“Both Chase and Grant are the embodiment of what the ARCA Racing Series is all about,” said ARCA president Ron Drager. “Both came to ARCA with nothing but desire and a incredibly strong work ethic. Chase worked in the Cunningham Motorsports shop and slept on the couch in the shop before he convinced them to let him drive one of their racecars, and it paid off for both of them with a championship. Grant worked as a crew chief while trying to convince anyone he could to let him drive their racecar. He put in a lot of blood, sweat, and tears before he earned his chance with GMS Racing to go win a championship. We are extremely proud of their accomplishments and had a lot of fun watching them battle it out for the win at Eldora.”
Briscoe earned six victories en route to the 2016 ARCA Racing Series championship driving for Briggs Cunningham and Kerry Scherer. It was his first and only full season in ARCA; he competed full-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for Brad Keselowski Racing in 2017 before moving into a partial schedule for Roush Fenway Racing in the NASCAR XFINITY Series.
Enfinger, the 2015 ARCA Racing Series champion, came up just 0.038 seconds short at the finish. Enfinger has earned a total of 16 career ARCA wins since 2013, including his last series victory, on dirt, at Springfield in August 2017. Enfinger also has a pair of victories on dirt at DuQuoin to his credit.
Briscoe led 54 laps on his way to the win. He took over the lead on lap 46 when Ben Rhodes, another ThorSport teammate, nudged the outside wall in turns 1 and 2 and pitted with a flat tire. Briscoe led until lap 91, the scheduled end of the second segment of the race, before pitting.
He restarted 15th for the final 60-lap stage and took advantage of fresh rubber to track down leader Logan Seavey before a caution on lap 131 put Briscoe on his tailgate for the restart. Briscoe leapt from fourth to second in a half a lap on lap 137, but another caution waved on lap 138. On the restart on lap 144, Briscoe jumped into the lead, but the final yellow of the night waved on lap 145 and forced the race into a two-lap overtime shootout.
Briscoe led to the green on the restart, but Enfinger fought hard on the outside and used the momentum of the thigh line to lead at the white flag. The two stayed side by side the entirety of the final lap as well before making contact off turn four coming to the flag. Enfinger nudged the wall slightly, breaking his momentum and giving Briscoe the victory in a photo finish.
“That was so cool,” Briscoe said in victory lane. “After last year I had to come back and try to get this one. It sucks that I got together with a teammate on the last lap but it was for the win at Eldora. This is huge for me.”
Current ARCA Racing Series championship leader Sheldon Creed also competed in the Eldora Dirt Derby. He finished second in his qualifying heat race, started the main event in sixth and finished fifteeth.
The ARCA Racing Series has two dirt track events on its 2018 calendar: the Allen Crowe 100 at the Springfield Mile, located within the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield, Illinois, is set for September 19 and the General Tire Grabber 100 is set for the “Magic Mile” at the Southern Illinois State Fairgrounds in DuQuoin on Labor Day Monday, September 3. Both events will be televised live on MAVTV while ARCARacing.com will have living timing, scoring and event updates for registered users. For additional information, including ticket information for both, visit trackenterprises.com.
ARCA PR/Photo Credit Matt Sullivan/Getty Images
