NOTEBOOK: Ryan Roulette has a newfound confidence for Elko Speedway after his first ARCA top-10 finish

Two celebrations took place Saturday night at Indiana’s Salem Speedway.

One occurred on the frontstretch and involved race winner William Sawalich and his Joe Gibbs Racing crew. The second took place only a few feet away on pit road and involved active-duty U.S. Air Force officer Ryan Roulette and the Fast Track Racing team.

Roulette had plenty of reason to celebrate after earning a career-best eighth in the Salem ARCA 200; it was his first top-10 finish in ARCA Menards Series competition in 11 starts.

“I see William, he’s excited, he’s celebrating a well-deserved win,” Roulette said. “If you looked at our team after finishing eighth, we were jumping for joy. We were pretty pumped for it. We knew we didn’t show up with an eighth-place car, but we kept our nose clean, raced as hard as we could and took advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves.”

The eighth-place effort was huge for Roulette in a lot of ways. As a part-time competitor who splits his time between driving race cars and flying planes for the U.S. Air Force, Roulette can’t give racing his full and undivided attention.

However, Roulette said it was pointed out to him that the team has been incredibly consistent all season leading into last Saturday’s race at Salem.

In fact, in his eight starts so far in 2024, Roulette has finished better than where he started in all but two of them.

“What this shows is we’re trending in the right direction,” Roulette said. “It’s a nice little line graph. This is where we’ve qualified all year, this is where we’ve been finishing. The trends are in the right direction. We were qualifying in the back, 37th, and finishing in the mid-20s. Next thing you know, we’re qualifying in the mid-20s and finishing in the teens. It’s just been going down and down and down.

“It was good to get that eighth and get that top 10 this year, and hopefully we’ll get the opportunity to follow that up again.”

Roulette entered Salem thinking that a realistic goal was a 15th-place finish, but as the race wore on and contenders fell out, he started to realize a top-10 finish was a real possibility.

He found himself battling Cody Dennison and Brayton Laster for positions inside the top 10, something that would have been considered unlikely for all three drivers when the green flag waved earlier that night.

Ultimately Dennison was seventh, Roulette took eighth and Laster was ninth. It was the best finish of the season for all three, not just Roulette.

“Going into it, we felt we could race in the top 15,” Roulette said. “During most of that race that was kind of where I sat, 13th to 15th for most of it. As the race went on and we had a bit of attrition it started to dawn on me.

“We knew we were trending in a spot we weren’t expecting, and it worked out in our favor.”

Roulette is now focused on Saturday’s race at Elko Speedway, where he will try to back up his finish at Salem with another run inside the top 10. His performance at Salem proved anything is possible.

“I’ve been racing for almost 20 years now,” Roulette said. “The biggest thing is you do the best you can with what you have. If you have a 20th-place car, then your goal should be to finish 20th or maybe a few spots better. That’s where it is.

“If you’re smart out there and you race when it’s time to race and you give respect to your competitors when its time to give respect to them, they’ll do the same for you later. It’s definitely achievable, and I think we showed last weekend it can be done. Hoping to follow that up (at Elko).”

Sawalich looking to win one at home

The ARCA Menards Series races in Minnesota once each year. That happens to take place at Elko Speedway, the same venue where William Sawalich cut his teeth racing quarter midgets.

Sawalich returns home to Elko as the hottest driver in ARCA Menards Series competition. He’s won three of the last four races — at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Berlin Raceway and Salem Speedway.

That makes him the obvious favorite to win Saturday’s Shore Lunch 250 presented by Dutch Boy Paints.

One season ago, Sawalich spent most of the race at Elko battling eventual ARCA Menards Series champion Jesse Love. The current NASCAR Xfinity Series driver for Richard Childress Racing dominated most of the race, leading 233 of 250 laps.

Sawalich led the other 17 laps and finished second, a statistic he’d like to improve upon Saturday night in front of a hometown crowd.

E.J. Tamayo making ARCA Menards Series debut

A new face will be making his ARCA Menards Series debut during Saturday’s Shore Lunch 250 presented by Dutch Boy Paints.

E.J. Tamayo, a 17-year-old competitor from Miami, Florida, will drive the No. 45 Ford owned by his father Enrique.

The younger Tamayo has been a regular competitor in the Carolina Pro Late Model Series since 2021, where he has seven top fives and 13 top-10 finishes with a best finish of third.

He most recently joined the fray at North Carolina’s Bowman Gray Stadium, where he raced in the Sportsman division. He secured finishes of 15th and 10th during a pair of twin features on July 27.

NOTES

• Andres Perez enters Saturday’s race at Elko Speedway with consecutive runner-up finishes and a comfortable 48-point advantage in the series standings on Rev Racing teammate Lavar Scott.
• Isabella Robusto is back in ARCA competition after a heartbreaking defeat in her most recent platform start at Irwindale Speedway on July 6. She was leading the West Series event at Irwindale when a tire failed, costing her a chance at her first ARCA platform win.
• Brian Clubb, the father of series regular Alex Clubb, will make his ARCA Menards Series debut in a second Clubb Racing entry Saturday at Elko Speedway.
• Sean Hingorani will make his second scheduled ARCA Menards Series start for Venturini Motorsports at Elko. He still has additional starts with the team scheduled for the West Series races at Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway (Oct. 26) and Phoenix Raceway (Nov. 8).
• Rick Redig-Tackman will make his second ARCA Menards Series start Saturday at Elko for Rise Motorsports. He made his debut last year at The Milwaukee Mile, finishing 14th driving for veteran owner/driver Brad Smith.