Michael Self took the lead from dirt specialist Logan Seavey on lap 56 and held on from there, even in an overtime restart with a two lap restart, Self went onto win the Allen Crowe 100. It was Self’s first time on dirt in a stock car, but it sure didn’t look like it.
“I’m going to give credit to a lot of people,” Self said to MAVTV about his dirt track win. “A lot people like Frank Kimmel for being here today, teaching me a lot and helping me out tremendously throughout the race. Huge thanks to Donnie Moran, last week I ran his Street Stock, he helped me a whole bunch. Billy Venturini (Owner/General Manager of Venturini Motorsports), Christian (Eckes) and Logan (Seavey) helped me a whole bunch.”
“I just learned as much as I could coming into this. The rain was a little bit of a blessing because, we were really good in practice I thought. At the start of the race, qualifying was super slick and when that rain came through, I thought it really reset the track. So it kind of gave us a fresh start and this thing, was really consistent. I was a little afraid of fire off speed, long run wise we never fell off. That was fun today.”
In his first ARCA race back in a while, Logan Seavey returned like he never was out of action, setting on the pole in his No. 20 Venturini Motorsports Toyota.
The race was in hurry up mode due to a chance of rain.
The first caution came out on the first lap for the 7 of Eric Caudell, who spun out in Turn 3. Will Kimmel was penalized due to changing lanes on the restart. The race went back to green on lap 6, as it saw the 18 of Ty Gibbs take the lead from Seavey on lap 9. However, the rains came on lap 12 and halted the race for a short while.
After the passing shower, the race resumed on lap 16 after a 20 minute red flag or so. Self came down pit road when the caution was brought back out and Kimmel served his pass through.
The Allen Crowe 100 featured another lead change on lap 17, where it saw Corey Heim of the 22 take the lead from Gibbs off the restart. The race remained green for several laps until another came out on lap 27, as the 06 of Tim Richmond went around on the back stretch off the exit of Turn 2. Race leaders Heim, Gibbs, Christian Eckes, Travis Braden, Joe Graf Jr were among the few that pitted under caution.
Seavey and Self stayed out to assume the top spots for the lap 33 restart. Bret Holmes and Kimmel were the other two that stayed out as well. From there, the two Venturini Motorsports teammates pulled away from the field. On lap 64, Braden had to come down pit road for overheating issues. On lap 70, Gibbs was on pit road for a fuel injection problem which took him out of contention to win.
After a long green flag run, the final caution came out on lap 95 for Graf Jr and Gibbs who spun around. This would see Eckes pit, but also a overtime finish with a two lap dash to the finish.
With a late race restart on lap 100, it was a battle for the win among Self, Seavey and Heim. However, the No. 25 of Self was able to hold off the hard chargers for his first ever win at the Illinois State Fairgrounds.
“General Tire gives us a good product here, especially on these dirt tracks and a product that last a really long time,” Self added in his interview with MAVTV. “You have to be conservative and it reminded me of Salem earlier this year. You know, just how much you save the right-rear, how much you have to save tires and I think that really plays into effect. When I had the big lead, I didn’t want that caution, I was thinking if there was going to be, we needed to have some tire left.”
“So props to General Tire for giving us a product. As far as dirt go, I don’t know anything about dirt.”
For his teammate Eckes, he came home in the second position after pitting late.
“I just struggled all day, honestly,” Eckes said to MAVTV. “Even there at the end, we didn’t have the balance, we just had new tires and we were able to run them down a little bit. Overall, it was a great day and a lot of learning after this. I kind of burned up these General Tires a little bit. It was a little bit on me and a little bit on us. We weren’t the best, so I had to find something. We were able to get new General Tires and came home second, but it’s coming up short. It kind of sucks. Congrats to Michael and them, but it’s on DuQuoin.”
There were four cautions for 25 laps with five leaders among four lead change.
Official Results
- Michael Self, led 47 laps
- Christian Eckes,
- Bret Holmes
- Logan Seavey, led 34 laps
- Will Kimmel
- Kelly Kovski
- Corey Heim, led 11 laps
- Carson Hocevar, One lap down
- Ryan Unzicker, One lap down
- Joe Graf Jr, Two laps down
- Travis Braden, Three laps down
- Dick Doheny, Three laps down
- Tim Richmond, Four laps down
- Bobby Gerhart, 16 laps down
- Ty Gibbs, 22 laps down
- Brad Smith, OUT, Overheating
- Dale Shearer, OUT, Overheating
- Mike Basham, OUT, Overheating
- Tommy Vigh Jr, OUT, Overheating
- Eric Caudell, OUT, Crash
- Wayne Peterson, OUT, DNS
Up Next: The ARCA Menards Series will take the next weekend off before heading back on dirt on Saturday August 31 at DuQuoin State Fairgrounds.
