Kaz Grala of Westborough, MA didn’t enter Saturday afternoon’s NASCAR XFINITY Series Powershares QQQ 300 at Daytona International Speedway with any expectation other than to finish the race.

That he did. But the JGL Racing rookie exceeded his expectations, saying multiple times he didn’t have the speed he hoped to have this weekend.

Grala maneuvered his No. 24 car around multiple wrecks that caused an impressive five overtime restarts, coming home in the fourth position. When he brought his Ford down pit road, his wide smile said it all.

“It was wild out there,” Grala said. “It got pretty hectic there at the end. We got ourselves up in good position there and capitalized on it. This is a really big day for us, and it’s going to be a fun 33 races.”

The No. 24 team stayed away from the lead pack during the first two stages of the race in an attempt to keep the car in one piece. In the midst of the overtime madness, the Shane Wilson-led team was saving fuel as it grew worrisome it wouldn’t make it to the end.