Shane van Gisbeergen and Pinnacle Racing Group will compete in the ARCA Menards Series season-opener at Daytona International Speedway, after all.
After a topsy-turvy group qualifying session on Friday, the Auckland, New Zealand-native was unable to post a time quick enough to lock into the season-opening ARCA 200 at the 2.5-mile superspeedway.
However, shortly following the conclusion of time trials on Friday, Eric Caudell and CCM Racing elected to withdraw the No. 7 Toyota Camry from the 200-mile contest, despite posting the 17th-fastest lap of the afternoon.
With Caudell’s lap time no longer valid, Van Gisbergen was promoted to 34th place on the speed charts, making his speed good enough to lock him into the ARCA Menards Series event — which has been rescheduled to immediately after the Truck Series race Friday.
Friday’s ARCA 200 at Daytona is crucial for van Gisbergen, a three-time champion in the Australian Supercars series, after he needed to compete in the ARCA Menards Series event to be approved for Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series contest.
Now, the Trackhouse Racing development driver will have the opportunity to compete in the event on Friday, gaining him valuable experience for Saturday’s United Rentals 300 at Daytona, but also his two scheduled NASCAR Cup Series events at Talladega this season.
As of the time of publishing, ARCA Menards Series officials have not released an official starting lineup, meaning we don’t exactly know which drivers will take the green flag in Friday’s ARCA 200.
However, should Caudell be the only driver to remove himself from contention in Friday’s event, the drivers failing to qualify would be Takuma Koga, Mitch Gibson, Becca Monopoli, Hunter Deshautelle, Cody Dennison, Charles Buchanan, AJ Moyer, Brayon Laster, and Dale Shearer.
