However, his racing ambitions eventually led him back to asphalt.
“I got into dirt racing through my dad. He raced dirt late models forever,” Holmes said. “I think he just did it more as a hobby. As I got into it, I was kind of doing the same thing really. I was doing a lot of other things in school, playing sports through school. I didn’t have it as my first priority yet.
“Toward the end of my dirt career, probably around 2013, I really decided that ‘Hey, I kind of want to do this as a career one day. I mean, I love doing this.’ So we just kind of started looking at routes to take and what would be the best way to move up. Moving into asphalt late models after dirt late models is what we did.”
In 2015 and ’16, Holmes won track championships at Alabama’s Montgomery Motor Speedway and Florida’s Five Flags Speedway in asphalt late model competition. At the same time, he began to dabble in the ARCA Menards Series, making seven starts in 2016 with a best finish of third.
At the time he was working with Grant Enfinger, who was serving as his crew chief. Enfinger drove Holmes’ No. 23 car to an ARCA victory at Pennsylvania’s Pocono Raceway in 2016. However, when Enfinger’s driving career took off and he landed a full-time ride in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series in 2017, Holmes’ program was left without a leader.
It showed in Holmes’ results. In 34 ARCA starts between 2017 and ’18, Holmes managed only three top-five finishes. He had that many top-five finishes in seven starts in 2016.
“After that, in 2017 and ’18, we just really didn’t have leadership on our team. We didn’t have, I guess, the people to get us up front,” Holmes said.
In 2019, Holmes made what turned out to be a key hire. Shane Huffman, a retired driver who earned a pair of Hooters Pro Cup Series championships in the 2000s, joined the team as crew chief.
After retiring as a driver, Huffman transitioned into the crew chief role and has worked with a number of drivers over the last several seasons. He was a key part of the MDM Motorsports ARCA program that won 15 races with nine different drivers in 2017 and ’18, as well as the ARCA championship with Sheldon Creed in ’18.
The change in performance was nearly instant as Holmes turned in his best season to date in 2019. While the duo failed to win a race, Holmes registered a career-best eight top five-finishes and 18 top-10 results in the ARCA Menards Series.
“That was it. He was what really changed our team to what it is now. (He) and the guys that he brought with him,” Holmes said. “Not just from the job side of things, but outside racing and outside of the job, the relationship we’ve built with those guys. They’re more than just guys that work on the race team, they’re teammates. They’re really, really good friends with us now.
“It’s been a really fun past couple of years to say the least. That’s really what turned us around.”
Holmes secured the championship in the season finale at Kansas Speedway.
“I don’t feel like we’re viewed as the same as some of the other teams that we run against because we are different,” Holmes said after clinching the title. “To beat these guys who have been running in this series for a long time and to beat a Cup team some weekends, it’s really cool.
“Knowing we did a lot with a little makes it that much more special. I for sure think we gained that respect and I feel like we lacked it for a long time. But running up front and winning and being as consistent as we were will gain you that.”