things interesting.
Returning ARCA champ Frank Kimmel was in a new ride. He’ll be driving the #44 Dodge this season. They had to scramble to find sponsorship for the car for Daytona and it came from a business owned by a former ARCA driver. Ken was quick to point out that 80% of the cars on the track were ex-Cup speedway cars. Justin Algaier was driving an old Hall of Fame Racing Chevrolet. The car entered by Jr. Motorsports was an old Jeff Gordon car. So it was good to see that some of the old Cup cars have found new life in the racing business.
Early on, there was some talk about Bobby Gearhart going for his 4th win in a row at Daytona, but it wasn’t to be. One thing that Ken mentioned was that he would be driving the #49 BAM car for the 500 and in the final Bud Shoot-Out. I guess Ford doesn’t have a problem with that, which is pretty decent of them. One of the other things pointed out by the booth crew is that ARCA has gone to the Lucky Dog system. All I can say is Thank God Schrader was in the booth and not the co-owner of Motormouth Motorsports or we’d have never heard the end of the Lucky Dog sponsor.
You could see just how rough the track surface was during the pace laps by the way the cars were bouncing around. We didn’t have to wait long for the first caution. The #39 moved down the track and pushed the #12 car of Alli Owens down causing her to take a high speed spin. Luckily her car was no worse for wear except for the tires needing to be replaced. And this wouldn’t be her only spin.
Just when they got back up to speed, the second caution came out on Lap 10. Ed Kennedy, driving the #00, spun and collected the #25 being driven by Ryan Fisher, who is driving for the Venturini team. The #4 car did some great evasive maneuvers and managed to avoid both cars as they were sliding down the track.
Caution #3 came when Alli Owens spun once again. Once they got back up to speed again, disaster struck. Caution #4 came out when 16 cars were involved in what could be called The Big One. There were two separate wrecks involved with this one. One up front and one in the middle of the pack. The #7 car came down the track and got into the #65 car and started the wrecks up front. The #75 started the wrecks back in the middle of the field. Frank Kimmel was lucky to avoid the second pack of wrecked cars which would help him out at the end of the day. With so many wrecked cars and debris on the track, ARCA red flagged the race so they could get the track cleaned up.
Once things were cleaned up and they went back under caution, there was a couple of teams debating whether or not to pit. Bobby Gearhart was debating on whether or not to pit because of damage they had under the left headlight decal. Matt Carter, son of former Cup team owner Travis Carter, had a hole on the right side of what would normally be a bumper on a street car. Neither team wanted to give up track position but would eventually pit for repairs, fuel, and tires. Bobby Gearhart was the defending race winner and had won 3 races in a row during the ARCA season opener at Daytona. Rick Allen asked if Bobby could win 4 in a row and there was some discussion about him not pitting and the damage to his car. Thanks to the camera shots by Speed, both Matt Carter’s and Bobby Gearhart’s crews were able to assess the damage on both cars and make their decisions.
Once they got the mess sorted out and the cars got back into double file, they were off and running again. There was some swapping of positions back and forth up front while the rest of the battered and bruised cars were falling behind the lead pack. Caution #5 came out when the #19 car of Jack Bailey blew a tire and spun. Once they got things cleaned out and sorted out, they were off and running again.
Caution #6, the final caution, came out when the #60 car got into the #65 car which in turn got into the #99 and put the Roush-Fenway car into the outside wall. Further back in the pack, the #54 car blew a tire. Considering the teams only have 3 sets of tires, you had to wonder who was going to make it til the end.
Michael Annett, a Bill Davis development driver,
had gotten the lead several cautions back and
every time they restarted, he managed to pull
away from the pack. On the final restart, he
pulled away yet again. Several drivers, including
Bobby Gearhart and Frank Kimmel, were trying
to run down Annett but with little success. It was
every man for himself at this point. Annett would
get a 3-4 car length lead and maintain the
distance. Annet crossed the finish line and
taking the checkers, giving him back to back
restrictor plate wins.
While this was a decent race, it’ll be interesting
to see how they do when they run at The Rock.
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