Scott Speed has won his first American oval race since foregoing his Formula One ambitions for a career in NASCAR when he triumphed in Saturday's ARCA Re/Max race at the Kansas Speedway.

After leading the opening 16 laps of the Kansas Lottery 150 in his Red Bull backed Toyota Speed's window net fell down forcing him to pit under green. He lost a lap and dropped to rear of the 40-car field, but then began a mightily impressive comeback.

After earning the Lucky Dog free pass he passed fellow rookie Jason Smith on a restart with six laps remaining and then 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.”

Thanks to the win Speed moves to fourth in the driver standings, 90 points behind leader Matt Carter heading into next Sunday's 500-mile race at the re-born Rockingham Speedway in North Carolina.