars in action during the Dawn 150 for the ARCA Menards Series at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, on June 4, 2021. (Jay Alley/ARCA Racing)

NOTEBOOK: ARCA Menards Series finishes road-course portion of schedule at Watkins Glen

www.arcaracing.com August 5, 2021

The 2021 ARCA Menards Series schedule includes two road-course races, with Friday’s Clean Harbors 100 at The Glen at New York’s Watkins Glen International being the second and final.

Based on the results of the series’ first road-course race this season, in June at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, some drivers will be glad to be finished with right turns for the year. Others might wish there were more.

MORE WATKINS GLEN: Event Info | Entry List | Schedule

While championship contender Corey Heim did not struggle at Mid-Ohio — he led three laps after qualifying on the pole — a pair of penalties on pit road ruined his day and led to a seventh-place finish, his worst result of the season.

Heim at Watkins Glen will hope for a better run. He also will hope his rival in the title chase stumbles from his perch.

Ty Gibbs
Ty Gibbs leads the Dawn 150 for the ARCA Menards Series at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, on June 4, 2021. (Richard Corbett/ARCA Racing)

Ty Gibbs won at Mid-Ohio after leading a race-high 35 laps. That result only reinforced what we knew about the road course racing acumen of the driver who won his debut in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course in February. He finished second in the ARCA Menards Series race at the Daytona Road Course last year, his only other road-course start in the series.

At Watkins Glen, despite challenges from NASCAR national series regulars in the field for the Clean Harbors 100 at The Glen, ARCA Menards Series regulars Thad Moffitt and Nick Sanchez should be able to race with confidence. They finished third and fifth, respectively, at Mid-Ohio.

The drivers who finished second and fourth at Mid-Ohio, Austin Hill and Brandon Jones, respectively, are in the field again at Watkins Glen as they prepare for Saturday’s Xfinity Series and Camping World Truck Series races. And they’re not alone in their double-duty efforts.

Carson Hocevar, Jack Wood, Austin Wayne Self, Tyler Ankrum, Riley Herbst, Kris Wright and Chase Briscoe are the other NASCAR national series regulars entered in the ARCA Menards Series race at Watkins Glen.

So the last road-course race on the ARCA schedule will bring additional challenges to those who compete regularly on the platform.

As if the speedy, 2.45-mile road course was not challenging enough.

Brad Perez’s debut

Those who have followed Brad Perez’s motorsports journey to this point have been anticipating for years what’s to come Friday at Watkins Glen.

Perez, a 24-year-old from Hollywood, Florida, outside of Miami, will make his stock car racing debut in the ARCA Menards Series driving the No. 60 Rackley Roofing Chevrolet for Josh Williams’ JW Motorsports.

Perez has a strong social-media following; he can be found performing as a DJ or competing in sim races on Twitch. In the racing world, though he occasionally serves as a tire specialist for NASCAR teams, his only on-track experience is in Spec Miatas.

This opportunity at Watkins Glen with JW Motorsports came together quickly thanks to the partnership with Rackley Roofing. And Perez is applying pressure on himself for that reason.

“I can’t run another ARCA race,” Perez told The Athletic. “At least I don’t think I can. It was already hard enough to get the money to run this. And most of it, honestly, was probably on chance. So it’s going to be super high pressure.”

Dale Quarterley’s return to ARCA

Dale Quarterley ran one ARCA Menards Series race in 2013, a 12th-place finish at Chicagoland Speedway. The time has come for the 60-year-old’s return to the platform.

The veteran driver who made a name for himself racing in the AMA Superbike series before making a successful transition to stock cars will make his first start in a NASCAR-sanctioned series since the 2019 season Friday at Watkins Glen. He will do so piloting the No. 3 Van Dyk Recycling Solutions Chevrolet, which is being run as part of a partnership with Willie Mullins.

Dale Quarterley
Dale Quarterley’s No. 3 Van Dyk Recycling Solutions Chevrolet (Mullins Racing)

“When I stopped racing full-time in what was then the K&N Series, I started taking on some outside customer work,” Quarterley said. “I was doing some vintage stock cars, and the Mullins family happened to be pitted next to me one weekend at VIR. In the midst of us running and listening to those guys talk as they tried to make adjustments to their car and make it better, I finally got frustrated and walked over there and offered to help them.

“Since then I’ve helped them in multiple situations, and they’ve helped us a few times, too.”

Mullins, who is the listed owner of the car, said the opportunity to partner with Quarterley for Friday’s race is a chance for him to work with one of his own personal motorsport heroes.

“This goes back to when I was a little kid, and you’d watch the modifieds up in New Hampshire, and you’d see Dale Quarterley racing there, and then you’d see Superbikes, and Dale Quarterley was racing that,” Mullins said. “This is kind of cool to have one of my heroes and me working together a little bit.”

Quarterley has six victories in the ARCA Menards Series East (then NASCAR Busch North Series), including two on a road course at Connecticut’s Lime Rock Park. He also has one NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour win, also at Lime Rock Park.

Quarterley is the most successful privateer rider in AMA Superbike history. He secured the AMA Battle of the Twins Title and two AMA Endurance Championships during a career that also saw him win a national AMA Superbike race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in 1993. That win helped him place second overall in the season-long championship.

Quarterley has 11 starts in East Series competition at Watkins Glen. In those races, he earned two poles, three top fives and six top 10s, with a best finish of third on two occasions.

“This will be one of my best chances to possibly be a winning car owner at Watkins Glen,” Mullins said. “This is going to be something to talk about for years to come. Dale has already run in the top five when he runs these races; he’s not a slouch inside of a road course car.”

Added Quarterley: “I only have one speed. Unless I make myself back off. We go as fast as we possibly can the whole time we’re there.”

And more:

  • ARCA Menards Series rookie Andy Jankowiak will run his fifth race of the season Friday at Watkins Glen, which is a bit of a home track for the Tonawanda, New York, native. A regular winner on the Race of Champions Modified Tour and in the Indoor Auto Racing Championship Series, Jankowiak has a top-10 finish in each of his ARCA Menards Series starts this year.
  • Taylor Gray, a regular on the ARCA Menards platform, will make his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut Saturday at Watkins Glen driving the No. 17 Ford for David Gilliland Racing. The 16-year-old has four top fives in five starts racing for DGR in the ARCA Menards Series this year. He’ll also race in Friday’s Clean Harbors 100 at The Glen.
Sam Mayer
Sam Mayer looks on ahead of the Toledo 200 for the ARCA Menards Series on Sept. 12, 2020 at Toledo Speedway in Toledo, Ohio. (Nic Antaya/ARCA Racing)
  • Two-time reigning ARCA Menards Series East champion Sam Mayer is in for a busy weekend at Watkins Glen. He will make his second ARCA Menards Series start of the season for Bret Holmes Racing on Friday. On Saturday, he will compete in both the Truck Series race (again for Bret Holmes Racing) and the Xfinity Series race (for JR Motorsports). These races will mark his 13th Truck Series start and his fifth Xfinity Series start.
  • Both Gibbs and Heim also are pulling double-duty at Watkins Glen after Friday’s ARCA Menards Series race. Gibbs will make his 10th Xfinity Series start, and Heim will make his second Truck Series start.
Corey Heim and Ty Gibbs
Corey Heim, driver of the No. 20 Craftsman Toyota, and Ty Gibbs, driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, in action during the Calypso Lemonade 200 for the ARCA Menards Series at Winchester Speedway in Winchester, Indiana, on July 31, 2021. (Emilee Chinn/ARCA Racing)
  • Arnout Kok, the Durbin, South Africa, native who made his American motorsports debut in June on the road course at Mid-Ohio, is back in the No. 10 Brand South Africa Toyota for Andy Hillenburg’s Fast Track Racing team at Watkins Glen. Kok finished ninth at Mid-Ohio.
  • Also driving for Hillenburg, series veteran Ed Pompa will make his third start of the season Friday at Watkins Glen. He will welcome Hytorc of New York as the primary partner on his car.
  • Dr. Ed Bull, a chiropractor from Cape Charles, Virginia, will make his first start in the ARCA Menards Series since 2013 when he races his No. 77 Bayside Chiropractic Ford at Watkins Glen. Bull has eight starts in the series dating back to 2008.
  • Friday’s Clean Harbors 100 at The Glen marks just the second ARCA Menards Series race at the road course located at the foot of Seneca Lake in New York. John Finger won the only other AMS race at The Glen in July of 2001. (The East Series has competed at Watkins Glen 26 times since 1993.)