Gus Dean wins ARCA 200 at Daytona in overtime after teammate controversy

A long Friday night in the ARCA Menards Series ends in the early morning hours of Saturday with Gus Dean winning in overtime, under caution.

Dean, who contributed to wrecking his Venturini Motorsports teammates Toni Breidinger and Kris Wright, gets his third career win in the NASCAR development series.

Add another superspeedway win to Dean’s record. His first win in 2016 came at Talladega. This time, he gets it done in the season opener at Daytona as the rest of the field, including another teammate, Jake Finch, wrecked.

Gus Dean is only running a part-time schedule this year, but this might go a long way. It is the 100th win for Venturini. Could we see more of Dean in ARCA after this?

A massive crash on the last lap ends the @DAYTONA ARCA 200 in overtime. @gusdean gets his third ARCA Menards Series win!

All drivers involved in the crash climbed out of their cars. pic.twitter.com/fDk23e1Ae8

— ARCA Menards Series (@ARCA_Racing) February 17, 2024

Tonight was a marathon for NASCAR fans. Between the Truck Series and ARCA race, there were 20 cautions over the course of 450 miles. For Venturini, their three full-time drivers were all wrecked before the end of the race. However, they pick up the win with one of their five cars.

Toni Breidinger calls out Gus Dean after Lap 4 wreck

Meanwhile, things aren’t so great back with Toni Breidinger. She was very upset with Gus Dean after, in her view, he wrecked her out of the race and teammate Kris Wright. It was a tough end to her ARCA race tonight.

“I mean in the truck race, people were aggressive but nobody just cleared themself down,” Breidinger said. “I did the entire truck race, people were very aggressive, I don’t know, Gus is supposed to have the most experience here, supposed to be the veteran of the team. But I don’t know, I have no idea what he was doing, just a stupid move.”

She went on further.

“I’ve not talked to him but it’s just unfortunate because he took out Kris our other teammate we’re both going full-time in the season. Gus is just pulling up for a couple of races because his dad is writing the check.”