Ty Gibbs, driver of the #18 Monster Energy-Terrible Herbst-ORCA Toyota celebrates winning the Shore Lunch 150 for the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards at Iowa Speedway on Saturday, July 18, 2020. (Barry Cantrell/ARCA Racing)
Ty Gibbs, driver of the #18 Monster Energy/Terrible Herbst/ORCA Toyota celebrates winning the Shore Lunch 150 for the ARCA Menards Series at Iowa Speedway on Saturday, July 18, 2020. (Barry Cantrell/ARCA Racing)

ARCA Menards Rewind: What We Learned at Iowa

www.arcaracing.com July 19, 2020

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

A pair of contenders saw serious damage done to their title hopes, the underdog story of 2020 is tired of talking about what could be, and Ty Gibbs may not lead any championship standings but still be the driver everybody is chasing.

Here is what we learned from the Shore Lunch 150 at Iowa.

Shore Lunch 150: Results| Race Recap

The Battle for the Lead that wasn’t

Sam Mayer and Gibbs have had their share of tangles for race wins over their short time in the ARCA Menards Series.

For a brief minute Saturday evening, it looked like we were heading for another round as Mayer sliced Gibbs’ seemingly comfortable lead to under a second with less than four laps remaining.

Unfortunately for Mayer, his run stalled out when his No. 21 Chevy Accessories Chevrolet slide up into the Turn 3 wall. The contact scrubbed off enough of Mayer’s momentum to allow Gibbs to re-establish his cushion. Gibbs’ No. 18 Monster Energy/Terrible Herbst/ORCA Toyota crossed the finish line 1.410 seconds ahead of Mayer.

“With three to go, I got really loose there,” said Gibbs. “And Sam caught me. That was a good race; had a fun time. It’s always good racing Sam like that. I always like to race him, he’s a good driver. I’ve got a lot of respect for him.”

In Gibbs’ four wins between the ARCA Menards Series and ARCA Menards Series East this year, Mayer has finished fourth (once), third (once) and second (twice). Since winning his first two starts of 2020, Mayer is still looking to get back to Victory Lane after the return to racing.

“We were definitely faster at the end,” said Mayer, who also finished second to Chandler Smith at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis. “We were hauling butt at the end. Our late run car was actually really good.

“I had a lot of fun. I’m just tired of getting second, third, fourth, fifth, you name it. It just seems like it’s been forever since a win.”

Ironically, even though Gibbs has the most overall wins in 2020, he doesn’t lead any of the championship standings.

Because of his age, he’s not running the full ARCA Menards Series schedule. And his 15th at Lucas Oil still has him third in the Sioux Chief Showdown standings behind Smith and Michael Self. He trails Mayer by two points after two ARCA Menards Series East races, but they head back to Ohio’s Toledo Speedway in two weeks for a doubleheader weekend.

Gibbs beat Mayer in the first trip to Toledo in June.

All eight of Gibbs’ wins across the ARCA Menards, East and West series have come at different tracks.

“I can’t believe I won at Iowa,” said Gibbs, who was second and fifth in races at the .875-mile track in 2019. “I came here last year not really knowing what I was doing. I was 16 and a little bit crazy. I’ve matured a little bit and come back here and won.”

Getting Closer

At this point, Bret Holmes is tired of being the feel good story for ‘almost’ winning. But that doesn’t mean he’s anywhere close to giving up the fight.

The 23-year-old from Munford, Alabama, finished third at Iowa. It was fourth race across the ARCA Menards and East series since the return to racing that he’s finished in the top four. It’s enabled Holmes to climb to sole possession of second place in the ARCA Menards Series standings – 19 behind Self and 14 ahead of third-place Drew Dollar.

“My team has just been on a roll lately,” said Holmes. “Working overtime, and just working their tails off to get me to this point. We’re making up a lot of points. We’ve got solid, consistent finishes. I know we keep saying the same thing, but we’re going to get it soon. We’re doing too good not too.”

“I feel like I’ve finished second and third a million times, but we’re getting there.”

Holmes said getting his No. 23 Holmes II Excavation Inc. Chevrolet stuck on the bottom on restarts caused him to waste a lot of time “on restarts getting where we should have been.” Once they settled in, though, he showed the type of speed that’s turned him into a threat to win this year.

“We’ve been going this for a few years now and we wouldn’t keep doing it if we weren’t fighting for that championship,” said Holmes, who is set to graduate from Auburn University in December. “I’m just thankful I get to race in this series, these tracks. It’s something that a lot of people don’t get to do.

“We’re keeping our head down and we’re going to win some.”

Championship Picture

Dollar and Hailie Deegan took big hits in the championship picture after mechanical woes.

Dollar was sidelined early with engine issues.

“It’s never happened to me,” Dollar said. “I’ve driven for years for four years and never lost a motor. That’s a first, and that’s really disappointing. Had a fast race car. Had a little bit of an issue in practice, but we got it fixed for the race. I felt like we were going to have something for them there.”

Dollar’s Venturini Motorsports team was able to get him back on the track, where he finished 17th, 42 laps down.

That second effort wound up being important when Deegan’s day took a sudden turn for the worse. Running second on her 19th birthday, Deegan suddenly slowed and came down pit road with a flat right rear tire and what would be diagnosed as a trackbar mount that broke.

“We had a really good car,” Deegan said. “I was excited, we were doing good.

“It is what it is. That’s racing. Kinda had those bad and good days. We’re just looking for the good ones.”

Meanwhile, Self again avoided catastrophe.

He came down pit road while it was closed, just prior to the second race break, with an electrical issue. The team was able to keep him going and he walked away with a sixth-place finish. It was his seventh straight top 10 to start the season and maintained his lead over Holmes and Co.

Notes

  • In his first national stock car start, Kody Swanson started ninth and finished eighth. The five-time USAC Silver Crown Series champion was making his series debut with Chad Bryant Motorsports.
  • Fifteen-year-old Taylor Gray continued his run of solid finishes with a fifth. Gray has three top fives and four top 10s in five starts in the ARCA Menards, East and West series.
  • Gracie Trotter led the Bill McAnally Racing contingent with a ninth-place run. The 18-year-old from Concord, North Carolina, was making her second series start. Teammate Gio Scezli was 11th and Jesse Love was 12th. Love leads the ARCA Menards Series West over Blaine Perkins (-17) and Trotter (-27) after five races. The West will run a doubleheader weekend on Aug. 7-8, visiting Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Washington that Friday, before going to Douglas County Speedway in Roseburg, Oregon.