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Michael Self takes historic Daytona Road Course victory
For the first time ever in ARCA Menards Series history, the series visited the Daytona International Speedway Road Course this weekend. The event was created due to the Watkins Glen International race being canceled due to COVID-19 restrictions.

While the road course upped the intensity, a familiar face was in victory lane again. Venturini Motorsports’ Michael Self swept the Daytona races, as he won the season opener back in February. The win wasn’t easy for the Salt Lake City, Utah native as he had to pass and fend off an aggressive Ty Gibbs late in the going. Self maneuvered his No. 25 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota past Gibbs with six laps to go coming out of Turn 6. From there, Self opened up a big gap, and won the General Tire 100 by almost seven seconds.

“No, this is so special to me,” Self said excitedly about the win. “Anytime you win at Daytona, it’s really cool and special. Obviously, to do this twice, winning on the big track earlier this year, and to come to this (road course), this is a little extra special for me. Road racing has just a special place in my heart. That’s where I come from. I spent a lot of time when I’m not in racing, coaching a lot of guys in the Trans Am Series with the Mike Cope Racing team.”

“To go out and justify that, and do what we did tonight makes me feel so good. I don’t get to road race all that often. So, this is extremely special for me.”

Before the event would get underway ARCA Menards Series officials brought the drivers down pit road in order for them to change from dry to wet tires. Self’s teammate Chandler Smith, was on the pole via a random draw based on owner points.

Speaking of Venturini Motorsports, Self’s day started out rocky well before the race began. He was never able to log any laps in his No. 25 machine in practice due to a faulty spark plug wire. Despite the issue, Self was still able to start alongside his teammate in the second position.

Once the green flag dropped, it was all Ty Gibbs and the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing machine. Self would lead for a brief period of time before Gibbs took the lead in Turns 9 and 10. On that same lap, Chandler Smith lost control of his No. 20 JBL Toyota in Turn 3 and lost several positions. That same turn would cause more incidents in the early laps, with Thad Moffitt in the No. 46, and Nick Igdalsky in the No. 12 spinning around and going off the circuit. But the race would stay green and no cautions flew for these minor incidents.

As the race got closer and closer to the halfway break scheduled for Lap 14, Michael Self closed the gap before the yellow and red flag was displayed. Self was able to grab the lead from Gibbs just one lap before the segment break. When the field came to a stop for adjustments on Lap 14, Self, Gibbs, Sam Mayer, Will Rodgers, Parker Chase, Taylor Gray, Hailie Deegan, Max McLaughlin, Chandler Smith, and Ayrton Ori were the top 10.

One of the more interesting stories coming into tonight’s historic race was Sam Mayer. Mayer’s wrist was injured during a TransAm T2 crash at Road America the week before. resulting in a hairline fracture. He had a backup driver just in case the pain started flaring up throughout the 28 lap race. That backup driver was none other than former NASCAR driver, now turned IMSA driver, Colin Braun. Braun would sub in for Mayer after 15 laps and completed the race for the GMS Racing team. He was able to pilot the No. 21 Chevrolet to a third-place finish.

After the restart came back out with 12 to go, Gibbs took the top spot from Self again in Turns 7 and 8. But, as the race wound down, so did his car and Self caught back up to Gibbs and made the pass. All Gibbs could do was watch as he came home in the second position after being dominant early. There were some hairy moments though for the leaders with three laps to go. Ayrton Ori had a flat left front tire and took the damaged No. 74 machine back to pit road.

However, no yellow flags flew in those remaining laps and Venturini Motorsports captured their fifth win of the 2020 ARCA Menards Series season.

There were four leaders among two lead changes and one caution for two laps.

Official Results following the General Tire 100 at Daytona Road Course
1. Michael Self, led nine laps
2. Ty Gibbs, led 19 laps
3. Sam Mayer-Colin Braun
4. Taylor Gray
5. Will Rodgers
6. Hailie Deegan
7. Max McLaughlin
8. Bret Holmes
9. Chandler Smith
10. Parker Chase
11. Thad Moffitt
12. Drew Dollar, 1 lap down
13. Will Kimmel, 1 lap down
14. Nick Igdalsky, 1 lap down
15. Mike Basham, 2 laps down
16. Russ Lane, 2 laps down
17. Ayrton Ori, 2 laps down
18. Con Nicolopoulos, OUT, Overheating
19. Brad Smith, OUT, Transmission
20. Tim Monroe, OUT, Electrical
21. Bryan Dauzat, OUT, Did Not Start
Up Next: The ARCA Menards Series takes a week off before returning Saturday, Aug. 29 at World Wide Technology Raceway.
August 15, 2020
Michael Self sweeps at Daytona after starting on pole
In what was a wreck-filled race and day, one driver was able to survive the madness and that was Venturini Motorsports’ Michael Self who brought home the checkered flag at Daytona International Speedway to win the Lucas Oil 200 driven by General Tire.

Self qualified on the pole and pretty much stayed out front for the majority of the race. Most importantly, he missed several wrecks including a big one that happened on Lap 49. In the end, Self accomplished his second win at Daytona for Venturini Motorsports, having also won in 2018.

“It’s unbelievable. I can tell you the second time is every bit as sweet as the first,” he said. “And to do it with this group of people around me. Sinclair Oil, Toyota, my family here, a bunch of my friends here. It’s no secret, it’s a little extra special to come to Daytona. And to do it here with these guys makes it more special on top of that. Just a truly amazing day for us a little bit surreal.”

After a long off-season, the ARCA Menards Series drivers had their first race of the season on a sunny and cool Saturday afternoon in Daytona Beach, Florida. It didn’t take long though for the cautions to start flying. In fact, the first quarter of the race was run almost under caution.

The cautions started out on the first lap of the race. Andy Seuss in the No. 02 OUR Motorsports got tangled up going into Turn 3. Seuss had contact with World of Outlaw star David Gravel, which sent Seuss spinning in the grass and coming back up the track collecting Scott Reeves in the No. 88 and Eric Caudell in the No. 7. Then on Lap 11, the caution came out again for the No. 97 of Jason Kitzmiller. Kitzmiller had an engine failure on track, which prompted ARCA officials to throw the caution. The same would happen again just after a Lap 16 restart for Brad Smith in the No. 48. Smith also experienced an engine failure that ended his day early.

A restart came on Lap 24 and we saw a few green flag laps before another caution fell. On Lap 38, a big wreck occurred going into Turn 1. Several drivers were involved including Natalie Decker, Willie Mullins, David Gravel, Connor Hall, Dave Mader III, John Ferrier, and J.J. Pack.

It seemed like the word caution would be the drinking word for the Lucas Oil 200, at least for the first half of the race. A yellow slowed the pace once more on Lap 49 for the No. 11 of Chuck Hiers in the Andy Hillenburg entry. Hiers got an accidental bump draft that went wrong after a slight shove from Hailie Deegan in the No. 4 off Turn 2. Hiers’ No. 11 slammed the backstretch wall and the car was totaled and was done for the night.

It seemed like this race would never get some green flag laps under its belt, but a long green-flag run broke out after a restart on Lap 55. The drivers maintained their cool and continued to set a smooth pace, hoping for a clean race to the finish.

Some activity started to develop, however, with 15 to go. Smoke began to come out of the back of the No. 17 of DGR-Crosley driver Tanner Gray. Gray, who was Deegan’s teammate for this race, was eventually black flagged for excessive smoke. Gray brought his car down pit road and was done early due to a blown engine.

While a caution did not come out for Gray, it came out for debris with 10 to go on the backstretch. It appeared as though this debris came from the No. 28 of David Gravel as when he came down pit road, the entire right side of the door came off his car. In what is mandatory for the ARCA Series, Gravel needed a window to go back on the track and finish the race. He was able to get a window, but his whole right side was tapped up in order to finish.

A late-race restart came with four laps to go with Michael Self, Hailie Deegan, Drew Dollar and Bret Holmes out front, all searching for their first Daytona victory. With very little time, Deegan tried all she could to make a move on Self, but eventually she ran out of time to get a run on the No. 25 machine as Self went on to take the checkered flag at Daytona.

This was Self’s first victory at Daytona International Speedway. Self led 61 of the scheduled 80 laps to earn his eighth ARCA Menards Series victory.

Despite falling short, Deegan was still excited about her second-place finish in her Daytona debut.

“Pretty much at the end there, all I wanted to do was finish,” she said. “My goal for this race was top three to top-five was a victory for me. I was totally fine finishing second. I wasn’t going to try to do anything to Michael. It is a long season and I have to race against these guys week in and week out. It is best to stay on good terms with them.”

Official Results
1. Michael Self
2. Hailie Deegan
3. Drew Dollar
4. Sean Corr
5. Thad Moffitt
6. Jason White
7. Riley Herbst
8. Willie Mullins
9. Bret Holmes
10. Scott Melton
11. Thomas Praytor
12. David Gravel, one lap down
13. Charles Buchanan Jr., one lap down
14. Con Nicolopoulos, four laps down
15. Benny Chastain, five laps down
16. Tanner Gray, 10 laps down
17. Eric Caudell, 13 laps down
18. Tim Richmond, 25 laps down
19. Chuck Hiers, OUT
20. Connor Hall, OUT
21. Ryan Huff, OUT
22. Ryan Repko, OUT
23. Gus Dean, OUT
24. J.J. Pack, OUT
25. Dominique Van Wieringen, OUT
26. Natalie Decker, OUT
27. Jacob Heafner, OUT
28. Andy Seuss, OUT
29. John Ferrier, OUT
30. Dave Mader III, OUT
31. Brad Smith, OUT
32. John Kitzmiller, OUT
33. Scott Reeves, OUT
Up Next: The ARCA Menards Series takes a few weeks before their next race on Friday, March 6 at Phoenix International Raceway.
February 8, 2020
Michael Self claims pole for ARCA season opener at Daytona
Michael Self, with a lap time of 49.43, qualified on the pole for today’s ARCA Lucas Oil 200 at Daytona International Speedway. The Daytona pole is the first time that Self qualified first at Daytona and the first time since the No. 25 Venturini Motorsports car qualified on the front row since 2018 when Natalie Decker accomplished that feat.

“Probably up until last year, qualifying was a bit of a sour point for me because I always have such bad qualifying results,” Self said. “But we kind of squashed that last year […] to get it here at Daytona International Speedway, it’s really special for Sinclair Oil, Venturini Motorsports and Toyota.”

Self, however, is no stranger to qualifying on the pole at superspeedways. In fact, his first career pole came at Talladega in 2018, where the Utah native qualified first and finished third after leading 21 laps. Despite the small success at superspeedways, Self has yet to win a race at Daytona or Talladega, but today may be the day he crosses that off the list.

Andy Seuss, Dave Mader III, Jason White, Drew Dollar, Riley Herbst, Hailie Deegan, Connor Hall, David Gravel and Dominique Van Wieringen completed the top-10 starters at Daytona.

The Lucas Oil 200 goes green today at 4:30 p.m. ET live on Fox Sports 1.

Official Starting Line Up
1. Michael Self
2. Andy Seuss
3. Dave Mader III
4. Jason White
5. Drew Dollar
6. Riley Herbst
7. Hailie Deegan
8. Connor Hall
9. David Gravel
10. Dominique Van Wieringen
11. Tanner Gray
12. Jacob Heafner
13. Ryan Repko
14. Gus Dean
15. Jason Kitzmiller
16. J.J. Pack
17. Chuck Hiers
18. Bret Holmes
19. Natalie Decker
20. Sean Corr
21. Willie Mullins
22. Thomas Praytor
23. Scott Melton
24. John Ferrier
25. Benny Chastain
26. Eric Caudell
27. Tim Richmond
28. Scott Reeves
29. Brad Smith
30. Ryan Huff
31. Chuck Buchanan JR
32. Con Nicolopoulos
33. Thad Moffitt
February 8, 2020
ARCA Menards Series Preview- Madison

While the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series is taking the weekend off, the ARCA Menards Series will take center stage Friday night at Madison International Speedway, the short track located in Oregon, Wisconsin.

It will mark the halfway point in the ARCA Series for the 2019 season, which has seen a slew of winners and repeat winners. They include Harriosn Burton winning at Daytona, Michael Self winning two races at Pensacola and Salem, Todd Gilliland in Talladega, Christian Eckes in Nashville, the upcoming star Chandler Smith, Ty Majeski winning at Charlotte and Pocono. Self finally got back to victory lane last week at Michigan in a last-lap pass on Majeski in the last corner of the race when Majeski ran out of gas off Turn 4. It was his third win this season.

With his win last week, Self finally saw the end of some frustrating finishes. He’s looking forward to carry his momentum from last week to Madison on Friday night. However, despite having 28 starts in over a five-year span in the ARCA Series, Madison will be new to Self as he will be making his track debut this weekend.

“Madison is going to be totally new for me,” says Self. “I’ve never made a lap there, so I’m relying on the video I’ve watched and information from my teammates and people around the VMS shop to prepare and try and be ready to hit the ground running for practice on Friday. The track definitely looks unique and challenging, and hopefully I can pick it up and figure out by Friday night.”

So far this season, Self has earned three wins, six top fives and top-10 finishes, along with three poles. He currently leads the ARCA Menards Series standings over Bret Holmes by 15 points.

Self’s teammate, Hailie Deegan, will be returning to the ARCA Series this week. Deegan has been in the headlines a lot this week after a last-lap effort to win the K&N Pro Series West race at Colorado this past weekend, which took her teammate Derek Kraus out for the win.

Madison will also be new to the rising star power of Deegan.

“I’m excited to get back in the ARCA car this weekend with Venturini Motorsports at Madison,” said the native of Temecula, California. “I feel confident in my team and my abilities going into the weekend for my next short track start. But my goals are realistic. ARCA is a new series and there’s still a lot to learn. Our first race at Toledo ended early after getting wrecked so I’m going back with similar goals – log laps, learn as much as I can and shoot for top-five finishes.”

It will be her first ARCA start since Pocono a couple of weeks ago, where Deegan finished seventh after starting fourth. Her previous start was at Toledo last month where she was taken out and left with a disappointing last-place finish.

Also making his ARCA return, but already having an impressive season with three top fives and four top-10 finishes, is the grandson of Joe Gibbs, Ty Gibbs.

Gibbs has been making a lot of noise on the track this year and looks to continue to do that at Madison where he has no starts.

“I’m so ready to get to Madison,” said Gibbs. “I’ve been really excited for Madison since I left Toledo. It’s just a real short track that takes a lot of tires. You’ll definitely have to conserve too so you can have enough brakes to be around at the end, but I’m ready to move on to Madison and hopefully get our first win of the season.”

Despite having early season success and not being able to compete at all the racetracks due to the age limit, Gibbs is looking to start clicking off wins this weekend.

“We’ve got a lot of second-place finishes this season which is good in some ways and bad in some ways,” said Gibbs. “I want to win so bad but finishing second has proven that we have the equipment to run up front and compete for wins, we just need all the pieces to fall in to place and work perfectly to get to victory lane.”

Gibbs has tons of short track experience racing the short tracks across the country in the CARS Late Model Stock Tour. So far this season in the ARCA Series, however, the grandson of Joe Gibbs has a pretty stellar record of finishing second in his first ARCA start at Pensacola, sixth at Salem and a pair of second place finishes at Nashville and Toledo, the last time Gibbs competed in an ARCA car.

Even though the drivers mentioned above have no ARCA starts at the racetrack located in Wisconsin, Venturini Motorsports driver Christian Eckes has two starts there with a best finish of fifth coming two years ago in 2017. His other finish the year prior in 2016, resulted in a DNF due to a drive train issue and saw him finish 14th in his first track start.

Speaking of challenges, the Middletown, New York driver has faced challenges this season after missing a race due to sickness earlier this season.

“It’s been a rough couple of months but we’re looking to turn it around this weekend at Madison,” said the Toyota Racing Development driver. “It’s a track that I have loved in the past but haven’t been to in two years, so I’m really looking to get back there. The Venturini organization has shown a ton of success over the past decade at this place and I’m ready to keep it going. Our JBL Audio team has brought awesome race cars so far this year and we’re ready to go make it happen.”

While other drivers will be making their first starts at Madison this weekends, one driver, Sam Mayer, is eager to get back on track in his home state. Mayer, who is apart of the GMS Racing development program, has been competing across several different racing series. In 2019, the Wisconsin native has finishes of 21st at Pensacola, second at Salem and a fifth at Toledo.

Mayer is excited to be racing at his home track Friday night at Madison.

“Getting the chance to race at home is really cool,” Mayer said. “Having all my family and friends come out to watch and support me is going to be really exciting and I hope we can pull out a win for all of them.”

Sitting second in the ARCA point standings is Bret Holmes who drives the family-owned team No. 23. Holmes has amassed three top fives and seven top-10 finishes. He’ll look forward to carrying his season momentum through to Friday night.

Madison is a tough track,” he said. “It’s almost like a banked Martinsville Speedway. The corners are really tight, you use a lot of brakes and the front tires wear quickly. I think that’s the difference maker there. You don’t want to get your front tires too hot. On long green-flag runs, that’s where you’ll beat everyone. I’m excited to get back on a short track after these few weeks at speedways. I think our intermediate track program is a little better than our short track, but we’re working on some things at the shop that we’re going to test out to see how they work. We’ve had solid top-five runs here lately, and we’re looking to continue that in Madison this week.”

Currently, there are 18 drivers entered on the preliminary entry list for this week’s race. They include Joe Graf Jr., Tim Richmond, Eric Caudell, Dale Shearer, Brad Smith, Carson Hocevar, Travis Braden, Corey Heim, Chandler Smith, Dick Karth, Tommy Vigh Jr. and Dick Doheny, who will round out the remaining participants for the race this weekend.

It will be an all-day show for the ARCA Menards Series drivers. The only practice session begins at 2:15 p.m. ET. The General Tire Pole qualifying is slated for 6 p.m. ET There will be two laps for every driver.

The Shore Lunch 200 is scheduled to get underway shortly after 9 p.m. CT. The event will see 200 laps that will make up the 100-mile race distance. The race can be seen on MAVTV.

June 12, 2019
ARCA Menards Racing Series Preview- Michigan

The 2019 ARCA Menards Series season heads to Michigan International Speedway this week for race number nine, almost reaching the halfway point of the season.

And what a season we have seen so far in the ARCA Menards Series. When the season opened up at Daytona, we saw upcoming superstar Harrison Burton take the checkered flag with the powerhouse team of Venturini Motorsports. The Venturini’s continued their dominance by winning back-to-back with Michael Self at Five Flags in Pensacola and Salem.

From there, it looked liked Self and the No. 25 Venturini team would run away with the championship. However, troubles were ahead after having early season success. They still had a decent run at Talladega finishing fifth, but frustrations started to grow at Nashville, Toledo and Charlotte.

At Nashville, the No. 25 of Self was caught up in an accident which took him out of contention and he wound up 15th in that race. Toledo had a better showing for the team, as they finished fourth after starting on the pole and leading 12 laps. Although, Self and company still felt like it was a race they had given away. His teammate, Chandler Smith would go on to win the Toledo race. Then Charlotte came and it looked like the 25 team was back on track to dig themselves out of a hole.

Self started on the pole once more and led a whopping 91 laps of the scheduled 100. But issues arose late in the going when oil and smoke came out of the back of the car. It would eventually go away on restarts, but then on lap 87 of 100, Self spun out when leading the race. The team never could rebound which led to a frustrating fifth place finish in a race they should have won.

Last week at Pocono, Self finished 11th but is starting to grow tired of not winning, even though they feel like they have a car capable of winning every race.

And now ARCA heads to Michigan International Speedway, not too far from the racing capital of the world. Manufacturers like Chevrolet and Ford, among others, are located there and it gives drivers like Self extra motivation to go out and win.

For Self and the No. 25 Venturini team, they only have one start together which came in last year’s race. The Park City, Utah native has one top-five finish in his only outing finishing third after starting third and leading 23 laps. Despite finishing third there last year, Self and the No. 25 team are hoping to finish the race this weekend after having some frustrating finishes of as late.

“After the last few weeks, I think I’m just really hoping for a completely smooth day at Michigan from the first lap of practice to the checkered flag at the end of the race.” Self said. “We’ve been off-kilter a bit, between mistakes by me and mechanical issues, I just want to focus on getting that cleared up. Once we do, we’ll be rock solid. The Venturini Motorsports guys bring the fastest cars to the racetrack every weekend, but we’ve beat ourselves the last two races on track where I feel like we should’ve excelled. I really like Michigan and think it’s a ton of fun to race there, and hope this is the place we can piece everything back together and have a shot at another win.”

Despite Self’s issues, another driver is starting to heat up their on-track performance and that’s Chad Bryant Racing driver Ty Majeski. He won his second consecutive race last week at Pocono after a late race charge to the lead passing Riley Herbst for the win.

At Michigan, Majeski has just one start that came two years ago finishing sixth. Majeski drove the Cunningham Motorsports car that is now owned by Chad Bryant.

Even with only one start at the track, Majeski and the No. 22 team are looking to continue their winning ways this week at Michigan after having much success as of late in a part-time schedule.

“It’s been a great few weeks,” said Majeski. “I can’t thank Chad (Bryant), Paul (Andrews) and the rest of the No. 22 Crestliner guys for their hard work and belief in me. We worked hard at Charlotte and Pocono to come away with the win and we’re going to take the same approach that we did the last two races and apply it to Michigan and hope for the same result.”

With only one ARCA start at Michigan, the No. 22 Chad Bryant Racing driver hopes to build upon that sixth place finish two years ago.

“Michigan International Speedway is a beast, but it’s a blast of a place to race,” added Majeski. “It’s a very wide race track with a lot of room to race with incredibly fast speeds. I’m hoping I can apply some of what I learned a couple of years ago to our No. 22 Crestliner Ford Fusion during practice and qualifying on Friday.”

While Majeski and Self both have one start to their track record, the No. 15 Venturini Motorsports driver Christian Eckes will be making his first ARCA start or stock car start of any kind this weekend at Michigan.

With no experience, Eckes is excited to get to the 2-mile racetrack that is Michigan International Speedway.

“I’ve done a lot to prepare for Michigan this week,” said Eckes. “I’m excited to make my first laps on track. I’ve spent time on the sim at TRD and just basic stuff like film and notes. I feel extremely prepared to go have another great run this weekend.”

Another possible future superstar will have added track time experience this weekend. Joe Graf Jr. will be running the ARCA race and also making his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut for Richard Childress Racing at Michigan.

Graf Jr. has one start at Michigan that came last year, where he finished fifth after starting deep in the field. Even though he has only had one start at Michigan, he is ready for the additional track time and believes it will be his best finish yet.

“I’m very excited about Michigan this weekend,” said Graf Jr. “It’s been an incredibly busy week with preparation, testing and then getting to Michigan. I’m incredibly focused and look forward to the chance to have my strongest results of the year.”

Myatt Snider, a former NASCAR Truck Series regular and now a part-time driver for ThorSport Racing makes his return to the ARCA Menards Series this weekend. He had one win, three top fives and six top-10 finishes in just 10 races in his short ARCA career before making the move to trucks.

After completing a limited schedule, Snider made the jump to the Truck Series to drive for Kyle Busch Motorsports in his rookie season and then to the dominant ThorSport Racing team in 2018. Snider’s best finish in the Truck Series was second at Talladega last fall.

At Michigan, he has one start in the Truck Series finishing 18th after starting eighth. In the ARCA Series, Snider started on the pole in his only race three years ago but finished a disappointing 23rd after crashing on Lap 38.

This time around, the 24-year old returns in a Venturini Motorsports No. 20 prepared Toyota.

“Glad we could put this deal (together) late in the game so I could make a return to the 2-mile superspeedway,” said Snider. “Michigan is one of the toughest tracks on the ARCA circuit. But that’s what makes it so fun. Really excited for the weekend.”

The ARCA Menards Series will see an 18 car field in Friday’s race at Michigan International Speedway. Other drivers include Dick Doheny, Morgen Baird, Tanner Gray, C.J. McLaughlin, Tommy Vigh Jr, Riley Herbst, Bret Holmes, Travis Braden, Brandon McReynolds, Thad Moffitt, Brad Smith, Scott Melton and Tim Richmond, who will all look to tame the 2-mile superspeedway located outside Brooklyn, Michigan.

Since 1980, Michigan International Speedway has seen 38 ARCA races and the winners are a list of whos-who.

The list of winners include Joe Rutmann, Tracy Leslie, Dave Mader III, Stanley Smith, Bob Keselowski, Jeff Purvis (who won three in a row), Ron Barfield Jr, Tim Steele, Mark Thompson, Frank Kimmel, David Keith, Kerry Earnhardt, Blaise Alexander, Chad Blount, Casey Mears, Reed Sorenson, Steve Wallace, David Stremme, Brent Sherman, Erik Darnell, Justin Lofton, Parker Kligerman, Mikey Kile, Ty Dillon, Chris Buescher, Brennan Poole, Austin Theriault, Ross Kenseth, Brandon Jones and Sheldon Creed.

The ARCA Menards Series will see another different winner this weekend.

Qualifying is very important at Michigan where the winner has come from the pole position six times, occurring in 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006 and the last in 2017. The lowest a race winner has come from to win was 28th in 1997 set by Tim Steele. Since then, the lowest a driver has ever started to win was ninth (twice, which occurred in 2001 by Kerry Earnhardt and 2012 by now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series star Chris Buescher).

The race winner has also come from the second starting spot, 10 times which occurred in 1994, 1996, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2018.

The ARCA Menards Series teams will get on track early Friday morning with the only practice session taking place at 8:30 a.m. ET lasting until 10 a.m. ET, live on ArcaRacing.com.

Qualifying takes at noon ET and will also be live on Arcaracing.com.

The VizCom 200 green flag is scheduled to fly at 6:15 p.m. ET live on Fox Sports 1. There will be 100 laps to make up the 200 miles.

June 6, 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
Daytona Win A Capper on Self’s Comeback In Racing

After financial difficulties almost sidelined Michael Self’s career only a few short years ago, his Daytona win is undoubtedly a sweet vindication in his racing comeback. Self, 27, took his second career ARCA win in the wild season-opening Lucas Oil 200 at Daytona. The win was his second-straight overall and his fourth win in five starts between ARCA and the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West division.

Self, a former Richard Childress Racing development driver, had won six races between 2011 and 2013 during his tenure in the No. 21 Chevrolet. However, due to financial constraints, he was left without a firm ride for the 2014 season. A pair of starts for Tom Venturini’s ARCA team in 2014 netted a best finish of 18th at Mobile, and he also made seven NASCAR XFINITY Series starts for JD Motorsports in 2015, with a best finish of 11th at Road America.

Self made one ARCA start in 2016 for Doug Fuller, finishing third at Kansas, and didn’t race full-time again until 2017 when he returned to the K&N Pro Series West for Bob Bruncati, winning at Meridian and Roseville and tying his career-best fourth-place points finish. He also made six ARCA starts for MDM Motorsports, winning the season finale at Kansas before signing on for a limited engagement with Venturini Motorsports in 2018, where he responded with what could be the biggest win of his career so far.

“It was absolutely a dream for me to win at Daytona,” said Self. “But it was one I didn’t necessarily think would be a reality for a long time. Now, after a few weeks, whenever I think about the win or look at the trophy I get excited and it feels great. A few years ago I didn’t have the opportunity to race at all, because financially I didn’t have any backing, but Sinclair Oil Corporation gave me the chance to get back in the seat, and after working the partnership from the ground up and knowing how much has gone in to me being to compete at Daytona at all, the win feels especially rewarding, and I’ll always be proud of that and what we’ve done together.”

Despite only being listed for 10 events in 2018, Self maintains that he plans to use the momentum not only from his Daytona win but from those last four wins in the next nine events. He has proven himself to be a versatile driver; not only has he won on short tracks, mile-and-a-half tracks, and superspeedways, he’s also a road racing coach who has coached for Chip Ganassi Racing drivers.

“I’ve got nine more races this year and I go to every race with intentions of putting on a good weekend for the Sinclair folks, and winning the race,” he said. “That’s my job and that’s what I have to do at every race no matter what the results were the race before.”

When it comes to which speedways he’ll feel the strongest at, Self feels that he’ll be the strongest on the mile-and-a-half speedways. This is highlighted by his runs at Iowa and Chicagoland, where he finished fourth and 19th respectively (the 19th-place was the result of a late-race crash after running near the front all race). He will be teamed up with Reed again this season, so he feels that the VMS Toyotas he will pilot will be a force to contend with.

“I’m really confident in the 1.5-mile program after having a good bit of success there last year,” Self explained. “I felt like we ran really well at Iowa and Chicagoland last year in cars that were built by Kevin Reed, so I’m excited to be back with him for all the big tracks. I love racing on anything that’s a mile or larger, so those are the races I look forward to the most.”

In the off-season, he was faced with other options on where he wanted to go with his racing career, but according to him, the staff at VMS went “went above and beyond” to work with him and current sponsor Sinclair Oil Corporation. According to Self, the group showed great initiative in helping him where he needed assistance, like growing the Sinclair program. With VMS’s experience with sponsors, as well as the massive commitments made from both financial and time standpoints Self said he knew he could help the program excel in 2018.

The relationship between Self and VMS can be seen as going both ways in terms of expertise and drive.

“They have a lot of young but talented rookie drivers under their stable this year, so I hope I can help guide some of them on track while I work with Kevin Reed to make the cars the best they can be for all of us driving them,” said Self. “Everyone at VMS just inspires confidence in me. For the most part, they’re people I know and have worked with in the past, so it’s nice to have preexisting relationships and to know the guys working on my stuff. It makes it easy to trust the scenario whenever I jump in one of their cars. There’s also no one in the garage area that wants to win more than Kevin Reed and Billy Venturini, and I know both of them will give me whatever I need to do that.”

Self will be back in the car on April 7 at Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville.

March 5, 2018