(Photo Credit: Bret Holmes Racing)
Throughout his seven-year ARCA racing career, Munford, AL native Bret Holmes has always driven for a family-owned race team. That remains true today and through his two years in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
The 2020 ARCA Series Champion calls Talladega his home track and was hoping to bring home a win in front of his friends and family.
After a last-lap incident on the front stretch coming to the checkered flag, Holmes was certain he was living a dream, but the winner was not immediately determined.
After the race, and before the winner was determined, Holmes and Matt DiBenedetto sat side by side patiently waiting for the NASCAR officials to look over the video to determine who was the leader at the time the yellow light came on.
Several tension-filled minutes later, DiBenedetto was declared the winner. Holmes was scored in the third position, his best finish in the truck series.
Holmes did appear to have crossed the finish line first, but, per NASCAR rules, the winner of the race is determined at the time the yellow light is turned on, not by who crossed the finish line first.
(Photo Credit: Bret Holmes Racing)
A career-best finish was still bittersweet for Holmes. “It’s tough you know to lose something that close,” Holmes said. “We lost the ARCA race here that close. I don’t know, we probably lost it closer today. I just wanna win here so bad I can’t stand it. I’ve got so many people here from my hometown and friends and family, and just growing up racing the dirt track across the road, it would just mean the world to me to win here. It seems like the last couple years in ARCA we’ve been right there. The truck races we’ve been right there. It’s just super tough. I hate we couldn’t pull it off for everybody.
“I wish races ended at the finish line ’cause we would have had it, but just want to thank Golden Eagle Syrup and my team for their support today and giving us a fast truck. It seemed like every line we were in, we advanced forward. We pushed really well, and I don’t know…we just struggled to finish it off there, even in ARCA races.”
Holmes is determined to return to the Truck Series next year. “I wanna be back full-time next year. I’m just trying to work things out and you know hopefully we get some more support to do that. And yeah, we’re definitely showing that we deserve to be here, to be competitive regardless if we’re a full-time truck or not and regardless of the help we get or not…it’s tough to lose that one for sure.”
