TY Gibbs, driver of the #18 celebrates winning in Victory Lane after the General Tire 150 for the ARCA Menards Series at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Kentucky on Saturday, July 11, 2020. (Aaron Doster/ARCA Racing)
TY Gibbs, driver of the #18 celebrates winning in Victory Lane after the General Tire 150 for the ARCA Menards Series at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Kentucky on Saturday, July 11, 2020. (Aaron Doster/ARCA Racing)

Ty Gibbs Tallies Contingency Awards In Kentucky Win

www.arcaracing.com July 14, 2020

The venue might have changed, but the result of a speedway race stayed the same for 17-year old Ty Gibbs (No. 18 Monster Energy Toyota) and his Joe Gibbs Racing team: a dominating win as the class of the field. Brushing off a rare mechanical DNF last weekend at Lucas Oil Raceway, Gibbs picked up right where he had left off in his superspeedway debut at Pocono and cashed in on yet another ARCA Menards Series race win and a slew of ARCA’s contingency awards to go along with the trophy.

RELATED: Results | Race Recap | Photo Gallery

The starting lineup was determined by owner’s points once again for the General Tire 150, giving Michael Self (No. 25 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota) the General Tire Pole Award for the third time this season. Self is the only driver to have started from the pole more than once in the 2020 season.

Self led the first 23 laps of the race until Gibbs took the charge, leading through the crossed flags to become the Richmond Water Heaters Halfway Leader for the third time this season. Gibbs is the only driver to have led at halfway multiple times in the 2020 ARCA Menards Series season.

Gibbs led on two occasions for a total of 59 laps, anointing himself as the Valvoline Lap Leader for the afternoon. Gibbs tops the season-long lap leader standings with 284 laps led, adding to his healthy gap over second-place Chandler Smith, who did not compete in the General Tire 150. Smith has led 177 laps in AMS competition this year. Self is third on the season with 95 laps led. Other lap leaders at Kentucky included Bret Holmes (No. 23 Holmes II Excavation Chevrolet), who led 17 laps en route to a second-place finish, and Sam Mayer (No. 21 California Strong Fund Chevrolet), who led a single lap.

With the field set on owner’s points, Mayer and his part-time GMS Racing team were further back in the pack at the start than they would have preferred, lining up 15th on the grid. Mayer rallied all the way up to fourth in his 1.5-mile speedway debut, earning the K&N Filters Hard Charger award for the third consecutive race on the strength of his 11-position improvement during the race.

The Bounty Rookie of the Race at Kentucky was race winner Gibbs, in his first career start at the 1.5-mile oval. Hailie Deegan (No. 4 Toter Ford) continues to lead the Bounty Rookie of the Year standings, but her lead took a hit when she tangled with fellow ROTY contender Drew Dollar (No. 15 Dollar Concrete Toyota) and crashed out of the race. Dollar finished 5th while Deegan was left in 15th, leaving Deegan with just a three-point advantage in the rookie standings.

RELATED: 2020 ARCA Menards Series Standings | 2020 ARCA Menards Series Contingency Standings

Michael Self assumed the lead in the S&S Volvo Laps Completed standings with a lead-lap finish at Kentucky. Self has completed 684 of 686 possible laps this season to pace the series, having only missed two laps at Lucas Oil Raceway when he had a tire go flat during a green flag run.

Gibbs’ victory enabled him to share the spotlight with the rest of his team as well. Mark McFarland was named the Cometic Crew Chief of the Race for guiding Gibbs to victory lane, allowing McFarland to chip away at the lead of No. 25 crew chief Kevin Reed in the Cometic Crew Chief of the Year standings. Reed leads with 30 points on the year, though Reed has seen his lead slim down to ten points over McFarland.

No. 18 car owner Coy Gibbs was propelled to the lead in the General Tire Superspeedway Challenge standings with the victory, jumping up from the third spot to the top spot to gain a razor-thin advantage over two of the Venturini Motorsports teams. The Joe Gibbs Racing team leads the way with 163 points, one point above the No. 25 team and car owner Cathy Venturini’s 162 points and one more point ahead of the No. 15 team and car owner Bill Venturini’s 161 points. The General Tire Superspeedway Challenge will take a weeklong break before returning at Kansas Speedway for the Dawn 150 on Friday, July 24.

The next race for the ARCA Menards Series will be the Shore Lunch 150 from Iowa Speedway on Saturday, July 18. MAVTV will carry live television coverage beginning at 5:30 PM Eastern, while NBC Sports Gold’s TrackPass will simulcast the MAVTV broadcast. The Shore Lunch 150 will serve as the third round of the Sioux Chief Showdown, currently led by Chandler Smith, winner of the first two races at Phoenix and Lucas Oil Raceway. Live timing & scoring can be found on the Race Center page at ARCAracing.com during the race.