A technician for the #18 Monster Energy/Terrible Herbst/ORCA Toyota lines the front of the car with epoxy during the General Tire 125 for the ARCA Menards Series East at Dover International Speedway in Dover, Delaware on Friday, August 21, 2020. (Timothy Nwachukwu/NASCAR)
A crew member for the #18 Monster Energy/Terrible Herbst/ORCA Toyota lines the front of the car with epoxy during the General Tire 125 for the ARCA Menards Series East at Dover International Speedway in Dover, Delaware on Friday, August 21, 2020. (Timothy Nwachukwu/NASCAR)

ARCA Menards Rewind: What We Learned at Dover & Colorado

www.arcaracing.com August 24, 2020

A pair of drivers rallied for victories and added a little breathing room atop the championship standings in the East and West. Another pair watched a win slip away and with it, opportunities to move into first place.

Sam Mayer moved a step closer to adding an East Series championship under the ARCA Menards Series banner to go with the NASCAR one he won last year. While in the shadows of the Rocky Mountains, Jesse Love moved incrementally closer to giving Bill McAnally Racing its fifth West title with its fourth difference driver in the last six years.

Here is what we learned from General Tire 125 at Dover International Speedway on Friday and the the ENEOS 150 presented by NAPA Auto Parts at Colorado National Speedway on Saturday.

General Tire 125: Results | Race Recap | Photo Gallery

ENEOS 150 presented by NAPA Auto Parts: Results | Race Recap | Photo Gallery

Sam Mayer Bests Ty Gibbs. This Time.

If it’s not Ty Gibbs, it’s Sam Mayer. And if it’s not Mayer, it’s Gibbs.

Such as how Victory Lane has gone in the East series since last August. In the five races since – the two to close out 2019 and the first three of 2020, it’s been one of the two who have earned the race victory. At the “Monster Mile,” it was Mayer’s turn.

In his post-race video media availability, Mayer pointed to his previous experience at Dover – a win in 2019 – as a key to getting the better of the rivarly this time around.

“This is the first time he’s been here,” said Mayer who led the final 21 laps in the No. 21 Vince Lombardi Cancer Foundation Chevrolet. “I kinda knew he was going to run like that; he was going to be super aggressive. Because he really doesn’t know a place like this is way more exaggerated than a place like Kentucky (Speedway) because you’re turning so much harder, and you’re putting so much more force on the right side of the race car.”

The 17-year-old from Franklin, Wisconsin, earned his ninth win over the ARCA Menards, East and West series since his 2018 debut.

“I got a really, really good restart and I don’t think he expected me to, to be honest,” said Mayer. “We got a really good restart and we were able to get inside of him. And he pretty much just took the air off my door. If you’re the leader, you have the right to do that.

“I ended up giving it right back to him,” said Mayer. “I packed the air under his spoiler and he got a little bit loose. He was able to gather it up; I let him gather it up. I got a little aero tight under him.

“It was a whole aerodynamic mess. But it was a lot of fun.”

Mayer said he wasn’t overly concerned about Gibbs’ dominance during the first half of Friday’s race, as the Joe Gibbs Racing driver led the first 104 laps.

“When we fired off, we just let Ty go do his thing and lead the race,” said Mayer. “It paid off because he ended up burning his stuff up a little bit and we were able to get him at the end.”

The win and Gibbs’ 12th-place finish after his wreck allowed Mayer to open his lead to 13 points. With the abbreviated schedule, every point and position will be pivotal in the title race. The biggest wildcard would be the Bush’s Beans 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sept. 17, which will see the field competing for ARCA Menards Series, ARCA Menards Series East and Sioux Chief Showdown points.

Working in Mayer’s favor? He won both East races at Bristol last year, leading every lap in the first race and driving through the field after an early race penalty to win the second.

Mayer finished 15th in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series race at Dover immediately following his ARCA win. It was his first truck race of 2020 for GMS Racing.

Love Loves Colorado

While Jesse Love led 144 of 153 laps Saturday evening in Colorado, the trip to Victory Lane wasn’t an easy one.

Love’s No. 19 NAPA Premium Plus Toyota traded bumps and sheet mettle with fellow ARCA Menards Series West championship contender Blaine Perkins.

“Just one of those things; desperation I guess,” said Love. “He drove me really hard. I’m good with that. I was always brought up, race people how you want to be raced. So I had to give it back to him and race him the way he raced me.”


The position difference — and the bonus for leading the most laps and winning — allowed Love to push his lead over Perkins from one to seven after seven races. It was the 15-year-old’s seventh top five in seven races. Earlier in the day, he also won his second General Tire Pole Award.

“I had a great car,” said Love. “I know what we need to work on to be even better for the next one.”

Getting Up To Speed

Mason Diaz scored a career-best third-place finish in the No. 25 Drydene/Craftsman Toyota, a successful afternoon considering he finished behind Mayer and former NASCAR Cup Series driver David Gilliland.

The Manassas, Virginia, driver got off to a rough start in his inaugural season with Venturini Motorsports, finishing 17th and 14th in the first two East races with a pair of mechanical failures.

“I know myself, I can run with the speed of Ty Gibbs and Sam Mayer and everyone in this series is running,” said Diaz, whose previous best was fourth at Bristol last year. “My confidence level, moving forward the rest of the year, I know my team that we can run with the top contenders in the series. That’s all that matters to us, that we know our speed is there.”

Gilliland jumped in the second DGR-Crosley car as a teammate to 15-year-old Taylor Gray. One of Gilliland’s goals was to get a first-hand experience on where his team sat in relation to GMS and JGR.

“It was a lot of fun to get back in and race in the ARCA Menards Series,” said Gilliland. “Obviously I’m a huge supporter of it on the ownership side. It was a lot of fun to get back in the car. We had a fast Ford; just came up a little bit short.”

“That 21 has been better than us, probably last year and this year. We’re working hard. We’re better than we were last year, but we’re not quite good enough. But we did learn a lot. I feel like I learned a lot that I’ll be able to help the team with going to Bristol.”

Notes

  • Kyle Sieg, the younger brother of NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Ryan Sieg, finished 11th in his East debut. Kyle had made his ARCA Menards Series debut at Indiana’s Lucas Oil Raceway, where he finished 10th.
  • Max McLaughlin finished fourth, his first top five in six races across the ARCA Menards and East series this season.
  • Chuck Buchanan Jr. finished 10th at Dover in his first East race of the year. In 27 previous career East races, the 58-year-old from Hildebran, North Carolina, had one top 10 — a ninth at Virgina’s South Boston Speedway in 2018.
  • Takuma Koga had a career-best fifth-place qualifying effort at Colorado. The 43-year-old from Nagoya, Japan, has 77 starts over 10 seasons in the West. He finished ninth.
  • Gracie Trotter had her best qualifying with a second behind teammate Love. She finished fourth, her fifth top five in the West.
Jesse Love, driver of the #19 NAPA Power Premium Plus Toyota leads Blaine Perkins, driver of the #9 Sunrise Ford/Lucas Oil/Four Star Fruit Ford, Gio Scelzi, driver of the #16 NAPA Auto Parts/Curb Records Toyota and Gracie Trotter, driver of the #99 ENEOS Toyota around turns one and two during the ENEOS 150 Presented by NAPA Auto Parts for the ARCA Menards Series West at Colorado National Speedway in Dacono, Colorado, on Saturday, August 22, 2020. (Chet Strange/ARCA Racing)
Jesse Love, driver of the #19 NAPA Power Premium Plus Toyota leads Blaine Perkins, driver of the #9 Sunrise Ford/Lucas Oil/Four Star Fruit Ford, Gio Scelzi, driver of the #16 NAPA Auto Parts/Curb Records Toyota and Gracie Trotter, driver of the #99 ENEOS Toyota around turns one and two during the ENEOS 150 Presented by NAPA Auto Parts for the ARCA Menards Series West at Colorado National Speedway in Dacono, Colorado, on Saturday, August 22, 2020. (Chet Strange/ARCA Racing)