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Craig Bracken hospitalized after brutal wreck during Daytona ARCA race

JHby:Jonathan Howard•02/15/25•

Jondean25

Craig Bracken ARCA Daytona hospital
Screenshot credit: NASCAR on FOX via X.com

Unfortunate news for Craig Bracken. After a wreck during the first half of the ARCA Menards Series race at Daytona, he has been hospitalized. Bracken took a few big hits in a multi-car incident with Amber Balcaen, Garrett “Cleetus McFarland” Mitchell, and others.

Craig Bracken was racing for Young’s Motorsports in the No. 02 car. As Balcaen and Mitchell wrecked, Bracken was unable to avoid the mess. The 86 car hit Balcaen and Bracken hit the 86 car.

After making contact with the 86, Bracken hit the inside wall a couple of times.

Young’s Motorsports released a statement on the decision to send him to the hospital. Hopefully, it is just precautionary. This Daytona ARCA race has been a mess.

“Following an on-track incident in this afternoon’s race, Craig Bracken driver of the [ARCA] No. 2 SS has been observed at the infield care center and out of an abundance of caution, will be transported to a local facility for further evaluation.”

The ARCA Menards Series race at Daytona has not been great. A 40-car field has been cut down to less than 20 cars at this point. A lot of fast race cars have been wrecked and a lot of frustrating moments have happened.

A race like today makes you want to rethink ARCA racing at Daytona or Talladega. Craig Bracken has been sent to the hospital. We are lucky there haven’t been more drivers sent to the hospital with how many hard hits there have been.

While it is exciting to get a new season underway, this is not what anyone wants to see. It’s a shame that this race on big FOX has had so many rough moments.

Daytona ARCA race filled with stars and wrecks

There were so many great names entered in this race to start. Helio Castroneves, Katherine Legge, Cleetus McFarland, and of course, the ARCA regulars. Isabella Robusto, Brenden “Butterbean” Queen – well, a lot of that went away with the number of wrecks in the field.

It feels like 40 cars is simply too many for the ARCA race at Daytona. The Truck Series doesn’t even field that many cars in their races. With only about 20 cars or so in the race left, what is the point of having so many entries? It is clear that the large field is a detriment to the overall racing product.

I’m not sure how you fix ARCA at Daytona. These are underfunded teams, young drivers, old drivers, and drivers who honestly shouldn’t be going 180+ MPH in the draft. Either standards have to be raised or the series has to take a hard look at what they are doing by having this race every year.