In his first ever official laps behind the wheel of a stock car, Indy Car superstar Marco Andretti turned the fastest lap in practice for the ARCA Menards Series Daytona ARCA 200 at Daytona International Speedway on Friday afternoon. Andretti, in Bruce Cook and Steve McGowan’s No. 17 Group1001 Chevrolet, timed in at 48.600 seconds/185.185 miles per hour to lead the 50-car field.
“Just the way we planned it,” Andretti laughed about his 0.001-second margin over second place Patrick Emerling, who timed in at 48.601 seconds in his self-owned No. 08 Southern Tier Security Ford. “One one-thousandth of a second is all you need, and we had it. It’s great to be here and we’re looking forward to getting out and putting on a good show on Saturday.”
Willie Mullins, who finished second in the Daytona ARCA 200 in 2018, was third fastest in the 45-minute session with a fast lap of 48.676 seconds/184.896 miles per hour. Championship contender Kris Wright was the fastest of the five Venturini Motorsports entries in fourth at 48.718 seconds/184.737 miles per hour, tied with Dale Quarterley in fifth.
Bounty Rookie Challenge contender Jake Finch was sixth along with his Venturini Motorsports teammates Gus Dean in seventh, Amber Balcaen in eighth and Toni Breidinger in ninth. Ed Pompa, driving for two-time Daytona ARCA 200 winner and 1995 ARCA Menards Series champion Andy Hillenburg, rounded out the top ten.
There were no incidents throughout practice and 49 of the 50 cars entered made at least one lap in practice.
The 40-car starting field will be set in General Tire Pole Qualifying coming up Friday, February 16 at 1:30 pm ET. The top 34 drivers in qualifying will be locked in via speed and six positions will be reserved for provisional starters.
The 61st Annual Daytona ARCA 200 is set for Saturday, February 17 at 1:30 pm ET and will be televised live on FS1. The race will also be broadcast on select affiliates of the MRN Radio network nationwide. Please visit ARCARacing.com for live timing & scoring data and follow @ARCA_Racing on X (formerly Twitter) for up-to-the-minute updates.
ARCA PR
