As the field came around for a second attempt at a green-white-checkered finish, the eyes were on David Gilliland Racing’s Taylor Gray and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Sammy Smith.
The pair of drivers were guiding the two fastest cars in the field on Monday night at the ARCA East Series opener at New Smyrna Speedway.
Smith went into Gray going into the final turn, rode his bumper and opened up a lane to his inside, and in came Max Gutierrez to get his first ARCA East victory of his career.
“That’s a (good) result for the championship,” Gutierrez said. “In the last corner, they were battling for the first spot, and that’s where (we came in) to take it. I’m very happy and very proud of the team and thank them for everything.”
This might be one of the best finishes we see all year.
Max Gutierrez, beats Iowan Sammy Smith (black-and-blue 18 car) and Taylor Gray (17) to win the #ARCAEast season opener.
🎥 @ARCA_Racing / @_TrackPass pic.twitter.com/x0Te5vrr9o
— Connor Ferguson (@cfchangs9) February 9, 2021
Gutierrez is an 18-year old Mexico City native that won last season’s NASCAR Mexico Series FedEx Challenge, before declaring to run a full 2021 ARCA East championship schedule this season.
The win will certainly give him a head start to trying to win that points battle.
It, however, didn’t come without controversy, and it didn’t necessarily include Gutierrez, but nearly all of the cars around him.
At halftime of the race, a competition caution was scheduled for teams to be able to pit and get a new set of tires.
The aforementioned Smith, as well as Mason Diaz and another car came down pit road a lap before the drivers on the lead lap.
The pair were not penalized for it at the time, and the race went on nearly reaching the end until a debris caution came out with 10 laps to go. Smith was in the lead, and it started raining at the track.
Rather than calling the race, ARCA delayed the event, determined to finish before the modified race scheduled for later in the night at New Smyrna.
Gray didn’t think Smith and Diaz’s moves were fair, and aired his grievances over the NBC TrackPass broadcast during an interview at the rain delay.
“We’re just trying to figure out what ARCA wants to do, I guess,” Gray said on the broadcast. “I know after that first stage break, they got the lineup messed up. I should have started first since the three cars in front of me took four tires and pitted one lap before we did, which was not supposed to be legal.”
After ARCA came back from the delay, the series penalized Smith for pitting too early, but not either of the other two cars that supposedly committed the same action.
Smith was frustrated after the race. Had it not been delayed, he would have won and not been penalized at all.
“None of that should have really happened,” Smith said after the race. “(ARCA) penalized us 80 laps later for something that we did right and everyone else did wrong. Cant really control that. I just felt like we had to do whatever we could at the end to win.
“Shit happens,” he added.
ARCA has not issued any statements publicly on their calls during the race, but if such statements arise we will update them below.
The series will return to the track for its second race of the 2021 season on February 27 when they visit 5 Flag Speedway. Once again, the action can be streamed live on NBC TrackPass.
ARCA East New Smyrna Results
1. Max Gutierrez
2. Sammy Smith
3. Taylor Gray
4. Mason Diaz
5. Joey Iest
6. Daniel Dye
7. Colt Hensley
8. Brandon Oakley
9. Parker Retzlaff
10. Willie Mullins
11. Rajah Caruth
12. Richard Garvie
13. Jack Wood
14. Carson Kvapil
15. Dick Doheny
