After being up front all day, Greg Van Alst finally scored his first ARCA win in a thrilling Daytona finish.
Initially, the race was dominated by its pole sitter, the #18 of Connor Mosack, who jumped out to the lead from the drop of the green.
Lap two saw the first incident of the day, as a bad push in the middle of the pack caused a stack up, resulting in the #45 of Tony Cosentino getting spun to the inside. The buckeye driver had no damage and was able to continue.
Once the race went back green, the #18 again jumped out to the lead, fending off multiple challenges from second place starter Jesse Love in the #20. Love put in a good effort but soon enough Mosack managed to drag the inside a few cars ahead of Love on the outside.
On lap 16, the #69 of Michigan’s Scott Felton found the outside wall off of the bumper of the #11 of Bryce Haugeberg. This triggered a fire underneath Melton, leading to a 20 minute red flag.
The green flew again on lap 21 and the #18 maintained his spot in front until lap 26 when Jason Kitzmiller in the #97 shot out front and began to log some laps in the top spot.
The largest accident of the day occurred when the pack caught up to the lapped car of AJ Moyer. Moyer drifted up the track while Love was attempting a pass, causing him to lift and then be run over from behind. Love managed to escape with minimal damage, but the #27 of Tim Richmond was sent careening into the inside wall in a vicious hit. He got out and was okay.
The field began to pit under the ensuing caution, causing a jumble in the running order, sending the #8 of Sean Corr to the lead. The lead then became a revolving door as both the #32 and #97 took turns in the top spot until the halfway break was triggered by the #7 of Caudell spinning.
The green wouldn’t stay out for long once we got underway however, as Mosack was sent for a ride into the grass off the bumper of Quarterly.
The field sorted themselves out, somewhat, after this and the running was relatively clean, for the next three laps. As a few stack ups resulted in some debris flying and putting us under caution on lap 54.
Once again, the race got underway and then was yellow flagged for debris after the big one was avoided by the drivers coming into the tri-oval. Out of turn 4, Jankowiak’s #73 came down on Frankie Muiz and Greg Van Alst, while behind them Amber Balcaen drifted up into Jack Wood. All drivers managed to gather it up but the debris from the #73 places us under yellow.
Once again, the field was jumbled up with Jason White’s #44 and Lavar Scott’s #2 now led the field to the green on lap 64. Only a lap later another big one was avoided as Balcaen’s #5 got loose and hit the #6. This lead to the majority of the field getting stacked up and allowed the leaders to form a five-car breakaway.
As the second pack caught up, the #4 of Quarterly was sent spinning into the infield, re-racking the field for the final time of the event.
After the green on lap 77, the #44 jumped to the lead with the #35 and #18 behind him. The #44 led at the white with Van Alst looking to make a move. Going into 3, Van Alst took the outside with a push from the #18 and managed to beat White off of four, giving the 41 year old the first checkered flag of his ARCA career.
At the end of the day, the top-10 was:
- #35 Greg Van Alst
- #18 Connor Mosack
- #8 Sean Corr
- #2 Lavar Scott
- #74 Mandy Chick
- #15 Amber Balcaen
- #20 Jesse Love
- #6 Jack Wood
- #44 Jason White
- #4 Dale Quarterly.
Featured image credits: ARCA_Racing on Twitter
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