Ty Gibbs
Ty Gibbs leads the Dawn 150 for the ARCA Menards Series at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, on June 4, 2021 (Richard Corbett/ARCA Racing)

NOTEBOOK: DuQuoin dirt race serves as CGS Imaging Four Crown finale

www.arcaracing.com September 3, 2021

The season-long ARCA Menards Series championship battle between Ty Gibbs and Corey Heim likely will rage on through the 2021 season finale at Kansas Speedway in October.

One of the series’ in-season titles, though, will be settled Sunday in the Southern Illinois 100 presented by Lucas Oil at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds (8 p.m. CT / 9 p.m. ET on MAVTV and TrackPass).

ENTRY LIST: Southern Illinois 100 presented by Lucas Oil

Cgs 4 Crown 2021

Sunday’s 100-lap event on the one-mile clay oval serves as the fourth and final installment of this season’s CGS Imaging Four Crown, a four-race series within the ARCA Menards Series that celebrates a diverse overall schedule with an event at each of the four types of tracks it visits: superspeedways, road courses, short tracks and dirt tracks.

In a fashion typical of Gibbs this season, the 18-year-old driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota has won all three Four Crown races contested thus far, at Kansas Speedway, at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and at Indiana’s Winchester Speedway. Yet his lead in the Four Crown standings is only 10 points entering the dirt race at DuQuoin.

Race points are all that are counted in the Four Crown chase, with bonus points being excluded. So Gibbs’ three race wins at 43 points apiece have him sitting at 129 points entering the Four Crown finale.

Heim and Thad Moffitt are tied for second in the Four Crown standings with 119 points apiece. Nick Sanchez is a distant fourth with 104 points.

The Southern Illinois 100 is a big race for Heim, in particular, as the 19-year-old driver of the No. 20 Craftsman/JBL Toyota for Venturini Motorsports hopes to strike back in the overall championship battle following Gibbs’ dominating victory last week at the Milwaukee Mile.

Should Heim win the second dirt race of the season — as he did the first at the Springfield Mile last month — and should Gibbs slip at DuQuoin, Heim will do more than just close the gap on the overall points leader.

He or Moffitt could leave the DuQuoin dirt with a title.

PIT BOX: DuQuoin takes title race back to dirt

Ken Schrader’s return & Andy Hillenburg’s thank you

Ken Schrader
Ken Schrader pictured ahead of the 2019 Southern Illinois 100 for the ARCA Menards Series at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds in DuQuoin, Illinois, on Aug. 31, 2019. (Jay Alley/ARCA Racing)

Ken Schrader’s first ARCA Menards Series start in two years is special in multiple ways for several individuals. Andy Hillenburg might be at the top of the list.

The owner of the No. 10 Kuttawa Fire Department Toyota that the 66-year-old Schrader will race Sunday at DuQuoin will be proud to see that name and logo on the hood of his car given what his team has been through over the last couple weeks.

After the Aug. 22 dirt race at the Springfield Mile, one of Hillenburg’s Fast Track Racing haulers caught fire while traveling home from the track.

Thanks to the lightning-quick efforts of both the team members present and the Kuttawa Fire Department, the team was able to save the majority of its equipment.

“Without the race crew being there, it would have been way, way worse,” Kuttawa Fire Department chief Phil Compton said. “They got the liftgate down, and the doors open, and that was a huge help to us. If not for their help, it’s likely we could have been dealing with a total loss.”

Added Hillenburg of the local fire department: “They were great. They got it under control very quickly, and their response time was incredible. Another five minutes and we could have lost everything. We are going to make sure all of the fire fighters and their families are invited to the race at DuQuoin on Sept. 5 as a way to say thank you.”

That’s exactly what Hillenburg’s team has done. In addition to the department’s logo being featured on Schrader’s car, about 20 Kuttawa firefighters and their families are expected to attend Sunday’s race as guests.

Hillenburg’s putting Schrader in his car at DuQuoin was going to be special enough for the team owner considering it was Schrader in the early 1990s who gave Hillenburg his first chance to drive on the ARCA platform. (Hillenburg won the 1995 season-opener at Daytona in Schrader’s car before going on to win that season’s championship.) The added element of the Kuttawa representation is the cherry on top.

As for Schrader, the Fenton, Missouri, native and local fan favorite is going for his fourth ARCA Menards Series win at the track he grew up attending. And the Southern Illinois 100 is only part of the racing veteran’s busy weekend.

Schrader plans to compete in all three events at DuQuoin over the weekend, including the USAC Silver Crown Ted Horn 100 and the Oldani Memorial Modified race. If Schrader successfully starts all three races, he will become just the third driver in the last 50 years to pull off the “DuQuoin Triple.”

A.J. Fike is the last driver to run all three events, doing so in 2004. Before him, it was Larry “Boom Boom” Cannon in 1971. Other drivers who have pulled off the triple are Tony Bettenhausen (1960), Rodger Ward (1960 and 1961), Len Sutton (1961), Parnelli Jones (1963), A.J. Foyt (1963 and 1964) and Bobby Marshman (1964).

Schrader, an 18-time ARCA winner, has four poles, three victories, 11 top fives and 14 top 10s in 15 ARCA starts on the DuQuoin dirt.

TRACK PROFILE: What to know about DuQuoin

A Tinkle in time

Zachary Tinkle, a 19-year-old Late Model racer from Speedway, Indiana, has been cutting his teeth on the ARCA platform this season driving for Wayne Peterson.

Filling in for the injured Tim Richmond, Tinkle will make his fifth ARCA Menards Series start Sunday at DuQuoin, which happens to be a special track for the young driver and his family.

Tinkle attended his first live ARCA race in 2013 at DuQuoin, but his ties to the venue run deeper. His father Brad recently found a photo that was taken at DuQuoin featuring Zachary’s great-great grandfather Harry presenting a trophy to the race winner.

Harry McQuinn was a director of competition for the USAC series that, along with ARCA, co-sanctioned races at DuQuoin in the late 1950s. This photo was taken on Sept. 5, 1965, exactly 56 years prior to Sunday’s race.

“I’ve raced at tracks where Harry raced and officiated,” Zachary Tinkle wrote on his website,” but this is going to be surreal to know that he was there on the exact same day decades earlier.

“It’s been a tough year for my family. As many people know, I didn’t know a couple months ago when I’d ever be racing again. Finding this photo feels like having confirmation that I’m right where I’m meant to be in life and racing at this moment in time.”

DuQuoin State Fairgrounds
The field takes the green flag to start the Southern Illinois 100 for the ARCA Menards Series at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds in DuQuoin, Illinois, on Aug. 31, 2019. (Jay Alley/ARCA Racing)

And more:

  • The Southern Illinois 100 presented by Lucas Oil will be the ARCA Menards Series’ 361st race on dirt and the 1,510th race overall.
  • The last driver to sweep the ARCA Menards Series dirt races at Springfield and DuQuoin in the same year was Parker Kligerman in 2009. Others to sweep Springfield and DuQuoin in the same season were Dean Roper in 1983, 1986 and 1987; Bob Keselowski in 1988 and 1989; Bob Brevak in 1990; and Frank Kimmel in 2001, 2002, 2005 and 2008.
  • DuQuoin winners who went on to win the ARCA championship in the same season include Lee Raymond (1985), Bob Keselowski (1989), Bob Brevak (1990), Frank Kimmel (2001, 2002, 2004, 2005), Austin Theriault (2017) and Christian Eckes (2019).
  • First-time ARCA winners at DuQuoin include Jerry Unser, Jimmy Bryan, David Goldsberry, Billy Thomas, Jeff Finley, Tony Stewart and Logan Seavey.
  • Sheldon Creed holds the track qualifying record at DuQuoin, timing in at 31.804 seconds/113.190 mph in qualifying for the 2018 race.
  • Christian Eckes holds the 100-mile race record at DuQuoin, winning in 2019 at an average speed of 92.119 mph.
  • From 1984-1991, the ARCA races at DuQuoin were 200 miles in length. The 1984 race took 3 hours, 22 minutes and 38 seconds to complete.
  • The ARCA races at DuQuoin from 1992-1995 were 156 miles/250 kilometers in length.
  • The race has been shortened by rain two times (1991, 2004). In 2012, it was postponed and eventually canceled due to rain. The race was also removed from the schedule in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • The race has been won from the pole five times: Bob Hill in 1996, Tony Stewart in 2003, Ken Schrader in 2006 and 2013, and Grant Enfinger in 2015.