LAS VEGAS: Hamilton wins as chaos ensues behind

LAS VEGAS, N.V. — Noah Hamilton leads 22 laps and secures his first victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Last night saw the 14th round of the 2024 ARCA series at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. 26 drivers would fill out the grid for 100 laps as the sun set in the distance.

Qualifying would see the #42 Nishil Condoor guide his Chevrolet Camaro to pole position with a 31.211, which would end up beating #17 Thomas Villano’s 31.245 putting the point leader in 2nd. Aiden Schramm would start 3rd in the 14 car and would end up leading the most laps with 48 in total.

The green flag would fly as Nishil Condoor would lose the lead early to Aiden Schramm, the race would continue until lap 11 where a yellow flag saw an incident including Mason Hoeffner and Caleb Tipton. This incident would kick off a slue of cautions throughout the first half of the race.

Off that restart, Nick Cordova and Joe Gibbons would end up making contact through the tri-oval which would end up collecting Sam Bennett, Garth Griswold, and Bill Martin. After a single car incident involving Ray Gill, Aiden Schramm and Stewart Harding Walker would make contact in front of the field. This incident would have the #18 Cory Mott collected in the chaos.

At the midway break Noah Hamilton would find his #2 Ford Mustang out front as another yellow flag would fly for an incident started from Gordon Fraley and Haden Higginbotham. After the break Aiden Schramm would find his way back out front.

Well on the first one it seemed that Gordon thought we we’re going to make it four wide and he quarter paneled me – this one now looks like he did the same thing.

Haden Higginbotham, #10 Missile Racing Camaro

Tempers would cool down after two quick cautions but the eventual race winner Noah Hamilton would collect front end damage, he would end up at the back of the field after pitting to repair. A five car battle out front would ensue including Nishil Condoor, Noah Hamilton, Vince Mitchell, Aiden Schramm, and Thomas Villano. Condoor would end up getting the best of the battle as Schramm and Hamilton would battle for 2nd.

However with 11 laps to go, Cory Mott would be involved in another incident where his #18 Camry would end up sliding into the outside wall and clip the #22 Garth Griswold, ending the Hollywood Motorsports driver night early.

On the restart, Thomas Villano would make an aggressive move three wide for the lead and would end up turning then leader at the time Nishil Condoor. Austin Runkel would end up having no where to go and run into the side of Condoor’s machine ending both of their nights.

In total the race would include 12 cautions and with a natural overtime including the final. Joe Wright would end up sideways as drivers came out of turn 4 for the white flag, however a caution would see them line back up and go for it once more.

Hamilton would end up pulling away on the restart as Schramm and Villano battled for 2nd. The feel good story of the night would go to Jonathan Leger as he would make a move of the year contender to pass both Schramm and Villano out of turn 4 to take 2nd place. Both of those drivers would also allow Vince Mitchell to sneak through for 3rd as they had to settle for 4th and 6th.

Thomas Villano holds onto his point lead over a race absent Jim Mott who did not start last night’s event. Top Tier driver Cory Mott who had a pretty rough night would be able to recover to a 9th place finish and catapult himself past an also absent Bob Baker in points.

When asked about winning his first race in Crown Jewel competition Noah Hamilton had this to say.

Feels pretty good, I definitely didn’t expect it that’s for sure. Coming into tonight I thought a top 5 would be a miracle, but it worked out!

Noah Hamilton, #2 Apex Motorsports Mustang

ARCA competition will be on hold next week and will return on August 11th at Irwindale for a short track showdown. Tomorrow night’s Bob Henry’s 2004 Cup action will kick off from Dover at 8:25 PM ET.