Wayne Peterson is slowly filling out his driver lineup for the 2024 ARCA Menards Series season. “I kind of take it from race to race,” he told Frontstretch.
Tommy O’Leary IV piloted the No. 06 to a 19th-place finish in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway. However, he was involved in the last-lap carnage. The crash damage cost Peterson $8,000 but the Chevrolet was not totaled.
In the upcoming race at Phoenix Raceway on Friday, March 8, Cody Dennison will drive it. Dennison unsuccessfully attempted to qualify for Daytona in a second Clubb Racing Inc. racecar. Because the No. 06 finished 13th in the 2023 owner points as well as Wayne Peterson Racing is on the Golden A plan of ARCA’s start money program, Dennison has better odds of making the race. The Phoenix entry list will reportedly have DNQs for the race.
Following Phoenix, Con Nicolopoulos will make his season debut in the No. 06 at Talladega Superspeedway. Nicolopoulos has 91 career starts with one top 10, a 10th-place showing in the 2020 race at Winchester Speedway.
For the first Kansas Speedway event of the 2024 ARCA season, Peterson will have Shawnee, Kan. native Kevin Hinckle in the racecar. Hinckle made four starts for Peterson in 2023 and has 13 overall.
O’Leary will make his second start of the season at Michigan International Speedway. O’Leary’s Daytona run was his first start in the series since the 2015 Michigan race. The 33-year-old has 30 starts overall in the series.
Tim Richmond started shotgun in the field at Daytona, and he will be back for three more appearances in ARCA in 2024. He will compete at Talladega driving his Richmond Racing No. 27. Then, he will make both left and right-hand turns in the two road course races at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and Watkins Glen International Speedway driving the No. 06 for Peterson to earn owner points.
On the ARCA Menards Series East side, Peterson’s No. 06 finished 2023 13th in owner points. For the season opener at Five Flags Speedway, Nick Anglace will attempt to make his series debut. He advertised, in a Facebook post, for sponsorship for the race. Anglace has previously competed at Stafford Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series.
Although Peterson’s race shop is based 70 miles south of Nashville as he is from Pulaski, Tenn., he isn’t certain whether his team will be at the East race at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. That answer will be partly dependent on Dennison bringing home the No. 06 in one piece at Phoenix. Peterson currently does not have a driver slated to participate in the Nashville event.
Nate Moeller, who served as crew chief for the team at Daytona, will continue his role atop the pit box. Moeller himself has made 13 starts across the ARCA platform.
When asked about sponsorship for each race, Peterson quipped, “I got the car rented so they took care of it.” Peterson has fielded an ARCA entry in over 800 races and the 85-year-old is making almost a 2,000-mile trip to Phoenix. As he repeatedly said, he’s taking the 2024 season “race by race”.
About the author
Mark Kristl joined Frontstretch at the beginning of the 2019 NASCAR season. He is the site's ARCA Menards Series editor. Kristl is also an Eagle Scout and a proud University of Dayton alum.
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