By: Mitchell Breuer

Late in Saturday’s ARCA Menards Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, it seemed to be a battle between two top Toyota organizations Joe Gibbs Racing represented by Riley Herbst, and Venturni Motorsports with Drew Dollar, Ryan Repko, and Michael Self as their drivers.

However, there was one single-car team snuck into the picture.

Alabama-native Brett Holmes driving for his own team was able to stay in the middle of the lead pack in the closing laps, avoid an accident between Herbst and Self, and come with a third-place finish. This is his first top-five of the season, and second top-10, the other coming with a ninth at Daytona International Speedway.

The result also marked the second weekend in-a-row that Bret Holmes Racing was able to come home with a third-place finish, as he did so a week ago in the ARCA Menards Series East race at Toledo Speedway.

In Saturday’s post-race press conference, Holmes said the results mean a lot given the work that was put in to getting him to the track.

“It means a lot; we kept the team going in North Carolina through the whole pandemic and everything and it was really tough,” Holmes said.“We did ithoping everything would pay off in finishes down the road, and it has. We have had cars that can win races these past two weekends. Going forward, we are going to try and keep that momentum up.”

Running up front is a feat itself for Holmes, as his single-car operation is at a disadvantage compared to the bigger teams; despite this though, he is confident that his team is right on the cusp of a win.

“We are right there,” Holmes said.“It is hard because we are team that doesn’t have sponsors, we don’t have any manufactured help, and we don’t have any teammates. When you are running against guys, specifically in this (Talladega) race, that have all that, it makes it tough, but we have a lot of pride in what we do. I’m just happy we are still competitive with the guys we are running around, knowing all the things that they have. It’s definitely a prideful thing to think about.”

As the series turns its attention to Pocono Raceway, Holmes will head into next weekend tied for fifth in points, 26 points behind Self, who currently sits atop the standings.