The 2024 ARCA Daytona 200 has a good amount of hype surrounding it, and for good reasons too.
There are 50 drivers entered for the 80-lap season opener at Daytona International Speedway, meaning 10 drivers will fail to qualify for the race. Eleven of them are full time, with the number possibly raised to 12 if Andy Jankowiak indeed contests all 20 races of the 2024 season.
With so much buzz surrounding the 2024 ARCA season opener, who should we keep an eye on? Three drivers stand out with two others eager to win for the first time en route to hopefully a championship run.
Shane van Gisbergen astounded race fans when he won the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at the Chicago street course. Now the international sensation will race full time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series as well as compete in the ARCA race too.
SVG will pilot the No. 28 Pinnacle Racing Group Chevrolet in his series debut as well as his first-ever race at Daytona.
Will he win? It’s possible. He is driving good equipment for a team that won two ARCA Menards Series East races in 2023, and the team started with some of the remnants of GMS Racing’s ARCA program.
For van Gisbergen to succeed, he must rely on his knowledgeable crew chief Shane Huffman. Huffman served as crew chief for Bret Holmes’ 2020 ARCA title season and Huffman knows how to set up a racecar to run well at superspeedways. In seven superspeedway races, consisting of Daytona and Talladega Superspeedway, Huffman’s drivers have accrued four top fives and five top 10s. Van Gisbergen won in his Cup debut; he could take Huffman to victory lane in his ARCA debut too.
SVG is not the only big name in the ARCA field. Marco Andretti is running part time in ARCA in 2024 for team owner Bruce Cook. Andretti is sporting a snazzy paint scheme on his No. 17 for Daytona, which will also be his series debut.
“I expect good things,” Cook told Frontstretch about his expectations for Andretti. “I expect to win. That’s what we are going for. I don’t just want to ride around and finish. We had a good test. Pretty sure we will have a good car for the race, but anything can happen down there. You could be running 10th and end up winning or you could be running first on the last lap and finish 15th. But expectations are nothing but a win.”
Both van Gisbergen and Andretti participated in the series preseason test at Daytona. Andretti posted the eighth-fastest time and van Gisbergen was 12th. Cook…
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