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News and Notes from the Fans with Benefits 150 at Iowa Speedway

www.arcaracing.com July 22, 2019

News and notes from the Fans with Benefits 150 at Iowa Speedway…

  • Michael Self (No. 25 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota) stretched his points lead over Bret Holmes with a third-place run in the Fans with Benefits 150. Self now has a 90-point lead entering the 15th of 20 races of the 2019 ARCA Menards Series season. It’s the largest lead anyone has had throughout the course of the year.
  • Bret Holmes (No. 23 Holmes II Excavation Chevrolet) had an oil line fitting failure in practice that sent his primary car into the turn four wall. The BHR team worked throughout the day, in 95-degree heat, to prep the backup car and get Holmes on track for the start of the race. Despite the challenges of the day, Holmes was able to register his series-leading 12th top-ten finish of the season when he crossed the line in eighth.
  • Christian Eckes picked up a position in the series standings, now third, and he’s just 105 points behind his teammate Michael Self in the battle for the championship. Eckes missed a race at Salem earlier in the season due to illness and finished 26th, and last, the next race at Talladega. Those two races alone cost him 325 points to Self. He needs to average an 18-point-per-race gain over the next six races to overcome his current deficit to Self.
  • Mason Mitchell, 2014 ARCA Menards Series champion, was at the track on Friday spotting for Colby Howard (No. 32 The HOPE Foundation Chevrolet). Howard drove in two races in 2018 for Mason Mitchell Motorsports and the two have kept a close working relationship. “I have been busy with some farming stuff and with our new real estate business,” Mitchell said. “We’re trying to make some money so we can come back here and play again soon.” Win-Tron Racing has had two former series champions working with them in back-to-back weeks as 2017 titlist Austin Theriault assisted the team’s driver at Elko, Howie DiSavino III.
  • Despite competing in just eight of the 14 races held so far this season, Chandler Smith (No. 20 Craftsman/828 Logistics Toyota) has cracked the top ten in the overall series standings. He’s now eighth on the strength of four wins and seven top-five finishes. Smith leads the Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge standings but confirmed post-race that he will not be competing in the two upcoming dirt track races at Springfield and DuQuoin.
  • IndyCar on NBC broadcaster Paul Tracy was seen in the ARCA Menards Series garage area prior to the start of practice. “I was hoping to see Riley Herbst here, but he’s not racing this weekend,” Tracy said. “They lived next door to me when I lived in Las Vegas but I haven’t seen Riley since he was about three years old. It would have been nice to say hello.”
  • 2019 Indy 500 winner Simon Pagenaud, who drives the No. 22 Menards Dallara-Chevrolet for Team Penske, was also a visitor to the ARCA Menards Series garage area on Friday.
  • Friday’s 1-2-3 finish for Venturini Motorsports was the team’s first top-three sweep in its long history. It was also the organization’s 61st series victory dating back to Big Bill Venturini’s first career series win at Flat Rock Speedway in 1983.