Friday was the dawning of a new day for Brett Holmes. The 23-year old, who was taking part in his 69th career race, recorded his first victory as he took the checkered flag in the ARCA Menards Series Dawn 150 at Kansas Speedway.
Holmes’ win came on the heels of five straight top-10 finishes, including four in the top-four and a previous career-best second-place showing on July 11 at Kentucky. It’s been a long time coming for Holmes, who began his career in 2016 at just 19 years of age.
“I’ve been working my whole life for this,” said Holmes. “My team did this for me. It’s been a long, tough road. I can’t thank my friends and my family enough. They believed in me when I didn’t. It was well worth the wait. I’m so happy. It’s awesome.”
Holmes was in charge throughout much of the race, finishing ahead of runner-up, rookie Ryan Repko by more than 14 seconds. Riley Herbst was third. Now that he knows what it takes to win, Holmes is convinced there is more to come.
“The confidence slowly built when we kept getting those really good runs, Holmes said. “It’s tough being an underdog and battling those big guys. Now I’m just going to keep my head down and get some more.”
Repko recorded a second-place finish for the second time in four races this year, and he feels as though a win is not far out of reach.
“I want to win,” said Repko. “That was my goal at the beginning of the year. I’ve always set the bar high. I try to set unrealistic goals and really try to chase them. The harder I try, the further up we’ll be. My goal was to win two races out of six. We’re so close.”
With his win, Holmes now stands second in the championship points standings with 317, trailing only Michael Self (336), who was sixth Friday night.
The Kansas Speedway NASCAR weekend will conclude on Saturday with the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series e.p.t 200 at 12:30 p.m., CT (FS1) to be followed by the NASCAR Xfinity Series Kansas Lottery 250 at 4:00 p.m., CT (NBCSN).
Kansas Speedway PR
