Las Vegas teen finishes 11th in ARCA series debut

Bear Rzesnowiecky made his hot-lap pit stop Saturday, and the 19-year-old pulled it off perfectly in the biggest race of his young career.

The Las Vegan drove in his first race in the ARCA Racing Series at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., in a support race for the NASCAR Nationwide Series. The ARCA series is considered one step below NASCAR's three national touring series.

Rzesnowiecky finished 11th despite losing four spots on the final lap after colliding with a car that had crashed ahead of him.

"It was a rookie mistake," he said. "I just picked the wrong way to get around him."

It was one of the few he made.

His entry in the ARCA race was the grand prize for winning the third annual Richard Petty's Driver Search in December, when 12 contestants competed in various styles of race cars on different tracks over four days near Charlotte, N.C.

The Chicagoland race was won by Ty Dillon, grandson of Richard Childress and younger brother of Austin Dillon, a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regular.

It was Rzesnowiecky's first taste of big-time stock-car racing, and he wants to return.

"I had the best time at Chicagoland being treated like a NASCAR driver," he said. "Now I'm focusing on trying to find enough money to run another ARCA race."

He is competing in regional series this season part time after finishing third in last year's Super Late Models standings at Las Vegas Motor Speedway's Bullring, where he won the 2007 Legends Car Pro championship at age 15.

He'll be back in his family's Super Late Model stock car Saturday night at the Bullring in the NASCAR All-American Series.

The night will feature the O'Reilly Auto Parts 200 in the NASCAR K&N Pro West Series, which includes Las Vegas rookies Dylan Kwasniewski and Spencer Gallagher.

Contact reporter Jeff Wolf at jwolf@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0247.