Michael Self

Michael Self (born November 1, 1990) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He currently competes full-time in the ARCA Menards Series, driving the No. 25 Toyota Camry for Venturini Motorsports. He was a former development driver for Richard Childress Racing, and has made seven NASCAR Xfinity Series starts for JD Motorsports. He has eight wins in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West, and seven wins in ARCA competition.[1]

Michael Self
Born (1990-11-01) November 1, 1990
Park City, Utah
ARCA Menards Series career
Debut season2014
Current teamVenturini Motorsports
Car number25
EngineToyota
Crew chiefKevin Reed
Former teamsRanier Racing with MDM, MDM Motorsports
Starts51
Championships0
Wins9
Poles6
Best finish2nd in 2019
NASCAR Xfinity Series career
7 races run over 1 year
2015 position40th
Best finish40th (2015)
First race2015 U.S. Cellular 250 (Iowa)
Last race2015 Kansas Lottery 300 (Kansas)
Wins Top tens Poles
0 0 0
Previous series
2009–2013, 2017NASCAR K&N Pro Series West

Racing career
Self's car at the 2015 Road America 180 Fired Up by Johnsonville.

Early years

Self started racing at age eleven in go-karts. He switched to open-wheel cars five years later and came to stock cars at age eighteen.[2]

K&N Pro Series West

In 2009, Self ran two races with Motorway Motorsports, starting and parking.[3] After going full-time with Motorway in 2010,[4] Self was signed by the Golden Gate Racing Team, an affiliate of Richard Childress Racing, for the final two races of the season.[5][6]

The partnership with GGRT extended into 2011, with Self driving top-tier equipment. However, there were missteps, like a crash in Sonoma qualifying that relegated him to the back of the field. With a car that his crew chief described as "winning", Self worked his way through the field using his car and crashed again, finishing 25th.[7] He finished seventh in points with three top fives.[8] The following year, Self broke out, winning three races and only finishing out of the top ten six times in a fifteen race season. He improved to sixth in points.[9] In 2013, Self won three races in a row[10] and never fell out of the top six in points to finish fourth.[11] Despite the six wins, Self did not return to the RCR driver development lineup in 2014.

In 2017, Self returned in a part-time capacity for Sunrise Ford Racing. He ran the full schedule except for the season opening race. He won the race at Meridian Speedway after Chris Eggleston was disqualified for jumping the final restart.[12] He finished in the top ten in all of his starts[13] and won another race, at All American Speedway.[14]

ARCA Menards Series

With no ride in the K&N Pro Series West, Self joined Venturini Motorsports for two ARCA Racing Series events in 2014, the first at Mobile International Speedway.[15] He failed to finish either of his starts due to mechanical issues.[16] Again without a ride in any national series, Self partnered with Ranier Racing for a race at Kansas Speedway in 2016,[17] in which he finished third.[18] He spotted for Justin Haley in 2015 and 2016 at various races.[19]

In January 2017, Self and Ranier announced that they would partner for the season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway.[20] With Ranier giving up ARCA operations to MDM Motorsports, Self ran the scheduled Ranier races in the MDM 28 car. After running inside the top ten at Daytona, Sinclair Oil Corporation added more races with Self in both the ARCA series and K&N Series with MDM and Mason Mitchell Motorsports on the ARCA side and Sunrise Ford Racing on the NASCAR side.[21] Self finished inside the top five in three of his next four races[22] before he won the season finale at Kansas Speedway, beating out Ty Majeski in a five-wide race after the final restart. Self gave the credit to his spotter Derek Kneeland, who at that point was the spotter for Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Larson.[23]

On January 8, 2018, it was announced that Self and Sinclair partnered with Venturini Motorsports for half of the 2018 ARCA Racing Series schedule.[24] The schedule includes races at Daytona, Nashville, Talladega, Charlotte, Michigan, Chicagoland, Lucas Oil Raceway, Salem and Kansas.[25] Both driver and sponsor had previous experience with Venturini. Self had raced with the team in ARCA and the Venturini family had operated Sinclair gas stations.[26]

Self began the 2018 ARCA season by winning the season-opening Lucas Oil 200 at Daytona.[27] He followed up with a win at Chicagoland in late June, avenging a near-loss in the 2017 edition of the event. Self beat Riley Herbst and Sheldon Creed on the final restart to secure the victory.[28] At Salem Speedway in fall, Self and Zane Smith got in a racing incident early in the race, leading Smith to retaliate by intentionally destroying Self's car later in the race. Smith was later penalized by ARCA for the incident.[29]

Self beside his 2019 ARCA car

On January 11, 2019, Self and Venturini announced a full schedule for the 2019 ARCA Menards Series season in the team's No. 25 entry.[30] He won the series' first trip to Five Flags Speedway since 1996 in March, outlasting Kaden Honeycutt and Ty Gibbs during the final green-flag run.[31] He followed that up with a win in the season's third race at Salem Speedway after rain arrived after 101 of 200 laps, ultimately handing him the win. At Charlotte Motor Speedway in May, Self won the pole, led the most laps and at one point had over a 10-second advantage over the field, but slapped the wall in the closing portion of the race and faded to fifth.[32] He continued his tear in the front half of the season by leading 85 or 100 laps and winning at Michigan International Speedway in June,[33] but was penalized after the race, keeping his points lead small.[34] At the Allen Crowe 100, Self claimed his first dirt triumph, beating Venturini teammate Christian Eckes on a late restart.[35] Late-season mechanical failures and a lack of restart speed in the season finale at Kansas Speedway, dropping Self to second in the season-long points tally behind Eckes.[36]

After originally only securing enough funding for a partial season, Self returned full-time to Venturini Motorsports in 2020.[36] He began the season by winning the Lucas Oil 200 at Daytona.[37]

Xfinity Series

Self made his first Xfinity Series start in 2015, replacing Landon Cassill at Iowa Speedway in JD Motorsports' No. 01 entry. In doing so, Self became the first driver from Utah to compete in a NASCAR national series.[38] After crashing in his first start, Self ran six other races for JD, culminating in an eleventh place finish at Road America driving the No. 4.[39]

Personal life

Self attended the University of Utah.[5][40] He later attended Central Piedmont Community College, UNC Charlotte[19] and UNC Greensboro.[41] When he is not racing, he is a road racing coach and has worked with Chip Ganassi Racing.[19] Self is married.[41]

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Xfinity Series
NASCAR Xfinity Series results
Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 NXSC Pts Ref
2015 JD Motorsports 01 Chevy DAY ATL LVS PHO CAL TEX BRI RCH TAL IOW CLT DOV MCH CHI DAY KEN NHA IND IOW
32		 KEN
36		 DOV CLT 40th 108 [42]
0 GLN
37		 MOH
27		 BRI CHI
25		 KAN
32		 TEX PHO HOM
4 ROA
11		 DAR RCH

K&N Pro Series West
NASCAR K&N Pro Series West results
Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 NKNPSWC Pts
2009 Viva Motorsports 84 Chevy CTS AAS PHO MAD IOW DCS SON IRW PIR
23		 MMP
25		 CNS IOW AAS 43rd 182
2010 88 AAS
14		 PHO
10		 IOW
13		 DCS
17		 SON
5		 IRW
11		 PIR
11		 MRP
8		 CNS
7		 MMP
28		 8th 1552
Richard Childress Racing 21 Chevy AAS
12		 PHO
8
2011 PHO
15		 AAS
14		 MMP
8		 IOW
8		 LVS
4		 SON
25		 IRW
5		 EVG
11		 PIR
8		 CNS
13		 MRP
5		 SRP
6		 AAS
20		 PHO
32		 7th 1807
2012 PHO
18		 LHC
4		 MMP
18		 S99
20		 IOW
4		 BIR
1		 LVS
17		 SON
6		 EVG
2		 CNS
4		 IOW
1		 PIR
2		 SMP
12		 AAS
22		 PHO
1*		 6th 541
2013 PHO
3		 S99
15		 BIR
1		 IOW
1*		 L44
1		 SON
3*		 CNS
6		 IOW
3		 EVG
16		 SRP
6*		 MMP
4		 SMP
5		 AAS
4		 KCR
2		 PHO
9		 4th 598
2017 Sunrise Ford Racing 9 Ford TUS KCR
6		 IRW
6		 IRW
3		 SPO
5		 OSS
8		 CNS
8		 SON
4		 IOW
6		 EVG
4		 DCS
7		 MER
1		 AAS
1*		 KCR
4		 4th 522

ARCA Menards Series

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

ARCA Menards Series results
Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 AMSC Pts
2014 Venturini Motorsports 66 Toyota DAY MOB
18		 SLM TAL TOL NJE
22		 POC MCH ELK WIN CHI IRP POC BLN ISF MAD DSF SLM KEN KAN 63rd 260
2016 Ranier Racing with MDM 28 Chevy DAY NSH SLM TAL TOL NJE POC MCH MAD WIN IOW IRP POC BLN ISF DSF SLM CHI KEN KAN
3		 88th 215
2017 MDM Motorsports Toyota DAY
27		 NSH SLM TAL TOL ELK 24th 1135
Mason Mitchell Motorsports Chevy POC
3		 MCH MAD IOW
4
MDM Motorsports IRP
2		 POC WIN ISF ROA DSF SLM KAN
1
Mason Mitchell Motorsports 88 Chevy CHI
17		 KEN
2018 Venturini Motorsports 15 Toyota DAY
1		 TAL
3		 TOL CLT
21		 POC MCH
3		 MAD GTW CHI
1		 KAN
3		 15th 1985
55 NSH
4		 SLM IOW
18		 ELK POC ISF BLN DSF SLM
16		 IRP
11
2019 25 DAY
31		 FIF
1		 SLM
1*		 TAL
5		 NSH
15		 TOL
4		 CLT
5*		 POC
11		 MCH
1*		 MAD
2		 GTW
13*		 CHI
4		 ELK
4		 IOW
3		 POC
3		 ISF
1*		 DSF
4		 SLM
14		 IRP
6		 KAN
2*		 2nd 5020
2020 DAY
1*		 PHO
2		 TAL
5		 POC
5		 IRP
8		 KEN
3		 IOW
6		 KAN
6		 TOL
5		 TOL
4		 MCH
3		 DAY
1		 GTW DSF BRI MEM KAN SLM MAD ISF 1st* 591*

References
  1. "Driver Michael Self Career Statistics - Racing-Reference.info". racing-reference.info. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  2. "Michael Self". hometracks.nascar.com. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  3. "Driver Michael Self 2009 NASCAR Camping World West Series Results - Racing-Reference.info". racing-reference.info. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  4. "Driver Michael Self 2010 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West Results - Racing-Reference.info". racing-reference.info. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  5. "GGRT Returns To Action With Michael Self | NASCAR Home Tracks". hometracks.nascar.com. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  6. "WS: GGRT/RCR sign Michael Self". Motorsport.com. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  7. "Self Tackles Learning Curve In NASCAR | NASCAR Home Tracks". hometracks.nascar.com. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  8. "Driver Michael Self 2011 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West Results - Racing-Reference.info". racing-reference.info. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  9. "Driver Michael Self 2012 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West Results - Racing-Reference.info". racing-reference.info. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  10. Inc, K&N Engineering. "Michael Self Wins Third NASCAR K&N Pro Series West Race in a Row at Lebanon I-44 Speedway". K&N Filters Product and Racing News. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  11. "Driver Michael Self 2013 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West Results - Racing-Reference.info". racing-reference.info. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  12. "Michael Self Awarded Meridian Victory - NASCAR K&N Pro Series News - MRN.com". www.mrn.com. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  13. "Driver Michael Self 2017 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West Results - Racing-Reference.info". racing-reference.info. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  14. "10/14/2017 race: Toyota / NAPA Auto Parts 150 (KNPSW) - Racing-Reference.info". racing-reference.info. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  15. "ARCA: Self ready for Venturini, ARCA debut". Race Chaser Online. 2014-03-20. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  16. "Driver Michael Self 2014 ARCA Racing Series Results - Racing-Reference.info". racing-reference.info. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  17. "Michael Self Debuts With Ranier Racing At The Kansas Speedway ARCA Race". Working On My Redneck ™. 2016-10-13. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  18. "Driver Michael Self 2016 ARCA Racing Series Results - Racing-Reference.info". racing-reference.info. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  19. "Multi-tasker Michael Self tests with MDM at LOR; Iowa next". ARCA Racing. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  20. "Michael Self Racing Sinclair Racecar - Daytona Debut - ARCA Racing Series". Racing News. 2017-01-28. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  21. "SELF AND SINCLAIR PARTNER FOR EIGHT ADDITIONAL RACES, NASCAR DEBUT IN 2017". Sinclair Oil Corporation. 2017-06-05. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  22. "Driver Michael Self 2017 ARCA Racing Series Results - Racing-Reference.info". racing-reference.info. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  23. "Michael Self wins career-first ARCA race at Kansas; Austin Theriault clinches championship". Autoweek. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  24. "Michael Self, Sinclair Oil Partner with Venturini Motorsports for 2018 ARCA Season". Sinclair Oil Corporation. 2018-01-08. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  25. "Michael Self, Sinclair Oil partner with Venturini Motorsports for 2018". ARCA Racing. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  26. Wilson, Steven B. "Michael Self, Sinclair Oil Partner with Venturini Motorsports for 2018 ARCA Season". Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  27. Utter, Jim (February 10, 2018). "Michael Self escapes carnage, wins ARCA season-opener at Daytona". Motorsport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved February 11, 2018.
  28. "Michael Self wins big in ARCA at Chicagoland". Autoweek. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  29. Niehaus, Matt. "ARCA Hands Zane Smith A Light Penalty For Intentionally Wrecking Michael Self At Salem". Apex Off. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  30. "Self & Sinclair Team Up For ARCA Championship Run". Speed Sport. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  31. Keith, Bryan. "ARCA Breakdown: 2019 Pensacola 200". Frontstretch. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
  32. Allaway, Phil. "Michael Self Embarrassed With Himself After Unforced Error". Frontstretch. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
  33. Kristl, Mark. "Michael Self Wins VizCom 200 in Fuel-Mileage Race". Frontstretch. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
  34. Weaver, Matt. "ARCA penalizes points leader after Michigan win". Autoweek. Retrieved 14 June 2019.
  35. Tomlinson, Joy. "Michael Self Wins 4th Race of 2019 in Overtime at Illinois State Fair". Frontstretch. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
  36. Bearden, Aaron (February 8, 2020). "Michael Self cherishing second chance after a narrow ARCA title loss". Motorsports Beat. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  37. Bonkowski, Jerry (February 8, 2020). "Michael Self, Hailie Deegan finish 1-2 in ARCA season opener". NBC Sports. Retrieved February 8, 2020.
  38. "MICHAEL SELF JOINS JD MOTORSPORTS". teamjdmotorsports.com. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  39. "Driver Michael Self 2015 NASCAR Xfinity Series Results - Racing-Reference.info". racing-reference.info. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  40. "Michael Self". www.spiresportsinc.com. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  41. Krall, Charles (March 28, 2020). "Self Reflection: ARCA Menards Points Leaders Focusing On Normal Routine". ARCA Menards Series. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved May 10, 2020.
  42. "Michael Self – 2015 NASCAR Xfinity Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved February 29, 2020.
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