Holmes wins ARCA title after second-place finish at Kansas Speedway

Corey Heim won the ARCA Menards Series Speediatrics 150 on Friday night, but Bret Holmes took home the biggest prize from Kansas Speedway.

With his second-place finish, Holmes, in his fifth season in the series, claimed his first ARCA championship in a family-funded Chevrolet.

“This is something we’ve been working on for a few years,” said Holmes, 23, who nearly walked away from racing when he lacked sponsorship. “We made a run at it last year and finished third. I knew in the back of my head I had the potential to do it, but those couple years there, especially in 2018, were pretty rough. I thought about quitting at some point. That’s a really tough thing to admit about a sport you love.

“But it’s the truth, and If it weren’t for my friends and family to keep pushing me … they gave me that confidence that I lost for a few years. If you can come into each race with a chance to win, it makes it that much better.”

Heim, 18, took the lead from Holmes on the 19th lap, led the remaining 81 laps and won by 1.57 seconds for the 100th ARCA win for Toyota. It was just Heim’s third ARCA start of the season, but second at Kansas, where he finished fourth in July. Holmes, whose only career win was at Kansas last July, needed only to finish in third or ahead of Michael Self to win the series championship.

“I knew right from the first five laps I had a really good race car,” said Heim, of Marietta, Ga. “I got right to the front within 20 laps, and from there, went on pace control. After the first Kansas race, I had a shot at winning that one. We had a great race car. I had no idea what to expect going into that race, what I learned was a huge advantage and transfer to this one.

“Ironically, we weren’t even scheduled to run this race until some other races got shifted, and here we are, in victory lane at Kansas.”

Self, the only driver besides Holmes who had a chance to win the title, finished fifth in the race and second in the ARCA standings.