For the second consecutive week, Ty Majeski (No. 22 Crestliner Boats Ford) found himself in ARCA Menards Series victory lane, this time taking the checkers in the General Tire #AnywhereIsPossible 200 at Pocono. The Pocono triumph came just eight days after his unlikely victory at Charlotte. Majeski passed the dominant Riley Herbst thanks to some solid late-race pit strategy. Despite coming up short of the race win, Herbst still came away with some of ARCA’s special awards at Pocono.
Race day got off to an unusual start with the cancellation of General Tire Pole Qualifying after track-drying efforts took significantly longer than expected. A stubborn weeper on the frontstretch limited on-track activity to a single 30-minute practice session in which the fastest driver would be awarded the General Tire Pole. Harrison Burton (No. 20 Morton Buildings Toyota) was on top of the leaderboard with a speed of 170.390 miles per hour, giving the young second-generation driver his first career General Tire Pole Award. Burton became the sixth different driver to win a pole in 2019. His Venturini Motorsports teammates Michael Self and Chandler Smith (No. 20 Craftsman Toyota) are the only repeat pole award winners so far this season.
Burton may have won the pole, but outside front row starter Riley Herbst got the jump on the initial start and kept a stranglehold on the lead for most of the race. Herbst led the first 68 laps and opened up a massive gap over second place that stretched to 17 seconds at one point, allowing him to take home the Valvoline Lap Leader award. Chandler Smith has led the most laps this season with 257, despite not racing at superspeedways due to age restrictions. Michael Self (No. 25 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota) is a close second with 243 laps led. Herbst led his first laps of the season and jumped into fifth place in the standings. He was also awarded the Richmond Water Heaters Halfway Leader award for the first time in 2019 for pacing the field at the midway point of the race.
Ty Majeski’s win earned crew chief Paul Andrews the Cometic Crew Chief of the Race honors. Andrews jumps to second in the Cometic Crew Chief of the Year standings with 84 points, behind only Billy Venturini. Venturini, crew chief for the No. 20 Venturini Motorsports Toyota, has a sizable lead with 45 points on the year. Kevin Reed (No. 15 Venturini Motorsports Toyota) is in third, one point behind Andrews at 85 points.
Majeski also gave car owner Chad Bryant a leg up in a pair of special awards standings with the victory. The No. 22’s lead grew in the R.E. Lightning Challenge standings, holding an advantage of 1620 points to 1475 points over Stacy Holmes (No. 23 Bret Holmes Racing Toyota). Bryant’s No. 22 also closed to within 10 points of the lead in the General Tire Superspeedway Challenge, trailing Billy Venturini’s No. 20 Toyota by a margin of 1720 points to 1710 points.
The Bounty Rookie Challenge nearly saw a shakeup when Tommy Vigh Jr. (No. 10 Extreme Kleaner Ford) dropped out of the race at Pocono just nine laps in while Christian Eckes (No. 15 JBL Audio Toyota) finished third. Eckes has almost completely closed the gap that Vigh opened up when Eckes missed the Salem race with an illness. Vigh has 208 points, a scant two more than Eckes’ 206 points. Tim Richmond (No. 06 Great Railing Toyota), fresh off his superspeedway debut at Pocono, is a distant third with 118 points.
Bret Holmes (No. 23 Holmes II Excavation Toyota) completed 79 laps and finished fifth at Pocono, extending his lead in the S&S Volvo Laps Completed standings. Travis Braden (No. 27 MatrixCare/Consonus Healthcare Ford) moved into second with 917 laps completed. Joe Graf Jr. (No. 77 Eat Sleep Race Ford) climbed to third with 870 laps completed. Tommy Vigh Jr. had a mechanical issue very early on and fell to fourth in the standings with 867 laps completed.
The next race on the ARCA Menards Series schedule is the VizCom 200 at Michigan International Speedway on Friday, June 7 at 6:00 PM Eastern. Michigan serves as the second leg of the CGS Imaging Four Crown, an awards race that truly tests the drivers of the ARCA Menards Series. The Four Crown combines a driver’s total race points from one race at each of the different track types on the schedule – superspeedway, intermediate, short, and dirt. The first Four Crown race of 2019 was at Talladega, where Todd Gilliland (No. 4 Frontline Enterprises Toyota) took the race win as well as the Four Crown lead with 235 points. Riley Herbst is second with 220 points. The top full-time series regular in the Four Crown standings is Michael Self in fifth with 205 points. Be sure to watch the battle at the VizCom 200 live on FS1, or follow along on ARCAracing.com with free live timing and scoring for all registered users.
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