NASCAR Drivers Benny Gordon and Chad McCumbee Top ARCA Afternoon Draft Session

Wednesday afternoon's test session for the ARCA Racing Series at Daytona International Speedway marked the first draft session, as the other three sessions were just comprised of single car runs.

The highest speeds were set in the final hour as five cars set out to draft tightly together.

Benny Gordon topped the list with a lap of 48.414 seconds (185.897 seconds). Gordon is looking to make his first ARCA Racing Series start after running some races in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

"We have, obviously, a really good car right now," Gordon told the ARCA Racing Network. "We did a lot of qualifying runs the first thing this morning and the car's pretty decent by itself, but the car's extremely fast in the draft. We hung around that top 10 in qualifying trim and qualifying runs, but in the draft, it was really good."

He edged Chad McCumbee, who had a lap of 48.427 seconds (185.847 mph). McCumbee also had some NASCAR experience in the Camping World Truck Series and also has some previous starts in the ARCA Series. In the final five races of last season, he finished in the top 10 in all of those starts.

"It's so far, so good," McCumbee said. "The Andy Belmont Racing guys have really worked over the offseason and we've brought in some new people. The first couple days working with (crew chief) Wayne Carroll have been great. We're still off from where we'd like to be, obviously. We've got some more to do that we haven't shown."

Other drivers who were in that draft were Ty Dillion, Sean Corr and Joey Licata Jr. They were followed on the charts by Chad Hackenbracht, Hal Martin, Kyle Fowler, and Steve Arpin. The speeds for the top nine were all higher than what has been seen so far, which is expected due to draft speeds always being higher.

IndyCar Driver Milka Duno rounded out the top 10, matching her previous best mark of 48.673 seconds.

Other notables include six-time Daytona winner Bobby Gerhart, who finished the session 25th, while nine-time ARCA Racing Series champion Frank Kimmel elected not to participate in the afternoon session. Kimmel wasn't the only one opting out, as many drivers did not participate or chose to make single-car runs.

In all, 39 drivers turned laps in 42 different cars in the afternoon session.

Open testing for teams and drivers will conclude Thursday at Daytona International Speedway. Only single-car runs will be allowed in the morning, and drafting will be permitted in the afternoon.

DAYTONA INT'L SPEEDWAY TEST - 1/11-13/11
ARCA RACING SERIES PRESENTED BY MENARDS
JANUARY 12, 2011, AFTERNOON SESSION
	CAR #	DRIVER	MAKE	TIME	SPEED
1	09	Benny Gordon	Ford	48.414	185.897
2	1	Chad McCumbee	Ford	48.427	185.847
3	41b	Ty Dillon	Chevy	48.431	185.831
4	82	Sean Corr	Ford	48.432	185.828
5	77	Joey Licata, Jr.	Dodge	48.473	185.670
6	58	Chad Hackenbracht	Chevy	48.522	185.483
7	55	Hal Martin	Toyota	48.609	185.151
8	15	Kyle Fowler	Chevy	48.652	184.987
9	25	Steve Arpin	Toyota	48.660	184.957
10	63a	Milka Duno	Dodge	48.673	184.907
11	66	Mark Thompson	Toyota	48.779	184.506
12	6	Jason Bowles	Toyota	48.834	184.298
13	36b	Brett Hudson	Dodge	48.834	184.298
14	16b	Randy Renfrow	Chevy	48.844	184.260
15	22	Dakoda Armstrong	Dodge	48.844	184.260
16	3	Brent Brevak	Dodge	48.962	183.816
17	4	Brian Rose	Toyota	48.965	183.805
18	36	Grant Enfinger	Dodge	49.000	183.673
19	11	Bryan Silas	Ford	49.031	183.557
20	54	Will Vaught	Chevy	49.044	183.509
21	16	Randy Renfrow	Chevy	49.060	183.449
22	31	Tim George	Chevy	49.084	183.359
23	68	Steve Blackburn	Dodge	49.142	183.143
24	14b	John Ferrier	Ford	49.199	182.931
25	5a	Bobby Gerhart	Chevy	49.578	181.532
26	62	Drew Charleson	Chevy	49.637	181.316
27	14a	John Graham	Ford	49.690	181.123
28	10b	Rick Clifton	Chevy	49.724	180.999
29	08	James Hylton	Ford	49.776	180.810
30	12a	Jarod Marks	Dodge	49.781	180.792
31	75b	Benny Chastain	Chevy	49.788	180.766
32	10a	Ed Pompa	Chevy	49.762	180.681
33	17a	Chris Buescher	Ford	49.814	180.672
34	95	Tommy Joe Martins	Dodge	49.927	180.263
35	12b	Maryeve Dufault	Dodge	49.936	180.231
36	17b	Chris Buescher	Ford	50.254	179.090
37	18d	Jill Georgs	Ford	50.417	178.511
38	5c	Damon Lusk	Chevy	50.426	178.479
39	80a	Ricky Byers	Ford	50.627	177.771
40	75a	Hannah Baker	Chevy	50.661	177.651
41	48	James Hylton	Ford	51.685	174.132
42	80	Russell Henderson	Ford	59.108	152.264