On Friday, the ARCA Menards Series returned to Irish Hills in Michigan for the running of the Henry Ford Health System 200. Ty Gibbs started on pole in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry, with Corey Heim in the No. 20 Venturini Motorsports Toyota Camry starting beside him. Behind them would be the No. 15 Toyota of Drew Dollar and the No. 46 Ford Fusion driven by Thad Moffit. The race was 100 laps for 200 miles.
On the opening lap, the No. 18 and 20 cars were inches apart for the entirety of the first two turns, completely parallel until Corey Heim took the lead on the backstretch. Behind the two leading Toyotas, the No. 15 of Drew Dollar and 46 of Thad Moffit were in a similar position, with both cars extremely close for almost the entirety of the lap. Though in turn four, Dollar would lose his car and make contact with Moffit, making Moffit slam the wall while still connected to him. The race remained green, with Moffit and Dollar dropping down to 15th and 16th respectively.
Further ahead, Ty GIbbs would aggressively take the lead from Heim, opening up a decent gap between himself and the 20. Meanwhile, Nick Sanchez in the No. 2 Rev Racing Chevrolet came up and contended for second. Gibbs opened a pretty large gap between himself and Sanchez for the next few laps, though the No. 12 Chevrolet of D.L. Wilson would have an oil line issue, putting fluid on the track and bringing out the first caution flag of the race.
Going green again, Gibbs was challenged by the No. 2 of Sanchez, though Sanchez would be unsuccessful, and held a steady gap between himself and the leader. Further behind the leaders, the No. 4 of Thad Moffit struck the left rear quarter panel of Drew Dollar’s No. 15 car, sending Dollar into a spin. He would later be hit heavily by the No. 27 of Tim Richmond. Both cars came to a halt on the entrance to pit road as Richmond climbed from his car with a fractured ankle, and would undo the window net to Dollars car.
On the restart, Gibbs retained the lead, with Sanchez in 2nd, the No. 23 Chevrolet of Sam Mayer in third, and Corey Heim in 4th. The race remained green for quite a while.
Restarting after the race break, Gibbs once again restarted next to Heim, and the two had an aggressive battle for the lead, with Gibbs coming out on top. Behind the leaders, the No. 25 Toyota of Gracie Trotter, the No. 97 Chevy of Jason Kitzmiller, and the No. 11 Toyota of Brandon Varney were all caught up in a huge accident, with Trotter’s car on fire for a moment. All drivers took a pretty big hit, but all were thankfully okay. The 11 would continue, though the 97 and 25 would have their days cut short.
At the restart, it would once again be Gibbs and Heim, with Gibbs able to keep a gap between himself and the driver of the 20. For the rest of the race, Heim would get close to Gibbs, though Gibbs would always block or break the air to the 20. Coming to the final lap, Heim had a huge run to the 18, though it wouldn’t be enough, as Ty Gibbs won his 8th win of the season at Michigan!
It was be Gibbs in 1st in the No. 18 Toyota, Heim right behind in the No. 20 Toyota, Nick Sanchez in the No. 2 Chevrolet in third, Sam Mayer in the No. 23 Chevy coming home 4th, and Kyle Sieg in the No. 28 Chevrolet finishing up the top five.
Featured image from @ARCA_Racing on Twitter.
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