Corey Heim
Corey Heim, driver of the No. 20 JBL Toyota, celebrates being named the Bounty Rookie of the Race after winning the General Tire #AnywhereIsPossible 200 for the ARCA Menards Series at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania, on June 25, 2021. (Mitchell Leff / ARCA Racing)

Multiple drivers split special awards at Pocono

www.arcaracing.com June 29, 2021

It may have taken five races spread across almost two months on the calendar, but the competition finally put an end to Ty Gibbs’ ARCA Menards Series win streak.

Rolling into Victory Lane on Friday at Pocono Raceway was Corey Heim, the only driver not named Gibbs who has won in 2021. Still, Gibbs did not leave the General Tire #AnywhereIsPossible 200 empty-handed, as he claimed most of ARCA’s special awards for his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team.

RELATED: What we learned Friday at Pocono

Ty Gibbs
Ty Gibbs, driver of the No. 18 Pristine Auction Toyota, celebrates winning the General Tire Pole Award ahead of the General Tire #AnywhereIsPossible 200 for the ARCA Menards Series at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania, on June 25, 2021. (Mitchell Leff/ARCA Racing)

General Tire Pole Qualifying was a familiar scene, as Gibbs sped to his sixth pole of the season. He took off at the start of the race, but the first of five caution flags flew early, and Chandler Smith became the second lap leader of the afternoon on a Lap 12 restart.

The abundance of yellows led to a mix of pit strategies, as Smith, Gibbs, Jack Wood and Jason Kitzmiller traded the lead before Heim took it for good on Lap 64.

Gibbs still took Richmond Water Heaters Halfway Leader and Valvoline Lap Leader honors with his 33 laps led. Smith, the year-end Valvoline Lap Leader award winner in both 2018 and 2019, led 22 laps in his first ARCA Menards Series appearance of the season. Wood and Kitzmiller led for the first time in their AMS careers, leading five and three laps, respectively, before they crashed out together on Lap 59.

The yearlong Valvoline Lap Leader chase is still Gibbs’ playground, running his season total of laps led up to 558 after Pocono.

How Heim found himself as the race leader was the subject of much chatter throughout the remainder of the weekend at Pocono. Gibbs led the field to the green flag for a Lap 64 restart with Smith behind him. Smith looked to make his move on Gibbs’ inside, but Gibbs anticipated the maneuver and immediately threw a block. Neither racer dared to lift, and the game of chicken didn’t end until Smith picked up damage to the nose of his Toyota from contact with Gibbs’ back bumper just a few feet from the inside wall.

Smith fought to regain control and veered back across the track, directly in front of the oncoming field. Miraculously, Smith was able to straighten out his car and keep going without any further chaos; although the remainder of his race was derailed, as he came down pit road the next lap and went on to finish 12th.

Fans voted Smith’s save as the Reese’s Sweet Move of the Race by a hefty margin.

Gibbs delivered shot-caller Mark McFarland the Cometic Crew Chief of the Race award by finishing second after starting on the pole, but Heim was able to do even more than that for his No. 20 Venturini Motorsports team.

The 18-year-old Georgian was named the Bounty Rookie of the Race and extended his lead in the Bounty Rookie of the Year standings to 19 points over Gibbs. Heim’s win also ensured that No. 20 car owner Billy Venturini would continue to lead the General Tire Superspeedway Challenge standings and crew chief Shannon Rursch would remain in first place in the Cometic Crew Chief of the Year hunt.

Seven area drivers from Pennsylvania and New York entered the General Tire #AnywhereIsPossible 200 looking to make proud the raucous crowd of locals on hand for the weekend. While three were saddled with DNFs (including Pocono’s own Nick Igdalsky), Sean Corr from Goshen, New York, persevered after qualifying 17th to take the checkers in ninth, becoming the K&N Filters Hard Charger for the weekend.

The ARCA Menards Series will shift gears from one of the largest tracks on the schedule to the smallest with the running of the Menards 250 at Elko Speedway on Saturday, July 10.

The 250-lap duel at the .375-mile short track in Elko New Market, Minnesota, will be the third round of the prestigious Sioux Chief Showdown and the season’s ninth race overall. The Menards 250 will be broadcast live on MAVTV beginning at 10 p.m. ET with live streaming available on NBC Sports Gold’s TrackPass.