Christian Eckes Wins ARCA Pole at Daytona

Christian Eckes, who recently announced that he will be driving part-time in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series with Kyle Busch Motorsports, posted a lap time of 49.180 in group qualifying at Daytona to win his 3rd ARCA career pole. Christian Eckes was the only Venturini MotorsportsToyota in the 4th group, and he worked the draft to his advantage and put a lap time that was over two tenths faster than any other car in his group. The other 3 Venturini cars were all in the 3rd group and really showed the speed of the organization as all 4 Venturini cars qualified in the Top-6.

Eckes will start the Lucas Oil 200 Driven by General Tire alongside 4th generation driver Thad Moffit, the grandson of Richard Petty. Moffitt is making only his 9th start in the ARCA Racing Series, and his first on a restrictor plate track. The 3rd place qualifier was Leilani Munter, who is set to make her final start in racing. Her 3rd place qualifying performance is the best in her ARCA career, beating out last year’s event where she qualified 5th. Last year’s runner-up finisher Willie Mullins qualified 4th, hoping to improve on his career-best 2018 run at Daytona. That race remains as Mullins’ only Top-5 finish in his 13-race ARCA career. Rounding out the Top-5 is another Venturini driver, Harrison Burton. The son of former NASCAR driver and current NBC Analyst Jeff Burton, Harrison Burton has 2 wins in 11 races in the ARCA Racing Series, but neither came with Venturini Motorsports. Burton, who won the 2017 K&N Pro Series East Championship, will be running full time in the Truck Series for Kyle Busch Motorsports.

The Lucas Oil 200 Driven by General Tire at Daytona International Speedway will be run on Saturday, February 9 at 4:45pm ET and will be aired on FS1. The weather outlook isn’t exactly favorable though, Dark Sky projections show light rain from about 3-8pm.

Here are the full qualifying results: