Zachary Tinkle was looking forward to his first time on a mile-and-a-half track when heading to Kansas Speedway for the Reese’s 150 in the ARCA Menards Series where he was racing the Wayne Peterson Motorsports Ford with the #27 number for Richmond Racing.
His car and crew we donning the FAN-tastic Funded Season decal and tie dye shirts as a thank you to all the fans that contributed to his GoFundMe and kept him racing this season. Fans names were listed on the back of the shirts.
With this being the last race of the ARCA Menards Series season, there was a highly competitive field of 25 cars registered to race in the Reese’s 150. Zachary went out for practice on old tires to get a feel for the car and get used to the track since he had never raced at Kansas or on this size track before. He placed 14th in practice.
With the promising practice results, the decision was made to buy a new set of tires for qualifying so that Zachary could maintain his starting position where he qualified and not have to go to the back of the field. Unfortunately, when after completing a good first lap, the right rear tire went down and also caused the sway bar to come apart. Even with only getting one lap in, Tinkle qualified 16th overall. However, because the team had to change tires and work on the car, he had to start at the back of the field in the 24th position.
During the race, Tinkle worked his way up through the field to the 18th position when the second to the last caution came out. On the restart, Tinkle passed several cars before the start finish line. After being informed that this wasn’t allowed, he had to drive down pit lane to serve a penalty, putting him in 19th. He then went to work to get back on the same lap as a couple cars in front of him and finished the race in 17th.
In the end, Tinkle met the goal of keeping the Richmond Racing #27 in the position of 8th in the owners championship while the Wayne Peterson Motorsport #06 remained in the 17th position.
Tinkle commented on social media, “What a race and season! I can’t thank everyone – especially the fans that kept me in a race car enough. Thank you Wayne Peterson and David Richmond for trusting me in your race cars. The #27 finished 8th in owners points and the #06 18th. I finished the season 17th in drivers points. I’m very grateful since a few months ago I didn’t know if I’d ever race again. Thank you for a FAN-tastic season!”
Even with the tumultuous season that Zachary Tinkle had, he placed 17th overall in the ARCA Menards Series driver championship points out of 117 drivers. He placed 9th in the JEGS/ CRA All-Stars Tour Championship out of 97 drivers, even after having to shut the late model program down mid-season due to his father suffering a stroke.