Five-time ARCA 200 winner Bobby Gerhart—PHOTO COURTESY OF ARCA

As it has since 1964, the ARCA RE/MAX Series will open its season at Daytona International Speedway with the 45th running of the ARCA 200.

The event, live on SPEED at 4 p.m. Eastern, serves as a show-opener for Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series All-Star race, the Budweiser Shootout.

Expected entrants include nine-time series champion Frank Kimmel and five-time ARCA 200 winner Bobby Gerhart. The event will mark Gerhart’s return to the driver’s seat following injuries sustained in a 2007 wreck at Pocono Raceway.

Kimmel, who parted ways with longtime car owner Larry Clement late in 2007, is paired up with Cunningham Motorsports for the Daytona season opener. And for the first time in his career, Kimmel will be in a Dodge rather than a Ford.

Cunningham Motorsports will also be entering rookie Tayler Malsam, the newest development driver for the Dodge Driver Development program. Malsam has also announced he would be running the entire 2008 ARCA schedule.

In addition, driver development entries are expected from a variety of high-profile teams including one from Roush Fenway Racing with rookie Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Stenhouse is expected to run the full series schedule in 2008. Stenhouse was fourth quickest overall in recent Daytona testing.

Eddie Sharp Racing is expected to file two entries, one with Formula 1 veteran Scott Speed at the helm, and the other with Ken Butler III. In one career series start, Speed finished seventh at Talladega in 2007. Butler, in 11 career starts in 2007, has one victory at Toledo Speedway. His career-best superspeedway finish was seventh at Michigan International Speedway. Both drivers will be in Toyota Camrys for the Daytona event.

Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti, in a Ganassi Racing Dodge, is also expected to enter.

Entries from the Driver Development teams also include one from car owner Dale Earnhardt Jr., who is listed as the car owner for rookie driver Landon Cassill. It marks the first time that Earnhardt has participated in the ARCA RE/MAX Series as a car owner.

At present, 74 entries have been received.

Only seven different drivers have won from the pole in the ARCA 200 at Daytona: Gerhart ’05 and ’06, Benny Parsons ’69, Andy Hampton ’72, Iggy Katona ’74, Woody Fisher ’77, Jeff Purvis ’93 and Andy Hillenburg ’97. Only Gerhart has repeat wins (’05, ’06 and ’07) in consecutive years.

Toyota Good, Johnson Not

There has been a lot of talk about how well Toyota teams will fare this season, especially after the bust they experienced last year.

Joe Gibbs Racing, which switched from Chevrolets to Toyotas at the end of last season, continued to show the way in Cup tests last Thursday. JGR teams posted four of the seven fastest laps in the day’s first test session at California Speedway.

Denny Hamlin turned the two fastest laps, topping out at 182.523 mph on the two-mile Fontana track. Ryan Newman, driving a Penske Racing Dodge, was next at 181.511 mph.

Two-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson struggled. His Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was 38th among 56 cars that tested at 177.940 mph.

“It’s not driving worth a damn,” said Johnson. “The car had a major push in it.”

Other drivers were satisfied with the way the car was handling.

“I’m really pleasantly surprised at how well the car drove around here,” said Carl Edwards, who followed this week’s solid showings at the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway with the 10th-fastest lap (180.496 mph) in his Roush Fenway Racing Ford. “I was pretty nervous about running cars on these bigger racetracks because I wasn’t sure how they’d handle, but our engineers are doing a good job.”

Johnson said his team’s primary difficulties stemmed from the lack of downforce and inability to find the correct height for NASCAR’s new chassis.

He also said it might be time for NASCAR to look at factors other than the cars when it comes to improving competition. Johnson said creating track conditions that add multiple grooves would produce more side-by-side racing than NASCAR can create by putting further restrictions on its cars.

The strong showing the Toyota teams have made during tests at Las Vegas and California could mean they will be ready for the season-opening Daytona 500 on Feb. 17.

But Johnson said he’s keeping an eye on teams rather than manufacturers right now.

Weekend Racing Schedule

Saturday, Feb. 9

ARCA RE/MAX Daytona 200, Starting time: 4 p.m. (EST); TV: Speed; Distance 80 laps/200 miles.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Budweiser Shootout is a non-points race for drivers that won a pole during 2007, and previous Shootout winners. Starting time: 8 p.m. (EST); TV: Fox.

Sunday, Feb. 10

Daytona 500 Qualifying, Starting time: 1 p.m. (EST); TV: Speed. Note: Drivers will qualify for the top two starting positions only. The remainder of the 43-car Daytona 500 starting field will be determined through twin 125-mile races on Feb. 14, and NASCAR provisionals.

The 2008 Budweiser Shootout may be the last one. Budweiser will no longer be the series pole sponsor. The new contract with Coors did not include any announcements for future shootout races.

Racing Trivia Question: How many Daytona 500s did Dale Earnhardt Sr. win?

Last Week’s Question: Which NASCAR series will Erin Crocker race in this season?

Answer: She will be in the Craftsman Truck Series.

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