Corey Heim became just the third driver to win back-to-back ARCA Menards Series races at Daytona International Speedway with his win in the Lucas Oil 200 Driven By General Tire. Bobby Gerhart won nine times at Daytona, consecutively from 2005 through 2007 and again from 2010 through 2012, followed by Grant Enfinger who won back-to-back in 2014 and 2015.
Series entitlement sponsor John Menard made a visit to the ARCA garage for the first time since Iowa Speedway’s race last summer. Menard and his entourage spent time visiting with drivers, teams, and fans in the garage area before heading to the grandstand side of the track to watch the race.
Venturini Motorsports earned the organization’s fifth consecutive Daytona victory dating back to Michael Self’s win in 2018. Other winners include Harrison Burton in 2019, Self again in 2020, and Heim in 2021.
Nine drivers either matched or set a career best series finish at Daytona: Heim, second-place finisher Parker Chase, fourth-place Sean Corr, sixth-place Andy Jankowiak, ninth-place Toni Breidinger, and 12th-place Dale Quarterley all tied or bettered their previous career best, while 13th-place Brayton Laster, 16th-place Amber Balcaen, and 31st-place Christian Rose all set their career best in their series debuts.
Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric, runner-up Bubba Wallace, third-place finisher Chase Briscoe, and fourth-place finisher Ryan Blaney all have wins within the ARCA Menards Series platform. Cindric won at Kentucky Speedway in 2016 and scored two road course wins in the ARCA Menards Series East that season at Virginia International Raceway and Watkins Glen International. Wallace has six career East wins; Briscoe is the 2016 ARCA Menards Series champion with four career series wins and one additional ARCA Menards Series West victory last year at Sonoma Raceway; Blaney won in the ARCA Menards Series West at Phoenix Raceway in 2011.
NASCAR Xfinity Series winner at Daytona Austin Hill and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series winner Zane Smith are also ARCA Menards Series platform winners. Hill has five career East series wins and finished a career-best third in the series standings in 2015. Four of the top five, Hill, third-place Noah Gragson, fourth-place Riley Herbst, and fifth-place Justin Allgaier, all have wins within the ARCA platform. Smith has four career series wins, including the series’ closest-ever finish – a statistical dead heat – at Talladega in 2018. The remainder of top five in the Camping World Trucks race at Daytona, Ben Rhodes, Christian Eckes, Tanner Gray, and Parker Kligerman, all have wins on the ARCA platform.
Thirty of the 36 cars that started the Lucas Oil 200 Driven By General Tire were running at the finish, and only four were listed as out due to a crash.
Heim’s eighth career series win moves him to a tie for 45th on the series’ all-time win list. Others with eight career ARCA Menards Series wins include Jack Shanklin, Charlie Glotzbach, three-time series champion Dave Dayton, NASCAR Hall of Fame member and Daytona 500 winner Davey Allison, Jimmy Horton, Jeff Purvis, Chad Blount, and former series champions Justin Allgaier and Austin Theriault.
Max Gutierrez was joined on the grid by Mexican businessman, and noted motorsports enthusiast, Carlos Slim. Slim has sponsored several drivers and teams over the years and was instrumental in Daniel Suarez’s NASCAR Xfinity Series championship.
Sammy Smith scored his fourth career ARCA Menards Series East victory in the season-opening Race to Stop Suicide 200 presented by Place of Hope at New Smyrna Speedway.
The top three finishers at New Smyrna were in inverse order of last year. In 2021, Max Gutierrez stole the win on the final lap after Smith and Taylor Gray got into a pushing match in turns three and four, with Gray holding on and Smith finishing third. This year, Smith won with Gray second and Gutierrez in third.
Smith’s fourth career series win moves him to a tie for 40th on the series’ all-time win list, joining Stub Fadden, Butch Leitzinger, Brian Ickler, Max Gresham, Tyler Ankrum, Kyle Benjamin, and Scott Heckert.
Leland Honeyman made his East debut driving for Young’s Motorsports and finished an impressive fourth. Logan Misuraca, a former winner and champion at New Smyrna Speedway, made her series debut driving for Josh Williams’ JW Motorsports team and finished a solid sixth.
Donald Theetge, a former NASCAR Pinty’s Series winner from Quebec City, gave Visconti Motorsports its second consecutive top-five finish at New Smyrna Speedway.
Willie Mullins and Stephanie Moyer both matched their East Series career best finishes with their eighth- and ninth-place finishes, respectively.
Mason Diaz finished sixth at New Smyrna and seventh at Daytona driving for long-time ARCA Menards Series driver-turned-crew chief, and now team owner, Jeff McClure.
Former ARCA Menards Series driver Joe Kosiski, whose brothers Ed and Steve also drove in the series, won the RPM Workshops Promoter of the Year award at the organization’s annual meeting in Daytona Monday Feb. 14. Kosiski and his family operate I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, Nebraska. Kosiski is also the 1986 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Racing Series national champion.
The ARCA Menards Series starting field at Daytona, 36, is the largest since 39 cars took the green in 2018.
Sammy Smith’s ARCA Menards East win at New Smyrna is the first series career win for Kyle Busch as a team owner. As a driver in the ARCA Menards Series, Busch earned three wins, two in 2003 at Nashville Superspeedway and Kentucky Speedway, and in 2004 at Daytona International Speedway.
The New Smyrna race was the first for the ARCA Menards Series platform to be streamed live on Flo Racing. FloSports has entered into a multi-year agreement with NASCAR televising numerous properties including ARCA, the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and NASCAR Advance Auto Parts weekly sanctioned track racing. The New Smyrna race will be televised on USA Network this Friday, February 25, at 1 pm ET, immediately following the one-hour broadcast of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race at New Smyrna.
