Last Year’s Top Two Eliminated Early in This Year’s Lucas Oil 200 driven by General Tire

Last year, Michael Self (No. 25 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota) and Willie Mullins (No. 3 County Waste Systems Ford) escaped the late-race carnage that took out several other contenders to come across the finish line first and second in the Lucas Oil 200 driven by General Tire at Daytona.

In this year’s ARCA Menards Series season opener at Daytona, both Self and Mullins had plans to let the excitement happen around them and be there at the end, just like last year.

Unfortunately, on lap three of the 80-lap race, Self and Mullins came together with both sliding wildly into the infield down the backstretch entering into turn three.

Self’s car caught the turn in to the “bus stop” chicane used for Daytona’s road course and lurched airborne before slamming down onto the grass, doing significant damage to just about every corner of the bodywork on the car.

“It was a real disappointment to say the least,” Self said. “It was so early in the race, I didn’t even get to work up a sweat. I know Willie didn’t do it on purpose, and I know he was just trying to get that inside lane going, but I wish he was a little more patient.

“That’s just Daytona. You know it can happen. I wish it didn’t but it did. But I really love the chemistry on this team. I know we’ll bounce back. We’re going to head to Pensacola and go for our first short track win. It’s a real bummer that we’re going to have to play catch up a little in the championship battle, but I have a lot of confidence in our Venturini Motorsports team.”

Mullins took a long slide through the grass before slamming up onto the banking then back onto the grass. The unexpected trip through the grass knocked out the radiator and did other damage to the underside of the car, ending Mullins’s chances of another underdog run to victory at Daytona.

“I was just pushing too hard too early and I made a mistake” Mullins said. “It took out a championship contender and I feel horrible about it. You don’t want to hurt your car but you really don’t want to take out someone else’s car. We’ll try to repair our relationship with those guys the best we can. I’ve reached out to Bill and to Billy and I’d like to talk to Michael at some point and say I am sorry for what went down.

“The worst part about it is taking out one of the guys racing for a championship. I was trying to push that line forward and just didn’t get on the brake enough to slow my momentum and I got into him a little too hard, got him light and turned him around.”

Self is running for the series championship for the first time in his career and will have another chance to shake off the Daytona dust in the series’ next event at Five Flags Speedway on March 9. Mullins, who runs a limited schedule each season, may have another chance or two at redemption but that might not happen until the summer, if at all.

“It’s tough because we don’t have a lot of opportunities to come out and race, so we’re going to have to wait a while to rebound from this one,” Mullins said. “We’d like to do Talladega and maybe Nashville or Charlotte. We love coming and racing with ARCA. Everyone makes us feel like a part of the family and we just want to get back to the track so we can put what happened at Daytona behind us.”

Next up for the ARCA Menards Series is the ARCA Pensacola 200 at Five Flags Speedway on Saturday, March 9. The race will be televised live on MAVTV starting at 8 pm ET; ARCARacing.com will have live timing & scoring, live chat, and live track updates throughout the day’s on-track activity free for ARCA for Me members. New users can register at ARCARacing.com/login.