Van Alst tops journeymen, young guns in hard-fought ARCA opener

DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. — Journeymen and young guns battled through several cautions and various calamity to race for the win in the 2023 ARCA Menards Series opener at Daytona.

In the end, Greg Van Alst emerged the winner over Connor Mosack after making a final-lap move on Canadian Jason White to earn his first career ARCA win.

“This one is for the short track guys who never made it. I worked my ass for this and we won at Daytona!” Van Alst said, excitedly, on the frontstretch.

Other drivers weren’t as cheerful, like Van Alst who upset White.

“That last lap is one I’ll be walking through my head forever. They hung me out to dry. I’ve been on the simulator a thousand times and that’s never happened. My spotter said back it down, back it down, back it up and I felt the wind slow down. I could’ve gone up to block but I didn’t want to cause a big wreck,” White said after finishing ninth.

White said he worked well with Van Alst, at least until the final lap. Still, he had a fast car that we may see again.

“Jeff McClure and the guys worked hard. This car was ready for three weeks and they were still working on it for five hours every night. He’s a mad scientist and he’s got it going on,” White reflected. “I hope to run this again at Talladega in April.”

VIDEO: Canadian Jason White talks coming up short in ARCA opener at Daytona

Taking his place near Van Alst in the ultimate finish was Connor Mosack, who nabbed second.

“We had a good start there leading the map and hoping we could wrap the yellow line and hold the lead. Then, the 97 passed us and we got in traffic and we got shuffled around, got spun.We didn’t hit anything and came back P2, wish we had one more lap,” Mosack said.

VIDEO: Connor Mosack on 2nd-place ARCA run at Daytona

Mosack raced with Dale Quarterley, who was up front multiple times throughout the race. Quarterley described the car as “killer” with help from Chad Bryant, a familiar face in the ARCA garage.

“It didn’t seem like it had any weaknesses but I made a couple of stupid moves at the beginning and lost some spots then said, ‘Okay I gotta let the car do the work,’ just started floating between lanes and got to 8th, started overheating. We tore off some tape and drove back up to 3rd.”

Quarterley was turned on the frontstretch but then drove from 23rd to 10th on the final lap.

“It was a good day, the sponsor got airtime, everybody was happy.”

But not everyone was happy with Quarterley.

“I didn’t really like working with Dale Quarterley too much, he’s the one who wrecked me. He was shoving a little too hard a little too early but it’s alright,” Mosack said.

“I was yelling in the radio early on but the 4, he was literally just plowing into us. We were so squirrel-y, we almost wrecked like 10 times, I know he wrecked like 3 other guys,” Muniz said.

Still, Quarterley remains a veteran of the sport and sees Daytona as “just an 8-hour drive” he has done since 1973.

“It’s a blast. It’s stuff you can’t find in the normal world,” he reflected.

FULL RESULTS

Finish	Start	Car	Driver	Team	Laps	Status
1	7	35	Greg Van Alst *	Vern’s Concrete/CB Fabricating/Sam Pierce Chevy	80	Running
2	1	18	Connor Mosack *	Mobil1 Toyota	80	Running
3	39	8	Sean Corr	The Trans Group Chevrolet	80	Running
4	11	2	Lavar Scott *	Max Siegel Inc. Chevrolet	80	Running
5	25	74	Mandy Chick *	Rose Hulman Institute of Technology Chevrolet	80	Running
6	35	15	Amber Balcaen *	ICON Direct  Toyota	80	Running
7	2	20	Jesse Love	Yahoo Toyota	80	Running
8	36	6	Jack Wood *	WB/Velocity Racing/Max Siegal Inc. Chevrolet	80	Running
9	19	44	Jason White	Powder Ventures Excavating Chevrolet	80	Running
10	15	4	Dale Quarterley	Van Dyk Recycling Solution/Motul/Walker Furn	80	Running
11	16	30	Frankie Muniz *	Hair Club/Ford Performace Ford	80	Running
12	13	32	Christian Rose *	West Virgina Tourism #AlmostHeaven Ford	80	Running
13	24	62	Steve Lewis, Jr *	Telco Construction/Jeffery Machine Chevrolet	80	Running
14	17	53	Natalie Decker	SPLAT Ford	80	Running
15	28	45	Tony Cosentino *	BYB Extreme Chevrolet	80	Running
16	14	11	Bryce Haugeberg *	Magnum Contracting/Haugeberg Farms Toyota	80	Running
17	6	42	Robby Lyons	Sun West Construction/MMI Services Chevrolet	80	Running
18	9	63	Logan Misuraca *	CELSIUS Chevrolet	80	Running
19	3	97	Jason Kitzmiller	A.L.L. Construction Inc Chevrolet	80	Ruru
20	21	3	Willie Mullins	CorvetteParts.net/Crow Wing Recycling Chevrolet	80	Running
21	27	75	Bryan Dauzat	Brother-In-Law Motorsports Chevrolet	80	Running
22	30	10	Ed Pompa	Hytorc of New York/Double H Ranch Chevrolet	80	Running
23	12	55	Toni Breidinger *	FP Movement Toyota	80	Running
24	34	93	Caleb Costner *	Innovative Tiny Houses/Lickety Lew’s Chevrolet	80	Running
25	23	66	Jon Garrett	The Camping Crew Chevrolet	80	Running
26	37	68	Gage Rogers *	SEKISUI Voltek Ford	80	Running
27	20	03	Brayton Laster *	Indy Auto Recyclers/Autorepairvinstickers.com Ford	80	Running
28	29	87	Chuck Buchanan Jr.	Spring Drug Pharmacy Chevrolet	80	Running
29	32	06	A.J. Moyer *	River’s Edge Cottages & RV Park Chevrolet	79	Running
30	33	48	Brad Smith	Copraya.com Chevrolet	74	Running
31	38	02	Miguel Gomes *	Smiththunder Chevrolet	69	Running
32	5	73	Andy Jankowiak *	Whelen Ford	62	Accident
33	31	12	Zach Herrin *	Lambda Legal Toyota	62	Running
34	26	7	Eric Caudell	Bellator Cyber Guard/Red Tide Canopies/Cobel	43	Engine
35	10	25	Gus Dean	JBL/Dean Custom Air Toyota	33	Fuel Line
36	18	27	Tim Richmond	Latino Immigration and Legal Center Toyota	30	Accident
37	4	36	Ryan Huff *	Southeastern Services Ford	16	Clutch
38	8	69	Scott Melton	Melton McFadden Ins/Donna’s Donuts Ford	11	Accident
39	22	57	Hunter Deshautelle	Brother-In-Law Motorsports Chevrolet	3	Radiator
40	40	01	Andres Perez de Lara *	FastTrackRacing.com Chevrolet	80	DNS