Chandler Smith (No. 20 Craftsman Toyota) did it again at Elko Speedway on Saturday night, winning his third consecutive short track race in ARCA Menards Series competition at the Menards 250 Presented by MatrixCare. The win helped Smith add to his lead in the Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge, where Smith is currently on top of the point standings. Ty Gibbs (No. 18 Monster Energy Toyota) remains second in the Short Track Challenge standings after finishing second at Elko, a common occurrence this year for the 16-year old grandson of NASCAR team owner Joe Gibbs.
The Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge passed the halfway point at Elko, with six short track races in the books and five more left on the schedule. The Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge counts race points only towards a driver’s total – meaning no bonus points for leading laps or winning the pole are counted – over the course of the 11 short track races in the ARCA season. Drivers get one mulligan as their best ten results over the 11 races count towards their final point total. Michael Self (No. 25 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota) kicked off the short track schedule by winning at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida, in March. A post-race 25-point penalty assessed to Self’s team meant that runner-up Ty Gibbs exited Pensacola with the Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge points lead, though. It did not take long for Self to recover from the minor point setback as he won the next short track event at Salem in a rain-shortened affair. Gibbs spun out just before the rain arrived and finished sixth, ceding the lead to Self in the Short Track Challenge heading into Nashville.
The Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville race provided a significant shakeup in the Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge point standings. Michael Self was the primary victim of a chain-reaction accident that saw his car nose into the outside wall hard on lap 73, ending his day early with a 15th-place finish. Christian Eckes (No. 15 JBL Audio Toyota), who missed the Salem race with a sudden illness, took home the guitar trophy as the Nashville winner. Ty Gibbs finished second to Eckes and retook the Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge points lead, though Chandler Smith trailed Gibbs by only five points. Just one position on the track separated first from second. Smith won at Toledo, another rain-shortened event, two weeks later to take the Short Track Challenge points lead and has not looked back since.
Smith won at Madison and Elko as well, continuing to grow his advantage over the field. Ty Gibbs finished second to Smith at Toledo and Elko but ran eighth at Madison after a late-race penalty. Gibbs did break through with a win at a superspeedway in the meantime, making a last-corner pass to win at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. Smith leads the Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge standings with 1340 points, giving him a 70-point lead over Gibbs in second. Gibbs has 1270 points and Michael Self rounds out the top three drivers with 1240 points. Bret Holmes (No. 23 Holmes II Excavation Chevrolet) and Carson Hocevar (No. 28 GMPartsNow.com Chevrolet) are tied for fourth place with 1170 points. Corey Heim (No. 22 Speedway Children’s Charities Ford) is in sixth place with 1150 points.
Smith, Gibbs, Hocevar and Heim are all under the age of 18 and thus too young to run the full ARCA Menards Series schedule and compete for the overall series title. The Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge was introduced by ARCA in 2015 to give young drivers like those the chance to run for a championship of some kind during the season. The inaugural Short Track Challenge champion was Kyle Weatherman, who was 17 years old at the beginning of the 2015 season and ineligible to race at the several early-season superspeedway events. With four of the top six drivers in this year’s Short Track Challenge standings not competing for the overall series championship, there seems to be a very good chance that the 2019 Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge champion is a driver under the age of 18.
The five remaining Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge races are at a very diverse set of short tracks. Iowa Speedway hosts the next event on July 19. The 7/8th-mile oval is the fastest short track on the ARCA schedule, with pole speeds frequently exceeding 130 miles per hour. August will see the running of the two dirt races as the ARCA Menards Series heads to the Springfield mile on August 18 and the DuQuoin mile on August 31. The two dirt races often see a mix of drivers on the entry list – some one-off drivers who only run the dirt tracks each year and some series regulars who have never raced on anything but pavement in their careers. The varying levels of experience in the field and the unique prospect of running stock cars on one-mile dirt ovals often make Springfield and DuQuoin two of the biggest wild cards on the ARCA schedule. An interesting storyline has already developed for the two dirt races: current Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge point leader Chandler Smith is not planning to run either dirt race at present. Smith would need to run at least one of the two races in order to still have a chance to win the Short Track Challenge title.
Following the two dirt races, the return trip to Salem serves as the penultimate short track race of the season on September 14. Michael Self was victorious in the first Salem race back in April, but a torrential rainstorm halted the race after just 101 laps. The fall Salem race is also designated as the throwback weekend for the ARCA Menards Series, celebrating the rich history of ARCA racing at Salem Speedway. This will be the 106th ARCA race at the high-banked half-mile in southern Indiana. The Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge will conclude on October 5 at Lucas Oil Raceway outside Indianapolis. The low banks and multiple grooves of Lucas Oil Raceway are well suited to drivers with finesse and patience as well as those who are not afraid to search around the track for speed. The champion of the Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge will be crowned that night. Only Austin Theriault in 2017 has been able to finish the final short track event as both the race winner and the Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge champion. It remains to be seen if someone will join him in that very exclusive club in 2019.
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PAST SIOUX CHIEF SHORT TRACK CHALLENGE CHAMPIONS:
2018: Sheldon Creed, No. 28 MDM Motorsports Toyota
2017: Austin Theriault, No. 52 Ken Schrader Racing Ford
2016: Chase Briscoe, No. 77 Cunningham Motorsports Ford
2015: Kyle Weatherman, No. 22 Cunningham Motorsports Ford
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