2008 Smash Beer 100

The 2008 Smash Beer 100 at Daytona International Speedway was the season opening event for the 2008 ARLA Elite Series season.

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The Race
Before the season began, ARLA made changes that affected the body styles of the cars by going to GT-style bodies, a move that did not sit well with the teams due to the high costs involved.

The first race of 2008, the Smash Beer 100, would see Jim Baker, host of OEN's Rerun Paradise, giving the command to start engines, although he was intoxicated at the time, which didn't really sit well with the fans. Rookie Charlie Waters, who edged out CeeJay Racing owner Chris Jackson for the win in the qualifying race, would start on the pole with Junior Hardearn on his outside. Waters would lead the first lap of the race, which was actually a 37-lap race instead of 40 due to the high fuel consumption of the GT cars. There was four-wide action early on, but they got through clean for the most part. Ryan Saloon in the #12 would lead Lap 2, which saw its first caution of the day when the #2 of Matt Pearson was turned in the tri-oval by the #10 of Ryan Baldwell. Junior Hardearn, Michael White, Robert Truex, Alex Fizzola, Tristan Roberts, and Ichiro Oshima were involved in the incident.

On Lap 9, contact between Baldwell and Kevin Monroe sends Baldwell up the track in turns 1 & 2, and about nine cars were involved. Saloon, James West, Justin Parker, Jason Bates, Truex, Pearson, Hamilton Porteau, Bobby Porteau, and Leslie Riggs are among those involved.

On Lap 17, Terry Stewart makes a pass on the outside to take the lead from Jackson, who's #44 car seemed to be struggling aerodynamically. On Lap 18, four-wide action would cause the third caution of the day when Kurt Walker, Kevin Colley, Stewart, Saloon, Nakano Satasumi, and Manuel Ortiz were involved.

In the closing laps of the race, 12 cars were locked in a tight battle for the lead. Matt Scarano held the lead, but with 2 laps to go, Ortiz, who had recovered for a spin in the third wreck of the day, gets around Scarano for the lead, and would hold off the challenges of the #06 of Anthony Griffith and the #63 of Kevin Monroe the rest of the way to earn his first ARLA Elite Series victory and sweep the February Daytona races. Griffith held off Monroe to take 2nd. Matt Scarano and Chris Jackson round out the top 5.

Trivia

 * This also marks Kenn Groves first win as a team owner.