Connor Mosack surprised perhaps even himself with a second consecutive ARCA Menards Series victory at Kansas Speedway.
Mosack won his first series race a year ago with Joe Gibbs Racing at Kansas, but Tanner Gray completed dominated much of Saturday’s race driving for the same team – JGR’s No. 18 Toyota – with which Mosack won in 2023.
By the time of the halftime break in the 100-lap race, Gray had built a more than 10-second lead on the field and only five cars remained on the lead lap. A caution late in the race gave Mosack a chance to line up alongside Gray on a restart and he nearly took the lead but briefly fell back.
With 12 laps to go, Mosack was able to mount another challenge and this time he got around Gray for the lead and held him off by 0.470 seconds to claim the win. It’s the second consecutive series win for Pinnacle Racing Group, which won with Connor Zilisch at Dover last weekend.
“I was a little worried about it,” Mosack, 25, said of not catching Gray immediately on the final restart. “I felt like that was our shot to clear him and that we might hold him off if we actually cleared him.
“He ran me up in (Turns) 1 and 2 and did a good job of making me slip there. Then I was a little worried he would drive away. But we had the momentum down in (Turns) 3 and 4) and I thought maybe we could still run with him.
“I’m not sure if he made a mistake but he got pretty high, and I got to his spoiler and was able to clear him.”
