Bret Holmes is our guest on Fan4Racing NASCAR Weekend Preview, on Thursday, March 7, 2019, at 8:40 pm ET. Call 929-477-1790 or tweet @Fan4RacingSite with any questions or comments during our LIVE broadcast.
Five Flags Speedway is just four hours away from ARCA Menards Series’ driver Bret Holmes hometown and is the track where he cut his teeth for his racing career. He’s raced late-models there winning the track pro-late-model championship in 2016. Along with racing the Snowflake 100, Holmes has also raced the premier late-model event the Snowball Derby finishing third to Chase Elliott and John Hunter Nemechek. So with the ARCA Menards Series’ return to Five Flags Speedway this weekend, Holmes feels like he’s returning home.
“It’s not so new to me. I started racing there in a late model when I really began racing… I’m really looking forward to going back there. I don’t think it’ll be too much of an adjustment for me from what I learned racing late models there to the ARCA cars. I’ve driven the ARCA cars long enough to know what I need to change and how aggressive I need to be to get around Five Flags (Speedway). I’m really excited. I think Pensacola is going to be a great race for us with all the past history I have there.”
Bret Holmes, Driver of the No. 23 in the ARCA Menards Series
Although 21-year-old Holmes is returning to his home track and his history at Five Flags Speedway, the ARCA Menards Series hasn’t raced there since the 90s. So, most of his competitors will see the track for the first time this weekend. That could give Holmes a competitive advantage and is certainly good reason for his confidence ahead of the race.
“Yeah, having confidence of having raced and won there is going to help us this weekend. It’s not too different than any other time we go to a race track, but the surface is different. It’s one of those tracks by the beach, so the surface is wore out from all of the sand. You’re going to wear tires out pretty fast there. In these ARCA cars, from the start of the set of tires to the end of them, is a big difference. We’ll go from a second-and-a-half to two seconds off from where we started from when the tires start to wear. It’s a big driver adjustment through that, especially at a place like Pensacola. I think I’m going to have to change my driving style a lot more than I had to in late models. We have to be more patient to save our tires in the ARCA car.”
Bret Holmes about racing again at Five Flags Speedway
Fans will have a chance to meet Holmes as he will take part in the ARCA Menards Series autograph session on Saturday, March 9th, beginning at 5:45 pm CT. Fans can find the driver autograph session on the starting grid before the race.
Television coverage of ARCA Pensacola 200 presented by Inspectra Thermal Solutions at Five Flags Speedway is on Saturday, March 9th, starting at 8 pm ET on MAVTV. Also, live timing and scoring