It was an afternoon worth paying off for after 25-time NTT INDYCAR Series winner Helio Castroneves finished fifth in his stock car racing debut despite being involved in numerous crashes during Saturday’s running of the Ride The ‘Dente 200 at Daytona to kick off the 2025 ARCA Menards Series season.
Due to a rainout during practice, ARCA canceled qualifying, and the starting lineup was set based on the 2024 ARCA owner’s points standings. Castroneves would start his No. 82 Wendy’s Chevrolet SS in the 19th starting spot for Pinnacle Racing Group. Little did the four-time Indianapolis 500 winner that he would be in for a chaotic and long day at the “World Center Of Racing.”
The first crash of the day would break out on lap 3 as the driver of the No. 11 Fast Track Racing, Cody Dennison, got loose while running ninth and smacked the outside retaining wall just off the exit of turn 4, ricocheting back into traffic collecting almost 10 cars in the process. Castroneves tried to avoid the wreck as he attempted to ride down pit road but instead made a hard right turn into the tri-oval infield grass to avoid a spinning Eric Caudell and fellow IndyCar competitor Katherine Legge.
Castroneves’ car escaped with minor damage to the splitter and was able to get it fixed.
As the field got back to green, Castroneves would ride around the back half of the lead pack, appearing inside the top 10 at some points during the green flag run.
Castroneves would be collected in his second incident of the day as the field was entering turn one after just the 34th circuit of the day, Lawless Alan gave the No. 68 of Scott Melton too big of a push which sent his car spinning below the apron, as he shot back up the track, Castroneves would shoot down below the double yellow line, tap the wall with his right rear quarter panel, and would shoot back down into the grass, this time ripping his splitter as he ran through the grass entering turn 2.
As the repairs were made on the No. 82 Chevrolet SS, Castroneves would set sail on his run to the front as he and the No. 88 of AJ Moyer worked together to get back up the lead pack. Both drivers would cut a break as the Venturini Motorsports teammates of Isabella Robusto and Lawless Alan wrecked entering turn 3 just past the halfway mark, ending Robusto’s day including the No. 48 of Jeff Scofield and No. 77 of Hendrick Motorsports development driver Corey Day.
Castroneves restarted 11th with 31 laps to go and would go to battle against the top contenders of the race up to that point Pinnacle Racing Group teammate Brendan Queen, William Sawalich, Lavar Scott, and Jake Finch.
Castroneves worked his way through the field with less than five laps to go, Castroneves drafted back up to his teammate of late model star Brendan Queen and would the field to the white flag. Sawalich was able to work around Castroneves on the high side but it wasn’t enough as Queen held off the rest of the field as he scored his first career ARCA Menards Series with Castroneves finishing fifth. But Castroneves’ day wasn’t quite done yet.
A miscommunication took place right as the checkered flag came out, the No. 88 of AJ Moyer thought the race was still going on and would piledrive into the back of the No. 82, destroying his car including sixth-place finisher in his ARCA Menards Series debut, Kole Raz.
“Well, it was a great job from everyone (Pinnacle Racing Group).” Said Castroneves in a post-race interview. “We started understanding a bit of what was going on, we had a little bit of a rough start with some of the yellows with people getting too anxious.”
Castroneves continued, “Man, that race for me was a great way to learn, a great way to understand, I’m so glad I did that.”
Unfortunately, Castroneves didn’t fare much better in his NASCAR Cup Series debut the following day in the 67th Annual DAYTONA 500, as his day came to an abrupt end on lap 76 of the 200-lap event, after getting collected in a crash. He would wind up finishing 39th behind the wall.
