Sheldon Creed (No. 28 United Rentals Toyota) heads into Sunday’s ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards Allen Crowe 100 at the Illinois State Fair looking to tie Chandler Smith (No. 20 Craftsman Toyota) for the lead in the 2018 General Tire Pole Award standings. Creed, who finished second at Pocono in the last series race on July 27, has earned three GT Pole Awards so far this season at Gateway, Chicagoland, and Iowa. Smith, who is not entered at Springfield, has earned four GT Pole Awards thus far at Nashville, Salem, Toledo, and Madison.
Creed perhaps has a leg up on the competition at Springfield; he has considerable dirt experience in off-road trucks and ran both of ARCA’s dirt races in 2017. He has also competed in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series’ only dirt track event at Eldora Speedway in each of the last three seasons. He finished fourth at Springfield and second at DuQuoin last season, and picked up his best finish at Eldora earlier this season with a 15th-place result.
While he looks to join Chandler Smith on top of the current GT Pole Award standings, Creed will also be looking to eclipse Mason Mitchell’s Springfield track record, 32.408 seconds/111.084 miles per hour, set in 2013.
Other drivers who have earned a General Tire Pole Award in 2018 include Natalie Decker (Daytona), Michael Self (Talladega), Todd Gilliland (Charlotte), Noah Gragson (Pocono), Brandon Jones (Michigan), Christian Eckes (Elko), and Gus Dean (Pocono). Carson Hocevar also earned a General Tire Pole Award at Berlin, though that race was postponed by inclement weather and rescheduled for August 25.
Jones’ pole at Michigan was the fastest of 2018 at 191.836 miles per hour. Eckes’ pole at Elko, the smallest track on the schedule, was earned with the slowest speed of the season, 94.300 miles per hour.
Venturini Motorsports has won seven General Tire Pole Awards so far in 2018 with drivers Natalie Decker, Chandler Smith, Michael Self, and Christian Eckes. MDM Motorsports has won four GT Pole Awards with drivers Brandon Jones and Sheldon Creed. Win-Tron Racing earned one pole with Gus Dean, and KBR Racing Development earned one with Carson Hocevar.
Discounted tickets for the Allen Crowe 100 are available at the eleven participating local Springfield Menards stores. Practice is scheduled for 10 am ET/9 am CT, General Tire Pole Qualifying slated for 12 noon ET/11 am CT, and the green flag will fly at 2:30 pm ET/1:30 pm CT. MAVTV will have live coverage of the race, while ARCARacing.com will have live timing, scoring, track updates, and scanner audio of all on-track activity for registered users.
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