The ARCA Menards Series kicked off the 2021 season Saturday afternoon at Daytona International Speedway for the Lucas Oil 200. Drew Dollar won the pole in qualifying Saturday morning, with rookie Gracie Trotter qualifying second. There was a total of 34 cars that qualified for the race.
Not long after the ARCA qualified, the rain arrived. The Xfinity Series, who were to qualify their cars for the evening race, had to cancel their qualifying attempts. When the rain finally stopped, the track was dried just in time for the ARCA race to begin.
The race was caution-free for twelve laps until Thad Moffitt got momentum from the draft off the back of the No. 63 car of Dave Mader III and tried to go around him. However, he hit the right rear quarter panel of the No. 45 car of Rick Bickle, who then hit Mader to bring out the race’s first caution.
🟡 Caution 🟡@ThadMoffitt goes for a spin entering Turn 1@DAYTONA | @FS1 pic.twitter.com/lrBJBR4sVh — ARCA Menards Series (@ARCA_Racing) February 13, 2021
The race would resume on the sixteenth lap, with Trotter leading the race, Drew Dollar was behind her. Twelve laps into the restart, Trotter, who was running in the third position, tapped the bumper of the No. 55 car of Derek Griffith, sending him sideways and collecting three other cars that included Nick Sanchez, Greg Van Alst, and Scott Melton.
Trouble on Lap 29 brings out another 🟡 Multiple cars involved pic.twitter.com/vhZZVn0IIw — ARCA Menards Series (@ARCA_Racing) February 13, 2021
It took ARCA officials twelve laps to get the field all sorted out before the race could resume. At the halfway point, Tanner Gray lead the race. The green flag only lasted four laps before the competition caution came out.
Once the competition caution was over, the race resumed with 31 laps to go. Eleven laps into the restart, the No. 01 car of Check Hiers slid high up on the track. Trotter had nowhere to go and hit him from behind, suffering damage to the car’s front. Her crew went to work to repair the damage.
Repairs in progress for @gracietrotter11 pic.twitter.com/Inw9Zk095d — ARCA Menards Series (@ARCA_Racing) February 13, 2021
The fourth caution of the afternoon would come with five laps to go as Scott Reeves’s No. 88 car cut a right-front tire and hit the wall on the front stretch. Instead of going to a green, white, checkered, ARCA officials restarted the race with a green, white finish. In the end, Corey Heim was able to hold off teammate Drew Dollar to win the race by .113 seconds.
.@CoreyHeim3 gets it done at @DAYTONA 🏁 How it happened: pic.twitter.com/ewZHQK3bvt — ARCA Menards Series (@ARCA_Racing) February 13, 2021
The rest of the top-ten finishers were Bret Holmes third, Ty Gibbs fourth, Kyle Sieg fifth, Derrick Lancaster sixth, Tanner Gray seventh, Andrew Jankowiak eighth, Jack Wood ninth, and Sean Corr tenth. Gracie Trotter would finish in 23rd place.
The ARCA Menards Series will return in four weeks at Phoenix Raceway on Friday, March 12th at 7:30 pm on MAVTV and NBC Sports Gold Track Pass.
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