Luke Fenhaus steals dramatic ARCA victory at Iowa

William Sawalich dominated much of Saturday night’s race at Iowa Speedway, but a late caution gave Fenhaus one last chance to catch the leader and he made the most of it.

Fenhaus went to the inside of Sawalich and cleared him without contact and held on to capture his first ARCA national series victory.

The outcome was very similar to Fenhaus’ recent ARCA East win at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, where he outdueled Sawalich on the final restart for the victory.

Both Sawalich and Fenhaus compete fulltime in the ARCA East series and the win also counts in that series as Saturday’s race was a combination event. Sawalich still leads Fenhaus in the East series standings.

“I knew I had to win the race,” Fenhaus said of his thoughts going into the final restart. “He (Sawalich) had been giving me the bottom (lane) and he ran so easily on the top. I got into (Turn) 1 really well and used the race track ahead of me and went on for the win.

“I just tried to get the top (lane) to work all night, but I didn’t think it was the best. It was just hot and slick all day today. To come out on top – this is a big one for us.”

Fenhaus, a 19-year-old native of Wausau, Wisc., is a former winner of the Slinger Nationals and CARS Pro Late Model Tour champion. He competed in an SRX Series race in 2021, losing to Marco Andretti – again – on a late race restart.

The Chevrolet development driver competes with Pinnacle Racing Group in ARCA. This is the organization’s debut season.

Jesse Love finished third Saturday night, Lavar Scott was fourth and Toni Briedinger matched her career-best finish in fifth.