Bobby Gerhart, 51, won the ARCA Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 for the sixth time in 22 tries. Huge congratulations to him.

“We needed a break to get it done, and we got the break we needed to work on the car,” Gerhart said. “Racing at Daytona is pretty much our year; this is what we do. Winning again is unbelievable I dreamed of racing here as a little kid, and I’d like to retire someday while in victory lane.”

Then there was Danica Patrick. Let’s be honest, I think most people expected Danica Patrick to finish in the rear of the pack for the ARCA Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 or to end up wrecked. But she started 12th and finished 6th.

She ran most of the race up front and then lost a concentration a little towards the end and got shuffled to the back. But in the last few laps she made a huge push towards the front to end up finishing 6th.

But she held her own and she did a good job. Don’t get me wrong, it was obvious that she had a lot to learn but she was able to avoid problems, drive to the front when she needed to and I believe she didn’t even speed on pit row despite possibly having tachometer problems (I think I heard).

At one point she made contact with another driver. This sent Danica flying through the grass, getting sideways and ending with a great save. She kept it off the wall when she reentered the track.

Lots of inexperience seen today, but also a lot of good stuff including determination from Danica Patrick.

“I learned what it feels like [to get hit],” she said, beaming. “I learned what it feels like to hit people. I learned what it feels like to hit people from the side. I learned how to hit people from all directions. I hit from all around.

“I had a lot of fun, and I can’t wait to do it again.”

The race as a whole was crash fest. Amazes me how those guys/gals in the ARCA series don’t know how to put the brakes on when there is trouble in front of them. On numerous occasions there were late hits from drives going way to fast with trouble in front of them.

Thirteen cars were lost in six different wrecks, including one so violent that they had to stop the race so crews could fix the catch fence above the wall.