Talladega provides three new winners

Talladega was its typical self this weekend: Epic for real stock cars and a good physics lesson for NextGen cars. What was newsworthy about this Talladega gathering were its stars: Carson Hocevar, Corey Day, Andy Jankowiak, and the ARCA Menards Series itself.

Each of the winners at ’Dega this round won his first race in his respective championship. Carson Hocevar’s win was a long time coming, and I think it’s a big moment for the sport that he got it at this track, in this paint job, with this absolutely legendary celebration. It was the first win in O’Reilly for Corey Day, who cuts a similar figure to Hocevar: an obsessive dirt racer who has blown into NASCAR and made a bit of a mess, but whose talent cannot be denied, and who everyone knows will be dangerous once they clean things up. Don’t look now, but they both might have gotten to that point.

But for me, as an old guy who’s still got it, the most enjoyable winner of the weekend was Andy “Andy J” Jankowiak, the pizza guy from Buffalo, who won his first ARCA race in his 48th start. His dreamy disbelief was so delightful to me, and I immediately bought a hat and a shirt.

His chill demeanor belies a very sharp race. He did exactly what he was supposed to do at Talladega and was hanging out just behind the leaders on the last lap. This was supposed to be Garrett “Cleetus McFarland” Mitchell’s big ‘Dega win, according to the narrative machinery, and it almost was. Now, I should pause here and say that I think Cleetus is genuinely good for ARCA racing because he’s getting people to watch it — which they didn’t really have any reason to before — and he’s reasonably capable at it. He should just stay here and do this for another year or two. However, he got too excited there at the end and tried to block the entire race track from the front, and this allowed Andy J to absolutely punk the field and win.

ARCA is getting good at the front. It’s also by far the national racing series with the most women in it, and they all kick ass. I say we should all watch more ARCA. If we keep its standards high, it will reward us.