Teenagers to Battle for Crowe 100 and ARCA Championship August
By Jay Hardin
Track Enterprises Staff
Springfield, IL (August 16, 2021)-In 100 plus years of racing at the Illinois State Fair never has such a close stock car championship battle come to the last Sunday of the Illinois State Fair.  Adding to the interest is the fact that two young men, who are not yet 20 years of age, are fighting for the 2021 ARCA Menard’s Series title.  One is the grandson of a prominent NASCAR team owner, the other a Georgia native who drives for a team that hoisted a car owner’s championship in 2019.
At press time (prior to the August 20 event at Michigan) just 2 markers separated 18-year-old Ty Gibbs and 19-year-old Cory Heim in the ARCA championship chase.  The August 22 Allen Crowe 100 at Springfield is the fifteenth event on the 2021 ARCA schedule.  Just seven races remain on the 2021 ARCA schedule with five of those contested in the Midwest and two of them on the dirt miles of Springfield and DuQuoin.
Gibbs, the grandson of NFL Hall of Fame coach and NASCAR owner Joe Gibbs is in his third year of ARCA competition.  He has thirteen wins and fifteen pole positions during that span with 2021 being the first full-time season in the ARCA series.  In 2021, Gibbs has seven wins including Phoenix, Kansas, Charlotte, Mid-Ohio and Winchester.  The Toyota driven by Gibbs and wrenched by Mark McFarland has been up front for 989 of the 1661 laps completed in 2021.  Even at the tender age of eighteen, Gibbs is a veteran of the Springfield dirt.  He started third and led 10 laps in 2019 before encountering problems and finishing 15th.  Gibbs qualified second in 2020 but never led and finished 10th.
Heim is also in his third ARCA season and his first full-time ARCA run.  Heim has five wins in 2021 including the season opener at Daytona and on the road course at Watkins Glen.  Heim has led 318 laps in 2021 and has 13 top 10 finishes.  The Georgia native ran a Ford for Chad Bryant in 2019, in 2020 he switched to the Venturini Motorsports team driving the Craftsman sponsored Toyota.  Heim ran at Springfield for Bryant in 2019 and battled for the top slot early on with Ty Gibbs, Heim leading 11 laps and finishing 7th.  Last year on the Illinois State Fair dirt Heim started and finished 8th after a late race accident ended his day.
In the 2021 season Gibbs and Heim have won all but two pole positions and all but one race to date.  On August 22 the two teenagers look to continue their season dominance and championship battle in the 59th running of the Allen Crowe 100 on the Springfield Mile.
Practice begins at 10 a.m. on August 22 for the ARCA Menard’s Series, General Tire Pole Qualifying at 11:30 a.m. and the Allen Crowe 100 at 1:30. The August 22 race will be televised by MAVTV and streamed via TrackPass.  Tickets are available by calling Track Enterprises at 217-764-3200, at the Illinois State Fair Box Office or by visiting your local, central Illinois Menards store.
The event is all part of a huge racing weekend in Central Illinois featuring Lincoln Speedway with MOWA Sprint Cars on Friday night, Silver Crown Saturday at the Springfield Mile, Jack Hewitt Night featuring POWRi Midgets at Macon Speedway Saturday night, and the ARCA Menards Series Sunday afternoon at the Springfield Mile.
Full information on the events can be found at www.trackenterprises.com.