DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The General Tire 200 at Daytona International Speedway might just be the greatest draft you’ll see this side of a Daytona Beach conga line. With 50 cars entered for only 40 starting spots, the ARCA Menards Series season opener on Saturday at noon ET on FOX is one of those chaotic, pack-racing spectacles where horsepower meets spreadsheet strategy. Drivers will duke it out to be one of the lucky 40 in the field before the checkered flag even flies — and that’s all before the race really gets going.
If Daytona were a theme park ride, this race would be the wildest coaster: huge field, unpredictable draft antics, and a cast of competitors ranging from seasoned superspeedway sharpshooters to fresh faces trying to make a name in stock cars.
Headlining the mayhem:
• Garrett Mitchell — aka Cleetus McFarland — returns in the No. 30 Ford for Rette Jones Racing, after a rough Daytona debut last year and a breakthrough top-10 at Talladega. Cleetus brings showmanship and real wheel skills, and he’s got fans from YouTube to the Daytona Beach grandstands who want to see him turn that passion into an ARCA breakout.
• Gio Ruggiero’s triple-threat weekend rolls on. The northeast truck series wheelman — coming off a second-place Trucks run at Daytona and a Talladega win last year — is in this ARCA tilt before tackling the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series later in the weekend. That’s a lot of shallow drafts and high G-forces for one young contender, but he’s shown he can handle it.
• Superspeedway savants and returning vets dot the list: Nitro Motorsports fields an arsenal of contenders like Gus Dean (the 2024 Daytona winner), Jake Finch and Jake Bollman; Greg Van Alst, the 2023 race winner, is back; and seasoned ARCA aces like Sean Corr bring the kind of Daytona know-how that makes a difference in the final pack.
• With 50 entries but only 40 grid spots, every qualifying lap matters. The fastest 32 cars lock in on speed in Friday’s qualifying, with the remaining eight positions filled by provisionals based on 2025 owner points and the “Golden A” eligible teams — a delicious mix of tactics, nerves and late-model grit before a wheel even turns on Saturday.
Daytona isn’t just another superspeedway — it’s the superspeedway. Two and a half miles of banking, drafting trains as long as your race-weekend checklist, and the General Tire 200’s storied history make this one a sprint where patience and aggression wear the same helmet. Whether it’s Cleetus carving through the draft, Ruggiero’s high-octane weekend endurance test, or an underdog finding their moment in the slipstream, the 63rd General Tire 200 should be a feast of thrills and strategy worthy of its place on the Speedweeks card.
Refuel your coffee, stow your doubts and enjoy — this one’s gonna be a wild kickoff to the ARCA season.
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