When Nick Igdalsky '99 visits Daytona International Speedway this weekend to begin his first full season in the ARCA Racing Series, he’ll find himself running against a familiar name in motorsports: Danica Patrick, an international sensation making her debut in stock car racing in the same field as the Elon University alum.
Igdalsky, a 1999 graduate of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business and now a member of the school’s Board of Advisors, returns to the racetrack Saturday night for the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200. ModSpace will sponsor the No. 1 Ford driven by Igdalsky.
Headquartered in Berwyn, Pa., ModSpace is a provider of modular buildings for both businesses and organizations that have temporary or permanent space needs.
“You could run a perfect race all day long, then one little thing happens in front of you, or someone nudges you from behind in the wrong spot, and your day is done. To be successful in Daytona you need to be smart, and you need to be lucky,” Igdalsky said of his upcoming race. “In all honestly, just to be able to finish Daytona in the lead lap with no damage on the car is a huge win.”
Two tiers of competition exist in NASCAR: The Sprint Cup series (think Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Jimmie Johnson), and the Nationwide Series, where drivers in the Sprint Cup often get their start. The ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX and Menards, of which Igdalsky is a part, is a professional circuit considered by many fans to be a step behind the Nationwide Series.
“There’s still enough free time where if you have an understanding employer, you can get away with it,” Igdalsky, 32, said of his part-time racing. “Being in the motor sports business allows me that freedom.”
It also allows Danica Patrick, known as much for her celebrity status as for her success in the IndyCar Series, to make a foray into stock car racing. Unlike the IndyCar series, where drivers race in open cockpits with engines behind them, stock car racing plops drivers into a confined space that reaches temperatures that top 120 degrees.
Just don’t expect Igdalsky to break a sweat because of Patrick.
“The sponsors love it. It’s going to be the biggest and most-attended ARCA race in history,” Igdalsky said. “Am I more nervous to be competing against a driver like Danica? Not at all.”
Racing is nothing new to Igdalsky, senior vice president of Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa., which his grandparents have owned for decades. For years he has focused his work on business endeavors, but after finding success in the occasional road race and short track oval racing contests, moving to ARCA seemed natural.
Igdalsky, whose sister, Ashley, graduated from Elon in 2002, made that jump for the first time in September when he ran the ARCA road course at New Jersey Motorsports Park. “When you first get out there, people ask if you’re nervous,” Igdalsky said of his racing experiences, which sometimes feel as though he’s on a roller coaster cresting curves at 190 mph. “It’s not nervousness, it’s anxiety. They make you sit around all day and get you pumped up. It’s more like, ‘Let’s get going.’”
The Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 gets underway Saturday, Feb. 6, at 4:30 p.m. EST. It will be televised nationally on SPEED, Channel 101 for Time Warner Cable subscribers in North Carolina.