19-year-old Gio Ruggiero captured the checkered flag within the ARCA Menard’s Sequence season-opener at Daytona. He is already a winner within the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Sequence and the ARCA East division, however that was his first victory within the main ARCA collection.
Nitro Motorsports dominated a lot of the race, however their lead drivers [Jake Finch and Gus Dean] each crashed whereas controlling the within and out of doors rows with two laps to go. That opened the door for Gio to snag the checkered flag.
„Yeah, it is superior,“ stated Ruggiero, who was driving for Joe Gibbs Racing. „Clearly, I needed to win final evening and got here up quick, so I received yet another to win within the afternoon … It received hectic there on the finish. I used to be simply making an attempt to push my lane ahead and the #15 [Finch] simply received squirrelly in entrance of me and misplaced it. That is unlucky for him, however glad we got here out with the win.“
Jake Bollman completed second, Kole Raz third, Daniel Dye fourth, and Glen Reen fifth. Jack Wooden, Jason Kitzmiller, Ryan Vargas, Bobby Dale Earnhardt, and Andy Jankowiak stuffed out the rest of the highest ten.
Cleetus McFarland got here again from a lap down to complete eleventh in a strong exhibiting for the favored YouTuber, two positions shy of his greatest profession end in ARCA so far.
Race recap
The primary incident of the race was RAM: Race for The Seat winner, Mini Tyrrell, who mad an aggressive block and spun on the backstretch.
The Nitro Motorsports fleet dominated a lot of the occasion, and Isabella Robusto led laps in ARCA for the primary time in her carer. Sadly, her race got here to a untimely finish as a mechanical failure despatched her behind the wall.
Making an attempt to rebound from an early wreck in his Truck Sequence debut on Friday evening, Cleetus McFarland was working inside the highest 5 till a jack broke on pit highway, costing him a lap.
Later within the race, Alli Owens, making her return to ARCA for the primary time in 16 years, crashed closely attributable to an engine failure. That triggered a crimson flag, and the race ultimately received again underway with eight laps to go.
Nonetheless, the run did not final lengthy as Thomas Annunziata crashed closely on the backstretch.
The inexperienced flag flew with simply two laps left within the race, and it was a catastrophe for the Nitro teammates. They managed each lanes, however as Finch received turned from the race lead by Ruggiero, and picked up teammate Dean — wrecking each vehicles within the course of.
That pushed the race into time beyond regulation. Ruggiero and Wooden shared the entrance row for a one-lap sprint, however Ruggiero surged forward. As an alternative of constructing a run towards him, these closest to the entrance started to battle over the runner-up place, slowing one another down as Ruggiero escaped with the win.
There was one other incident on the ultimate lap as Tim Richmond spun from inside the highest ten, however the race was capable of end beneath green-flag situations.
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