Race Weekend Central

Corey Heim Dominates To Win ARCA Season Opener at Daytona

Corey Heim absolutely dominated the 2022 ARCA Menards Series season-opening Lucas Oil 200 at Daytona International Speedway. Heim started on the pole and led 74 of 80 laps, the most by an ARCA winner since Bobby Gerhart in 2006.

Heim’s victory marks his eighth career ARCA victory and his second straight at Daytona.

This victory marks Venturini Motorsports’ fifth straight win at this 2.5-mile superspeedway. The team controlled the race with Heim in the lead, and his teammate Parker Chase stayed glued to his bumper for much of the race.

Chase finished a career-high second, earning his second career ARCA top five finish.

Heim and Chase ensured Venturini went to victory lane as the two stayed glued together on a final one-lap shootout. Even when Drew Dollar wrecked and series officials allowed the race to finish under green, nobody was able to mount a challenge to steal the win away from Heim.

Neither Heim nor Chase are running full-time in ARCA this year. Daniel Dye was the top finishing full-time driver with a third-place finish in his first race at this superspeedway.

Driving a throwback paint scheme honoring the late Bob Keselowski, Sean Corr tied his career-best finish of fourth, set in this race two years ago.

Venturini driver Gus Dean rounded out the top five finishers.

Andy Jankowiak, Mason Diaz, and Dave Mader III finished sixth, seventh, and eighth, respectively.

Venturini full-time driver Toni Breidinger, followed in ninth-place, matching her career-best finish. Ryan Huff rounded out the top 10.

Mirroring the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season opener last night, also at Daytona, this ARCA race only featured one multi-car incident. Curiously, the incident involving several frontrunners such as Dean and full-time competitor Greg Van Alst occurred after series officials displayed the yellow.

The only other noteworthy on-track incident came after Eric Caudell spun on lap 22, bringing out the first yellow flag. Caudell ultimately finished in last place (36th).

As the drivers readied for the subsequent restart, Nick Sanchez went into the highest lane alongside Daniel Dye. Series officials initially penalized Sanchez for not following race control to merge into the high line. Sanchez and his Rev Racing team argued Dye wouldn’t allow Sanchez into the restart line. When the green flag flew for that restart, Sanchez and Dye were three-wide.

After an appeal by the No. 2 team, series officials rescinded the penalty. Sanchez later suffered a flat tire, derailing his strong run in this race. He wound up one lap down in 20th place.

Other notables included full-time rookies Rajah Caruth in 11th place and Amber Balcaen came home 16th. Due to his last lap wreck, Dollar finished in 19th place. Van Alst too finished one lap down lost one lap after his No. 35 received damage in that multi-car incident, and he finished a disappointing 22nd.

Heim easily worked his way back out front and coasted much of the rest of the way. His official margin of victory was 0.156 seconds over Chase but he was never seriously challenged in the race’s final laps. So, for the fifth straight ARCA superspeedway race, a Venturini driver was victorious with Heim winning the last three.

Lucas Oil 200 Results

The ARCA Menards Series returns Friday, March 11 at Phoenix Raceway. Coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. ET on MAVTV.

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