Corey Heim took to the lead in his Venturini Motorsports No. 20 car in Saturday’s ARCA race at Daytona and never looked back.
He was aided by a plethora of cautions that took laps off of the 80-lap race, as well as a hindered teammate in Drew Dollar behind him, but nonetheless Heim got the job done.
“I’ve got to give a lot of props to Drew (Dollar),” Heim said on the Fox Sports 1 broadcast. “He really helped me there at the end. I really trusted him and that paid off.”
Dollar had damage to the left front of his car with tape that was becoming unstuck throughout the length of the race.
In the last 40 laps, too, Dollar was without power steering. He pushed Heim to the race win as the checkered flag waved.
“I felt like that was really all we could do there,” Dollar said on the broadcast. “We didn’t really have what it takes to win once we got that damage.”
However, the way the race played out didn’t excite third-place finisher Bret Holmes nor fourth-place finisher Ty Gibbs, both in cars without teammates.
Gibbs thought that Dollar stayed tucked in behind Heim to ensure that he got the win and no one had a chance to make a run.
“We were just talking about the stuff that’s happened in the past week,” Gibbs said on FS1. “It’s just frustrating to come out here a run a race where guys are letting their buddy in it. I feel like if I did that I wouldn’t want to be out here. Just letting people win the race. He just completely gave it away there.”
It was unclear whether they were locking bumpers or not – a penalty that could be assessed by ARCA while racing clean with teammates is a different story.
“It’s extremely tough there at the end,” Holmes said. “Those two guys are teammates and they can really effect the race for us. I don’t know the rules for locking bumpers much, but if they did and it’s in the rules, it’s wrong.”
The frustrations go back to Monday’s finish at New Smyrna, where Sammy Smith was penalized for pitting too early 40 laps after the penalty happened.
It arguably cost Smith the race, and Gibbs had thoughts on the package, too.
“This package is just frustrating,” Gibbs said. “The way this package is, you can hardly push and you cant really get to the bumpers. Then you’re not allowed to lock bumpers and (the Venturini cars) did, while we got penalized 80 laps later (at New Smyrna). I don’t really know what to do to get ARCA to like us.”
Regardless of what happened at Daytona, it’s evident that the racers on this tour have the passion to give it an extra push that it could use.
The tour returns to the track for race No. 2 out of 20 at Phoenix Raceway on March 12.
“It’s going to be tight,” Dollar said. “I think it’s going to be a lot tougher than last year.”
ARCA Menards Series Daytona Results
1. Corey Heim
2. Drew Dollar
3. Bret Holmes
4. Ty Gibbs
5. Kyle Sieg
6. Derrick Lancaster
7. Tanner Gray
8. Andrew Jankowiak
9. Jack Wood
10. Sean Corr
11. Jason Kitzmiller
12. John Ferrier
13. Howie DiSavino III
14. Jason White
15. Rich Bickle
16. Eric Caudell
17. Richard Garvie
18. Toni Breidinger
19. Tim Richmond
20. Benny Chastain
21. Thad Moffitt
22. Con Nicolopoulos
23. Gracie Trotter
24. Scott Reeves
25. Chuck Hiers
26. D.L. Wilson
27. Dave Mader III
28. Willie Mullins
29. Greg Van Alst
30. Derek Griffith
31. Nick Sanchez
32. Scott Melton
33. Owen Smith
34. Brittany Zamora
