Full Throttle

The combination of a little luck, the necessary skill and the right pit road strategy turned Justin Allgaier into a road course winner Sunday afternoon in the inaugural Loud Energy Drink 150 at New Jersey Motorsports Park.

Allgaier, making his career-first road course start, was in the lead when the rain started falling prompting ARCA RE/MAX Series officials to wave the checkered flag 19 laps shy of the scheduled 67-lap, 150-mile distance.

Allgaier, out of sequence with many of the front-runners, had already made his pit stop for fuel earlier than most and found himself the leader just in time for the rain to fall.

“I’ve got to hand this one to my crew chief Jim Pohlman,” said Allgaier. “He was up late last night rewinding the race in his mind so he knew exactly when we needed to pit for fuel and still make it to the end. As it turned out, it also put us in position to win the race. Then we got some help from Mother Nature. I would have rather won the thing under green, but we’ll take it this way too.

“On Tuesday testing here it was my first time road course racing ever,” added Allgaier. “Felt like I was in a John Deer tractor because I was plowing more dirt than I was on the racetrack. All in all, it’s a great weekend and it was a great experience. If you look at the ARCA RE/MAX Series, we’ve got the most diverse array of racetracks in any series, and fortunately now we’ve been able to win on a dirt track, a short track, a superspeedway and on a road course, so, for us, that’s really cool.”

Colin Braun, who relieved Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. in the Aflac Ford, charged from the tail-end to finish second. Stenhouse, still on the mend from crash in a midget car at Eldora Speedway one week ago, gave up the seat to Braun during a lap three caution period.

“I’m disappointed,” said Braun. “Just the way the whole race ended up. I don’t think any of the fans wanted to see the thing end in yellow. It’s not really the way I’d like to have the race finish up. We definitely had something for Justin (Allgaier), but it was a good day for points. That was the goal here to try to get Ricky up in points.”

The podium finish allowed Stenhouse to move to within 65 points of Scott Speed in the ARCA RE/MAX Series championship points race. Braun’s effort also credited Stenhouse with the SunTrust Highest Finishing Rookie honors and the Accel Fastest Lap of the Race.

“I had a crash last weekend in the midget and I didn’t think I was going to be 100 percent for this race so I just decided that for this race it would be best for Roush Fenway Racing for me to start it and to let Colin finish it,” said Stenhouse. “He did a good job and gained us some points and that’s the main thing we wanted him to do.”

Speed, after running in the second position for most of the race, ran out of time before he could get back up front, and was credited with the eighth finishing position.

Just two races remain in the 2008 ARCA RE/MAX Series - the ARCA RE/MAX 250 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 3rd and ARCA Championship Weekend at Toledo Speedway on October 11th and 12th. For a complete schedule of each event, visit arcaracing.com.

Top-10 ARCA RE/MAX Series Points After The Loud Energy Drink 150 at New Jersey Motorsports Park (9-28-08): 1) Scott Speed 4520; 2) Ricky Stenhouse Jr 4455; 3) Justin Allgaier 4300; 4) Frank Kimmel 4290; 5) Matt Carter 4270; 6) Tayler Malsam 3675; 7) Patrick Sheltra 3660; John Wes Townley 3654; 9) Tom Hessert III 3640; 9) Ken Butler III 3640.