(DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – February 14, 2015) – Grant Enfinger is getting used to going to victory lane. So is the No. 23 car.
Enfinger won the Lucas Oil 200 presented by AutoZone, grabbing the lead on lap 53 and staying in front until the checkered flag fell at lap 80. It was Enfinger’s ninth career ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards win and second straight at Daytona International Speedway.
“This is an incredible feeling,” Enfinger said after pulling into victory lane with the No. 23 Alamo Rent-A-Car Chevrolet. It’s the second straight win for GMS Racing and the No. 23, which went to victory lane in ARCA’s final 2014 race with Spencer Gallagher. “It was definitely a nail-biter from my seat. I know it was an incredible race.”
Three Venturini Motorsports drivers finished in the top five. One of them, Daniel Suarez, finished second in the No. 15 Arris Toyota. The others were fourth place finisher Cody Coughlin in the No. 55 JEGS Toyota and Frank Kimmel fifth in the No. 25 Ansell-Menards Toyota. Brett Hudson earned a top-five, finishing third in his No. 09 Dodge.
Suarez, who will be racing full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2015, said he spent some time earlier in the week thinking about where he wanted to be late in the race in order to get to the front; it just didn’t work out.
“I didn’t have enough speed or I didn’t have enough help from behind,” Suarez said. “It was a strong run for the first time in 2015 with Arris and Venturini and Gibbs and Toyota. Everybody is doing a good job.”
Hudson, from Owensboro, Ky., finished a career-best third after starting fourth in a career-best weekend for him.
“Luckily I got hooked up with Frank (Kimmel) in practice which got me a good time and got me in the fastest group for qualifying,” Hudson said. “I got rolling and put up a good lap. In the race I was just trying to keep my position. I tried to stay in line at the end and maybe they would get to racing and maybe I would have a chance to sneak by.”
Defending series champion Mason Mitchell finished sixth in his No. 78 Mason Mitchell Motorsports Ford Fusion. Mitchell started 23rd.
Matt Kurzejewski was seventh in the Lexington Inn & Suites Daytona Beach Chevrolet with Scott Sheldon eighth in the No. 20 Allegiant Travel Chevrolet. Josh Williams was ninth in the No. 6 Southwest Florida Cable Construction-Go Puck Ford and Will Kimmel completed the top-10 in his No. 69 Vogtland Springs-AmericanMuscle.com-Accel Ford.
Menards Pole Award presented by Ansell winner Mark Thompson finished 14th in the No. 11 Phoenix Air Toyota.
Twenty-seven cars finished on the lead lap. There were three cautions for 23 laps, the last coming when the cars of Leilani Munter, Bobby Gerhart and Buster Graham were caught up in an accident. During that caution the No. 1 car of J.J. Pack caught fire, forcing him to stop his car and exit. There were no injuries.
The race took one hour, thirty minutes and 25 seconds to complete for an average speed of 132.719 mph.
Coughlin led the first eight laps and made an impressive save late in the race when his car got sideways in the draft.
“We had a lot of fun,” the 19-year-old Joe Gibbs development driver said. “To be able to come out of here with a top five finish is cool. We were up front all day long. We had a wicked-fast Toyota.”
Frank Kimmel led 27 laps, Gerhart led three laps and Sheldon led laps 47 to 52. Enfinger, who led seven laps earlier in the race, led from lap 53 until the checkered flag.
Enfinger started 2014 with a win at Daytona. He would go on to win two more consecutive races to start the season and six before it was over. He was second in the final point standings.
“Everyone at GMS Racing has really stepped up their game,” Enfinger said. “It’s a pretty exciting feeling to be working with people like that. We have good things happening. This is an incredible opportunity and we have incredible equipment.”
Enfinger spent those last few laps – after the restart with 15 laps to go – with Suarez in his mirror. He said he drove most of the remaining laps checking the mirrors.
“I was very, very worried,” Enfinger said. “The 15 (Suarez) car was really good. Frank (Kimmel) had an incredible car. I feel like he was maybe equal or a little stronger than us. I was afraid they were going to gang up on us. But luckily we were able to get them a little bit separated and I was able to block them. The 15 did an incredible job. He could have passed us, but I was pretty hungry to keep him behind us until the end.”
Enfinger’s No. 23 Alamo Chevrolet was hugging the bottom during the closing laps.
“I felt like I needed to block the top but I didn’t feel like I needed to race at the top,” Enfinger said. “We got the lead when the 20 car, my teammate Scott Sheldon, he pushed us to the lead on the top. There was a lot of that.”
The Fairhope, Ala. driver is expected to race a full season with GMS Racing.
“ARCA deserves a lot of credit,” Enfinger said about the new ARCA Ilmor 396 engine package that he and 25 other cars had this week at Daytona. “I think the racing was better. I can’t remember a Daytona this exciting where there was two- and three-wide racing for the lead. There was two lines moving at all times.”
Saturday’s Lucas Oil 200 presented by Auto Zone will be rebroadcast three times this week. The race will air on FOX Sports 2 at 9 p.m. Tuesday and 10 a.m. Wednesday and on FOX Sports 1 at 10 a.m. Thursday.
The ARCA Racing Series has a bit of a break before its second race of the season, which will be March 14 at Mobile International Speedway in Mobile, Ala.
