TOLEDO, Ohio (Sept. 12, 2016) – ARCA's 2016 Bill France 4 Crown champion will soon be crowned when the annual four-race title fight wraps it up at Chicagoland Speedway with the SCOTT® 150 September 15.
Leading national championship contender Chase Briscoe leads the way headed to Chicagoland, but not by much. Tom Hessert, on a late-season surge, trails by just 20 points.
"That's only four spots on the race track," Hessert said. "So this thing's not over."
Hessert won the race at DuQuoin last week and finished second at Salem Saturday.
"We have a little momentum the last few weeks...hopefully, we'll carry that to Chicagoland. This is a very cool award...it'd be pretty neat to win it."
While Hessert has finished first and second in his last two outings, Briscoe has finished fourth and sixth.
"He's (Hessert) been running really good," said Briscoe. "It's going to come down to the wire without a doubt. We're going to have to get up on the wheel at Chicagoland."
Barring something unforeseen, Briscoe is headed toward the national title with just three races left. The Mitchell, Indiana rookie sensation has already wrapped up the 2016 Short Track Challenge championship presented by Protect Plus. Not so fast on the Bill France 4 Crown.
"We're definitely going to earn this one, if we can get there," Briscoe added. "It would be very meaningful to win it. Four different kinds of race tracks where you have to be the best. This would mean a lot to me in my career...it would be something really special."
The Bill France Four Crown, which provides a link to the series’ roots by featuring a diverse combination of tracks in any given season, includes the New Jersey Motorsports Park road course, the Lucas Oil Raceway short track, the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds dirt mile and Chicagoland Speedway for 2016.
“The Bill France Four Crown Award speaks to the very nature of the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards,” said ARCA President Ron Drager. “Considering our diverse schedule of superspeedways, short tracks, dirt ovals, and a road course, this award captures what our series is about.
”It also allows us to recognize our long standing respect and appreciation for the great leadership and professionalism Bill France Sr. contributed to ARCA, beginning in our formative years in the 1950s and continuing for decades.”
Davey Allison won the first Bill France 4 Crown championship in his rookie season in 1984. Ten-time ARCA Racing Series champion Frank Kimmel is the all-time Bill France 4 Crown champion with seven titles (2013, 2008, 2007, 2005, 2002, 2001, 1998).
Bill France 4 Crown points are distributed based on race finishing positions only.
ARCA Bill France 4 Crown Award Champions:
1984 – Davey Allison 1985 – Lee Raymond 1986 – Lee Raymond 1987 – Grant Adcox 1988 – Grant Adcox 1989 – Tracy Leslie 1990 – Bob Keselowski 1991 – Bobby Bowsher/Bill Venturini (Tie) 1992 – Bobby Bowsher 1993 – Bob Keselowski 1994 – Bob Hill 1995 – Harris DeVane 1996 – Tim Steele 1997 – Tim Steele 1998 – Frank Kimmel 1999 – Bill Baird 2000 – Tim Steele 2001 – Frank Kimmel 2002 – Frank Kimmel 2003 – Jason Jarrett 2004 – Brent Sherman 2005 – Frank Kimmel 2006 – Blake Bjorklund 2007 – Frank Kimmel 2008 – Frank Kimmel 2009 – Parker Kligerman 2010 – Joey Coulter 2011 – Chad McCumbee 2012 – Chris Buescher 2013 – Frank Kimmel 2014 – Grant Enfinger 2015 – Cunningham Motorsports (Kyle Weatherman/Blake Jones)
This year’s SCOTT® 150 at Chicagoland will set the stage for an exciting weekend of NASCAR racing action including Sprint Cup, Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series races. The weekend also kicks off NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup, the playoff system used to crown the 2016 Sprint Cup champion.
No Repeat ARCA Winners at Chicagoland
In 15 consecutive ARCA races at Chicagoland, there have been no repeat race winners among drivers. Former ARCA Chicagoland winners are Ed Berrier (2001), Chad Blount (2002), Frank Kimmel (2003), Kyle Krisiloff (2004), Dawayne Bryan (2005), Steve Wallace (2006), Michael McDowell (2007), Scott Lagasse, Jr. (2008), Justin Lofton (2009), Patrick Sheltra (2010), Ty Dillon (2011), Kevin Swindell (2012), Corey LaJoie (2013), Mason Mitchell (2014) and Ryan Reed (2015).
No Repeat ARCA Pole Winners at Chicagoland
In addition to no repeat victories among drivers, there have been no repeat Menards Pole presented by Ansell winners either. Chad Blount (2002), Frank Kimmel (2003), Steve Wallace (2006), Michael McDowell (2007), and Kevin Swindell (2012) won the race from the pole. Other pole winners at Chicagoland include Tim Steele (2001), Stuart Kirby (2004), Joey Miller (2005), Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. (2008), Brian Ickler (2009), Craig Goess (2010), Josh Richards (2011), Ryan Blaney (2013), John Wes Townley (2014) and Cody Coughlin (2015. The ARCA one-lap track record was set in 2008 by Stenhouse with an average speed of 180.030 mph.
Schedule/Media Coverage
The SCOTT® 150 is live on FS1 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Thursday night, September 15. The race will follow a busy day of on-track activities beginning with ARCA practice from 12:30 - 2:00 p.m. local Central time. Menards Pole Qualifying presented by Ansell is scheduled at 4:10 p.m. ARCAracing.com will provide live timing and scoring and live chat for all on-track activities.
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