DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - MDM Motorsports started the day atop the leader board in ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards open testing Friday at Daytona International Speedway. The three-car team ended the day there too.
Fastest of all was Alpine, California’s Sheldon Creed, who circled the 2.5-mile superspeedway in 50.023 seconds, an average speed of 179.917 mph in the No. 28 MDM Toyota. His MDM teammates, Zane Smith and Chase Purdy, were right behind.
“Yeah, we’re really happy with it,” said Creed. “We did single car runs most of the day. Main thing today was try to stay smooth and don’t move the steering wheel too much. We drafted around a little at the end. At the end of practice we were pretty stable. Pretty happy with the car…tune on it more tomorrow.”
Zane Smith, in the No. 41 Toyota was just a tick away at 179.896 mph.
“The guys at MDM put a lot of work into this car and it showed today,” said Smith. “We worked on single car runs most of the day. In the final 10 minutes I went out with my teammates and did a little drafting. I towed the pack for a bit and then got in line behind my teammates. Car was really good. Even in single car runs, seemed like we were still 3/10ths faster than anyone else. But single car runs don’t matter during the race…it’s how good it sucks up and how well it leads. I’m pretty pumped for the race.”
Rookie Chase Purdy was the third wheel in the MDM trick, coming in third on the final speed chart at 179.853 mph in the No. 8 Toyota.
“We didn’t lead any of the packs today but got a good idea of what the car does,” said Purdy. “We got maybe 10 laps in the draft. But we were really happy with the car. We have some things we can work on but I’m not concerned. This wasn’t even our primary car…this was our back-up car, and we think the primary car is going to be even better. We’re very pleased.”
Bret Holmes, in his own Bret Holmes Racing No 23 Chevrolet, was fourth overall at 178.777 mph, tied with Riley Herbst.
“We actually backed up in speed compared to where we were at the Talladega test,” said Holmes. “So we’re going to switch everything back over right now to the way it was at Talladega. We’ll see…we’ll be fine.”
Herbst, in the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, tested two cars in an effort to decide which car was better.
“We’re just getting the pre-season bugs out of the way,” said Herbst. “We brought two cars to find out which one is better. We know which one is better now and we’ll tune on it tomorrow. I’d say it was a pretty good day overall…we’ll start drafting more tomorrow.”
Codie Rohrbaugh (CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet) and newcomers Matt Frahm (Brother-In-Law Racing Chevrolet) and Grant Quinlan (Rette Jones Racing Toyota) were next in the order. Willie Mullins (Mullins Racing Ford) and Gus Dean (Win-Tron Racing Toyota) completed the top-10.
In all, 48 drivers posted time and speed over the first day, which was delayed by two hours for overnight rain. The open test Saturday with morning and afternoon sessions.
ARCA Racing Series
Daytona International Speedway – Daytona Beach, FL
Open Test Results, Day 1 – January 12, 2018
POS NO DRIVER CAR TIME SPEED
1. 28 Sheldon Creed/Alpine CA Toyota 50.023 179.917
2. 41 Zane Smith/Huntington Beach CA Toyota 50.029 179.896
3. 8 Chase Purdy/Meridian, MS Toyota 50.041 179.853
4. 23 Bret Holmes/Munford AL Chevrolet 50.342 178.777
5. 18B Riley Herbst/Las Vegas NV Toyota 50.342 178.777
6. 7B Codie Rohrbaugh/Parkersburg WV Chevrolet 50.349 178.752
7. 57 Matt Frahm/North Salem NH Chevrolet 50.540 178.077
8. 30Q Grant Quinlan/Maidstone Ontario Toyota 50.568 177.978
9. 3W Willie Mullins/Fredericksburg VA Ford 50.571 177.968
10. 32 Gus Dean/Bluffton SC Toyota 50.577 177.946
11. 18A Riley Herbst/Las Vegas NV Toyota 50.700 177.515
12. 7A Codie Rohrbaugh/Parkersburg WV Chevrolet 50.705 177.497
13. 78 Blaine Perkins/Bakersfield CA Chevrolet 50.781 177.232
14. 25 Natalie Decker/Eagle River WI Toyota 51.092 176.153
15. 46M Thad Moffitt/Trinity NC Chevrolet 51.150 175.953
16. 43 Sean Corr/Goshen NY Chevrolet 51.187 175.826
17. 55 Tom Hessert/Cherry Hill NJ Toyota 51.467 174.869
18. 88 Ryan Repko/Denver NC Chevrolet 51.498 174.764
19. 5 Bobby Gerhart/Lebanon PA Chevrolet 51.501 174.754
20. 28T Max Tullman/Chester Springs PA Toyota 51.505 174.740
21. 15 Michael Self/Park City UT Toyota 51.586 174.466
22. 63 Dave Mader III/Maylene AL Chevrolet 51.591 174.449
23. 02C CJ McLaughlin/Boston MA Chevrolet 51.682 174.142
24. 02S Stewart McCormack/Plaistow NH Chevrolet 51.720 174.014
25. 98 Quin Houff/Weyers Cave VA Chevrolet 51.753 173.903
26. 77 Bo LeMastus/Louisville KY Ford 51.770 173.846
27. 52G Brandon Grosso/Belle Mead NJ Ford 51.787 173.789
28. 20 Leilani Munter/Rochester MN Toyota 51.805 173.728
29. 52R Will Rodgers/Solvang CA Ford 51.879 173.481
30. 77W Chuck Walker/Concord NC Ford 51.973 173.167
31. 33 Michael McGuire/Vinton VA Toyota 52.070 172.844
32. 77C Chad Finchum/Knoxville TN Ford 52.204 172.401
33. 10P Ed Pompa/Ballston Spa NY Toyota 52.221 172.344
34. 37 Kirk Horton/Eldred NY Chevrolet 52.381 171.818
35. 69K Will Kimmel/Sellersburg IN Ford 52.384 171.808
36. 02A Andy Seuss/Salisbury NC Chevrolet 52.526 171.344
37. 27 Travis Braden/Wheeling WV Ford 52.549 171.269
38. 10S Daniel Sasnett/Auburndale FL Chevrolet 52.632 170.999
39. 48 Brad Smith/Shelby Township MI Ford 52.864 170.248
40. 3R Robert Bruce/Fredericksburg VA Ford 52.883 170.187
41. 3A Andrew Belmont/Penndel PA Ford 52.891 170.161
42. 11H Chuck Hiers/Jacksonville FL Toyota 52.970 169.907
43. 3D Dick Karth/Grafton WI Ford 53.012 169.773
44. 39I Jesse Iwuji/Carrollton TX Chevrolet 53.282 168.913
45. 39F Jonas Fors/Ingaro Sweeden Chevrolet 53.283 168.909
46. 39D Jerry De Weerdt/Aartselaar, Belgium Chevrolet 53.358 168.672
47. 10O Michael Ostdiek/Lakeville MN Toyota 53.439 168.416
48. 10R Logan Runyon/Cambridge OH Toyota 53.543 168.089
49. 39P Robert Powers/Merridian ID Chevrolet 53.718 167.542
50. 04 Scott Reeves/Royal Palm Beach FL Chevrolet 55.551 162.013
51. 9P Thomas Praytor/Mobile AL Chevrolet
52. 9O Ronnie Osmer/Pearl River, LA
53. 10B Morgen Baird/Jackson MI Toyota
54. 10L Robby Lyons/Seminole FL Chevrolet
55. 10M Tony Mrakovich/Elizabethtown NJ Chevrolet
56. 11M Carl McCormick/Jacksonville FL Toyota
57. 11C Rick Clifton/Circleville OH Toyota
58. 30D Tyler Dippel/Wallkill NY Toyota
59. 39T Andrew Tuttle/Caldwell ID Chevrolet
60. 46F John Ferrier/Middletown NY Chevrolet
61. 66T Mark Thompson/Cartersville GA Ford
62. 66L Carl Long/Roxboro NC Ford
63. 69H Kevin Hinckle/Shawnee KS Ford
64. 77J Joseph Graf/Mahwah NJ Ford
65. 77T Tate Fogleman/Durham NC Ford
66. 02M Matt Anderson/Franklin NH Chevrolet
67. Leslie Ferris/Northfield MN
68. Alex Labbe/St. Albert Quebec
