Battle for 2019 Owner’s Title Could Lead to First Split Driver/Owner Championship Since 1995

The battle for the ARCA Menards Series championship has been entertaining from the start of the season. Three drivers, Christian Eckes (No. 15 JBL Audio Toyota), Michael Self (No. 25 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota), and Travis Braden (No. 27 MatrixCare/Consonus Health Care/Liberty Village Ford) traded the lead throughout the first half of the season, and now, with just four races to go Eckes is stalking his Venturini Motorsports teammate for the title.

While they play a game of cat and mouse, they also have to keep their eyes on Bret Holmes (No. 23 Holmes II Excavation Chevrolet). Holmes, still looking for his first career ARCA win, has been exceedingly consistent throughout the season and is still within striking distance of Self and Eckes despite a tough month of July.

Not only is the fight for the driver’s championship fun to watch, there are some interesting stories in the ARCA Menards Series owners points with four races remaining.

It’s perhaps not a huge surprise to see team owner Billy Venturini on top of the standings. The No. 20 team has five wins, one with Harrison Burton at Daytona and four more with short track ace Chandler Smith. The No. 20 has 15 top-ten finishes in sixteen starts which has allowed Venturini to build a 190-point advantae over Chad Bryant’s No. 22 team.

What is surprising is that team that has a rotating cast of drivers behind the wheel is leading the owner’s standings. In fact, the top four car owners in the standings are there on the strength of the performance of multiple drivers.

Bryant’s No. 22 has had Connor Hall, Corey Heim, and Ty Majeski behind the wheel. Majeski has racked up three wins in five starts, while Heim has five top-five and nine top-ten finishes in ten starts. Hall drove to an eleventh-place finish in his only ride in the No. 22.

Bill Venturini’s No. 15 team planned on racing all season with just one driver – Eckes – at the wheel. Unfortunately, that plan went out the window at Salem in the spring when Eckes fell ill the night before the race. Daytona winner Burton slipped in and finished eighth, keeping the team in the midst of the owner’s points battle. Eckes has added abnother thirteen top-ten finishes, nine of which were in the top five and two wins. The No. 15 team sits third in the standings, 220 points out of the lead.

Coy Gibbs, owner of the No. 18 team, sits fourth in the standings. Gibbs has had three drivers behind the wheel of his racecars in 2019, including his son Ty on the short tracks, 2017 Bounty Rookie of the Year Riley Herbst at the majority of the superspeedway events, and Todd Gilliland in a one-off appearance at Pocono. Ty’s first career win at Gateway is one of nine top-five finishes the No. 18 has so far in 2019, and they currently sit 260 points out of the lead.

Cathy Venturini’s No. 25 team is the first one in the standings to have the same driver throughout the season. Michael Self, the current series driver points leader, has four wins and twelve top-ten finishes, all of which have been among the top five. Despite being in the hunt for the driver’s championship, the No. 25 team is 280 points behind the No. 20 for the lead in the owner’s standings.

Most notably, the gap between the No. 25 team and the four teams in front of it mean it’s almost certain that for the first time since 1995, the owner’s champion will not have fielded the team of the driver’s champion. That season, Andy Hillenburg won the driver’s championship by 45 points over second-place Bobby Bowsher. But Hillenburg ran 20 of the 21 races for his own team. He ran the season opener at Daytona, a race he won, driving for Ken Schrader. With Bowsher behind the wheel of his father Jack’s familiar No. 21 Ford in all 21 races, that gave them enough points to nip Hillenburg and split the driver and owner’s championships.

The next race for the ARCA Menards Series is the Southern Illinois 100 on Saturday night August 31. Practice starts at 2:30 pm CT, General Tire Pole Qualifying is set for 5:30 pm CT, and the race is set for 8 pm CT. The race will be televised live on MAVTV; ARCARacing.com will have live timing & scoring, live chat, and live track updates for registered users.