A view of the grandstands as cars drive by during the Illinois Truck & Equipment Allen Crowe 100 for the ARCA Menards Series at the Springfield Mile at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield, Illinois on October 4, 2020. (Jeff Curry/ARCA Racing)
A view of the grandstands as cars drive by during the Illinois Truck & Equipment Allen Crowe 100 for the ARCA Menards Series at the Springfield Mile at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield, Illinois on October 4, 2020. (Jeff Curry/ARCA Racing)

ARCA Menards Rewind: What We Learned at Springfield

www.arcaracing.com October 6, 2020

Bret Holmes said after Sunday’s Illinois Truck & Equipment Allen Crowe 100 he entered the race with the goal to win. Which is a reasonable expectation considering he is battling Michael Self for the 2020 ARCA Menards Series championship.

Yet neither of the top title contenders had anything for Ryan Unzicker, the 39-year-old dirt track ace who was making his one and only start in the ARCA Menards Series this season.

Unzicker won the penultimate race for the series in 2020 after leading all but one lap on the Springfield Mile at the Illinois State Fairground, the only dirt race on the ARCA Menards Series schedule. The 23-year-old Holmes at times was able to keep pace with Unzicker, but a late-race incident ultimately dashed the championship points leader’s hopes of a win.

That crash, which took both Self and his Venturini Motorsports teammate Corey Heim out of the race, impacted more than just the results of Sunday’s Illinois Truck & Equipment Allen Crowe 100 at Springfield.

Self’s DNF and Holmes’ subsequent third-place finish came with major championship implications as the ARCA Menards Series heads to its season finale Friday, Oct. 16, at Kansas Speedway.

Illinois Truck & Equipment Allen Crowe 100: Results |Race Recap |Photo Gallery

Championship implications

Holmes entered Sunday’s race at Springfield ahead of Self by two points in the championship standings. His lead grew to eight points after he finished third and the 29-year-old Self finished ninth.

Self spent much of the race fighting a damaged race car thanks to an incident on the first lap, but the No. 25 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota was still a contender. Holmes, meanwhile, was running near the front and trying to figure out ways to get out of Unzicker’s dust, literally and figuratively.

Then, on a restart with three laps to go, everything changed.

Both Holmes and Heim got squiggly in Turn 1 and slid into the loose dirt. Holmes was able to keep his No. 23 Holmes II Excavation, Inc. Chevrolet out of the fence, but Heim was not as fortunate.

“I don’t know what happened,” said Holmes after the race. “I’m tight on the guard rail, and next thing you know I’m shoved up to the outside. [I’ll] have to go back and look at it. I was staying as clean as possible there.”

Self, who was on the outside behind Heim after restarting fourth, had nowhere to go but wide. He drifted into the wall before his wrecked car crashed into that of Heim, ending the race prematurely for both drivers.

Holmes started overtime in fifth, and on the final lap, he passed Kelly Kovski for third and earned himself the crucial extra point that came with the position.

Holmes won the Dawn 150 when the ARCA Menards Series visited Kansas Speedway in July and likes his chances to conquer the 1.5-mile trioval again, this time with a championship on the line.

“I feel great,” said Holmes about the upcoming finale. “Kansas is a good track for us, and the mile-and-a-halves, the speedways have just been phenomenal for us. We’re brought the best car every race.

“I think getting clean air there, getting out front and not making any mistakes, and just making sure we’ve got everything, all nuts and bolts inside on it, we’ll be good.”

RELATED: ARCA Menards Driver Stats at Kansas

But Holmes also knows what happened to Self last season in a similar scenario.

Self entered the 2019 finale with the points lead but lost the title to teammate (and race winner) Christian Eckes despite finishing second.

Now Self is the one trying to steal a championship from the points leader heading into the last ARCA Menards Series race of the season.

Four Crown Times Two

As Holmes moved a step closer to beating Self for one championship in 2020, he clinched another at Springfield.

Holmes’ third-place finish in the fourth leg of the 2020 CGS Imaging Four Crown, combined with Self’s ninth-place finish, gave the former his second consecutive Four Crown title.

Holmes needed to beat Self by at least four positions Sunday to win this year’s title. He ended up edging Self by three points, 160-157.

The CGS Imaging Four Crown in 2020 was contested at four diverse tracks on the ARCA Menards Series schedule — a superspeedway (Michigan International Speedway), a road course (the Daytona International Speedway road course), a short track (Memphis International Raceway) and a dirt track (the Springfield Mile at the Illinois State Fairgrounds).

Holmes finished second, eighth, third and third in those races, respectively.

Other highlights

ARCA Menards Series rookie Hailie Deegan left Springfield with a second-place finish, tied for her second best in the series. The result padded the 19-year-old’s points lead over Drew Dollar for the Bounty Rookie of the Year award heading into the season finale.

Hailie Deegan, driver of the #4 Monster Ford, walks to her car during practice at the Springfield Mile at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. (Jeff Curry/ARCA Racing)

“It was going to be hard to beat the hometown hero,” said Deegan of her late-race battle Sunday with Unzicker, who’s from El Paso, Illinois. “Everyone loves him here. That’s not the type of guy you want to get in a situation with because you have the whole crowd on his side.

“I think honestly we made best-case scenario finishing second. I’m happy, good points day, nice finish, not too damaged of a car. So we’re good.”

Deegan eclipsed Trista Stevenson to become the highest finishing female driver on a dirt track in ARCA Menards Series history. Stevenson finished 10th in her one and only series start at DuQuoin in 2016.

Ty Gibbs, who turned 18 Sunday and entered the race having won the last two ARCA Menards Series events, was collected in a first-lap incident. He finished 10 laps down but salvaged 10th place after extensive repairs and a few free passes under caution.

The good news for Gibbs: By virtue of qualifying not being held at Kansas, he has locked up the 2020 General Tire Pole Award.

Mike Basham ended up sixth at Springfield, his best ARCA Menards Series finish in 83 starts. It is the first time in 2020 and second time in his career Basham has finished on the lead lap. The other time came in 2016, also at Springfield.

Finishing ahead of Basham in fifth was Kelly Kovski, a dirt track ringer who now has six top fives and 20 top 10s in 31 ARCA Menards Series starts. Another dirt track ringer, Will Kimmel, was running in the top five before a crash on Lap 24 ended his day.

Notes

  • Unzicker led 102 of the race’s 103 laps en route to his first ARCA Menards Series victory. He becomes the 342nd driver in series history to win.
  • Unzicker also earned his first career General Tire Pole Award in qualifying. For team owner Bill Hendren it was his second career pole to go along with another at Springfield in 1999 with Bob Strait at the wheel.
  • Hendren has been a part of racing at Springfield for over 40 years, winning several USAC races with driver Ken Rowley. Unzicker’s win was also Hendren’s first ARCA win as a team owner.
  • Taylor Gray recorded his eighth top-five finish of 2020 with a fourth-place run. His finish was all the more impressive considering he was collected in a Lap 1 accident coming off Turn 4 and spun again off Turn 4 on lap 67.
  • Toyota entered the race looking for a potential 100th ARCA Menards Series victory dating back to the manufacturer’s first in 2007. It was a tough day for Camry drivers as Chevrolet and Ford swept the top five positions. It was only the second time all season (the other was at Lebanon I-44 Speedway) that Toyota claimed third-place points in the manufacturer’s championship. The consolation? Toyota locked up their fourth consecutive manufacturer’s trophy with Ty Gibbs’ win at Memphis.
  • Event sponsor Illinois Truck & Equipment has a long history with the series. The owner of the company, Morris, Illinois, resident Rolf Helland, is a former series driver and a pole winner on the dirt at DuQuoin. Since retiring as a driver, he has maintained ties with fellow Chicagoland driver-turned-owner Bill Venturini and has sponsored Venturini Motorsports at one or both of the series’ two dirt stops for several years.