Michael Self survived two multi-car accidents, in the end, to earn his second career victory on Saturday. Self pulled away from the pack on the final green-white-checkered attempt and never looked back earning his second straight victory in the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards. Self-earned his first career victory in the 2017 season finale at Kansas and then backs it up with a victory in the 2018 season opener."Survive, man," Self told Fox Sports 1. "Just survived, got lucky, made it through a couple of wrecks. Just overcame a lot. This thing has been beaten up but Kevin, Billy, and these guys guided me through it."
The race was rather calm at the beginning with side-by-side racing. Zane Smith led a majority of the beginning stages of the race but would be shuffled back after a mistake on pit lane cost him some spots. Smith pulled out of his stall as Bobby Gerhart pulled into his and the two made contact. Smith would finish 26th after being involved in one of the final multi-car crashes.
Willie Mullins kept his nose clean throughout the race and managed to be there in the end. He didn't have any push on the final restart, but that wouldn't stop him from earning his career-best second place finish.
A flat right rear tire cost Sheldon Creed a victory but he didn't let that stop him from finishing inside the top-three. Creed made some moves exiting turn four on the final lap, around the Venturini duo of Natalie Decker and Tom Hessert. Creed would push towards second but would run out of time and settle for his third career third-place finish.
The Venturini duo of Decker and Hessert began to work together but wouldn't have anything for the front three with Decker earning her first career top-five finish and Hessert earning his first since Daytona last February. The duo would round out the top-five.
Though not the longest race at the Daytona International Speedway in the history of ARCA competition, it was the longest since the race was shortened from 120 laps to 80 laps in 1974. The previous record since was in 2006 & 2012 where the race went 83 laps, Bobby Gerhart was the victor in both of those.
Results from Daytona
- Michael Self
- Willie Mullins
- Sheldon Creed
- Tom Hessert
- Natalie Decker
- Max Tullman
- Noah Gragson
- Leilani Munter
- Andrew Belmont
- Riley Herbst
- Jerry DeWeerdt
- Bobby Gerhart
- Kirt Horton
- Thomas Praytor
- John Ferrier
- Chuck Hiers
- Scott Reeves
- Con Nicolopoulos
- Andy Seuss
- Sean Corr
- Chase Purdy
- Travis Braden
- Brad Smith
- Bret Holmes
- Gus Dean
- Zane Smith
- Mark Thompson
- Dave Mader III
- Tony Mrakovich
- Will Rodgers
- Bo LeMastus
- Quin Houff
- Bryan Dauzat
- Daniel Sasnett
- Ed Pompa
- Jesse Iwuji
- Grant Quinlan
- Codie Rohrbaugh
- Ronnie Osmer
Next Race for the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards
The ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards gets the chance to rebuild some cars after the chaotic Lucas Oil 200 at Daytona. The series returns on April 7th at the Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville. Michael Self will enter the event as the points leader, should he add Nashville to his schedule. Third in points will be Sheldon Creed, who has had success at Nashville in the past finishing inside the top-ten both times.
Also, Christian Eckes makes his return to the series with Venturini Motorsports where he will look to make it two-for-two in 2018 for "Big Bill".
The Motorsports News Source will cover the Music City 200 from Nashville for the third straight season so stay tuned for more about the race in Nashville, TN and exclusive interviews, articles, and other ARCA focused programming. (Koelle,2018)
Photo Credit - ARCA Racing
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