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Tag: ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards

Todd Gilliland wins ARCA race At Talladega

NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series regular and part-time ARCA driver Todd Gilliland drove the No. 4 DGR-CROSLEY Toyota into victory lane at Talladega Superspeedway Friday evening after dominating the last half of the race.

“That was incredible,” Gilliland told FOX Sports 1. “All around such an amazing race. You know being back with DGR-Crosley, car was incredible. They couldn’t catch me doing all they could. Gotta thank Frontline Enterprises, Toyota obviously, Menards for the series and General Tire for the tire.”

“All the credit to these guys, that was incredible. We were going to destroy them at Daytona. I’m so happy I got to come back here, it was kind of last minute. It’s been a long time since I won and this car is amazing, so I’m just super pumped!”

In what was a relatively clean and unusual race at Talladega for the ARCA Menards Series, there wasn’t that much action to begin with.

Venturini Motorsports continued their dominance in qualifying this year by sitting on the pole again with driver Brandon Lynn. It was the organization’s fourth consecutive pole award this year. However, the Venturini’s were still looking for that first elusive win on a track that surprisingly, they had not won at yet.

It was clean and green from the get-go. There was a single file line that broke out in front and it saw longtime ARCA competitor Sean Corr lead the way after moving up to first place on Lap 6.

There were a few close calls early on. Joe Graf Jr. accidentally got Michael Self sideways, but Self was able to hang on to the car without crashing. On Lap 10, former ARCA Talladega winner Brandon McReynolds came down pit road for an unscheduled pit stop. The report was that he had no oil pressure, but the team, later on, was able to get it back up to speed.

On Lap 30, Natalie Decker was off the pace with a fuel pickup problem, ending her chance at a win early.

The first major incident of the day took place right after halfway on Lap 41 when Thad Moffitt lost control of his car and got into Christian Eckes, sending Eckes up into the track and making hard contact with the wall. This ended Eckes day early, who was back from his illness at Salem.

Previous race leader Sean Corr slid his tires coming to pit road prior to the caution coming out, and he had to come back in to change all four tires. Ultimately, Corr could never rebound to get back into the lead.

Another caution and presumably the final one, came out with 25 to go for Tommy Vigh Jr, who hit the wall hard on the front stretch. Vigh Jr. was not injured from the accident.

After that, the ARCA Menards Series fans saw Todd Gilliland in the lead for the first time prior to the caution with 25 to go. The race went back green with 20 to go and surprisingly enough, it remained green for the rest of the way and saw no major incidents.

As the checkered flag flew on Lap 76, the leaderboard showed Gilliland as the race winner of the General Tire 200.

It has been a tough year so far for Gilliland, who has faced critical comments from his boss owner Kyle Busch, but he found a way to take some of the pressure off.

“Absolutely,” Gilliland told FOX Sports 1. “No matter how small or big the victory, it’s huge. My confidence has never been lower heading into this race, but I have so much confidence in these guys. I need to work on my Truck program myself and my whole team. That’s what it’s all about is teamwork. Now I just need to win a Truck race or a few of them as they are way more important.”

The ARCA Menards Series heads to Nashville on Friday May 3.

April 26, 2019
Michael Self takes points lead following Talladega

Despite not getting the Daytona finish Michael Self wanted this year to start the season, he has been on a tear recently, winning at Five Flags and Salem Speedway.

Even though he won two races back-to-back, Self did not have the points lead coming into the race at Talladega Superspeedway. He was chasing down Travis Braden who was the points leader following the event at Salem. Self was hoping to change that and take over the lead after Talladega.

Self ran a smart race after qualifying fifth earlier in the day Friday and pacing practice.

He had a close call with last year’s runner up Joe Graf Jr, as Self got sideways on the frontstretch, but he held on to his car and kept from wrecking.

At the end of the 76 lapper, Self and the No. 25 Venturini team found themselves in fifth place but taking the overall points lead.

“Fifth place is definitely better than a 31st like Daytona was,” Self told FOX Sports 1. “My day almost flashed before my eyes coming off (Turn) 4 there on like Lap 6 or something. My god, I was mad. Didn’t want to do that, but a good day for the Sinclair Toyota. You come here to these places and can’t expect to win. You can have a good car, but hope things fall into place.

“Happy to come out with the points lead, so that’s pretty cool. Now we can focus on Nashville, where our short track program has been really strong the past couple of weeks, excited to get back to the fab with these 25 guys. You know it was fun. Thanks to General Tire for putting this race on and for the sport to give this series is always great products. They do a great job supporting the series. Menards all you guys, thanks to Sinclair for this and for the coverage and everyone who tuned in out there. Hope it was a good one to watch.”

April 26, 2019
Riley Herbst and Brandon Lynn round out top 3 ARCA finishers at Talladega

Riley Herbst didn’t have much luck in last season’s ARCA race at Talladega Superspeedway after wrecking late in the race, but he turned things around this year, finishing second in Friday’s race.

However, if you think second is a good day for a driver, you would be wrong. They are always left wanting more and Herbst certainly could have won the race if given the right opportunity.

“Ah man, I don’t know,” Herbst told FOX Sports 1. “Second just sucks really really bad! But I can’t thank everyone at Monster Energy enough, Joe Gibbs Racing for providing me a really fast Toyota Camry.”

“I thought we had a run there at the end, but Todd’s (Gilliland) car was really fast. You know, all we could come home with was second.”

Despite the race being unusual for ARCA, Herbst is pleased with the result.

“Yeah you know, I was kind of happy with that too,” Herbst continued in his FOX Sports 1 interview. “This race is 76 laps long and you got to get to the end of the race, so I didn’t want everyone to wreck at the beginning and drag out 80 laps of caution or whatever. So I was happy we got to race for a little bit, but it sucks single file for the fans. All in all, second is a good day for the 18 in the points.”

For Brandon Lynn and Venturini Motorsports, they were looking for better after finishing seventh in last year’s race, especially considering the fact that the Venturinis’ have not won at Talladega.

It looked liked the feat could have got crossed off the list early on, as Lynn and the No. 20 team sat on the pole which gave Venturini Motorsports their fourth consecutive pole of the year.

Lynn ran up front for most of the day but never made too much noise. He had a shot at the end, however, but could not make anything happen.

After all was said and done, the Venturini crew still found themselves winless but came home third improving on last year’s finish.

“Yeah, I think we had a great car,” Lynn said to FOX Sports 1. “We were hoping to get a run there at the end, but it didn’t happen. You know, we ended up where we were at. We’ll take it. I can’t thank these Venturini guys enough for putting together such a great car this weekend. Hopefully, we can get some stuff together to run more races for the rest of the year.”

Despite finishing third, Lynn describes how tough it was to make a pass in the end.

“Yeah, it’s tough,” Lynn said. “You just got to feel it out and hopefully you keep the car close to you, and not let him get too far back. You want to get that run together on the cars in front of you. So, we did what we could and it just didn’t pan out in the end.”

April 26, 2019
Ty Majeski returns to Chad Bryant Racing with a fourth place finish

Breakout star Ty Majeski returned to the ARCA Menards Series Friday at Talladega Superspeedway for Chad Bryant Racing.

You’d have to go back to the 2017 season finale at Kansas Speedway to find Ty Majeski in the ARCA results, where he finished second for the now-defunct Cunningham Motorsports team.

However, Chad Bryant took over the reins of that team and it was just like old times for Majeski and the No. 22 crew.

Majeski didn’t miss a beat after a long break in the ARCA Menards Series. He started on the front row in second and ran a great race, staying out of trouble, and came home in the fourth spot.

It will be the first of six races for Majeski and the No. 22 Chad Bryant Racing team, as their next race together is at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May.

“Yeah, it was a real solid day,” Majeski said to FOX Sports 1. “Everyone at Chad Bryant Racing brought me a solid Ford here this week and they worked their tails off this week, pulling a couple of all-nighters to get here. It was exciting to get them a good finish.

“We executed all day. The second to last restart didn’t go our way on the top lane. We didn’t get a push from behind and had to settle for fourth or fifth in line there. That’s where we stayed. The 18 (Riley Herbst) and the 4 (Todd Gilliland) were the two best cars and when the best two cars get out front, it’s hard to compete with them. All in all, a good solid day. We are running for the owner’s championship, so it was a good points day from that standpoint and we will get them at Charlotte.”

Even though Majeski had a great run, he wasn’t sure what he needed to have a shot at the win in the final laps.

“I don’t know,” Majeski said in his FOX Sports 1 interview. “Obviously it helps when you have a bigger pack. I think we only had six or seven cars in that pack, and that makes it tougher to formulate runs. Just need some help from behind to get us on the same page and it also makes it difficult where there’s four or five Toyota’s in the top five, and you’re the only Ford. You know when you’re going to make a move, you’re going to get hung out to dry. All in all, it was a good points day for us.”

April 26, 2019
Chase Elliott and Erik Jones Make ARCA History With One, Two Finish at Pocono

Two seventeen year olds, Chase Elliott and Erik Jones battled royally at the Tricky Triangle to score a one, two finish in the Pocono ARCA 200.

And in so doing, they made history, becoming the youngest winner and runner up finisher in the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards.

“It was a lot of fun,” Chase Elliott said of his race win after starting from the 32^nd position. “We had to start in the back and had some work to do.”

“Lance (McGrew, crew chief) made some good calls getting us off sequence,” Elliott continued. “Being able to take advantage of that and get out in front when the cautions fell, I feel worked out to our advantage.”

“We got out front and stayed there so it worked out.”

The driver of the No. 9 Aaron’s-Hendrickcars.com Chevrolet admitted that it did not hurt having his father Bill coaching him prior to the race and from atop the hauler, especially with his history of winning at Pocono.

“I talked to him a lot by phone and then at the track,” Elliott said. “He gave me some good advice about this place.”

“But the big thing is that he never raced on this surface so a lot of things are different than how they used to be,” Elliott continued. “A lot of things have changed but it is still the same old Pocono and he helped me a lot.”

What did it mean to have his father with him in Victory Lane at Pocono?

“It means a ton to me,” Elliott said. “It wasn’t a little over ten years ago that I was in Victory Lane with Dad and I’ve got some pictures from that.”

“I just think that’s really cool,” Elliott continued. “To come up here to Pocono where Dad raced and to get that opportunity is really cool.”

“I knew it would mean a lot to win and we were fortunate that it worked out.”

Proud father Bill Elliott did have some first words for his young race winner in Victory Lane. And Chase Elliott definitely heeded that advice.

“First thing he said that he was going to keep the champagne because I wasn’t old enough to drink it,” Elliott said. “But I think it meant a lot for dad to go back to Victory Lane with me.”

“I’m not a dad but I feel like that would be cool,” Chase Elliott said. “I’m glad I could take him there today and hope to do it a lot more this year.”

Bill Elliott was indeed proud of his young son, who has become the focus of his racing expertise.

“Someone showed me a picture when I was in Victory Lane in 2002 and here is Chase in Victory Lane now in 2013,” Bill Elliott said. “He did a good job.”

“Everything came together and he did real well,” Elliott continued. “It’s a dream come true for me.”

“He’s done a good job in all he’s raced,” Elliott said. “This is just another era.”

Bill Elliott acknowledged that he was one who pushed the ARCA Series to consider relaxing their rules to allow 16 and 17 year olds to race in the series.

“The kids today have so much more experience and there was a real void there at age 16 or 17,” Elliott said. “ARCA is giving these kids a little extra time to get their feet wet.”

Bill Elliott was not the only proud parent with his son’s historic ARCA win.

“I’m just really thrilled for him,” mom Cindy Elliott said. “They tell me that he is the youngest winner.”

“So, I’m just thrilled for him and for the team and for Lance McGrew, winning now in every division,” Cindy Elliott continued. “What they’ve accomplished today is just wonderful.”

Crew chief Lance McGrew was also very proud of his young racer and felt fortunate that he could showcase his skills on the big track of Pocono.

“Chase is an extremely talented race car driver,” McGrew said. “He is young but he was born and bred that way.”

“He’s got years and years of experience,” McGrew continued. “We were fortunate enough that ARCA made a rule change this season to where we could run on a bigger race track.”

“I felt like with the backing we had and Chase’s experience that we could come here and do well,” McGrew said. “And we did.”

Seventeen year old Erik Jones, behind the wheel of the No. 15 ToyotaCare Toyota, finished runner up to Chase Elliott. And he had to battle his own demons and mistakes before being able to move forward to contend for the lead.

“We ran ourselves out of fuel right before the first pit stop on Lap 42,” Jones said. “We had the whole field lapped at that time.”

“We had to start at the tail end and a violation coming off pit road,” We just didn’t have time to run him back down.”

“We’ll come back in August and see if we can get the win.”

Veteran driver Frank Kimmel, in the No. 44 Ansell-Menards Toyota, finished third. And he was feeling very good about that finish after just getting a few laps on the track because of the rain.

“Pretty good day,” Kimmel said. “We were one of the teams that didn’t test so we just had about three laps before the race.”

“I smacked the wall and I thought I had a flat,” Kimmel continued. “That kind of ruined our day and I couldn’t run with those two.”

“So, we rode it out.”

Kimmel had nothing but praise for the youngsters who beat him on the race track. And yes, he acknowledged that they were really young, with both of them combined having less years of life than he had alone.

“What a remarkable deal these young kids are,” Kimmel said. “I have underwear that old.”

“Chase is a chip off the old block,” Kimmel continued. “I asked Bill (Elliott) who Chase’s father was because he’s an awfully nice kid.”

“These young kids are a lot of fun to race with.”

Tom Hessert, behind the wheel of the No. 77 Barbera’s Autoland Dodge, and Mason Mitchell, driving the No. 99 Happy Cheeks-BeavEx-Reliance Tool Ford, rounded out the top five finishers in the Pocono ARCA 200.

June 9, 2013