Jesse Love, driver of the #19 NAPA Power Premium Plus Toyota, listens to music in the garage area prior to practice for the Dutch Boy Paints 150 for the ARCA Menards Series at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in Madison, Illinois on Saturday, August 29, 2020. (Jeff Curry/ARCA Racing)
Jesse Love, driver of the #19 NAPA Power Premium Plus Toyota, earned the K&N Filters Hard Charger Award for the Dutch Boy Paints 150 for the ARCA Menards Series at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in Madison, Illinois on Saturday, August 29, 2020. (Jeff Curry/ARCA Racing)

Gibbs, Love & Self Earns Awards For Gateway Performance

www.arcaracing.com August 31, 2020

One year ago at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, Ty Gibbs (No. 18 Monster Energy Toyota) scored his first career ARCA Menards Series victory in dramatic fashion, charging back through the field after a late restart and making his pass for the win at the last possible moment in turn 4 on the final lap. In his return trip to St. Louis for Saturday’s Dutch Boy 150, Gibbs raced to the point by lap 12 and let the rest of the field fight for second place as he successfully defended his turf at the site of his inaugural win, taking most of ARCA’s contingency awards for himself this time around as well.

The starting lineup was set by Sioux Chief Showdown owners’ points, putting Michael Self (No. 25 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota) on the General Tire Pole for the fourth time this season, but the first time since the sixth race of the year at Kentucky. Self tied Venturini Motorsports teammate Chandler Smith (No. 20 JBL Audio Toyota) for the season lead with four pole starts. Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Ty Gibbs and Riley Herbst are the only other drivers to start from the pole on multiple occasions this year, having rolled from the top spot twice each.

Self led the first 11 laps of the Dutch Boy 150 but soon had a mirror full of Ty Gibbs, unhampered by a fifth place starting position. Gibbs worked past Self on lap 12 and never gave the lead away the rest of the afternoon, becoming the Valvoline Lap Leader by pacing the field for 109 laps. Gibbs now has more than twice as many laps led on the season as any other driver, running his season total to 659 laps led. His closest competition, Chandler Smith, has 297 laps led, while Self has now led 115 laps in 2020, the fifth-most in the series.

Gibbs was the Richmond Water Heaters Halfway Leader for an astonishing seventh occasion this season, giving him a better than .500 mark on the year after thirteen races. Perhaps even more impressive is the fact that Gibbs has only made nine starts this season, the maximum he has been eligible due to age restrictions.

The 17-year old Gibbs was also named the Bounty Rookie of the Race with his win. Bounty Rookie of the Year point leader Hailie Deegan (No. 4 Monster Energy Ford) had an eventful ending to the Dutch Boy 150 when she was caught up in a late wreck. Despite the incident, Deegan rallied back to finish ninth, though she lost ground in the rookie standings to Drew Dollar (No. 15 Sunbelt Rentals Toyota) thanks to his seventh-place run. Through 13 races, Deegan as 470 rookie points while Dollar trails by three markers at 467 points.

Gibbs’ win also spread the love to the rest of the Joe Gibbs Racing team, with crew chief Mark McFarland taking the Cometic Crew Chief of the Race honors for the win and extending his lead in the Cometic Crew Chief of the Year standings even further. McFarland has 63 points, padding his gap of what is now 20 points over runner-up No. 25 Venturini Motorsports crew chief Kevin Reed with 83 points.

Jesse Love (No. 19 NAPA Power Premium Plus Toyota) might be a familiar face in the ARCA Menards Series West, currently leading the championship standings in that division, but the 15-year old from California was making just his second AMS start at Gateway and as such had to start well back on the grid with the starting lineup set on points. Love rallied to finish fifth after rolling off in 17th, earning the K&N Filters Hard Charger Award for the day.

While Michael Self continues to pace the S&S Volvo Laps Completed standings, now with 1504 laps to his credit, Self finished off of the lead lap for the second time this season after a late-race accident. Self’s Venturini Motorsports crew managed to keep the car on the track, albeit heavily damaged, and Self did take the checkered flag even though he was five laps down at the end. Teammate Drew Dollar completed all 120 laps and has 1452 laps completed on the season, second to Self in the S&S standings.

Self’s incident resulted in a major shakeup atop the Sioux Chief Showdown standings. Self had taken the lead following his win on the Daytona road course, but finishing 15th at Gateway was enough to send him sliding back to fourth in the standings with 267 points. Self trails new leader Chandler Smith by 11 points, though Smith is hardly a “new” leader as he has paced the Showdown standings nearly the entire year. Sam Mayer (No. 21 QPS Employment Group Chevrolet) finished on the podium again in third and moved to second in the Showdown standings, just two points behind Smith. Ty Gibbs’ victory pushed him into third place in the standings, very much in the hunt as he trails Smith by only four points.

The next race on the ARCA Menards Series schedule will be the Zinsser SmartCoat 200 from Lebanon I-44 Speedway in Lebanon, MO. The series will be making its first visit to the 3/8-mile track and it will mark the eighth event on the Sioux Chief Showdown schedule. Live television coverage of the Zinsser SmartCoat 200 will begin at 8:00 Eastern on Saturday, September 5 on MAVTV and NBC Sports Gold’s TrackPass subscription service. Live timing & scoring for all on-track sessions will be available in the Race Center on ARCAracing.com.