It was a disastrous end to the day for Greg Van Alst, who was the ARCA Menards Series point leader heading into Saturday’s General Tire 200 at Talladega Superspeedway.
The field got stacked up when it appeared that Amber Balcaen suffered an issue with her No. 15 Venturini Motorsports machine. As Balcaen slowed, Van Alst attempted to thread the needle and as he knifed past several cars, Van Alst’s No. 35 machine made contact with Scott Melton’s No. 69 machine.
The contact from Melton turned Van Alst into the outside wall on the backstretch. Van Alst went hard into the outside wall, and narrowly avoided being tagged by other cars deep in the field coming through.
Here is a video of the incident that knocked out the ARCA Menards Series point leader on lap 15:
Here is the incident that spelled the end of the day for Greg Van Alst, who had the @ARCa_Racing point lead coming into the day: pic.twitter.com/qLwQ0aarBc
— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) April 22, 2023
While Van Alst will be credited with a last-place finish, Balcaen also joined the No. 35 behind the wall after mechanical issues sent her behind the wall.
