By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
After a mid-race spin, Saturday at Elko Speedway may not have been the traditional time for a trip to Victory Lane for Gus Dean.
But he did it. After overcoming a lap 160 spin, the No. 32 Chevrolet got back on the lead lap and held off pole-sitter Christian Eckes to win the Sioux Chief PowerPEX 250.
The victory, the first for Chevrolet in 2018, was the 23-year-old’s second ARCA Racing Series win and first since Talladega in 2016, breaking a 38-race winless streak. He did so by first battling Joe Graf Jr. for the race lead.
“Joe (Graf Jr.) got a little better restart that we did,” Dean said. “We went down into Turn 1 and he tried to crowd me down but I wasn’t going to give.”
The two traded the lead back and forth before Dean coming out on top, passing Graf for good with just three laps to go.
“It’s a couple of laps to go and we’re fighting for the win and we really needed this,” Dean said.
Pit strategy played a part of Dean’s comeback victory. From two laps down, the No. 32 crew earned the free pass twice and took four tires when it counted.
“I owe it all to my crew chief Jamie Jones,” he said. “We needed to do something a little different and we tried some tire strategy. We were two laps down at one point but the cautions fell just right and we got back on the lead lap, got the two right side tires and here we are.”
Dean now sits sixth in the ARCA championship, however, 660 points behind leader Sheldon Creed.
Eckes finished second with Graf in third, Riley Herbst and Natalie Decker the top five.