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Owner’s Championship Coming Down to Wire; Could See First Split Driver/Owner ARCA Menards Series Champions Since 1995

www.arcaracing.com September 22, 2019

With all eyes on the battle for the ARCA Menards Series driver’s championship, which currently sees Michael Self (No. 25 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota) with a five-point lead over his Venturini Motorsports teammate Christian Eckes (No. 15 JBL Audio Toyota), it’s might be easy to overlook other points battles within the series.

There are other close battles in the driver points, including the battle for third and fourth which has Bret Holmes (No. 23 Holmes II Excavation Chevrolet) separated from fourth-place Travis Braden (No. 27 MatrixCare/Consonus Health Care/Liberty Village Ford) by just 100 points.

One of the most interesting stories as the season wends to its conclusion is the owners points standings.

The battle at the front between Billy Venturini’s No. 20 Toyota team and his father Bill Venturini’s No. 15 Toyota team might not be particularly close – 160 points separate first from second – but it’s what will happen if the No. 20 team is able to hold off their teammates to take the title that will be significant.

The No. 20 team has had four different drivers throughout 2019 – Harrison Burton, Chandler Smith, Brandon Lynn, and dirt-track specialist Logan Seavey. Burton opened the season with a win at Daytona, and Smith has four short track wins. All told, the four drivers have combined for 13 top-five and 17 top-ten finishes.

Meanwhile, the No. 15 team was scheduled to be solely Christian Eckes’ ride for 2019. That plan was altered slightly when he fell ill the night before the April race at Salem Speedway and needed a relief driver. The team plugged Daytona winner Burton into the seat at the last minute and he followed up with one of the team’s 16 top-ten runs on the season. Eckes has three wins and eleven top-five finishes and over the last five races hasn’t finished lower than second. Over the course of those five races, the No. 15 team has moved from fourth to second in the owner’s standings and has cut the deficit from 265 points to 160 points.

If the No. 20 team is able to hold on to the lead over the final two races and finish the season as the owner’s champion, it will be the first time since 1995 that there has been a split driver/owner champion in the ARCA Menards Series. That season, Andy Hillenburg earned the driver’s championship while driving for his self-owned team in 20 of that season’s 21 races. He won the season-opening race at Daytona driving for Ken Schrader’s team. Meanwhile, Bobby Bowsher finished second in the points driving his father’s No. 21 Ford in all 21 races, earning enough points and gaining the participation bonuses that were enough to boost the No. 21 team to the owner’s championship.

The ARCA Menards Series will take two weekends off before returning to action on Saturday October 5 with the Herr’s Potato Chips 200 at Lucas Oil Raceway. Practice starts the day’s activities at 2 pm ET, with General Tire Pole Qualifying at 5 pm ET. The 200-lap main event, scheduled for live broadcast MAVTV, will go green shortly after 8 pm ET. ARCA for Me members can access live timing & scoring, live chat, and live track updates at ARCARacing.com. New users can register for free with a valid email address at ARCARacing.com/login. Discounted adult general admission tickets are available through October 4 at Indianapolis-area Menards locations for just $20. For more information, please visit TrackEnterprises.com.