Mark McFarland Takes Cometic Crew Chief Of The Year Award For 2020

The 2020 ARCA Menards Series season marked a banner year for Joe Gibbs Racing. Drivers Ty Gibbs and Riley Herbst split time in the seat of the team’s No. 18 Monster Energy Toyota, wheeling the car to a combined seven AMS wins and the owners’ championship for car owner Coy Gibbs.

One of the most instrumental parts of the team’s success in 2020 was crew chief Mark McFarland in his second year calling the shots for the team from atop the pit box.

Based on the team’s outstanding performance in races as well as in qualifying sessions, McFarland won the Cometic Crew Chief of the Year award for the 2020 season.

MORE 2020 AWARDS:

• General Tire Pole Award
• Valvoline Lap Leader

The Cometic Crew Chief of the Year is an in-season awards race for full-time crew chiefs in the ARCA Menards Series. Points are determined each week by a sum of each team’s race result and, if General Tire Pole Qualifying is held, its qualifying result. The objective is to have the lowest cumulative point total at the end of the season.

McFarland finished the year with 110 points, giving him a solid cushion over his closest competitor, No. 25 Venturini Motorsports crew chief Kevin Reed with 149 points.

A weekly award, the Cometic Crew Chief of the Race, is given to the crew chief with the lowest point total after each event. McFarland took the individual race award eight times during the season, the most of any crew chief in the series.

McFarland mainly worked with young Ty Gibbs as the driver of the No. 18 Toyota for 16 races in 2020, while Herbst ran four superspeedway races in which Gibbs was ineligible to compete prior to his 18th birthday in October. Herbst scored top-10 finishes in each of his four starts, including his second ARCA Menards Series win at Michigan in August, ending a winless drought spanning three years and 44 races dating back to 2017.

Gibbs proved to be one of the strongest threats to win every time he entered a race, visiting victory lane six times in 16 starts. He recorded six General Tire Pole awards and 969 laps led, leading the series in both categories. Under the guidance of McFarland, Gibbs ended the season fifth in the final overall championship standings and second in the Sioux Chief Showdown standings.

Looking to add to the owners’ championship trophy that No. 18 car owner Coy Gibbs clinched before the Kansas finale even started, McFarland had positioned Coy and the No. 18 as the leader in the General Tire Superspeedway Challenge with a single race remaining. A mechanical issue sent the No. 18 behind the wall for much of the afternoon, finishing the race 40 laps down, but the team salvaged a respectable third place finish in the final GT Superspeedway Challenge standings.

The Cometic Crew Chief of the Year award comes with a $3,500 prize and will be presented to McFarland in the series’ upcoming year-end virtual banquet ceremony.

ARCA Menards Series 2020 Cometic Crew Chief of the Year final standings