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(Photo: Nick Antaya/Getty Images)
BROOKLYN, Mich. – Sometimes the fastest car doesn’t win the race, and on Saturday at Michigan International Speedway, Nick Sanchez proved that point emphatically.
The 21-year-old held off challenges from Corey Heim and Daniel Dye in the final lap of the Henry Ford Health 200 to earn his third ARCA Menards Series win for Rev Racing.
“My team brought me a very fast car, but we are not the fastest,” said Sanchez. “Like we always do, we had to use the reset and we did that and played defense and took the air out of everybody.”
Related: Seed results from Henry Ford Health 200
Haim started from pole and dominated the first 30 laps of the race before relinquishing the lead for an unscheduled second pit stop in two race breaks.
what A. to drive@Nicksanchez080 Take all the competitors to win @MISpeedway 🏁 pic.twitter.com/Ci491TdM3T
— ARCA Menards Series (@ARCA_Racing) August 7, 2022
On the ensuing restart, Sanchez was able to take the lead and it wasn’t until lap 63 that Heim took the lead after starting from the tail of the field.
The second break of the race came on lap 70, when Sanchez took advantage of the ensuing restart to wrest the lead from Haim. His stay at the front was short-lived this time as Haim quickly gained the lead and began to put distance between himself and the rest of the field.
However, a caution on lap 86 for Scott Melton’s injured Toyota gave Sanchez another shot at the lead.
As the contest resumed, Sanchez took the shot. Sanchez was able to regain the lead by pushing 1 and 2 with the die.
It was a chess match for Sanchez, who started with straight bobs and weaves as he did his best to shut down runs from Dye and Haim.
Shortly after the restart, Heim Dye, who had climbed down the outside wall and moved up to fifth, came around to take second with two laps to go. On the final lap, he tried to play with Sanchez after entering Turn 1, but Sanchez blocked that move, beating Heim by 0.496 seconds.
“You know you have to get days like that, you know you have to go reset, those are the best days,” Sanchez said. “We didn’t have the speed to win the race. We took 20s (Heim), 43s (Dye) and 18s (Sammy Smith). That’s the best feeling.”
Hear from the winner@Nicksanchez080 | @MAVTV pic.twitter.com/j66TrO0EAC
— ARCA Menards Series (@ARCA_Racing) August 7, 2022
Heim briefly gave up second place to Dye on the final lap but was able to inch forward to reclaim the position at the checkered flag.
“That restart, I didn’t have any push there, which was definitely interesting but you can never be sure in racing,” said Heim. “I drove it really hard and had a great run for (the turn). It’s my fault.
“Wish that caution doesn’t come out, but that’s part of it.”
Dye finished third, with Sammy Smith and Gus Dean rounding out the top-five.
Rajah Carrut, Brett Holmes, Cody Coughlin, Greg Van Aalst and Morgan Baird finished 6th through 10th, respectively.
The ARCA Menards Series season continues Aug. 19 with the General Tire Delivers 100 at Watkins Glen International in New York. The event will air live on FS1 at 6 pm ET.
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