Ty Gibbs Takes Seasonlong General Tire Pole Award For 2020

The ARCA Menards Series was plagued by unexpected turmoil and frequent changes over the course of the 2020 season, but there was at least one thing you could count on as a certainty: If Ty Gibbs was in the field, he was going to be starting up front.

The 18-year-old ran 16 ARCA Menards Series races this season and started in the top five in all of them, including six races where he led the field to the green flag, the highest total for any driver in the series. By virtue of his six poles, Gibbs claimed the seasonlong General Tire Pole Award for the 2020 ARCA Menards Series season.

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Due to pandemic-related schedule upheaval and protocol changes, traditional General Tire Pole qualifying sessions set the lineup for only 10 races based on lap times. The other 10 events saw the lineup ordered by owners’ points according to the ARCA Menards Series rulebook.

But no matter what the circumstances, Gibbs remained a familiar presence near the front of the lineup. He clocked in with the quickest qualifying times at Phoenix, Toledo, Winchester and Memphis. He also took the top spot on the grid at Bristol and Kansas based on the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team’s owner points.

When the ARCA Menards Series made its first trek to Phoenix Raceway in March for the inaugural Sioux Chief Showdown event, Gibbs established the track qualifying record with a lap of 27.507 seconds/130.876 mph, the only driver in the field to break the 130 mph mark. He won back-to-back races at Winchester and Memphis in September from the pole, leading 199 of 200 laps at Winchester and 58 more at Memphis.

Joining Gibbs as multi-time General Tire Pole Award winners this year were Michael Self and Chandler Smith, teammates out of the Venturini Motorsports stable. Self and Smith tied for second on the pole award leaderboard with four pole starts each. Self’s poles came at the Daytona oval, Pocono, Kentucky and World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. Self won the season-opening Lucas Oil 200 Driven by General Tire at Daytona from the pole, leading 61 of the 80 laps along the way. Smith started from the pole at Lucas Oil Raceway, Iowa, Toledo and the Daytona road course.

Just one other driver added multiple General Tire Pole Awards in 2020. Riley Herbst, splitting time with Ty Gibbs in the No. 18 JGR entry, started first at Kansas and Michigan when the lineup was set by owners’ points. Herbst also went on to score his second career AMS victory at Michigan in the VizCom 200.

Four racers were credited with one General Tire Pole Award each in 2020. When the ARCA Menards Series season resumed at Talladega in June, Ryan Repko was awarded the pole according to 2019 AMS owners’ points.

Eventual 2020 champion Bret Holmes was the General Tire Pole Award winner in the series’ maiden voyage to Lebanon I-44 Speedway, doing so for the first time in his 75th AMS start. Holmes set the track qualifying record with a lap of 14.812 seconds/91.142 mph.

Sam Mayer won the pole for the first time at Toledo in September en route to his third victory of the season at ARCA’s home track. And in one of the best feel-good stories of the season, Illinois dirt ringer Ryan Unzicker won both the pole and the race at the Springfield Mile in front of a sparse but raucous home-state crowd for longtime car owner Bill Hendren.

The seasonlong General Tire Pole Award comes with a $10,000 prize and will be presented to Gibbs in the series’ upcoming year-end virtual banquet ceremony.

ARCA Menards Series 2020 General Tire Pole Award final standings