One Down, Many to Go

A self-described methodical and patient race car driver, Scott Speed pushed, pushed and pushed some more to win his first ARCA RE/MAX race Saturday at Kansas Speedway.

Speed’s No. 2 Red Bull Toyota led the first 16 laps, but the window net fell down and forced Speed to pit under green. He lost a lap and dropped to rear of the 40-car field, but that’s when the aggression came out. He raced hard to earn the free pass, and, “Once we got that, I pushed real hard to make up a lot of positions.”

He blew past fellow rookie Jason Smith on a restart with six laps remaining and held off Ricky Stenhouse Jr. for the right to celebrate victory in only his fifth ARCA start.

“It’s certainly great to win a race — it’s been a while — but at the end of the day the most important thing is that we learned something because the goal is to be successful in (Sprint) Cup and this is a step toward that,” Scott said. “Every lap I make on the track right now is beneficial. That’s why we’re doing so many races, why we’re pushing so hard because this is where I’m learning the most.”

Scott moved to fourth in the driver standings, 90 points behind leader Matt Carter heading into Sunday’s race in Rockingham, N.C. But he isn’t done driving at Kansas. Scott’s in the No. 22 Toyota for Bill Davis Racing for today’s Craftsman Truck race (6 p.m. ET, Speed).

Today in Talladega, Brian Vickers and AJ Allmendinger qualify for the Aaron’s 499 (11:15 a.m. ET, Speed). BV’s 83 goes out 21st. AJ’s 84 is 41st in line.