NELLES CORNER, Ontario — Justin Allgaier recovered from a mid-race spin, raced his way back into the lead, survived two late-race restarts and then drove away from Frank Kimmel and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. to win the inaugural Cayuga ARCA RE/MAX 250 Sunday afternoon at Cayuga Motor Speedway.
“This race track was really cool and it means a lot to me to win here,” said Allgaier in victory lane. “We got turned around and everything and tried to come back from that. We had to check up a little bit there, and he (Stenhouse) got into us, but no hard feelings there.”
Allgaier was leading Stenhouse midway through the race when Stenhouse gave Allgaier a nudge that sent the eventual winner spinning off turn four. Allgaier made two- consecutive pit stops for new tires and adjustments before rejoining the field at the tail-end. From there, Allgaier raced his way forward and caught Stenhouse inside of 50 laps from the finish to contend for the win. Allgaier found the opening he was looking for down the backstretch and muscled inside of Stenhouse for the lead in turn three on lap 215 of the 257-lap event. Allgaier completed the pass off turn four and was never seriously challenged from there.
“This track is tight and unfortunately, this car doesn’t look as good as it should, but we’re happy to have four wheels on it,” added Allgaier. “There are quite a few donuts along both sides of the Zoller & Bergfield Farming-AG Tech Chevrolet. It’s tight racing, and it’s a lot of fun.”
Allgaier, with 13 lead-lap machines lined up directly behind, also held off the pack during two green-white-checker finishes in order for the race to finish under green, as mandated by ARCA officials. As a result, the race went seven laps beyond the scheduled 250-laps to accommodate the finish.
Kimmel, in his own Ford Drive One-Engineered Components Ford, also got by Stenhouse and finished second, 10 lengths behind Allgaier.
Stenhouse, who led the most laps (101), finished third in the Roush Fenway Racing Ford. Dexter Bean, in the Glock Chevrolet, also recovered from a spin to finish fourth. Brampton, Ontario, favorite Pete Shepherd, in the Roulo Brothers National Exhaust-Cherry Bomb-Zardo-BeavEx Ford, finished fifth.
The finish:
Showing driver, car and laps completed: 1. Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 257; 2. Frank Kimmel, Ford, 257; 3. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Ford, 257; 4. Dexter Bean, Chevrolet, 257; 5. Pete Shepherd, Ford, 257; 6. Matt Carter, Ford, 257; 7. Tom Hessert, Ford, 257; 8. Scott Speed, Toyota, 257; 9. John Wes Townley, Ford, 257; 10. Mike Harmon, Chevrolet, 257; 11. Tayler Harmon, Dodge, 257; 12. Terry Jones, Dodge, 257; 13. Norm Benning, Chevrolet, 257; 14. Bryan Silas, Chevrolet, 257; 15. Brad Smith, Ford, 256; 16. Ryan Fischer, Chevrolet, 253; 17. Michael Phelps, Dodge, 252; 18. Patrick Sheltra, Chevrolet, 249; 19. James Hylton, Dodge, 245; 20. Darrell Basham, Chevrolet, 236; 21. Ken Butler III, Toyota, 175; 22. Tim Mitchell, Ford, 172; 23. Gabi DiCarlo, Chevrolet, 163; 24. Donny Kelley, Chevrolet, 162; 25. James Buescher, Dodge, 160; 26. Billy Leslie, Ford, 95; 27. Justin Lofton, Dodge, 38; 28. Jason Basham, Chevrolet, 20; 29. Charlie Vest, Ford, 15; 30. Dave Savick, Chevrolet, 4; 31. Will Kimmel, Chevrolet, 2; 32. Brad Yunker, Chevrolet, 2; 33. Wayne Peterson, Chevrolet, 1.