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CAMBRDIGE TWP. – Around any track, there’s an old saying for young drivers.
You have to win one before you win the rest.
So maybe that’s why Nick Sanchez sat down in front of a nearly empty media center at Michigan International Speedway and talked about his first professional win at the wheel of a stock car, the 2021 Reese’s 150 at Kansas Speedway.
“Being able to close one out, you don’t know if you can do it before you do it,” he said. “That definitely helped me, it helped my approach to each race and it’s made me a better driver. And (Saturday), it helped me.”
About Saturday. Sanchez hung in the top five for the majority of the Henry Ford Health 200 but did some of his best work in the final 30 laps to take the lead and win his third ARCA Menards series race of the season.
Racing out of his rearview window more than his windshield, the 21-year-old B.J. McLeod Motorsports driver held off frantic late charges from Corey Heim, Daniel Dye and Sammy Smith to come out of an exhilarating final 10 laps on top.
Heim was undoubtedly the fastest car of the day, but had to settle for second after hitting the wall with seven laps to go and failing to recover. Dye, Smith and Gus Dean finished third, fourth and fifth, respectively.
After claiming the pole in Saturday afternoon’s qualifying round, Heim rode the inside track to an early lead throughout the majority of the first 25 laps. Amber Balcean spun into the wall for the race’s first caution, leading to a controlled pitstop.
Heim was slow out of the stop and Holmes took advantage to power his way to the front of the pack. Heim gradually worked his way back into the top five before Sanchez swung around past Bret Holmes for yet another lead change.
Even after competing in Saturday’s New Holland 250, Smith stayed aggressive and challenged Sanchez around the race’s midpoint. Sanchez showed considerable poise to maintain the lead along the back straightaway but jockeying between the two only served to bring Heim back into the fold.
Heim rode tight on Sanchez and finally found a lane to pull through out of Turn 3 for the lead in Lap 63. Another caution led to Smith briefly taking control with Sanchez regaining it with 30 laps left in the 200-mile race.
Heim and Sanchez started to exchange leads by Lap 80 and a tight finish was guaranteed with Heim barely running out front with 10 laps to go. His attempted adjustment backfired when he slowed up, bumped the back of Holmes’ vehicle and scraped the wall to fall into fifth place with eight laps remaining.
Still, Heim wouldn’t be denied. With Sanchez in the lead, Heim thrust his way back into contention by splitting the middle between Smith and Dean to get back into third place.
Heim turned in his fastest lap of the day to get back up to second in the final lap. He made one last move in an attempt to take first but his fate Sanchez shot out of Turn 4 to seal his fate and take the win with the sun setting over MIS.
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