Brandon McReynolds (No. 28 KBR Development Toyota) led Thursday’s two-hour practice session for Saturday’s ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards Lucas Oil 200 driven by General Tire at Daytona International Speedway. McReynolds, son of NASCAR on Fox analyst Larry McReynolds, turned a fast lap 49.014 seconds/183.621 miles per hour.
Todd Gilliland (No. 4 Frontline Enterprises Toyota) was second at 49.155 seconds/183.094 miles per hour, Gus Dean (No. 32 Win-Tron Racing Chevrolet) was third at 49.169 seconds/183.042 miles per hour, Harrison Burton (No. 20 DEX Imaging Toyota) was fourth at 49.185 seconds/182.983 miles per hour, and Bret Holmes (No. 23 Holmes II Excavating/Southern States Bank Chevrolet) rounded out the top five at 49.190 seconds/182.964 miles per hour.
McReynolds was happy to be on top of the leaderboard, and it was made all the more special since he was carrying a tribute scheme to the late Davey Allison. Allison, an eight-time ARCA Racing Series winner and the 1992 Daytona 500 champion, was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame last Friday. McReynold’s father was Allison’s crew chief when he won the 500 back in 1992 and made a run at the NASCAR Cup Series championship.
“Any time you can put the 28 car up front here it’s a good day,” McReynolds said. “It means a lot with Davey going into the Hall of Fame to have his paint scheme here.
“I got lucky and got a good run. I let off the gas and dropped back a little bit and sucked up on the guys in front of me so that’s where we found that speed.”
McReynolds is a former ARCA winner at Talladega Superspeedway, winning in a steel-bodied car in 2012. He noted the differences in the two body styles in his runs this afternoon.
“These composite cars really suck up good,” he said. “It seems like you can really feel it better than you could in the steel cars.
“Ultimately it’s about keeping the car in one piece and see what shakes out. It’s important to come down here in front of all of the Cup guys and all of the racing media and perform good. It’s a great opportunity for us for sure.”
There were no serious incidents in practice. Chuck Hiers (No. 1 Fast Track Racing Toyota) grazed the outside wall while his teammate Jason White (No. 11 Power Ventures Excavating Chevrolet) had an oil line come loose.
There is one more round of practice for the ARCA Racing Series starting at 9:30 am ET on Friday morning. General Tire Pole Qualifying, conducted in randomly-selected groups of six cars, will take place at 3:30 pm ET on Friday. The Lucas Oil 200 driven by General Tire will take the green flag on Saturday, February 9 at 4:30 pm ET. The race will be shown live on FS1; ARCARacing.com will have live timing & scoring, live chat, and live track updates of all on track sessions free for ARCA for Me members. New users may register at ARCARacing.com/login.
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