General Tire 150: Zilisch in Victory Lane!

Top speeds. Tough crashes. Triumphant winner.

Just another top start to a NASCAR weekend at the Monster Mile.

Driving the No. 28 Chevrolet for Pinnacle Racing Group, 17-year-old Connor Zilisch notched his first career ARCA victory in the General Tire 150 ARCA Menards Series race Friday at Dover Motor Speedway.

"Those first 70 laps, I was pretty intimidated," said Zilisch, who is a development driver for Trackhouse Racing. "I just needed to get on the gas.

"I couldn't make any ground [for a while]. The restarts were hectic, but we kept it together."

Giovanni Ruggiero placed second in the joint ARCA Menards Series/East race, Carson Kvapil was third, Lavar Scott came in fourth and Andres Perez was fifth.

William Sawalich, who set a qualifying record earlier Friday, spun exiting Turn 3 late in the race - with Zilisch taking over the lead.

Midway through, big hits seconds apart against the wall from Christian Rose (exiting Turn 4) and Amber Balcaen (along the frontstretch) brought out the red flag to pause the race. Balcaen suffered a foot injury in the crash.

"Not really sure what happened - [the car] just went straight on me," Rose said. "It was a big hit. They call this place 'The Monster' for a reason."

Dover Motor Speedway's NASCAR tripleheader weekend continues Saturday at 1:30 p.m. with the BetRivers 200 NASCAR Xfinity Series Dash 4 Cash race and concludes Sunday at 2 p.m. with the Wurth 400 NASCAR Cup Series race.