The Lucas Oil 200 at Daytona International Speedway proved to be an eventful race. The 75-lap event, scheduled for 80 laps and cut short for SAFER barrier repairs and rain in the vicinity, saw six cations and two red flags.
It wasn’t long before the series would see its first caution of 2017. On lap five, the three cars of Bryan Dauzat, Willie Mullins and Derrick Lancaster, all tangled on the frontstretch just prior to the tri-oval. The crash would end the day for Mullins while Dauzat and Lancaster were able to continue.
Making his eighth career ARCA Racing Series start, Mullins started fifth on the leaderboard. Despite having his best career start, the 36-year old driver will take home a disappointing 40th-place finish.
After the first incident of the day, the field would stay green from lap 11 until lap 20 for debris on the backstretch. Lancaster, who were one of the drivers involved in the first incident of the Lucas Oil 200, was awarded the free pass in his No. 83 machine.
The field would go back green on lap 25 and stay clean until lap 44 for an incident involving Dauzat in one of the turns. It would end up being a single-car spin that would end the day for the Louisiana native as he would finish 38th. Like Mullins, the third-place start for Dauzat was his best start in the ARCA Racing Series.
The field would go green for a short period as a big crash would occur one lap later. It would bring out the red for the first time of the afternoon and would end the race for seven drivers on the frontstretch. Those drivers would be Mark Thompson, Gus Dean, Caesar Bacarella, AJ Fike, David LeBeau, Eric Caudell and Michael Lira. Each of these drivers would finish between positions 31 through 37 in their respective order listed. Mike Senica in the No. 3 Chevrolet would be the free pass.
Four drivers would be a victim in the next caution on lap 65. Those drivers would be Michael Self, Quin Houff, Thomas Praytor and Ed Pompa on the frontstretch. Self, piloting the No. 28 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota, was one of the favorites to win the season opener. These drivers all finished 27th through 30.
The race would stay green until lap 75. This crash involved a handful of drivers including Justin Fontaine, who ended upside down in his No. 33 Toyota. Fontaine’s impact was so hard that track crews had to repair the SAFER barrier following the incident.
Fontaine would be taken to an area hospital in Daytona for further evaluation. Win-Tron Racing announced later that he sustained a mild L1 vertebrae compression fracture in the accident.
Unfortunately, with rain in the area and the Advance Auto Parts Clash looming, ARCA officials had no choice but to end the event after 75 laps of racing. Austin Theriault, who led only four laps of the event, was declared the race winner.
About Me: Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. He has written for racingonfuel.com and theracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes for motorsportsnat.com and TracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.
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