Nick Igdalsky begins ARCA season at Daytona

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Nick Igdalsky sat in his motor room as the rain beat down on the roof Friday in Daytona Beach, Fla. and remembered his only race at South Boston Speedway in 2009.

It wasn’t a pleasant memory for Igdalksy. After qualifying eighth and quietly biding his time in the 100-lap race, he was caught up in a lap-23 accident, which broke the axle on his car.

“I can only drive my car, I can’t drive theirs,” Igdalsky said jokingly Friday afternoon. “I’m going to find out more about that this weekend, I’m sure.”

Igdalsky will find out quickly as he begins his first full season in the ARCA Series today in the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 at Daytona International Speedway, which will be televised nationally on SPEED at 4:30 p.m.

The Long Pond, Pa., native starts 16th in today’s race after he was the first on the track for qualifying in his No. 1 ModSpace Ford Fusion, putting down a lap of 179.655 miles per hour. He’ll start four positions behind Danica Patrick, while his cousin, Chase Mattioli, starts 30th.

“We’ve got a real good car,” Igdalsky said. “We practiced it top 10 every time we’ve been here. Just for some reason today, we didn’t get the draw we wanted and we suffered on position.”

Starting in the middle of the field will be different for Igdalsky, especially on the 2.5-mile superspeedway. He did race in the Grand-Am race at Daytona last year, but the track for that series included the infield road course, so Igdalsky did not get to experience lap after lap of constant drafting and high speeds he will be right in the middle of today.

“It hasn’t been too bad yet. We haven’t run in a huge pack, so I’m expecting to get a little trail by fire on that one. Just hold a smooth line and the car’s going to stick around here,” Igdalksy said. “Here, it’s pretty easy as far as if you’re driving by yourself. There’s not much to it — just hammer down and stay in a line. Where you’re going to have to work for it a little bit is in a crowd. It hasn’t been too difficult at this point.”

Igdalsky’s transition from the open wheel ranks to the stock car level hasn’t been as challenging as most drivers face in today’s economy. He was able to get his first start in the ARCA Series last season with Andy Belmont Racing and the duo make it stick for this season.

“There’s a lot of guys that can be professional stock car drivers,” Igdalsky said, “but to be at the right place at the right time and to be in a position where you can contribute to what the sponsor’s goals are is just as important now as talent level.”

Igdalsky, the grandson of Pocono Raceway owners Dr. Joseph and Rose Mattioli and the senior vice president of Pocono Raceway, spent 2½ seasons racing at South Boston Speedway in the Pure Stock Division. Igdalsky won nine races during that span, including five during his rookie season. He also picked up seven poles and led the most laps during that year, but missed out on a track championship due to having to fulfill his obligations at Pocono.

While he ran at SoBo, he also had the opportunity to race a few open wheel races at Virginia International Raceway in Axton. Though, he is happy to have the opportunity to be racing in a series he grew up watching.

“I’m really excited to be in the ARCA Series,” Igdalsky said. “I’ve been watching ARCA races since I was a little kid, being at Pocono. … I’m real excited to be doing it.”