Justin Allgaier and Scott Speed Battle to Bitter End at ARCA Pocono 200

It was a duel to the finish at Pocono Raceway between ARCA Remax Series rivals Justin Allgaier and Scott Speed. But, in the two-lap finale, Allgaier was able to hold off Speed to take the checkered flag, securing the first superspeedway victory of his career.

The ARCA race was delayed almost an hour because of a heavy downpour all morning at Long Pond, Pennsylvania. The weather was so bad that it cancelled both the final practice and the Happy Hour in the Cup series. 

At around noon, the sun broke through and the track driers went to work. While awaiting the start of the race, I had the opportunity to interview pole-sitter Scott Speed at the Red Bull hauler.

He was definitely excited about the race, well, as excited as this laid-back California native seems to get, that is. 

Speed said that there were “definitely more trees” in Long Pond than he was used to seeing in the Bay area, and he was “enjoying the scenery”. He was a little nervous; however, from some of the stories he had heard about critters like deer on the track, he said that he knew he would need to be careful out there. 

Speed also discussed his toenail polish, which definitely was wearing off. He hoped to visit his favorite nail salon soon, for his next pedicure and polish. This driver is certainly quirky, even signing his autograph as two “S's” on top of one another, with slash marks making it look just like dollar signs.

For Red Bull racing, Scott Speed is certainly generating those dollar signs, with two wins in a row and the pole for this race.

At 2:00 PM, the call for, “Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines” finally resounded throughout the track. Front-runners Scott Speed and nemesis Justin Allgaier brought the field down to the green after several extra pace-laps to ensure the track was dry. Speed got off to a terrific start, and the race was on.

Aric Almirola, driving the U.S. Army car for Dale Earnhardt, Inc., was in the third position, with the goal of getting some good seat time in as he tries to advance his career.

The only female driver in the field, Chrissy Wallace, was racy early in her Germain Toyota, quickly taking the third spot away from Almirola. 

For the first 10 laps, there was a strong battle among the top three, Speed, Allgaier, and Wallace. Scott Speed then lengthened his lead and set sail, making especially good time down the long straightaway, famous at Pocono.

The first race caution came at Lap 16, when Bobby Gearhart’s engine began to smoke and fluids leaked onto the track. Gearhart would go on to have a very bad day, pitting almost every other lap.

During this caution, all of the cars on the lead lap had their first opportunity to come down pit road. Having a front-row seat in Scott Speed’s pits, I watched the professional Red Bull pit crew go to work, changing four Hoosier tires and adding Sunoco race fuel.

One car stayed out on the track, Chase Mattioli, grandson of Doc Mattioli, patriarch and owner of the Pocono track. The crowd went wild as they realized their home-track star was in the lead. He held the lead for a few laps, but could not hold off the stronger cars of Allgaier and Speed.

At lap 29, lone female racer Chrissy Wallace hit the wall at turn one very hard, heavily damaging the car, which was also briefly on fire. She was able to drive it off the track, taking that horrible left turn into the garage.

Tony Stewart met her there, consoling the young driver, who was heartbroken to be taken out of the race with such a strong car.

When the race went back to green, Scott Speed sailed into the lead once more, easily passing Allgaier.

On lap 60, Aric Almirola suffered bad luck and ended up in the garage with transmission troubles. Justin Allgaier faked coming in to pit, but with no one following, he quickly brought the car back onto the track.

Points leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr. also had a challenging day. He had to make an unscheduled pit stop at lap 47 for a left, front tire going down, and ended up a lap down as a result. But on the caution of Almirola, he was the “Lucky Dog” and got back onto the lead lap.

On lap 68, there was a horrific crash, involving three cars, the No. 25 of Brian Scott, the No. 37 of Dexter Bean, and the No. 44 of Frank Kimmel, former series champion.  All three cars were heavily damaged and the race was red flagged for the clean up.  

All three drivers got out of their cars under their own power, but Kimmel was later transported to a local hospital for further evaluation.

With the clean up complete, the cars started rolling again for their final laps. Allgaier was in the lead, and just as Speed was passing him, the caution flew yet again.  Unfortunately, points leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr. caught a piece of the action in this caution and his No. 99 ended up being pushed into the pits with heavy damage.

With only two laps to go in the race, the battle came down to Justin Allgaier and Scott Speed, yet again. Speed was best on the straightway, but Allgaier was just too strong in the turns. Allgaier held off Speed and then did the most spectacular burnout before driving his car into Victory Lane.

The top-five finishers were:

1.         No. 16     Justin Allgaier

2.         No. 2        Scott Speed

3.         No. 9        Chase Miller

4.         No. 46      Matt Carter

5.         No. 00      Robb Brent

Scott Speed climbed out of his car casually, as if he had been to a picnic, not looking worse for the wear of his 80-lap battle with Allgaier. In his tiger-striped race shoes, he stripped off the top half of his uniform, tied it around his waist in his trademark look, and greeted us all in the pits.

While Speed did not win the race, he did emerge as the new points leader in the ARCA Remax Series. And that made even this laid-back California dude a pretty happy racer!