Blaine Perkins, driver of the #9 Sunrise Ford/Four Star Fruit Ford, in Victory Lane after winning the ENEOS/NAPA Auto Parts 100 for the ARCA Menards Series West at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Washington on August 7, 2020. (Lindsey Wasson/ARCA Racing)
Blaine Perkins, driver of the #9 Sunrise Ford/Four Star Fruit Ford, in Victory Lane after winning the ENEOS/NAPA Auto Parts 100 for the ARCA Menards Series West at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Washington on August 7, 2020. (Lindsey Wasson/ARCA Racing)

Blaine Perkins Doubles Up On Contingency Awards

www.arcaracing.com August 10, 2020

After a month’s worth of downtime, the ARCA Menards Series West returned to the racetrack for their second doubleheader weekend of the year. Instead of a pair of same-day races, the format used at the Utah Motorsports Campus events, AMS West teams were tasked with running two races at two tracks – Evergreen Speedway and Douglas County Speedway – in two states over two days. One driver had to far more enthused than the rest of the field to go back racing: Blaine Perkins (No. 9 Four Star Fruit Ford), who won both races as well as many of ARCA’s special awards in the process.

On Friday afternoon at Evergreen, Perkins won the General Tire Pole Award with a fast lap clocked at 96.199 mph. It was the third pole start of the year for Perkins, who previously had swept the pole awards for both Utah races. On Saturday at Douglas County, Perkins was narrowly edged out by Gio Scelzi (No. 16 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota) for the GT Pole as Scelzi took the spot with a lap speed of 75.758 mph. It was the first pole of the season for Scelzi, as well as his first career ARCA Menards Series West pole.

Perkins and his Sunrise Ford team came out of the gates swinging at Evergreen, grabbing the lead in the first turn and proceeding to hold onto it for all 100 laps. At Douglas County, Perkins worked his way past Scelzi on an early restart and led the final 135 laps in the 150-lap event. Perkins claimed the Richmond Water Heaters Halfway Leader and Valvoline Lap Leader awards for both events. Perkins has now led at the crossed flags three times in 2020, the highest total of any AMS West driver. On the season, Perkins has led the most laps of all drivers in the series with 273. Jesse Love (No. 19 NAPA Power Premium Plus Toyota) is second with 154 laps led. Scelzi’s 15 laps led at Douglas County marked the first time he has paced an AMS West race.

For the first time this year, a driver other than series point leader Jesse Love was named the Bounty Rookie of the Race at Evergreen. The award went to Love’s teammate, Gio Scelzi, who finished one spot ahead of Love in third place. At Douglas County, another fresh face stepped up as the top rookie on the day. Gracie Trotter (No. 99 ENEOS Toyota) finished a career-best second on Saturday while Love came up one spot short for the second consecutive day. Love still leads the Bounty Rookie of the Year standings with 251 points, followed by Trotter at 236 points and Scelzi at 226 points.

Bill McAnally Racing teammates also split the K&N Filters Hard Charger awards at the doubleheader. Trotter rose from her eighth-place qualifying effort at Evergreen to finish fifth, gaining three positions, while Love rallied to finish third at Douglas County in a bent-up car after qualifying seventh, gaining four spots.

The next race for the ARCA Menards Series West will be at Colorado National Speedway on Saturday, Aug. 22. The race will be live on TrackPass on NBC Sport Gold, and tape-delayed on NBCSN on Monday, Aug. 31 at 4 p.m. ET.