DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Bobby Gerhart ran his win streak to three - and five overall - Saturday in the ARCA 200 at the Daytona International Speedway. But unlike the others, this one was fun.

He led 54 of 80 laps, including the final 24, and was three car lengths ahead of Marc Mitchell.

"We came here with a smaller restrictor plate and that put everybody under the same blanket," Gerhart said. "That made it a lot tougher. For me, it was fun because it wasn't easy."

Saturday's race was the 20th for Gerhart in the Midwest-based racing series. He didn't win his first Daytona race until the 11th year, and now he makes it look easy.

"Man, would couldn't do anything with Bobby," said third-place Jeremy Clements. "Car, engine, everything - he had it all. We couldn't gang up on him."

David Ragan, who will run for rookie of the year in the Nextel Cup Series this year, finished fourth, while Frank Kimmel was fifth, Timothy Peters was sixth, Justin Allgaier was seventh, Scott Lagasse Jr. was eighth, Phil McGilton was ninth and Michael MdDowell was 10th.

Erin Crocker started on the pole, but she never led a lap. She spun through the infield midway into the race and wound up 20th, one lap down.

There were seven cautions that lasted 46 laps. A crash between Damon Lusk and Tim Russell at the finish line brought out a red flag with three laps to go. The race went back to green with one lap left, and Gerhart had no trouble keeping everyone behind him.

BETTER NOW THAN LATER: A couple drivers had mechanical problems during the final practice session leading up to today's pole qualifying for the Daytona 500.

Tony Stewart's engine had problems with fuel pressure; Mike Skinner's team found metal shavings in the oil filter and were forced to change engines.

By finding the trouble on Saturday, both cars should be up to speed for time trials (2 p.m., Fox).

"We switched from mechanical to the cable-driven fuel pump and we had a little bit of an issue with that," said Stewart's crew chief, Greg Zipadelli. "The cable stripped out so we are talking about what we need to do to keep that from hopefully happening again."

Zipadelli said Stewart will be driving the same car he's used for every race at Daytona in the last four years, including back-to-back wins in the Pepsi 400 in July.