By Vincent Delforge, special to KickinTheTires.net
A real deliverance for Cole Moore, 25, when he took the checkered flag on October 1, 2022 in Roseville, CA. Moore wins the NAPA Auto Parts 150 presented by Berco Redwood, his first win in his 26th career ARCA Menards West Series race.
What’s more is on the All American Speedway, a short track on which he has had so much success in recent years and located a few miles from his home in Granite Bay. And what could be more symbolic than seeing the No. 99 win the 99th victory for the Bill McAnally Racing team in the West Series.
However, Moore had to fight throughout the race against Joey Iest and Jake Drew, only finally taking command of the race 16 laps from the finish during a restart thanks to a superb overtaking by the outside on Drew. He also won the Reese’s Sweet Move of the Race award for this maneuver.
With this victory, Cole Moore regains second position in the championship while remaining a good distance from leader Jake Drew, second in the race, who continues his uninterrupted series of top-fives since the start of the season.
This Roseville race, the ninth of the season, was as almost always very eventful here, slowed down by 10 yellow flags and was twice interrupted by the red flag to clean up the fluids deposited by the damaged cars.
Practice/Qualifying
The only practice/qualifying session was won by strongman of the year Jake Drew. His fourth pole of the season, his seventh in career. Drew ahead by 0.046 seconds over Joey Iest.
The second line being composed by Cole Moore and the rookie Tanner Reif. Note that the title holder in Roseville, P.J. Pedroncelli is sixth while the returning John Moore, Cole’s father, is 13th at the wheel of the fourth car from BMR.
Of the 22 drivers entered, only Paul Pedroncelli did not do the slightest lap to preserve his car since he is expected to do a start and park. Big technical problem for ChrisLowden and Andrew Tuttle who could only do a few laps at low speed.
Green flag!
The ordeal continues for Tuttle who cannot even start due to an insoluble technical problem.
Precisely at the start, Drew retained the lead on Iest while Sean Hingorani, who was doing his first race for BMR, went into a spin on the first lap causing the first of a long series of yellow flags.
At the restart Drew retains first position on Iest while P.J. Pedroncelli joins the top-five by overtaking Landen Lewis. The green flag will be short-lived following the violent crash involving Bridget Burgess and Chris Lowden. Brugess, who went into a spin following contact from John Moore, was hit by Lowden a few moments later.
Curiously, the officials did not react by waving the yellow flag. The result was that the two cars attempted to drive away with broken radiators. A red flag of about twenty minutes to clean up the spilled fluids.
The restart is given on the 27th lap with Drew leading ahead of Iest but not for long because the driver of the Ford No. 54 takes command on the next lap. Moore will also take advantage of Drew soon after.
New yellow flag shortly before the fiftieth lap for Hingorani who is stopped at turn 1. The officials will penalize him considering that he deliberately provoked the yellow flag. The rookie’s race becomes more complicated.
Joey Iest leads at the restart ahead of Moore who is becoming more and more pressing. Pedroncelli gains another position over Reif for fourth place.
Brian Kamisky then John Moore will provoke the next two yellow flags. The only thing that doesn’t change is race leader Joey Iest…. …Until the 68th lap when Cole Moore took over the leadership of the race for the first time of the evening. A position he will keep until the mid-race break on the 75th lap.
Halfway Break
After the regulatory five minutes, the drivers return to the track for the second part of the race. Cole Moore is still the leader ahead of Iest, Drew and Pedroncelli.
Drew manages to regain second position from Iest. The battle between the two pilots is virile while remaining correct.
With 47 laps to go, a nice mess was triggered by Kamisky who, following contact with Nick Joanides, spun out of turn 4 just in front of the leaders who miraculously all managed to avoid him!
Moore will survive the restart, just like the next one, following an accident by Sebastian Arias. But Drew is very pressing and manages to regain first position on the 130th lap. We can imagine at this point that the Bruncati Racing driver will be heading for his fifth victory of the season but…
… another yellow flag is waved as Vince Little is immobilized on the track. At the restart, Moore will overtake the race by taking the advantage over Drew from the outside of turn 1.
The last caution of the race will be due to the accident involving P.J. Pedroncelli and Landen Lewis at turn 3. Lewis who misses on the entry of the corner and harpoons the back of the Toyota of P.J. The impact against the wall is sufficient to cause serious damage on both cars. The red flag will be waved to soak up the fluids.
The day of glory has come!
Moore will perfectly resist Drew until the checkered flag and finally earn his first career victory.
“That was a tough one. I had Jake [Drew] right there with me at the end. Those top restarts, it was risky. I knew he could send it in and hit me, but he drove me clean. We had a great car. Shoutout to Bill McAnally Racing.
“First win of the year for me. First of my career. I’m so happy. It means everything. I have my whole family out here. My mom. My dad was in the race. That makes in even more special. It means everything.” Moore said.
Note that for the fifth consecutive year, the driver who won the Roseville race also won his first career victory.
The top-five is completed by Joey Iest, Todd Souza and Kyle Keller. The last two having been effective but relatively discreet during this race.
Tanner Reif finished sixth. The rest of the top-10 is more surprising with rookie R.J. Smotherman seventh ahead of John Moore, Brian Kamisky and Nick Joanides. Canadian veteran David Smith finished 11th and last driver on the leader’s lap.
Don’t miss this Wednesday the next article “Teams reactions and analysis” which will go into detail on the statistics and the race of each driver.
Complete race results: www.racing-reference.info/race-results/2022-09/AW/
Driver & owner standings: www.racing-reference.info/standings/2022/AW/
Next race is scheduled for October 14 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Bullring in Las Vegas, NV, for the Star Nursery 150. The race will be broadcast live on Flo Racing and tape-delayed on USA Network.