The ARCA Racing Series officially kicked off their 2017 season in Daytona today. Tom Hessert for Venturini Motorsports was on the pole for the race. Matt Tifft who was in a Joe Gibbs Racing entry qualified second.
Hessert and Tifft led the field to the green. Hessert easily got out in front at the start, as Tifft didn't a good start on the inside line. The race went smoothly for a little bit until lap 5, where the 34 of Willie Mullins gets into the 11 of Bryan Dauzat, and the 83 of Derrick Lancaster all collided in the tri-oval. Replays show that Mullins made contact with Kaz Grala, which set off the crash in the early going. Noah Gragson also had problems with his car, this ultimately took him out of contention.
After a few laps of clean up, Hessert and Kyle Weatherman led the field to the restart on lap 11. With help from Tifft, Hessert easily got the advantage to take the lead down the backstretch. The race went green for nine laps until a second caution came out on lap 20. This caution was for debris on the backstretch. The leaders came down pit road under caution, where most of them took fuel only. Tifft was able to win the race off pit road, as Quin Houff and Kyle Weatherman stayed out.
Houff and Weatherman led the field back to green on lap 25. Both of them drafted each other to pull in front of the field. As the Mason Mitchell Motorsports cars were dominant in the early going, Austin Theriault for Ken Schrader Racing got the outside line going on lap 32. The top 7 gets single file with Houff leading the pack. The third caution came out on lap 43 for Dauzat, as the right rear tire went down in turn two. Quin Houff and Kyle Weatherman pitted under caution for fuel only, Houff however, got blocked in pitstall by Travis Braden. This costed Houff several spots on pit road.
Terry Jones and Dalton Sargeant led the field to green on lap 49. A lap later, the big one occurs in the tri-oval. Several drivers were collected in the melee. Justine Fontaine happened to bump Mark Thompson into Gus Dean, which set off the chain reaction. Michael Lira, Caesar Barcarella, Ray Ciccarelli, A.J. Fike, Gus Dean, Mark Thompson, Eric Caudell, David LeBeau, and John Ferrier were all involved. All the drivers were ok from the crash. This set off a red flag for cleanup on the frontstretch.
With rain threatening, Jones and Shane Lee led the field to green with 24 to go. Jones was able to get ahead of the field down the backstretch. The action started to heat up with 20 to go, as Hessert was trying to push Lee to the front. The race started to whine down with 15 to go, but another crash on the backstretch set off the 5th caution. Houff, Thomas Praytor, Bo LeMastus, Leilani Munter, Andy Seuss, Ed Pompa, and Michael Self were all involved in the seven car crash. The replays showed that, Leilani got turned by LeMastus, which triggered the accident.
The race resumed with 9 to go, with Jones and Theriault out in front. Theriault with a strong car, had Sargeant pushing behind him. Theriault was able to take the lead with 8 to go in turn 4. But the term, "cautions breed cautions" came into effect, as another crash took place with 5 to go on the tri-oval. Bobby Gerheart, Codie Rohrbaugh, Justin Fontaine all collided with each other. Fontaine went upside down, after sliding for a few seconds. This caused the second red flag of the race. The replays showed that, Kaz Grala bumped into Clint King, which thus started the crash in the first place.
The race was called with 5 to go, due to damage to the safer barrier on the fronstretch. Austin Theriault was able to win the Lucas Oil 200 at Daytona International Speedway.
This was Theriault's second career win in his third start.
The next scheduled ARCA Racing Series race is on April 8th at Nashville Speedway.
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