Lawless Alan Scores Maiden ARCA Menards Series Win At Talladega

It’s fitting after the sale of Venturini Motorsports to Nitro Motorsports, one week after its announcement turned out to be how they finished on Saturday, as Lawless Alan cashes in his first career ARCA Menards Series win at Talladega Superspeedway.

Alan, who was leading with the white flag, encountered a multi-car crash during the one-lap restart as they entered Turn 1, bringing a premature end to the race with Alan ahead of Thad Moffitt.

The Saturday afternoon, 76-lap shootout began with 23-time ARCA winner William Sawalich jumping out to the lead early from the pole with Alan and Isabella Robusto filing in behind the No. 18 Toyota Camry. Defending Talladega winner from 2024, Jake Finch, was among the drivers fighting for the lead up at the front within the first 25 laps of the race.

Trouble struck on Lap 27 as points leader Brenden Queen got into the back of 2018 Xfinity Series Talladega winner Spencer Gallagher, who was attempting to work around the lap machine of Brad Smith tangled exiting the tri-oval, causing both to spin out, as well as collecting veteran Andy Jankowiak in the process to bring out the first caution of the race, trapping Queen a lap down for the majority of the event.

As the field got bunched back up together, Ryan Roulette, a U.S. Air Force pilot, led the field back to green on Lap 33, leading the first laps of his ARCA Menards Series career.

Gallagher experienced yet more troubles in his Talladega return after a tire went down aboard his No. 23 Sigma Performance Services Chevrolet SS, sending him hard into the outside SAFER barrier.

After the fourth caution of the race came out for Cody Dennison, the Venturini Motorsports duo of Robusto and Alan brought the field back under the green for the final 10 laps of the race.

Michael Maples got tagged halfway down the back stretch with five laps to go, hitting the outside wall, setting up for a one-lap shootout to decide the General Tire 200 winner.

When the field took the white flag, Alan and Moffitt went door-to-door past the start-finish line, with Robusto pushing Alan more out in front when a multi-car crash ensued entering Turn 1, as Amber Balcaen was avoiding a slower car, her No. 70 Toyota Camry made a hard right to avoid but came into the path of another car, sending her hard into the outside wall, ending the race under the caution flag.

At the time of the caution, Alan had been able to get a big enough push from Robusto to stay out ahead of Moffitt to pick up the victory.

“First thing I’ve got to say is God is so good,” Said a grateful Alan in a post-race interview. “I didn’t have any sort of plan after Phoenix last year. Then Toyota called me, and we put this deal together with Venturini and AUTOParkIt, and I am so thankful to them.”

“It sucks, but it’s good at the same time. I’m just dejected,” said Moffitt after scoring his first career ARCA Menards Series runner-up finish. “I thought I won that race. I thought I got through the (restart) box better. I thought I got down to Turn 1 better. He just had his teammate behind him to push him down into Turn 1. Nitro (Motorsports) is going to win races this year, though.”

After a rough start to the season with finishing both races outside of the top 20, Robusto scored a much-needed third-place effort to help her get back on the right track in the ARCA points.

“Happy to come out here and finish the race and be top 3, I felt like we had a good chance to do it at Daytona, but it got cut short early, so I’m happy that I got my Mobil 1 Toyota Camry into the pits after the race, without many scratches on it, and I think the Venturini (Motorsports) crew will bring great cars for the rest of the year.”

Jankowiak was able to recover from his early race spin to finish fourth, followed by Jason Kitzmiller in fifth.

Lavar Scott, Finch, Bryce Haugeberg, Sawalich, and Garrett Mitchell (Cleetus McFarland) capped off the top 10 results.

Scott leaves Alabama as the points leader by three points over Alan as Queen dropped back to third in the standings as the series heads to Kansas Speedway on Friday, May 9.