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Brayton Laster Emotional After Locking Into ARCA Daytona Race

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Seth Eggert | Last updated Feb 14, 2025 11:30 AM ET

Underdog stories are what have made Daytona Int’l Speedway an emotional place for drivers across motorsports and the latest to feel that emotion is ARCA Menards Series driver Brayton Laster.

One year ago, Laster narrowly missed qualifying for the season-opening ARCA race. Heading into the Ride the ‘Dente 200, he knew once again that he would be an underdog. His Wayne Peterson Racing No. 0 Clean Tech Pools Chevrolet was the only entrant without an Ilmor spec engine, putting the team at a significant disadvantage heading into practice and qualifying. Then the rain came.

A torrential downpour forced ARCA officials to cancel Thursday’s practice session and replace Friday’s qualifying with a new practice session. Although owned by NASCAR, ARCA operates independently.

The starting lineup for Saturday’s race was then set by the rulebook. As a result, Laster and his Wayne Peterson team were locked into the race on owner points. The 22-year-old will start his third career race at Daytona in 35^th.

“We came in as absolute underdogs,” Laster said on X. “We were the only car in the field without a spec Ilmor motor so we’re at a horsepower disadvantage, with group qualifying anything could’ve happened and we were gonna be looking to pull off an upset.

“We knew doing the rain dance was our best bet, I’m just not very good at dancing,” he continued. “When we got the text we were locked in, we began celebrating big time. Hugs from every team all around, I even had a stranger come up and said he had no idea who we were but he just wanted to celebrate with us. This is what it’s all about.”

Watch the moment we found out we had just qualified for the @ARCA_Racing race at Daytona.

Our guys were celebrating, other teams were coming over to celebrate, random strangers were celebrating, and even other drivers came over.

We knew going in it would be a challenge to… pic.twitter.com/dmddEo68TZ
— Brayton Laster (@TheOnePizzaMan) February 14, 2025

Laster has 16 career ARCA starts, three of which have come on superspeedways. The Greenwood, IN native’s best superspeedway finish, 13^th, came in his ARCA National Series debut in 2022. He also has four career top-10 finishes with a best finish of ninth at Salem Speedway, twice.

The Ride the ‘Dente 200 is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 15 at 12 p.m. ET on Fox. The race will also be broadcast on arcaracing.com, the Fox Sports App, and the Motor Racing Network.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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