Franchitti tenth in Daytona ARCA race

The Scot scored his first ever top ten in a stock car event, but his result could probably have been better had he not been hit by another car while exiting the pits on lap 24.

The incident affected the handling of his car until the end of the race.

"Another car came in contact with me when they entered the pit box in front of me," Franchitti said after the race. "It really hurt the handling of the car and I was skating around after that."

The current IRL IndyCar Series champion managed to keep his nose clean through the many wrecks that had the race under caution for more than a quarter of the distance, including a red flag on lap 32 for a multi-car accident that took out Scott Speed.

The Red Bull driver started from the front row and led the first nine laps, then swapping the lead with pole sitter Justin Marks until lap 23.

He was then an innocent victim of contact made by Kyle Krisiloff and Marks, who bounced off each triggering the biggest crash of the race, which took out Speed and another 12 cars.

Bill Davis Racing development driver Michael Annett, who started the race from third in his No. 28 Toyota Camry, kept out of trouble to lead the last 32 laps and score one of the most important victories of his career.