Roulette Recap follows a randomly selected driver throughout a race to break down their efforts. There is no telling ahead of time how the race will go. The driver could face calamity on the opening lap or start from the rear and win the race. With that, may the odds be ever in the driver’s favor.
Pennzoil 250
Greg Van Alst is a household name for fans of the ARCA Menards Series. However, this weekend, he was able to make his third start in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at his home track of Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
He rolled off from P37 racing the No. 07 for SS GreenLight Racing. Crew chief Paul Capprood was calling the shots from atop the pit box and Jason Jarrett helped navigate the seasoned driver around the 2.5 mile track.
Capprood told Van Alst, “The 48 and 21 will be coming at you with their hair on fire, so follow them on through!”
Stage 1
A massive pile up on Lap 1 brought out an early caution. Sam Mayer went for a spin and collected 11 other cars. This allowed Van Alst to gain numerous positions early on. After the lengthy clean-up, the Indiana native restarted P24 on Lap 8.
During a wild restart, Van Alst was shuffled back to P27 and was working hard to hold off Conor Daly. Unfortunately, on the next lap, Daly worked his way around the No. 07, putting Van Alst in P28. His goal was now to old off a mangled Jesse Love.
Over the next two laps, Van Alst fell to P32 as some of the damaged cars from the front of the field worked their way around him.
A three-wide situation set him back to P36, but with “nothing out back,” Van Alst could settle in and work on learning the Xfinity car, and the famed IMS.
Rebounding
Van Alst radioed in on Lap 15 noting, “The car is pretty good.” Immediately, he worked his way around Jeremy Clements and was instructed, “Go get the next one.”
The next caution came on Lap 17 as Chandler Smith stalled on the backstretch. Van Alst was sitting P34. He said, “It’s a tick free off of (Turn) 4.” Capprood gave his driver some instruction to help his lap times and Van Alst responded, “I’ll get better. I promise!” Capprood radioed back, “You have 84 laps to figure it out!”
Capprood called Van Alst to the pits for fuel and a round of adjustments and this had Van Alst line up P33 for the Lap 21 restart. He gained a spot on the restart and had his eyes set on a battle with teammate, David Starr. Unfortunately, Starr got around Van Alst, and brought Joey Gase with him.
The stage ended with Van Alst in P33 and when he noted that he was now, “Too tight.”
Stage 2
Capprood brought his driver in for fresh tires and adjustments in the hopes of beginning the second stage with a much better handling car. Van Alst started the stage in P30 but fell to P33 in the shuffle of the restart.
However, on the eighth lap of Stage 2, he worked around Blaine Perkins and regained a spot. Four laps later, he worked his way around Josh Bilicki and BJ McLeod to move to P30.
The next spot was held by Kyle Weatherman and it was all eyes forward. But, then Bilicki worked his way back around Van Alst, and the driver of the No. 07 radioed, “Wooooo! Stupid free!” A lap later, he radioed in again, “I think my right front is gone.”
There were 10 laps left in the stage and Capprood updated his driver with this information with instructions to, “Make it last!”
With six to go, Van Alst was running P32 and hanging on with all he had. But, a lap later, Brennan Poole, who was running P24, wrecked and brought out the caution.
The caution allowed Van Alst to update Capprood on the handling of his car. After a stop for adjustments, he returned to the track in P26 with a one-lap shootout to end the stage.
Despite beating and banging throughout the field, the race stayed green and Van Alst finished the stage P26.
He radioed in that he liked the handling of the car much better. And with that, he was ready for the start of the final stage.
Capprood checked on his driver and how he was doing. Van Alst said, “This is…this is different. Everyone here is good!”
Stage 3
The start of the final stage came on Lap 66 and Van Alst was lined up P26. Heading into Turn 1, he found himself in the middle of another three-wide situation. Suddenly the caution was out as Aric Almiolra went spinning after contact with Austin Hill. Van Alst was scored P29.
Capprood said, “Let’s go ahead and come down when it opens. We’ll top it off with fuel and do a litte adjustment.”
Following the stop, he returned to the track in P35 with 29 laps remaining in the race. After working around Clements, Van Alst was told to focus on the next two: Gase and McCleod.
With 17 laps to go, he was running P32 when the next caution came out. Anthony Alfredo was slow up the track after contact with Daniel Dye. Parker Retzlaff slammed into his bumper, then Josh Williams completed the domino effect.
Agony for Van Alst
Sitting P30, Van Alst radioed in and said, “I might have picked up something. I just got a crazy vibration.” Capprood opted to bring his driver in for fresh tires a look-see. Following the stop, Van Alst returned to the track and immediately radioed in, “I think the transmission fell out.”
He came back to the pits for another once over and the team was able to get him back on track.
Facing the final 11 laps, Van Alst said, “I’ll finish it out like this and take care of the car the best I can.” But before taking the green, he said, “I don’t think it’ll make it. It’s vibrating so hard I can barely breathe.”
Two laps later, the transmission on the No. 07 gave up the ghost. He got his machine behind the wall allowing the race to stay green.
His day would end with him in P32.
Sponsor Shoutout + Driver & Team Socials
NASCAR fans know sponsors make the sport go ’round. We want to give a shoutout to CB Fabricating who played a huge part of the weekend for Greg and the No. 07 team.
Be sure to give Greg Van Alst (Facebook, Instagram, X) and SS GreenLight Racing (Facebook, Instagram, X) a follow to keep up with the latest news from the driver and team.
