Michael Self

Michael Self (born November 1, 1990) is an American former professional stock car racing driver. He last competed 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 nine wins in ARCA competition.

Racing career Early years Self started racing at age eleven in go-karts. Self was a Rotax Max driver and won a regional championship and finished well enough in the national championship to represent America in the world championships. The stock car opportunity came around the time of the CART-IndyCar split; Self had scholarship money from Mazda waiting but passed on the opportunity.

K&N Pro Series West In 2009, Self ran two races with Motorway Motorsports, starting and parking. After going full-time with Motorway in 2010, Self was signed by the Golden Gate Racing Team, a team owned by Jim Offenbach which was an affiliate of Richard Childress Racing, for the final two races of the season.

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. He finished seventh in points with three top fives. 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. In 2013, Self won three races in a row and never fell out of the top six in points to finish fourth. Despite the six wins, Self did not return to the RCR driver development lineup in 2014.

In 2017, Self returned to the West Series for a part-time schedule of races with Sunrise Ford Racing. He was contacted by team owner Bob Bruncati about running the car, and initially refused on a basis of a lack of sponsorship. Once Bruncati made it known that no sponsorship was needed, Self agreed to drive it for the rest of the season. He won the race at Meridian Speedway after Chris Eggleston was disqualified for jumping the final restart. He finished in the top ten in all of his starts and won another race, at All American Speedway.

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. He failed to finish either of his starts due to mechanical issues. Again without a ride in any national series, Self partnered with Ranier Racing with MDM for a race at Kansas Speedway in 2016, in which he finished third. He spotted for Justin Haley in 2015 and 2016 at various races.

In January 2017, Self announced that he would return to the No. 28 for the renamed MDM Motorsports (due to Ranier leaving the team as a co-owner) for the season-opening race at Daytona. 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. Self finished inside the top five in three of his next four races 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 also was the spotter for NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Larson at the time.

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

Self began the 2018 ARCA season by winning the season-opening Lucas Oil 200 at Daytona. 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. 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.

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. 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. 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. 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, but was penalized after the race, keeping his points lead small. At the Allen Crowe 100, Self claimed his first dirt triumph, beating Venturini teammate Christian Eckes on a late restart. 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.

After originally only securing enough funding for a partial season, Self returned full-time to Venturini Motorsports in 2020. Self won his second race of the season at the General Tire 100, the series' inaugural race on the road course layout at Daytona. He finished second in the championship to Bret Holmes.

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. 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.

Personal life Self attended the University of Utah. He later attended Central Piedmont Community College, UNC Charlotte When he is not racing, he is a road racing coach and has worked with Chip Ganassi Racing.

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 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 KEN DOV CLT 40th 108 0 GLN MOH BRI CHI KAN TEX PHO HOM 4 ROA 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 Pts Ref 2009 Viva Motorsports 84 Chevy CTS AAS PHO MAD IOW DCS SON IRW PIR23 MMP25 CNS IOW AAS 43rd 182 2010 88 AAS14 PHO10 IOW13 DCS17 SON5 IRW11 PIR11 MRP8 CNS7 MMP28 8th 1552 Richard Childress Racing 21 Chevy AAS12 PHO8 2011 PHO15 AAS14 MMP8 IOW8 LVS4 SON25 IRW5 EVG11 PIR8 CNS13 MRP5 SPO6 AAS20 PHO32 7th 1807 2012 PHO18 LHC4 MMP18 S9920 IOW4 BIR1 LVS17 SON6 EVG2 CNS4 IOW1 PIR2 SMP12 AAS22 PHO1* 6th 541 2013 PHO3 S9915 BIR1 IOW1* L441 SON3* CNS6 IOW3 EVG16 SPO6* MMP4 SMP5 AAS4 KCR2 PHO9 4th 598 2017 Sunrise Ford Racing 9 Ford TUS KCR6 IRW6 IRW3 SPO5 OSS8 CNS8 SON4 IOW6 EVG4 DCS7 MER1 AAS1* KCR4 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 Pts Ref 2014 Venturini Motorsports 66 Toyota DAY MOB SLM TAL TOL NJE 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 90th 215 2017 MDM Motorsports Toyota DAY NSH SLM TAL TOL ELK 24th 1135 Mason Mitchell Motorsports Chevy POC MCH MAD IOW MDM Motorsports IRP POC WIN ISF ROA DSF SLM KAN Mason Mitchell Motorsports 88 Chevy CHI KEN 2018 Venturini Motorsports 15 Toyota DAY TAL TOL CLT POC MCH MAD GTW CHI KAN 15th 1985 55 NSH SLM IOW ELK POC ISF BLN DSF SLM IRP 2019 25 DAY FIF SLM TAL NSH TOL CLT POC MCH MAD GTW CHI ELK IOW POC ISF DSF SLM IRP KAN 2nd 5020 2020 DAY PHO TAL POC IRP KEN IOW KAN TOL TOL MCH DAY GTW I44 TOL BRI WIN MEM ISF KAN 2nd 941

ARCA Menards Series East ARCA Menards Series East results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 Pts Ref 2020 Venturini Motorsports 25 Toyota NSM TOL DOV TOL BRI FIF 23rd 78

Season still in progress Ineligible for series points