In what ammounted to a tune-up for his first career Daytona 500 start, Helio Castroneves finished fifth after surviving multiple crashes in Saturday's ARCA Menards Series event at Daytona.

As for the Daytona 500 itself: he started dead-last 41st, but deftly advanced to 14th before slipping to 23rd at lap 65, the end of Stage 1. He was credited with finishing 39th after being sidelined in a seven-car backstretch crash early in Stage 2 that he simply couldn’t avoid.

Castroneves was swept up in two early accidents before rallying back to be within one lap of a race victory in his first ARCA race.