ARCA Menards rewind: What we learned at Michigan, Irwindale and Springfield

With two ARCA Menards Series races and one ARCA Menards Series West race scheduled over the span of three days, we knew the weekend had a chance to be pivotal in the series’ respective championship races.

That proved to be the case in Saturday’s NAPA Auto Parts 150 presented by Sunrise Ford at California’s Irwindale Speedway, where Jesse Love cruised to his second win of the West Series season and built upon his points lead.

That was not the case in the ARCA Menards Series, where Ty Gibbs and Corey Heim, who entered the weekend first and second in the standings separated by just two points, split victories in Friday’s Henry Ford Health System 200 at Michigan International Speedway and Sunday’s Allen Crowe 100 on the Springfield Mile at the Illinois State Fairgrounds.

The impact these three races had on the ongoing title races lead our takeaways from the busiest weekend on the 2021 ARCA Menards schedule.

Michigan: Race Recap | Photo Gallery
Irwindale: Race Recap | Photo Gallery
Springfield: Race Recap | Photo Gallery

The chess match continues

With 15 races down and five to go in the ARCA Menards Series season, Gibbs and Heim are tied atop the standings.

The 18-year-old Joe Gibbs Racing driver started the weekend about as strong as one can, leading 99 of 100 laps at Michigan to pick up his series-high eighth win of the season.

Then the 19-year-old Venturini Motorsports driver finished the weekend about as strong as one can, leading 88 of 100 laps at Springfield to pick up his sixth win of the season.

The back-and-fourth between the series’ top title contenders at Michigan and Springfield epitomized the title race that has been raging all season.

The two alternated wins over the first three races of the season after Heim won the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway. Then Gibbs won four consecutive races through May and into June before Heim ended the streak with two straight of his own at Pocono Raceway and Elko Speedway.

Daniel Dye became the only driver not named Gibbs or Heim to win a race this season when he took the checkered flag at Berlin Raceway. Since then, Gibbs has won three races to Heim’s two. They’ve again alternated wins over the last four events.

The last five races of the season will take place at the Milwaukee Mile, the dirt oval at Illinois’ DuQuoin State Fair, Bristol Motor Speedway, Indiana’s Salem Speedway and Kansas Speedway.

If the chess match between these drivers continues, there’s a good chance they’ll enter the Kansas race separated by just as few points for the championship.

Gibbs won the ARCA Menards Series’ first race at Kansas this year, which based on the trends of this title race means absolutely nothing as it relates to his chances to beat Heim again.

RELATED: Updated ARCA Menards Series Points

Jesse Love’s statement

He was close prior to Saturday’s NAPA Auto Parts 150 presented by Sunrise Ford, but now Love is officially the driver to beat in the 2021 West Series title race.

The 16-year-old defending series champion spent the first 87 laps of the race chasing leader Trevor Huddleston at the latter’s home track. But once Love took the lead with a pass that was voted the Reese’s Sweet Move of the Race, there was no catching the No. 16 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota.

Now Cole Moore, Jake Drew and Todd Souza have to hope Love’s pulling away at Irwindale doesn’t become a microcosm for the seasonlong championship race.

Love now has an 11-point lead over the second-place Moore. Drew and Souza are tied behind Moore, 14 points back from Love.

Love, though, is the only driver in the top four who has reached Victory Lane in 2021, doing so in both of the West Series races at Irwindale.

The series will visit the road course at Portland International Speedway on Sept. 11, a bit of a wild-card race in terms of who could emerge victorious. But then it goes back to a pair of short tracks in the Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and All American Speedway in Roseville, California.

Based on the way he has performed at short tracks thus far this season, Love will have more chances in those races to extend his lead even more.

And if he does, he’ll be comfortable heading into the season finale at Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 6.

RELATED: Updated ARCA Menards Series West points

Notes

• Gibbs’ victory at Michigan marked his 16th ARCA Menards Series win, moving him into a tie for 18th on the all-time wins list with inaugural ARCA champion Jim Romine, 1968 and 1969 ARCA champion and NASCAR Hall of Famer Benny Parsons, Bruce Gould, Bob Strait and 2015 ARCA Menards Series champion Grant Enfinger.
• Heim’s victory at Springfield marked his seventh ARCA Menards Series win, moving him into a tie for 54th on the all-time wins list with Jim Cushman, two-time series champion Lee Raymond, 2009 champion Justin Lofton and 2019 champion Christian Eckes.
• Love’s victory at Irwindale, his third at the track in as many West Series races, moved into a tie for 48th on that series’ all-time wins list with Marvin Panch, Chuck Meekins, Jim Cook, Dan Gurney, Johnny Steele, Ernie Stierly, Chad Little, David Gilliland, Dylan Kwasnieski, Noah Gragson and Ryan Partridge.
• Partridge, a two-time series championship runner-up, made his first start of 2021 (and his first start since 2018) in substitution for Dean Thompson in the High Point Racing Ford. He finished fifth.
• Shortly after winning at Irwindale, Love left to travel to Springfield, where the Bill McAnally Racing driver would run the next day for Venturini Motorsports. Love flew the red-eye out of Los Angeles to Chicago before making the two-and-a-half-hour drive to the track. He arrived about 20 minutes before the start of practice and finished fifth in the race. Christian Eckes was at the track Sunday standing by in case Love did not make it to the track in time to compete.
• Four-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion and NASCAR Hall of Famer Ron Hornaday Jr. was at Springfield on Sunday to mentor 15-year-old Landen Lewis, who was making his ARCA Menards Series debut driving for 2009 championship-winning crew chief Mark Rette. Lewis has a solid day, finishing all 100 laps and ending the race in seventh position.
• Justin Allgaier made his first start as a driver since winning the ARCA Menards Series championship in 2008. Allgaier started eighth and methodically worked his way into the top five, eventually finishing fourth. The hometown favorite earned his first ARCA Menards Series victory at Springfield back in 2006.
• Morgen Baird and Jeffrey MacZink both earned their first top-10 finishes Friday at Michigan. Baird finished seventh, the last car on the lead lap, while MacZink was ninth, four laps off the pace.
• Tim Monroe and D.L. Wilson both notched their first top-10 finishes Sunday at Springfield. Monroe came home eighth; Wilson was 10th.
• P.J. Pedroncelli became the 194th driver in West Series history to win a pole with his first career General Tire Pole Award at Irwindale.