DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Recap by Race Chaser Online Managing Editor Jacob Seelman — GMS Racing photo —
They say at Daytona, it takes a friend in the draft to go to victory lane. Saturday afternoon, Grant Enfinger had no friends in the waning laps of the Lucas Oil 200 presented by AutoZone.
But in the end, it didn’t matter for the Fairhope, Alabama native as Enfinger outlasted Venturini Motorsports pilot Daniel Suarez in a late-race, two-car breakaway to grab his second consecutive ARCA Racing Series victory at the Daytona International Speedway and kick off his quest for the ARCA championship in style.
“It’s an incredible feeling,” Enfinger said in Gatorade Victory Lane. “A few weeks ago there was a lot of uncertainty and I didn’t know when I was going to get back in a race car. Can’t say enough about Spencer Gallagher and all these guys at GMS Racing. Hopefully we’ve pumped up the guys at Alamo Rent-A-Car; we’re hoping to go some more races with them later this season.”
“We want to take this and do great things at Mobile in a month but right now, we’re going to savor this one for a while.”
The victory was Enfinger’s ninth career ARCA triumph and comes in his 72nd series start.
Enfinger was surrounded by three Venturini Motorsports cars on the final restart with 15 laps to go, including Suarez, and had a titanic battle with 10-time series champion Frank Kimmel three times in the closing stages. However, Kimmel was shuffled out of the lead pack late and when teammate Cody Coughlin got stuck side-by-side with Brett Hudson coming to two laps to go, Enfinger was able to build enough of a gap to stay out front.
“I was afraid I was going to clip the apron and wreck there,” Enfinger said of trying to hold back the Venturini team late in the race. “I wasn’t looking out my windshield at all. Incredible job by Daniel — gave us a big push to get the lead there. Like I said, it’s just an incredible feeling.”
Suarez said he had a plan and was right where he wanted to be — but didn’t have the help at the end of the event to make his ultimate move.
“To be honest, a couple of days ago I was thinking — ‘Okay, where do I need to be to try to win this thing?’ — and I thought it would be second place,” Suarez said. “With a few laps to go I said, ‘Well, here we are, let’s try to figure out how to win this race’, and I was trying to pass (Enfinger) but I’m not sure if I didn’t have enough help or what exactly I did wrong. I’m happy with a runner-up, though. It’s a good day.”
Hudson hung on to finish third — his best career ARCA result — and was the highest performer of the race running a “built” engine instead of the new ARCA Ilmor 396 motor package.
Coughlin, who led the first eight laps of the event, came home fourth in his first-career start at Daytona.
“We had a lot of fun out there,” Coughlin said after the event. “To be able to come out of here with a top five is cool. We were up front all day and we could taste the victory though, so it’s a little bittersweet in that aspect. We had a wicked fast Toyota today; I learned a lot and we’ll come back here and get the checkers next time.”
Kimmel rounded out the top five — his 16th career top five effort at the World Center of Racing without notching an elusive checkered flag.
The event was largely entertaining, with two- and three-wide racing throughout the 80-lap affair. Kimmel dominated the early stages, going to the lead for the first time at lap nine and holding the top spot through lap 35.
Kimmel’s day would begin to unravel during the second caution of the race, flying at lap 34 for the move-over flag falling from the flagstand. The Indiana native came down pit road and his Venturini Motorsports crew ran into trouble fueling the Ansell/Menards Toyota, forcing Kimmel to make an extra pit stop and restart 35th.
Bobby Gerhart assumed the lead for the restart just prior to halfway but did not get a solid restart and fell back and Cole Powell and Enfinger took turns at the front right at the halfway point of the event.
Gerhart’s quest for a ninth Daytona triumph would end just after Enfinger reassumed the lead for the final time at lap 53, when Blake Jones and Leilani Munter made contact in turn three and Munter shot up into the outside SAFER Barrier, clobbering Gerhart and Buster Graham, both of whom had nowhere to go to avoid the No. 66 Toyota.
Gerhart would finally climb from his car with assistance from safety workers, but was checked and released from the infield care center. He was credited with a 39th-place finish.
“I’m okay,” a subdued Gerhart said. “There’s just not a lot of room for error when you’re three wide. We were in the right place at the wrong time. It happens, but that’s Daytona for you.”
That caution would be the third and final one of the race, and would run for 12 laps after defending Super Cup Stock Car Series champion J.J. Pack’s car burst into flames on the backstretch, necessitating additional cleanup.
From there, it was all Enfinger despite the best efforts of the Venturini armada, holding the lead by inches ahead of Kimmel on the lap following the restart and using a massive push from Suarez to get clear of the pack for good.
Defending champion Mason Mitchell, Matt Kurzejewski, Enfinger’s GMS Racing teammate Scott Sheldon, Josh Williams and Will Kimmel rounded out the top ten.
Polesitter Mark Thompson, who became the oldest pole winner in Daytona International Speedway history on Friday, was unable to lead a lap all afternoon and finished 14th.
In all, there were five lead changes between five different drivers and the race was completed in one hour, 30 minutes and 25 seconds for an average race pace of 132.719 mph.
ARCA will now take a month off before returning to the racetrack for the Mobile ARCA 200 at Mobile International Speedway on March 14.
