Saturday night delivered the perfect end to a July full of short track racing on the ARCA Menards platform. The fifth and sixth races of the month both produced unforgettable moments.
In the Calypso Lemonade 200 at Indiana’s Winchester Speedway, the 12th race of the 2021 ARCA Menards Series season and Round 6 of the 2021 Sioux Chief Showdown, Ty Gibbs spun championship rival Corey Heim in the closing laps and went on to win the race in overtime.
Roughly 30 minutes after Gibbs picked up his seventh ARCA Menards Series win of the season, on the other side of the country, rookie Joey Iest won his first race on the ARCA Menards platform in the West Series race at Colorado National Speedway in Dacono, Colorado.
After starting ninth and working his way through the field, the 18-year-old took the lead with 18 laps to go in the NAPA Auto Parts Colorado 150 and never looked back.
Those highlights lead our takeaways from Saturday’s ARCA Menards doubleheader at Winchester and Colorado National.
Winchester: Race Recap | Highlights | Photos
Colorado: Race Recap | Highlights | Photos
Gasoline added to the Ty Gibbs-Corey Heim fire
The ongoing Gibbs-Heim rivalry in the ARCA Menards Series this season was inflamed when Heim pushed Gibbs out of the way to win at Elko Speedway on July 10.
After Saturday night’s race at Winchester, it feels more like a raging inferno.
Heim suggested as much after the race, saying he and Gibbs “just took it up a notch” and proclaiming he “could not be more excited for Watkins Glen,” the next track on the schedule (Friday, 6 p.m. ET on FS1).
Gibbs spent the last 60 or so laps of the Calypso Lemonade 200 all but connected to Heim’s rear bumper, but passing his rival on the high-banked half mile was tricky. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver’s opportunity came when the leaders reached slower traffic in the closing laps.
Gibbs after the race said he believed Thad Moffitt checked up with Heim in his rear-view mirror on Lap 198, and when Heim slowed, the bump-and-run from Gibbs that felt inevitable for so many laps arrived.
“The 20’s entry to Turn 1 was really slow,” Gibbs said. “I don’t know if they had issues with their car; it looked like he was free. And then right when he got into that 46, the 46 just checked up, and I hit him and drove through him.
“It’s just hard-fought racing.”
Such a finish was an exclamation point on an endlessly exciting night of racing at Winchester.
It also wasn’t surprising given the recent creciendo of on-track physicality between the series’ top title contenders.
The incident at the end of the Elko race was not the only time Gibbs and Heim got together that night; Heim in his Victory Lane interview even made it a point to reference the body damage his car sustained while racing against Gibbs.
Likewise, at Winchester, the two made contact multiple times while racing each other hard prior to the last green-flag run.
Gibbs ultimately left Winchester happy, growing his points lead to seven over Heim in the process.
But this back-and-fourth almost certainly will continue over the final eight races of the season.
RELATED: Updated ARCA Menards Series Points
Joey Iest’s breakthrough
The 75-minute practice/qualifying session scheduled to precede Saturday night’s race at Colorado National was rained out. So not only would drivers have no on-track activity prior to the 150-lap race on the 0.375-mile bullring, but the lineup would be set by 2021 ARCA Menards Series West car owner point standings.
In theory, that should have been bad news for Iest, an 18-year-old rookie who had never competed in an ARCA car at Colorado National. The lineup based on points meant he would start ninth.
Sure enough, Iest needed some time to get used to the track. But when he did, the Madera, California, native left no doubt about who was best in the NAPA Auto Parts Colorado 150.
Defending West Series champion Jesse Love appeared to be the driver to beat Saturday night until Iest, driving the No. 54 AG Center 59 / Basilla Farm Ford owned by Mike Naake, pulled along side the Bill McAnally Racing driver in a battle for the lead with roughly 20 laps to go.
Iest completed the pass in Turns 3-4 on Lap 132 and cruised to his first victory in his 14th ARCA Menards start dating back to last season. His winning pass was voted the Reese’s Sweet Move of the Race.
It was an impressive display of speed and talent, especially since Iest was coming off a third-place finish (then a career-high in the West Series) at California’s Irwindale Speedway in the last West race on July 3.
Iest struggled in the West Series opener in March at Phoenix Raceway, where he finished 16th in a combination event with the ARCA Menards Series. Engine issues knocked him out of the June event at Sonoma Raceway after six laps, and he finished 20th.
Those results are the only reason Iest is not higher than sixth in West Series points through four races. As the last pair of events proved, he should be considered among the contenders to win every West Series race he enters moving forward.
The Madera, California, native is also competing in the ARCA Menards Series East this year with the backing of David Gilliland Racing. Sitting fifth in East points with four top-five finishes in six races, he could use this momentum to advance his standing in that series, too.
RELATED: Updated ARCA Menards Series West points
Greg Van Alst’s successful homecoming
Both before and after Saturday night’s ARCA Menards Series race at Winchester, Greg Van Alst noted his love-hate relationship with his home track.
The 40-year-old from Anderson, Indiana, clinched the 2019 ARCA/CRA Super Series championship at Winchester, but he had never won at his home track. He said before the race he just hoped to leave Winchester on the love side of that relationship rather than the hate side.
His second-place run, a new career high in the ARCA Menards Series and his first top-five finish, certainly did the trick.
“This whole team, we’re plugging and playing, doing everything we can.” Van Alst said. “The way the track is, it makes you want to drive hard, but you just … you can’t. They just kept telling me my tires looked good, so I just pushed it a little bit harder on the end stint.”
Van Alst added the Winchester race to his schedule just three weeks ago after he purchased a short track car from Chad Bryant. CB Fabricating, a longtime partner with Greg Van Alst Motorsports, boosted its commitment to the team and continued its role as the primary marketing partner of Van Alst’s No. 35 Ford.
CB Fabricating president Chris Barkdull was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. The company’s goal was to utilize the ARCA event to bring awareness to the disease as Barkdull continues treatment.
So, naturally, Van Alst’s first phone call after his podium finish was with Barkdull.
“They sponsored the Sprint Car race at Anderson (Speedway); he was kind of obligated to go there because we didn’t have this on our schedule,” Van Alst said. “But he’s the whole reason that we’re here tonight.”
Brandon Varney’s successful debut
Brandon Varney said before his first ARCA Menards Series race he simply wanted to “prove he belongs.”
His finishing sixth at Winchester in the No. 10 Van’s Tire Center / Drive Train Specialists / Coldwell Banker Professionals Toyota for Andy Hillenburg’s Fast Track Racing team — and doing so on the lead lap — represented a resounding yes.
The 19-year-old from Richmond, Michigan, reached the ARCA Menards platform after performing well in the Bill McAnally Racing Drivers Academy this year. He also won three races in three starts in the CRA Late Model Sportsman Series last year, and he has four Winchester 400 starts to his name, too.
Yet racing at the high-banked half mile would be a new challenge in an ARCA car. He passed the test, to say the least.
JoJo’s successful debut
Make it two from the Bill McAnally Racing Drivers Academy who had successful ARCA Menards debuts Saturday.
In the West Series race at Colorado National, Hueytown, Alabama’s Jolynn “JoJo” Wilkinson finished eighth (on the lead lap) in her first race on the platform.
Wilkinson is a third-generation racer and the second generation in her family to compete in ARCA-sanctioned competition; her father John competed regularly in the ARCA Menards Series in the mid 1990s.
She continues the “Alabama Gang” tradition from her hometown, as well. Her grandfather, Charles “Red” Farmer, is a NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee and a himself a two-time ARCA Menards Series winner.
Wilkinson has accumulated 10 starts in the BMR Drivers Academy this season with several runner-up finishes across three different California tracks.
Notes
- Toni Breidinger set a new career high with her ninth-place run at Winchester. The Calypso Lemonade 200 marked the first of five races the 22-year-old will run for Venturini Motorsports as part of a partnership with Triller through the end of the 2021 season.
- With his win at Winchester, Gibbs grew his lead in the Sioux Chief Showdown standings to 10 points over second-place Heim.
- Saturday night’s race at Winchester was the third event in the 2021 CGS Imaging Four Crown, a four-race series within the ARCA Menards Series that celebrates a diverse schedule with events at four different types of tracks. Gibbs has now won the superspeedway (Kansas Speedway), road course (Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course) and short track races, with a dirt race (DuQuoin State Fairgrounds) coming Sept. 5.
- Love’s second-place run at Colorado National after leading a race-high 101 laps was good enough to move him to the lead in the West Series championship standings. His teammate Cole Moore moved to second place in the standings with his fourth-place run Saturday.
- Iest became the 196th driver to win a West Series race.
- Jake Drew’s third-place finish at Colorado National is his new career best.
