Auto Club Speedway

The Old Guy Racing League's ARCA Series opened its season at Auto Club Speedway on Tuesday night with a chaotic 51-lap affair that featured four cautions, ten caution laps, and nine lead changes across a 28-car field. When the dust settled, it was the #22 Chevrolet of Javier Zapata taking the victory — his first win in ARCA competition in the OGRL — after starting fourth and leading 15 of the race's 51 laps. Pole sitter #21 Johnny Brug led an equal 15 laps from the front row but faded dramatically to finish 26th, a collapse of 25 positions from where he started that effectively handed the race's momentum to others. The lead changed hands nine times throughout the evening, ensuring nothing came easily at the two-mile California oval.

Dylan Foster in the #818 turned in one of the evening's most impressive drives, climbing 14 positions from his 16th starting spot to cross the line second while leading 8 laps along the way and doing so without a single recorded incident. Foster's clean, fast race earned him 36 points and places him six back of Zapata in the early standings. Mitchell Williams rounded out the podium in the #16 after starting fifth, while Brandon Cowell's #85 — who started on the front row in second — fell back to fourth, leading 7 laps but unable to hold off the cars around him in the closing stage.

The hard charger award belongs without question to #27 Jesse Rasimas, who started 26th in a 28-car field and carved his way to a sixth-place finish — a gain of 20 positions on the night. Richard Modrich in the #71 also deserves recognition, advancing seven spots from 12th to fifth while keeping his incident sheet clean. The contrast between those two performances and the carnage elsewhere was stark: #225 Bryce Grissom, #44 Adam Jones, and #19 Marc Dumont each logged 14 incidents, while #52 Randy Coryer topped the incident sheet with 20, ultimately finishing 15th.

With Round 1 complete, Zapata sits atop the OGRL ARCA standings with 42 points, six clear of Foster and eight ahead of Williams. The gap between first and fifth is just nine points — Zapata leads Modrich's #71 by only that margin — meaning the title fight is wide open heading into the rounds ahead. Cowell and Williams are tied on 34 points for third and fourth respectively, and with the top five separated by fewer than ten points, every position on every lap is going to matter as this series develops.