Ty Gibbs Runs Away With 2020 Valvoline Lap Leader Award

When Ty Gibbs found his way to the front of ARCA Menards Series races in 2020 — if he wasn’t already there thanks to his six General Tire Pole starts on the year — there was a good chance he would take the lead and keep it for the rest of the day.

Gibbs won six of his 16 ARCA Menards Series starts this season and led in 11 races for a total of 969 laps, claiming the year-long Valvoline Lap Leader award for leading the most laps in the series by a healthy margin.

Gibbs led the most laps eight times in 2020 at a variety of different tracks, ranging from the road course at Daytona to the egg-shaped oval of Gateway to the high-banked half-mile of Winchester.

Highlights included July’s Shore Lunch 150 at Iowa, where Gibbs started fifth but breezed to the lead in no time and led 140 of the 150 laps in a winning performance. He made his superspeedway debut at age 17 in the General Tire #AnywhereIsPossible 200 from Pocono and led 65 of the 80 laps on the Tricky Triangle.

But Gibbs’ most dominating performance by far came at Winchester Speedway, where he led 199 of the 200 laps from the pole. His lone blemish on that afternoon came on Lap 79, when Michael Self got the jump on Gibbs from the inside line on a restart. Maintaining his preferred outside line, Gibbs was able to nose back ahead by the time the field came back to complete the next lap and pulled away from the pack.

The 969 laps led by Gibbs is the highest single-season total for an ARCA Menards Series driver since Grant Enfinger led 1,075 laps in 2014. Just like Gibbs, Enfinger also won six races on his way to the Valvoline Lap Leader title that year.

Second place in the year-long Valvoline Lap Leader standings in 2020 belonged to Sam Mayer, Gibbs’ main on-track rival. Mayer led 446 laps, but even that number is fewer than half of Gibbs’ eye-popping season total. This season’s ARCA Menards Series champion Bret Holmes, who entered the year having led 17 laps over the span of four years, finished third in the final rundown with 393 laps led.

Fourth on the leaderboard was two-time defending year-long Valvoline Lap Leader Chandler Smith with 332 laps led, the lowest total to date in his impressive ARCA Menards Series career. The 18-year-old Smith was denied the chance to become the first driver to lead the most laps in three consecutive seasons since Frank Kimmel accomplished the feat five seasons in a row from 2000-04.

The Valvoline Lap Leader award comes with a $5,000 prize and will be presented to Gibbs in the series’ upcoming year-end virtual banquet ceremony.

ARCA Menards Series 2020 Valvoline Lap Leader final standings