Scott Speed wins Toyota 150 at Nashville

[Schwartz Fan]

Play it Again Speed; Point Leader Wins Nashville Superspeedway Thriller

NASHVILLE TN (8-9-08) - Scott Speed, in Eddie Sharp's Red Bull Toyota, capitalized on an on-track argument between Sean Caisse and Justin Allgaier, and then drove away from Jeremy Clements during a last-lap shoot-out to win the action-packed Toyota 150 Saturday afternoon at Nashville Superspeedway.


"Honestly, the 01 (Caisse) and the 16 (Allgaier) were battling so hard that I was willing to settle for third," said Speed. "But when the opportunity presented itself I took it-just played out the race and waited to lead until the end. Those are the only laps you need to lead anyways."

Caisse and Allgaier battled back and forth much of the way bumping and grinding on one another, under green and caution periods, while Speed watched and waited in third. Inside of 10 laps to go, Allgaier finally raced underneath Caisse to lead the 97th lap of the scheduled 113-lap race, and began pulling away from everyone.

Then the caution came out when Bryan Silas made contact with the wall setting up the restart during which Caisse made contact with Allgaier coming to the green. Allgaier spun as a result while Caisse continued on with Speed and Clements in tow. Allgaier lost several positions in the exchange but was able to continue on while Speed put immediate pressure on Caisse. Caisse managed to hold off Speed for two laps before the eventual winner raced underneath Caisse three laps from the finish. Caisse continued to fall back while Speed continued to pull away. Then the final caution came out just after Speed took the white flag, which lengthened the race four additional laps to accommodate the ARCA-mandated green flag finish. It also set up a one-lap dash to the checkers during which Speed pulled away by five lengths at the final stripe.

The victory was Speed's fourth of the season as the Manteca, California driver padded his point lead headed into the homestretch of the 2008 season.

"I am in this for the experience," continued Speed, who also earned the SunTrust Rookie of the Race award. "The points would be nice but at the end of the day I honestly don't think that winning the ARCA Championship will make or break my career. No one but the Old Man [Frank Kimmel, nine-time ARCA RE/MAX Series Champion] has won in years."

Clements, who started 14th, finished second in the Boudreaux's Butt Paste-1 Stop Convenience Chevrolet, earning the Casite Hard Charger of the Race award.

"We lost this race in the pits," said Clements. "I honestly don't know what was happening. Why we put scuff tires on is beyond me. It's disappointing. I don't know what my future is for the rest of the year in ARCA. We are a family-owned team and just trying to find enough money to race."

Brian Scott, who is competing in both the ARCA RE/MAX Series and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series events at Nashville this weekend, finished third in the Albertsons-Venturini Motorsports Chevrolet.

"We overcame a lot of obstacles today," said Scott. "After wrecking the car in practice we had to work really hard to fix it and then we had a clutch problem during the race so I felt bad because that made it really tough on the crew. I haven't run the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race yet so it's hard to say whether or not my experience here in ARCA today will help me for the truck race but we will see how the track conditions are and go from there."

Caisse, who earned the Aarons Lap Leader award, led most of the way with 94 laps-led total, but fell all the way back to 16th in the final running order after yet another altercation on the last lap. Caisse also earned the Klotz Halfway Leader honors.

Matt Hawkins finished fourth in the JaniKing Dodge in front of Speed's teammate Justin Lofton, who finished fifth in the Lofton Cattle Dodge.

SIM Factory Pole Award winner Ken Butler III was sixth in the Aaron's Lucky Dog Dream Machine Toyota with Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. trailing in seventh in the Ford Drive One Ford. Allgaier charged back through the pack to finish eighth in the CARFAX-Venturini Motorsports Chevrolet. Allgaier also earned the Accel Fastest Lap of the Race award.

Matt Carter was ninth in the Town & Country Ford-Stine Seed Ford. Patrick Sheltra finished 10th in the Ferguson Pipe-FloraGanics Dodge.

Speed's crew chief Patrick Donahue was the Cometic Crew Chief of the Race.

Springfield, DuQuoin Dirt-Tracks Next

The ARCA RE/MAX Series is now headed to Illinois for back-to-back dirt-track adventures beginning with the 46th Allen Crowe 100 Sunday afternoon, August 17th at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield. From there, the series travels to the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds for the Southern Illinois 100 Monday afternoon, September 1st.

Top-10 ARCA RE/MAX Series Points after the Toyota 150 at Nashville Superspeedway (8-9-08); 1) Scott Speed 3275; 2) Matt Carter 3135; 3) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr 3130; 4) Justin Allgaier 3050; 5) Frank Kimmel 2960; 6) Tom Hessert, III 2705; 7) John Wes Townley 2700; 8) Tayler Malsam 2675; 9) Ken Butler, III 2620; 10) Patrick Sheltra 2595.


ARCAracing.com