On an afternoon of dirt-track racing at the Illinois State Fairgrounds, Michael Self came out on top and edged defending race winner Christian Eckes in overtime in the Allen Crowe 100.
When the yellow flag came out on lap 95 for Ty Gibbs and Joe Graf Jr. tangling, Self held the lead over Corey Heim and pole winner Logan Seavey. The race went to a green-white-checkered (overtime) finish, and Self pulled ahead with Eckes close behind.
Heim lost several spots on those final two laps, dropping all the way to seventh place. Bret Holmes finished third, while Seavey and Will Kimmel rounded out the top five.
Gibbs led early on in the race, after a single-car spin on the first lap. However, the race was halted for a few minutes due to a rain shower, and resumed around lap 17. The soggy conditions on the track caused some engines to overheat.
Heim got around Gibbs a few laps before Tim Richmond spun and brought out the yellow on lap 27. In a strategy move, Seavey and Self stayed out on the track while the leaders pitted. As a result, Seavey maintained the lead once the field went back to green from lap 33 to lap 56, until Self caught him.
Gibbs suffered engine trouble in the race and finished 24 laps down.
Mechanical failure. #specengines #frustrated #joke
— Ty Gibbs (@TyGibbs_) August 18, 2019
Meanwhile, Self had checked out, extending the lead to several car lengths over Heim, who passed Seavey for second place on lap 70. Lapped traffic allowed for Heim to close the distance, but fell further back with 10 laps to go. Then, the caution came out in the closing laps and Heim had to resort to be the last car on the lead lap.
The top three in the standings didn’t change, as they finished the race first to third. Self holds a 105-point lead over Eckes in the standings.
Allen Crowe 100 Race Results
The next race on the dock for the ARCA Menards Series is the Southern Illinois 100 on Saturday, Aug. 31 at 9 p.m. ET. TV coverage will be provided by MAVTV.
Joy joined Frontstretch in 2019 as a NASCAR DraftKings writer, expanding to news and iRacing coverage in 2020. She's currently an assistant editor and involved with photos, social media and news editing. A California native, Joy was raised watching motorsports and started watching NASCAR extensively in 2001. She earned her B.A. degree in Liberal Studies at California State University Bakersfield in 2010.
That’s got to be the best wrapped car in stock car racing. You can pick it out anywhere on the track.