Full Throttle

Penske Racing’s Justin Allgaier, last year’s series rookie of the year, held on in the final 27 laps of the Scotts 300 to keep pole-sitter and teammate Brad Keselowski from passing him.

“That battle with Brad at the end was awesome, and I couldn’t have been happier at the end to see two Penske cars up there running for the win,” Allgaier said.

“It was pretty unbelievable,” Allgaier said. “We had a great car in practice, and I screwed up qualifying and didn’t get the run we really needed and had to start 30th. But (crew chief) Chad (Walter) told me, ‘You’ll be there all day long, and if you push it really hard, you’ll be in victory lane.’

Keselowski, who led 73 laps, finished second to give Roger Penske his first 1-2 Nationwide Series finish. It is the first 1-2 finish for Dodge in the series since July 30, 2005 at Gateway International Raceway when Reed Sorenson (Chip Ganassi) and Mike Wallace (Ray Evernham) turned the trick.

Keselowski said he didn’t mind Allgaier passing him on the restart with 27 laps to go because of an incident at Bristol last year, before they were teammates, when Keselowski wrecked Allgaier in a similar situation.

“I had one coming,” Keselowski smiled.

Keselowski tried to pass several times and turned up the pressure over the final 10 laps. But he backed away from his usual aggressive driving — particularly with a win on the line — and raced cleanly to the end.

“I had the opportunity and just erred on the side of caution,” he said. “The last thing I need is to wreck either one of us. That’s the last thing our program needs.”

Kyle Busch led 59 laps and finished third. Edwards came home fourth and retained the series points lead by 26 points over Keselowski. Allgaier is third in the standings, 31 points behind Edwards.

Kevin Harvick, who finished fifth, spun Joey Logano on the final lap. Logano wound up 14th.

“I just raced with him and raced with him, and he kept chopping me and chopping me,” Harvick said. “I got in there and just got into the back of him a little bit and I hate that happened. You’ve just got to have a lane to race, you just got to do what you got to do.”

The finish was Harvick’s 123rd top five in the series, tying him for the career lead with Tommy Houston.