Christian Eckes opened up the ARCA Racing Series portion of SpeedWeeks at Daytona International Speedway on Friday by scoring the pole for Saturday’s season opening Lucas Oil 200.
Eckes’s fast lap of 49.180 seconds translates to 183.001 miles per hour around the 2.5-mile high-banked tri-oval.
“You always want to start your season off this way,” Eckes said. “We watched a couple of others do it. Our plan was to stay up tight with the cars in front of us and see what happens but it turns out we dropped back and got a really good run. We brought a really fast car here and we didn’t really show it yesterday. We have 80 more laps to do this. My whole team is just excited to get going.”
Eckes’s pole marks the third consecutive General Tire Pole Award for Venturini Motorsports at Daytona International Speedway. Tom Hessert III started first in 2017 and Natalie Decker qualified on the pole in 2018.
Eckes nipped Thad Moffitt by just 0.046 seconds to take the pole. Moffitt, grandson of seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and seven-time Daytona 500 winner Richard Petty, turned a fast lap at 49.226 miles per hour.
“It’s really important for me to come out here and run well in my first race at Daytona,” Moffitt said. “I feel like racing at Daytona is a part of the family legacy and on Saturday I’ll do that. That’s one foot in the door. To win here would be getting both feet in the door.”
Leilani Munter qualified third at 182.604 miles per hour, giving Venturini Motorsports two of the top three qualifiers.
“I have been telling people I am at the end of my 18-year motorsports journey, and this is a great way to kick off my final race as a driver,” she said. “I have been so close to top five finishes here in the past only to have it go away at the very end. I have the same car I drove here last year and it’s the best handling car I’ve ever had here. We’re excited to get to tomorrow.”
Willie Mullins, last year’s runner-up finisher at Daytona, qualified fourth fastest, while Harrison Burton was fifth.
The defending race winner Michael Self was sixth and last year’s pole winner Natalie Decker was seventh quickest. Travis Braden, Andy Seuss and Connor Hall rounded out the top ten qualifiers.
The Lucas Oil 200 slated for a 4:30 pm ET green flag on Saturday afternoon.
ARCA Racing Series
Daytona International Speedway – Daytona Beach, FL
Lucas Oil 200 – February 8, 2019
Friday’s Qualifying Results
1. Christian Eckes
2. Thad Moffitt
3. Leilani Munter
4. Willie Mullins
5. Harrison Burton
6. Michael Self
7. Natalie Decker
8. Travis Braden
9. Andy Seuss
10. Connor Hall
11. Brandon McReynolds
12. Tyler Dippel
13. C.J. McLaughlin
14. Bret Holmes
15. Codie Rohrbaugh
16. Gus Dean
17. Riley Herbst
18. Todd Gilliland
19. Brenden Queen
20. Joe Graf, Jr.
21. John Ferrier
22. Sean Corr
23. Paul Williamson
24. Bobby Gerhart
25. Grant Quinlan
26. Derrick Lancaster
27. Dave Mader III
28. Scott Melton
29. J.J. Pack
30. Tommy Vigh, Jr.
31. Jason White
32. Eric Caudell
33. Chuck Heirs
34. Brad Smith
35. Con Nicolopolous
