After a three-week reprieve for the rest of the ARCA Menards Series field, it was back to business for Ty Gibbs in Saturday night’s Shore Lunch 150 at Iowa Speedway.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver would have led every lap at the 7/8th-mile oval had he not been beat to the line by Taylor Gray on a Lap 25 restart, but the 18-year-old otherwise exhibited complete dominance in his return to Victory Lane. The race was an ARCA Menards Series / ARCA Menards Series East combination event, so earned both his sixth AMS win of the year and his second East Series win of the year.
Of course, Gibbs also collected special awards for both series.
MORE: What we learned from the Shore Lunch 150
The tone was set in General Tire Pole Qualifying, as Gibbs laid down a hot lap of 24.294 seconds/129.662 mph before sweating out attempts by teammate Sammy Smith and championship rival Corey Heim. Neither was able to keep Gibbs from his eighth pole of the season in AMS competition and second in East competition.
Aside from the aforementioned 25th lap, Gibbs led all of the remaining circuits on the evening for a final tally of 149 laps led, leaving him as the runaway Valvoline Lap Leader for the Shore Lunch 150.
The lone lap Gray led was his first lap led in the ARCA Menards Series. He did his best to keep up with Gibbs through the opening stages of the race, but it nearly cost him, as he nearly wrecked in Turns 3-4 while battling Gibbs on the inside.
Gray saved his Ford, though, in a recovery that was voted the Reese’s Sweet Move of the Race.
As the leader at the crossed flags, Gibbs became the Richmond Water Heaters Halfway Leader for the seventh time this season in the ARCA Menards Series. Gibbs has also been the halfway leader in both of his East Series starts this year.
For leading his driver to a win from the pole, Mark McFarland of the No. 18 team was named the Cometic Crew Chief of the Race. McFarland is now tied with Shannon Rursch for the lead in the Cometic Crew Chief of the Year standings. Rursch is the crew chief of the Venturini Motorsports No. 20 team.
Gibbs was named the Bounty Rookie of the Race. Due to a point structure that counts only race points without bonuses for winning the pole or leading laps, Heim is still ahead of Gibbs in the Bounty Rookie of the Year standings by 18 points.
Among the ARCA Menards Series East regulars, Daniel Dye earned the Bounty Rookie of the Race nod with his runner-up result. Dye moved to second in the East Series Bounty Rookie of the Year standings, 10 points behind leader Sammy Smith. Behind Dye, New Smyrna winner Max Gutierrez is 17 points away from Smith in the third. Joey Iest is one point behind Gutierrez, and Rajah Caruth is just two points back of Iest.
Alongside Caruth, who was making his ARCA Menards Series debut with a ninth-place effort at Iowa, was his teammate Nick Sanchez. The latter drove up to fifth at the checkered flag after qualifying 10th, earning him K&N Filters Hard Charger honors for the race.
The ARCA Menards Series will run its fourth race in as many weekends Saturday night as the series heads to the high banks of Winchester Speedway for the Calypso Lemonade 200. It will mark the sixth event in the Sioux Chief Showdown, which currently touts Gibbs as the frontrunner for the prestigious title. Gibbs leads Heim by eight points and Sanchez by 16 points halfway through the 10-race battle of drivers on the short tracks and road courses of the ARCA Menards Series.
The Calypso Lemonade 200 is also the third leg of the CGS Imaging Four Crown, another in-season title that counts points from drivers at one race of each track type throughout the year. Gibbs won both the superspeedway event at Kansas Speedway in May and the road course event at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in June. Following the short track race at Winchester, the Four Crown will conclude on Labor Day weekend on the dirt track at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds.
MAVTV will broadcast the Calypso Lemonade 200 live beginning at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday, July 31. NBC Sports Gold TrackPass subscribers can watch a live simulcast on the subscription service.
The ARCA Menards Series East will lay dormant until a combination event with the ARCA Menards Series on Sunday, Aug. 29, when the series will return to the Milwaukee Mile for the Sprecher 150, the first AMS race at the storied racing venue since 2007 and the first East Series event at the West Allis, Wisc., track.
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