In a 20-race season, the battle for the championship can take many twists and turns. That’s exactly what has happened in the ARCA Menards Series in 2019.
Every position matters. Points given up in the second race of the season could come back and haunt you headed into the the finale.
That’s exactly the prospect that new championship leader Christian Eckes (No. 15 JBL Audio Toyota) and the former leader Michael Self (No. 25 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota) hope to avoid following the ARCA Kansas 150 at Kansas Speedway on Friday, October 18.
Eckes has a few races he’d like back, and one he’d like to have been in at all.
Eckes gave up the second position in the second race of the season at Five Flags Speedway in the final turn of the final lap, costing him five points. Another last lap misfortune, this time a spin after contact from Self at Elko, dropped him from fourth to eleventh at the finish, a 35-point swing. An early race crash shortened his day at Talladega, ending a likely top-ten run and costing him at least another 80 points.
Those 120 points were tough to let go of at the time, and when there’s one race remaining and 20 points separating you from your closest pursuer, even tougher to let go of now.
But the toughest pill to swallow are the points Eckes lost at Salem Speedway in April. Eckes missed the race due to illness, but picked up 25 points for entering and competing. Had Eckes finished where substitute Harrison Burton did, eighth, he would have picked up 190 points, 165 more than he did.
All told, Eckes left 285 points on the table throughout the course of the season.
Self also had races he’d like a re-do on.
It all started on lap two of the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway when a bump draft went awry, sending Self sliding into the infield and up into the air. The resultant damage left Self 31st at the finish, a tough pill to swallow for the race’s defending winner. Being conservative and saying Self could have finished tenth, he gave up 105 points.
A post-race technical violation after his first win of the season at Five Flags cost him another 25 points. A crash with a lapped car while running in the top five left him 15th at Nashville, costing him another 50 points.
Another post-race violation after his third win of the season at Michigan cost him another 50 points, then mechanical failure while running among the top five at Salem in Semptember cost him another 50.
The tally for Self isn’t pretty; he left 280 points on the table through post-race technical violations and bad luck on the racetrack.
As a reminder, there are 15 points separating the top two heading into the season finale. A win is worth 235 points, while second place is worth 220, with each position below that descending in five-point increments. There are five bonus points available for leading at least one lap, leading the most laps, and qualifying on the General Tire Pole.
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.
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