WATCH: Marco Andretti’s car goes up in flames during the ARCA Daytona season opener

Marco Andretti’s ARCA debut didn’t go as planned at Daytona.

WATCH: Marco Andretti’s car goes up in flames during the ARCA Daytona season opener

Marco Andretti car on fire at Daytona ARCA Mendes race (Via IMAGO)

The 2024 ARCA Mendes Series season opener was a chaotic affair just like the Truck Series race that was hosted hours before.  Venturini Motorsports’ Gus Dean took home the victory after surviving a violent last-lap crash. The race was extended to overtime by an incident involving ex-IndyCar driver Marco Andretti.

The Daytona season opener was the ARCA debut of Andretti and it also marked his Superspeedway Stock Car racing debut. He started the race at P25 after an average qualifying and on the Lap 3 he faced his first major challenge. He came across a multi-car wreck that collected Shane van Gisbergen. He was able to expertly avoid all the wrecked cars and gain 10 positions.

He then went on to have an up-and-down day, till the final stages of the race where he found himself running inside the top 10 and placed in a good position to secure a solid finish. But with four laps left in the race, his luck ran out and he found himself on the wall with his car on fire.  This was because his right rear tire getting cut due a damage he suffered earlier in the race.

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Despite not fishing the race due to the incident, he was awarded a P25 finish. While the final outcome is disappointing, Andretti has proved his worth to the NASCAR garage and has indirectly proclaimed that he is capable of learning the art of stock car racing part, to make the iconic Andretti family proud.

Marco Andretti believes he could have a shot at a win

Andretti believes this was a major bummer for him as he had hoped for a podium finish or a charge for victory in the race. He pointed out that he had enough speed and momentum with him to fight for the win if an incident occurred in the leading drivers.

I wasn’t going to back off anyway because we were running close enough to the front that if somebody went high above me, it was, you know, we would have had a shot and had either the win or the top three.

Marco Andretti via Frontstretch.

There is nothing to discourage for Andretti though as he has found the right grove for the remaining races he has in his schedule in the ARCA series as well as the selected Truck Series appearances he has planned for this season as well.        

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