Ty Gibbs didn’t wait until the last lap this time.
Returning a year later to the site of his first career ARCA Menards Series victory, the 17-year-old North Carolina driver put on an impressively dominating display Saturday night in the Dutch Boy 150 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.
Despite a late-race restart, Gibbs pulled away from the field easily and drove his No. 18 Monster Energy/Terrible Herbst/ORCA Toyota across the finish line 1.716 seconds ahead of runner-up Chandler Smith.
Gibbs has now won four of nine series starts this year, and picked up his Sioux Chief Showdown victory.
It was the sixth career ARCA Menards Series win in 20 starts for Gibbs, and his ninth win across the ARCA Menards, East and West series over the last two season.
Win No. 1 came at Gateway last June, when Gibbs passed Mayer in the final turns of the final lap.
There was no such dramatics this time around.
Gibbs, who was fastest in practice, started fifth as the race lineup was set based on Sioux Chief Showdown owners points. But he quickly marched his way forward and powered past pole-sitter Michael Self on Lap 12.
Mayer finished third at Gateway for the second consecutive year, while Max McLaughlin and ARCA Menards Series West points leader Jesse Love were fourth and fifth, respectively.
Bret Holmes finishes sixth and cut back into Self’s ARCA Menards lead. The latter spin out of a top 10 spot in the final third of the race and limped to a 15th-place finish, five laps off the pace. Holmes now trails by just seven after 13 races.
After seven of 10 Sioux Chief Showdown races, Smith moved back past Self to reclaim the lead. Smith is just two points ahead of Mayer and four in front of Gibbs. Self dropped to fourth, 12 points behind Smith.
Drew Dollar, Taylor Gray, Hailie Deegan and Chase Cabre rounded out the top 10 at Gateway.
The ARCA Menards Series will head south to Missouri’s Lebanon I-44 Speedway for the Zinsser SmartCoat 200 on Sept. 5. That race will also serve as round eight of the Sioux Chief Showdown.
The Dutch Boy 150 aired live on MAVTV, streamed live on TrackPass on NBC Gold and was heard live on MRN Radio.
— ARCA Racing —
