Justin Allison wins ARCA ModSpace 125

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His family’s winning ways at Pocono Raceway continued as Justin Allison won Friday’s ARCA ModSpace 125.

The No. 88 car came down pit road on the last caution of the race around lap 16  and Allison stayed out while the leaders had to pit before lap 40, as mandated by ARCA.

“We didn’t plan on pitting at first,” Allison said.  “We didn’t really know what the weather was going to be.  We were a little nervous about that.”

His Team BCR Racing team thought otherwise as crew chief Howard Bixman and another team member and   decided to bring Allison down pit road, in what would be the final pit stop.

“They were checking the radar and it (the rain) disappeared a little bit,” Allison added.  “We pitted then and luckily it went green flag.”

Allison made a three-wide pass on Will Kimmel in what would be the pass for the win.

“I knew I had to go for it,” he said of the pass.  “If I backed off, I was in trouble.  I never would of got by him and then the way this place is it would have taken  a lap or two laps to run him back down.”

His grandfather, Donnie, only ran one NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Pocono in 1978, the same year he won his last race in the series  at Atlanta Motor Speedway in November.

The Allison winning ways go back at Pocono as Justin’s great uncle, Bobby, won three straight consecutive Cup races from June 1982-83.

“There’s a lot of Allison history here (at Pocono) with my (great) uncle Bobby,” Justin said.

Brennan Poole had the dominant car on the day, but the Venturini Motorsports team tried to gamble on the weather.  His teammate and “student,” Justin Boston, stayed within the No. 66 car as the Venturini cars were the ones to beat.  Both drivers waited for the rains to come, but it never happened.

The race was delayed by more than an hour due to rain, as a the skies opened up around 5 p.m. ET.  The green flag didn’t drop until after 6:15 p.m. ET, but the race went the entire 50 lap distance.

The top 3 finishing cars pitted on the earlier cautions, allowing them to make it the rest of the way of fuel.  Cunningham Motorsports driver Tom Hessert was one of those.

“I was really surprised that more guys didn’t get on board and do the same strategy,” Hessert said.  “Fortunately, they didn’t and it worked out well for us.”

The same good luck for Will Kimmel couldn’t be said for Frank Kimmel, who was caught up in an early wreck with points leader Grant Enfinger and Ken Schrader Racing (KSR) driver Matt Tifft.        

Mason Mitchell started on the pole, but fell into the clutches of the Venturini cars of Poole and Boston.  It was a big points day for the No. 98 team with Enfinger’s misfortune.

Poole and Boston rebounded to finish fourth and fifth respectively.  Pocono Raceway Chief Operating Officer (COO) Nick Igdalsky came home in the sixth spot for his best career ARCA Racing Series finish.

ARCA will head next to Berlin Raceway on August 9 for some Saturday night short track racing.

           

            ModSpace 125 Results

  1. #88 Justin Allison
  2. #69 Will Kimmel
  3. #77 Tom Hessert
  4. #66 Brennan Poole
  5. #25 Justin Boston
  6. #86 Nick Igdalsky
  7. #98 Mason Mitchell
  8. #22 Austin Wayne Self
  9. #55 Cody Coughlin
  10. #68 Michael Lira
  11. #97 Roger Carter
  12. #3 Karl Weber
  13. #10 Ed Pompa
  14. #03 Mike Affarano
  15. #20 Tom Berte
  16. #2 Thomas Praytor
  17. #0 James Swanson
  18. #18 Bill Catania
  19. #48 Brad Smith
  20. #44 Frank Kimmel
  21. #07 Brian Kaltreider
  22. #52 Matt Tifft
  23. #5 Bobby Gerhart
  24. #06 Don Thompson
  25. #00 Tim Viens
  26. #90 Grant Enfinger
  27. #15 B.J. McLeod
  28. #43 Kyle Martel
  29. #7 Brent Cross
  30. #40 Evan Pardo
  31. #49 Wayne Peterson

 

           

Kyle Magda
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