Allgaier outlasts chaos to make his winning move

Justin Allgaier might come from a family whose roots are deeply planted in oval track stock-car racing, but Saturday Lil' Gator proved he can turn left and right with the best of the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

Allgaier captured his first win of the season at the NAPA Auto Parts 200 presented by Dodge on Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, emerging in front after a frenzied green-white-checkered finish.

"Today was just an awesome day," said Allgaier. "Winning in Montreal means so much because all the people in the series enjoy coming here. The atmosphere is great, the fans never disappoint here but the race played out perfectly for us."

Allgaier was running third at the second attempt for a green-white-checkered finish when a last-lap bump put him in front of Penske Racing teammates Sam Hornish Jr. and Jacques Villeneuve, who ended up second and third, respectively.

"I knew I was closing in on Jacques, but he braked really early into Corner 6 and I was certain he had ran out of gas," added Allgaier. "He went really slow and I had too much of a head of steam and was sorry I got into him."

Hornish, who made one last charge at Allgaier on the final lap, seemed far from happy with his second-place finish.

"I should feel pretty content with finishing second but I feel that Penske Racing deserved more from this day, considering the two cars that they provided us," said Hornish after the race. "I was running confident, second to Jacques, and felt that we would be battling the win out between the two of us but the 30 [Alex Tagliani] stuck his nose in there on a restart with about 10 laps to go and I was sent back to 23rd place or so. I should be happy to finish second after restarting from 23rd, but we deserved better. "

The seven extra laps ran because of the two green-white-checkered finish attempts, which forced Villeneuve to eke out the last drops of Sunoco gasoline from his fuel cell. However, his Dodge Challenger ran out of fuel before getting back to the garage on the cool-down lap, and the Quebec-born driver says that he saved enough to get him easily to the checkered flag.

"I did not run out of fuel and my engine did not sputter," said Villeneuve. "I was simply taken out by Allgaier, who used me to slow down in Turn 6 on the last lap. It's frustrating because Penske and Dodge gave me such a good car. We ran head and shoulders above everyone else even if we were not attacking in order to save fuel and brakes for the end of the race. It's hard to take."

Allgaier was apologetic . . . but not too much so.

"I am really sorry that I took him out, but from what I've heard because I couldn't see it, earlier in the day, that same car spun out the 30 car [Tagliani] that just happened to be our teammate," Allgaier said. "So, I guess that what goes around comes around."

Nationwide Series points leader Elliott Sadler finished fourth, one position in front of 2008 Montreal winner Ron Fellows. Michael McDowell, Mike Wallace, Billy Johnson, Austin Dillon and Sprint Cup Series regular Kyle Busch completed the top 10.

With 824 total points, Sadler extended his lead at the top of the Nationwide Series championship race to 22 points over Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who wrecked late but still finished 12th. With his second-place finish, Hornish is now tied with Stenhouse with 802 points, while Austin Dillon (789) and Allaier (756) close out the top five in points.

Danica Patrick had a good day, leading 20 laps but mechanical issues on her GoDaddy Chevrolet relegated her to the 27th position, six laps behind the leaders.

"How disappointing is it? We're bound to catch some good luck some time. I just can't believe the amount of bad luck we've had, " said Patrick, who even hit a shoe thrown on the track by a fan at one point.

Derek White, a regular in the NASCAR Canadian Tire series, was the best-finishing Quebec driver apart from Villeneuve with an 18th-place effort. Montreal-born Tagliani, who started from the pole position, led seven laps and ran up front most of the day, but was moved over by Villeneuve for the lead on Lap 67. Tagliani finished 22nd. Patrick Carpentier (29th), Andrew Ranger (32nd), Dexter Stacey (35th) and Louis-Philippe Dumoulin (38th) were the other Canadian drivers entered in the event.

Results

FIN ST CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR PTS/BNS LAPS STATUS
1 15 31 Justin Allgaier Chevrolet Brandt 47/1 81 Running
2 2 12 Sam Hornish Jr. Dodge Alliance Truck Parts 43/1 81 Running
3 3 22 Jacques Villeneuve Dodge Dodge 43/2 81 Running
4 17 2 Elliott Sadler Chevrolet OneMain Financial 41/1 81 Running
5 8 5 Ron Fellows Chevrolet Canadian Tire 39/0 81 Running
6 6 18 Michael McDowell Toyota FedEx Express 0 81 Running
7 22 01 Mike Wallace Chevrolet Tradebank 37/0 81 Running
8 9 60 Billy Johnson Ford Roush Fenway Racing "25 Winning Years" 36/0 81 Running
9 19 3 Austin Dillon * Chevrolet AdvoCare 35/0 81 Running
10 5 54 Kyle Busch Toyota Monster Energy 0 81 Running
11 11 33 Brendan Gaughan Chevrolet South Point Hotel & Casino 0 81 Running
12 16 6 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford Ford EcoBoost 32/0 81 Running
13 23 44 Mike Bliss Chevrolet TriStar Motorsports 31/0 81 Running
14 32 19 Tayler Malsam Toyota G-Oil / Noah's Light Foundation 30/0 81 Running
15 20 87 Alex Kennedy Toyota Global Barter Corporation / Dream Factory 29/0 81 Running
16 34 40 Erik Darnell Chevrolet Key Motorsports 28/0 81 Running
17 36 39 Tim Andrews Ford Go Green Racing 27/0 81 Running
18 42 124 Derek White Chevrolet SR2 Motorsports 26/0 81 Running
19 41 14 Eric McClure Toyota Hefty / Reynolds Wrap 25/0 81 Running
20 21 38 Brad Sweet * Chevrolet Great Clips 24/0 81 Running
21 27 159 Kyle Kelley Chevrolet Jamison Eng. / UPR.com 23/0 81 Running
22 1 30 Alex Tagliani Chevrolet Oasis / Motegi Racing 23/1 81 Running
23 31 4 Daryl Harr Chevrolet Danny Efland Racing 21/0 81 Running
24 10 11 Brian Scott Toyota Dollar General 20/0 81 Running
25 26 51 Jeremy Clements Chevrolet USS James E. Williams DDG 95 19/0 81 Running
26 18 81 Jason Bowles * Toyota American Majority 18/0 77 Brakes
27 4 7 Danica Patrick Chevrolet GoDaddy.com 18/1 75 Running
28 33 43 Michael Annett Ford Pilot Flying J 16/0 73 Running
29 13 199 Patrick Carpentier Toyota NAPA Auto Parts 15/0 69 Running
30 39 70 Joe Nemechek Dodge ML Motorsports 14/0 62 Radiator
31 37 126 John Young Dodge Eklekt Technologies Group 13/0 59 Drive Train
32 12 27 Andrew Ranger Dodge Dodge 12/0 57 Susp.
33 7 88 Cole Whitt * Chevrolet TaxSlayer.com 11/0 54 Engine
34 28 275 Kenny Habul Toyota SunEnergy 1 Racing 10/0 46 Accident
35 38 23 Dexter Stacey Chevrolet North Texas Pipe 9/0 30 Accident
36 29 41 Timmy Hill Ford Lilly Trucking 8/0 21 Transmission
37 14 153 Eric Curran Dodge Whelen / Team Fox 7/0 15 Transmission
38 35 108 Louis-Philippe Dumoulin Ford Randy Hill Racing 6/0 14 Susp.
39 24 15 Chris Cook Chevrolet Lilly Trucking 0 6 Brakes
40 43 47 Matt DiBenedetto Chevrolet Curtis Key Plumbing 4/0 6 Over Heating
41 30 42 Blake Koch Chevrolet Key Motorsports 3/0 5 Brakes
42 40 46 Chase Miller Chevrolet The Motorsports Group 2/0 4 Brakes
43 25 10 Jeff Green Toyota TriStar Motorsports 1/0 2 Vibration

* Denotes Rookie

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