ANDERSON, Ind. — Greg Van Alst, team principal of Greg Van Alst Motorsports, is taking a step back from his ARCA Menards Series schedule, effective immediately.
Van Alst won his first career ARCA Menards Series race during the season opener at Daytona Int’l Speedway. He then followed it up with two additional top-10 finishes at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway and Kansas Speedway, but had a pair of tough outing at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway and Charlotte (N.C.) Speedway.
“Without a doubt, this is one of the hardest decisions of my life,” said Van Alst. “However, after experiencing bad luck in two of the most crucial races of the season, I saw my volunteer crew scrambling to give up their everyday life so I could continue my racing dream.
“I took a moment when we were all stressing out whether or not we were going to be able to repair our cars in time for the upcoming races or whether we would even make it to Berlin Raceway this weekend that our priorities needed to change.
“To move forward competitively and efficiently, it is in the best interest to scale back our ARCA Menards Series and regroup and prepare for the future. We are not done competing in ARCA, we will be back — but we will come back with our race partners fighting for wins instead of chasing a championship.”
Van Alst’s decision does not interfere with his already scheduled NASCAR Xfinity Series debut for Alpha Prime Racing at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway on July 8.
“They say when one door closes, another one opens and that phrase reigns true for me,” added Van Alst. “I cannot share all of the details just yet, but I am looking forward to the rest of the 2023 racing season and more importantly look forward to competing back in an ARCA car soon.”
Greg Van Alst Motorsports will release their revised ARCA Menards Series schedule in due course.