Michael Self is our guest on Fan4Racing NASCAR Weekend Preview, Thursday, March 7, 2019, at 9 pm ET. Call 929-477-1790 or tweet @Fan4RacingSite with any questions or comments during our LIVE broadcast.

After their Superspeedway season opener in February, the ARCA Menards Racing Series now heads to Five Flags Speedway for short track racing. This is ARCA’s first event at the track since 1996 and for many of the competitors, including Michael Self with Venturini Motorsports, their first time racing the half-mile track. Looking to get a feel for the track, Self and his team took part in a test session at the Gulf Coast track last week.

“After a month layoff I’m excited to get back in the car,” Self said. “This will be my first time racing in Pensacola. We went down last week with a new car and had a very productive afternoon of testing.” 

Michael Self, Driver of the No. 25 for Venturini Motorsports

Although this is 27 year-old Self’s first time racing at the track, don’t look for this to slow down the three-time ARCA winner. Last week’s test session gave him and his team a chance to gain experience and track time for their focus this weekend.

“Never having been to Five Flags before, I turned a lot of laps which really helped me figure out the track and get comfortable. We were able to try a lot of different things with our setups on the car. I feel like we ultimately ended up in a decent spot and have a good idea of which direction we need to go this weekend for the race. It was also another great opportunity for me to build chemistry with the new team, and kind of figure out how Shannon Rursch (crew chief) does things outside a superspeedway environment – which was really helpful.”

Michael Self, about their Test Session at Five Flags Speedway

In the season opener at Daytona International Speedway last month, Self was caught up in an early accident resulting in a disappointing 31st place finish. Self came into the season to race full-time in order to campaign for the series championship title and was the defending Daytona winner looking for back-to-back victories. So the early race incident was a heartbreaking blow for the team.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed about the points situation after Daytona. Wrecking out early put us in a huge deficit, and definitely a position I didn’t want to be in, but here we are.

“Thankfully we’ve got 19 races to make up ground. I feel as good about our Sinclair Oil Toyota team as I’ve ever felt about a team. This is a group of guys I’m really excited about going to the track with this year. That’s really important to me, and something that will hopefully play to our advantage. We have to be smart both on and off the track to finish races and put ourselves in position to win, and that lies on me as much as anyone.”

Michael Self on his Daytona finish and his outlook for the remainder of the season.

So it is with optimism and confidence in himself and his team that Michael Self puts his focus on racing at the Five Flags Speedway short track this weekend.

Check out the ARCA Pensacola 200, this Saturday, March 7th at 8 pm ET on MAVTV with live timing and scoring also available at ARCARacing.com