BRISTOL, Tenn. – In racing, luck is often just as important as skill. That was the case for William Sawalich on Thursday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Not only did Sawalich win the Bush’s Beans 200 for the second straight season at Bristol, but he also won his second ARCA Menards Series East championship thanks to a stroke of bad luck for title rival Connor Zilisch, who entered the East Series season finale with a 16-point lead.
“We had a really fast Starkey-Soundgear Toyota Camry today,” Sawalich said. “I had Tony Hirschman in my ear just to kind of calm me down and make me be cautious around those lap cars. That was definitely the whole race right there.”
RELATED: Full results from the Bush’s Beans 200
Entering Thursday’s combination event with the ARCA Menards Series, Zilisch needed to finish 11th or better to secure the East Series championship no matter what Sawalich did.
Unfortunately for Zilisch, he didn’t even get the chance to finish the race. On Lap 65, Logan Misuraca spun in Turns 3-4 after contact with Amber Balcaen. Zilisch, who was second at the time, had nowhere to go and slid sideways into the rear of Misuraca’s car.
The damage was enough to end the evening for Zilisch, who was credited with a 26th-place finish.
“I guess the 9 (Misuraca) and the 22 (Balcaen), they got together,” Zilisch said. “The 9 hit the fence up at the top of the track, and I don’t know if she didn’t hold the break or what, but she came down the track right in front of me and ended our day. I hate to end the season like that and lose a championship in that way too. It’s frustrating, but we’ve had a hell of a year with our Pinnacle Racing Group team and everyone at Silver Hare Racing.”
With Zilisch out of the race, all Sawalich had to do was keep his car in one piece to secure his second East Series championship.
He did much more than that. After a race-long battle with Landen Lewis, Sawalich took the lead for the final time with 33 laps left. Not an even overtime restart could stop Sawalich as he pulled away from Lewis to win the Bush’s Beans 200 by 0.397 seconds.
“I can’t thank the 97 (Lewis) enough for racing me really good. We’ve been friends for awhile and it was great racing him here,” Sawalich said. “It was kind of a surprise in the middle of the race (when Zilisch crashed), and it made me happy and gave me the drive to go after it.”
Lewis, for his part, was thrilled to race with Sawalich for most of the evening and was proud of the effort he and the No. 97 CR7 Motorsports team put together Thursday evening at Bristol.
“All day me and William raced each other hard and clean. Just as hard we could go but as clean as we could,” Lewis said after his runner-up finish. “It was really cool to race against that caliber of a team. It’s definitely really cool. Me and William are really close friends, so it was definitely different racing against each other like that, but I had a blast.”
Lavar Scott finished third followed by his Rev Racing teammate Andres Perez in fourth. Dean Thompson, Tyler Reif, Corey Day, Jake Finch, Lawless Alan and Andy Jankowiak completed the top 10.
The East Series season is over, but there is still plenty of ARCA platform action to come in 2024. The ARCA Menards Series is back in action Sept. 27 with the running of the Reese’s 150 at Kansas Speedway. Fans unable to attend can watch the action live on FS1 at 5:30 p.m. ET.
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