With just the season opening Lucas Oil 200 driven by General Tire in the books, the battle for the 2019 ARCA Menards Series championship still has a long way to go. There are still 19 races to go, but already a couple of anticipated championship contenders have a big hole to climb their way out of headed into the ARCA Pensacola 200 at Five Flags Speedway.
Race winner Harrison Burton (No. 20 DEX Imaging Toyota) leads the ARCA Menards Series standings coming out of Daytona, but he and second-place Todd Gilliland (No. 4 Frontline Enterprises Toyota) will be running limited schedules in 2019. Third-place Christian Eckes (No. 15 JBL Audio Toyota) is the highest driver in the standings that has stated his intentions to run for the ARCA Menards Series championship.
Eckes’ 220 points gives him a 30-point advantage over Travis Braden (No. 27 MatrixCare/Consonus Healthcare/Liberty Village Ford), the next championship contender in the standings in eighth.
Bret Holmes (No. 23 Holmes II Excavating/Southern States Bank Chevrolet) was in position to have a fantastic points day at Daytona, running in third position with two laps remaining. Unfortunately, as the field came to the white flag, he was tagged from behind down the backstretch and went spinning into the infield. Without a lot of laps to make up those lost positions, Holmes was relegated to 18th at the end and as a result sits 80 points behind Eckes.
Joe Graf, Jr. (No. 77 Eat Sleep Race Ford) finished second by a matter of inches in his restrictor-plate debut at Talladega in 2018 and came to Daytona with high hopes. Graf picked up some debris on the grille of his car and was forced to make an unscheduled stop for overheating, losing several laps in the process. Graf finished 21st and sits 95 points behind Eckes.
Michael Self (No. 25 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota) won the 2018 Lucas Oil 200 and was expected to be a challenger to win in 2019, but an early race accident sent him behind the wall for extensive repairs, leaving him 31st at the finish. Self is 145 points behind his Venturini Motorsports teammate among the expected championship contenders. 
Click here for complete ARCA Menards Series driver standings
Eckes will have a chance to build on his lead over the others when the ARCA Menards Series returns to action in the ARCA Pensacola 200 at Five Flags Speedway on Saturday, March 9. The race will be televised live on MAVTV starting at 8 pm ET. ARCARacing.com will have complete event coverage including live timing & scoring, live chat, and live track updates free for ARCA for Me members. New members may register at ARCARacing.com/login.
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