Gio Ruggiero wins ARCA Daytona race after Nitro teammates wreck from lead

Motorsport photo

19-year-old Gio Ruggiero captured the checkered flag in the ARCA Menard's Series season-opener at Daytona. He's already a winner in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and the ARCA East division, but that was his first victory in the primary ARCA series.

Nitro Motorsports dominated much of the race, but their lead drivers [Jake Finch and Gus Dean] both crashed while controlling the inside and outside rows with two laps to go. That opened the door for Gio to snag the checkered flag.

"Yeah, it's awesome," said Ruggiero, who was driving for Joe Gibbs Racing. "Obviously, I wanted to win last night and came up short, so I got one more to win in the afternoon ... It got hectic there at the end. I was just trying to push my lane forward and the #15 [Finch] just got squirrelly in front of me and lost it. That's unfortunate for him, but glad we came out with the win."

Jake Bollman finished second, Kole Raz third, Daniel Dye fourth, and Glen Reen fifth. Jack Wood, Jason Kitzmiller, Ryan Vargas, Bobby Dale Earnhardt, and Andy Jankowiak filled out the remainder of the top ten.

Cleetus McFarland came back from a lap down to finish eleventh in a solid showing for the popular YouTuber, two positions shy of his best career finish in ARCA thus far.

Race recap

The first incident of the race was RAM: Race for The Seat winner, Mini Tyrrell, who mad an aggressive block and spun on the backstretch.

The Nitro Motorsports fleet dominated much of the event, and Isabella Robusto led laps in ARCA for the first time in her carer. Unfortunately, her race came to a premature end as a mechanical failure sent her behind the wall.

Trying to rebound from an early wreck in his Truck Series debut on Friday night, Cleetus McFarland was running inside the top five until a jack broke on pit road, costing him a lap.

Later in the race, Alli Owens, making her return to ARCA for the first time in 16 years, crashed heavily due to an engine failure. That triggered a red flag, and the race eventually got back underway with eight laps to go.

However, the run didn't last long as Thomas Annunziata crashed heavily on the backstretch.

The green flag flew with just two laps left in the race, and it was a disaster for the Nitro teammates. They controlled both lanes, but as Finch got turned from the race lead by Ruggiero, and collected teammate Dean -- wrecking both cars in the process.

When pushing goes wrong. Jake Finch spins at @DAYTONA and collects his teammate, Gus Dean.

Overtime coming up live on FOX! pic.twitter.com/Mt8uiEEGv1
— ARCA Menards Series (@ARCA_Racing) February 14, 2026

That pushed the race into overtime. Ruggiero and Wood shared the front row for a one-lap dash, but Ruggiero surged ahead. Instead of building a run against him, those closest to the front began to fight over the runner-up position, slowing each other down as Ruggiero escaped with the win.

There was another incident on the final lap as Tim Richmond spun from inside the top ten, but the race was able to finish under green-flag conditions.