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One Race Remaining to Close a Season to Remember for Venturini Motorsports

www.arcaracing.com October 11, 2019

It’s been a season to remember for Venturini Motorsports.

It started with a win in the season opener at Daytona with Harrison Burton (No. 20 DEX Imaging Toyota), and in the ensuing 18 races twelve more wins followed. Chandler Smith (No. 20 Craftsman/828 Logistics Toyota) leads the series with five wins, Michael Self (No. 25 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota) follows with four, and Christian Eckes (No. 15 JBL Audio Toyota) has three.

With one race remaining, Eckes leads the driver’s championship standings by 20 points over Self. They will decide the title between themselves at Kansas Speedway on October 18. Team co-owner Billy Venturini, listed car owner of the No. 20 team, all but clinched the owner’s championship with Smith’s fifth win of the season at Lucas Oil Raceway on Saturday night. Burton, back behind the wheel for the 20 team, only needs to crank the engine for practice to officially clinch the championship. Venturini, who also serves as the crew chief on the No. 20 entry, also leads the Cometic Crew Chief of the Year standings. Although he has a solid lead, it’s not mathematically over heading into Kansas. The other crew chief with a shot at that title? None other than his teammate, Kevin Reed, who calls the shots for Eckes on racedays.

Eckes has already clinched the Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge championship, and he’s scored a perfect 450 points in the Bounty Rookie Challenge. The only thing separating Eckes from the rookie of the year award is the ARCA rule that says a driver cannot be the series champion and rookie of the year in the same season.

Smith, at just 17 years of age, competed in ten races in 2019 and won half of them. He finished his season with 666 laps led, clinching the Valvoline Lap Leader award for the second consecutive year. The drivers directly behind him in the standings are his Venturini Motorsports teammates, Self with 480 laps led and Eckes with 367. Despite only starting nine races in the Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge, Smith finished fifth just 150 points out of the lead.

Self has already locked up the season-long General Tire Pole Award with five, followed by Smith with four. Eckes has earned two so far, with single poles for Burton, Brandon Lynn, and Logan Seavey. In 19 races, Venturini Motorsports drivers have earned 14 General Tire Pole Awards.

It’s been a season of absolute dominance, plain and simple. Going back to last season, Venturini Motorsports has won 18 of the last 30 ARCA Menards Series races.

With the team’s success over the last two seasons, it’s a surprise to think the organization hasn’t won an ARCA championship since 1991 when Big Bill Venturini earned his second title.

Should everything go according to plan, meaning everyone shows up as scheduled and everyone races hard to the finish, Eckes and Self will shoot it out for the championship at Kansas, and Billy Venturini will lock up the owner’s championship, breaking that 28-year championship drought for the series’ most stalwart organization.

The ARCA Kansas 150 at the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway will close the 2019 ARCA Menards Series season on Friday, October 18. Practice opens the day at 1 pm ET/12 n CT followed by General Tire Pole Qualifying at 6 pm ET/5 pm CT. The 100-lap/150-mile feature event will go green at 8:30 pm ET/7:30 pm CT and will be shown live on FS2 with an immediate replay on FS1. ARCA for Me members can follow live timing & scoring, live chat, and live track updates throughout all on-track sessions free at ARCARacing.com. New users can register for free with a valid email address at ARCARacing.com/login.