“This is my favorite race track and by far the biggest win of my career. Ever since the first time I came here a few years ago I enjoyed coming here to Pocono and when you look back at some of the names who have won at this place, it’s a huge shot in the arm,” said Allgaier who hails from Springfield, IL and won for the third time this season.
“Here in the spring we felt like we had the car to beat but we had a transmission break and that was really unfortunate.”
Pole sitter Speed and Allgaier, who started second, shared the lead for most of the day with each driver swapping the top spot back and forth during green flag runs. The race at the front was always close and often Allgaier and Speed ran in close formation.
With seven laps to go Speed was making a final attempt to go for the win. Coming off turn one he got a run on Allgaier and slipped to the low side of the track heading into the tunnel turn.
Just as he was making his way past Allgaier, the race’s final caution waved which froze the field in there positions and negated the effort.
“Scott got a run on me coming out of (turn) one and I knew we were still ahead of him but there was no way I was going to hold off that run. I was numerous because I knew he had a really good car and that’s the reason he’s been winning a lot of these races,” said Allgaier.
“On the last restart I knew I just had to get the best start I could and go out and focus 110% on hitting my mark and that’s just what I did
That would be the decisive moment of the race as Allgaier then held his ground the remaining laps when the race went back green.
“We raced each other really hard today and I think it was a really good race. We both were on the same wave length. We both needed to finish this race to have either a victory or a good finish. Scott’s looking at the big picture and I’m sure this really helped him in points,” said Allgaier.
It did indeed help Speed. Although he lost his bid for three wins in a row, he was able to unseat Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., for the ARCA point lead.
“My hat’s off to Justin, he ran a great race and he was tough the whole race,” said the former Formula 1 driver who is expected to be in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series by season’s end.
Chase Miller, Matt Carter and Robb Brent completed the top five.
A very nice showing was turned in by hometown favorite Chase Mattioli, the grandson of Pocono Raceway CEO Dr. Joe Mattioli, who took the lead for five laps and eventually finished in 16th.
Reported by Pocono Raceway 2008
