ARCA driver Grant Enfinger is locked in a tight battle for the points lead with second-year driver Mason Mitchell. Enfinger’s year got off to a great start by winning the season’s first three races with Team BCR Racing.
After the Chicagoland race two weeks ago, it was announced that week that the Alabama driver would move over to Gallagher Motorsports for the rest of the ARCA season.
“Everything’s been really, really good,” Enfinger said. “Everything went as smooth as possible. “You don’t ever want to change teams mid-season. It happened as good as it could have on both sides.”
With the move, Team BCR Racing and Gallagher Motorsports formed an alliance to keep Enfinger’s No. 90 and also the owner points that went with the team.
“Overall, it was a really good thing for everybody involved,” Enfinger said. “Can’t say enough about everything Howard and Paula Bixman and everyone at BCR has done for me, but I’m really, really excited about moving forward with GMS.”
Also with the alliance, Enfinger is now working with crew chief Ryan “Pickle” London after being with former crew chief Kelly Kovski the last few seasons.
“It’s been really, really good so far,” Enfinger said of the relationship with his crew chief. “Me and Pickle haven’t known each other for that long, but we’ve gotten along really, really good and I feel like we communicate really good.”
His first race with the new team was at Lucas Oil Raceway last Friday and wheeled the No, 90 Chevrolet to a fourth-place finish with his new crew chief.
“I think last week was a big learning experience for both of us and me telling him what I need and don’t need in the car that made us even more prepared for this week (at Pocono),” Enfinger said.
With the finish at LOR and Mitchell’s rear-gear issue, the GMS Racing driver once again took the points lead.
Both drivers have been in the title hunt all season and have remained 1-2 in the points, whether it’s Enfinger or Mitchell on top. Enfinger says there’s no rivalry between the two.
“Me and Mason get along really good off the track,” he said. “We race really clean on the track, so it’s gonna come down to the end. It’s gonna be a really hard fight, but there’s a lot of respect on both sides of the fence.”
The driver of the No. 90 car has only driven a Chevrolet three times in his ARCA career before last Friday’s race and drove a Ford in the ARCA race at Pocono in June.
“Overall, handling-wise, we got a good bit of grip here today,” Enfinger said after Thursday’s practice. “Pickle (London) brought a really good practice here.
Enfinger spent the early part of the practice trying to get up to speed in his GMS Racing machine before posting the seventh fastest time in the session.
“We worked on the balance a little bit towards the end,” he added. “Honestly, I feel like we’re in really good shape race trim wise.
Enfinger has a best finish of third in the ARCA Racing Series at Pocono and will look to improve on that in Friday’s race.
The ARCA Series will qualify at 12:35 p.m. ET Friday with the green flag for the ModSpace 125 dropping later in the day at 5:15 p.m. ET. The race will be shown live on FOX Sports 1.
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