JOLIET, Ill. – Michael Self saw an ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards win at Chicagoland Speedway slip away last fall because of a late-race restart.
Thursday night, he was determined not to let that happen again.
Self used the strength of four fresh tires to power through the chaos of an overtime restart at the end of the SCOTT 150, going three-wide to pass both Riley Herbst and Todd Gilliland before the field reached turn one and motoring home to score his third ARCA win.
The Utah driver led 63 of 102 laps with his No. 15 Sinclair Oil Toyota, but it was the call to take four tires by his crew chief Kevin Reed that ultimately led Self to victory lane.
Self dominated the middle portion of the event, but Gilliland’s car was superior on the long run and came to life late, taking the lead for the first time with 33 to go and opening up nearly a six-second advantage in the closing stages of the race.
However, a spinning Leilani Munter brought out the third and final yellow flag with seven laps left, setting up pit stops and alleviating the concerns of many who were unsure whether they could make it to the finish on fuel.
All the lead lap cars, with the exception of Riley Herbst, came down pit road for service and Gilliland’s team made the gutsy call to take only two tires during their final stop. They thought more teams would make the same move, but Self and the remainder of the frontrunners took four fresh tires and lined up from third on back for the final two-lap sprint to the finish.
Herbst elected the outside lane for the restart, but when racing resumed, he spun the tires and got loose up top, coming down the track into Gilliland as Self leapt to the apron of the race track to go three-wide for the race lead.
From there, Self was gone into the Illinois night, running off to the victory despite the field’s best efforts to track him back down.
“I was looking for a gap there on that last restart,” said Self. “We restarted third and the key was being able to get to the lead by turn one. I’ve replayed that over and over again in my mind. I knew they didn’t have the tires ahead of us. We used that to our advantage … and it was almost a repeat of Kansas last year. I just had to make the most of it and not come out of the gas after we took the green.
“It’s so much fun to come out here and perform like this; it makes me so proud to do this for Venturini Motorsports, my family and everyone who’s helped to get me to this point. Such a rewarding feeling.”
Points leader Sheldon Creed came close after getting around Gilliland coming to the white flag, slicing his deficit down to .155 of a second, but ran out of time to challenge Self for the win.
“Two laps into the race I got really, really tight and it never went away,” said Creed of his car’s handling. “I just had to be easy into the corner and patient before I could get to the gas. I was holding on at the end. As soon as the yellow came out, I was excited because I knew it gave us the chance to do something. The front six or so of us were all really aggressive and it got pretty wild.
“You never know what to expect in these situations, but the 15 (Self) was next to the 54 (Gilliland) before the (start/finish) line and I guess they didn’t want to call it,” he added. “I can’t knock it too badly. I’m happy with our run and looking forward to the next race at Iowa.”
Gilliland hung on to finish third after leading 28 laps, but was fired up after the race due to the late caution that he felt cost him the victory.
“Tonight was pretty challenging, but some of these guys shouldn’t even be on the racetrack. That’s very, very frustrating,” said a frustrated Gilliland. “It’s ruined our night both races I’ve ran this year. We’ve had the fastest Frontline Enterprises/Crosley Brands Toyota Camry every race. That says something about DGR-Crosley and I’m really proud to drive for them. I think I’m coming back at Pocono, so hopefully we can beat them worse than we did tonight.”
Zane Smith and Chase Purdy followed in fourth and fifth, respectively, giving MDM Motorsports three cars in the top five.
Herbst, who faded to sixth after leading the field to green on the final restart, said afterwards that he stands behind his team and “would do it all over again if they made the same call.”
Travis Braden, Codie Rohrbaugh, Will Rodgers and Austin Hill completed the top 10.
Natalie Decker and Joe Graf Jr. got together coming to the finish line and crashed, bringing out the caution flag after the leaders had taken the checkers. They finished 12th and 13th.
The finish:
Michael Self, Sheldon Creed, Todd Gilliland, Zane Smith, Chase Purdy, Riley Herbst, Travis Braden, Codie Rohrbaugh, Will Rodgers, Austin Hill, Blaine Perkins, Natalie Decker, Joe Graf Jr., Zach Ralston, Will Kimmel, Gus Dean, Max Tullman, Toni Breidinger, Tom Berte, Leilani Munter, Eric Caudell, Brad Smith, Con Nicolopoulos, Mike Basham, Jesse Iwuji, Mark Muenier, Wayne Peterson.
