Congratulations to Justin Allgaier, who scores his first Nationwide Series win!!! Today’s Scotts Turf Builder 300 at Bristol got underway with Brad Keselowski in the #22 Penske Dodge on the pole with #20 Joey Logano alongside. Logano would take the lead from the start, heading the field for the first twenty laps before #18 Kyle Busch claimed the top spot. The first caution would come on lap.31 for an incident involving #1 James Buescher and #26 Brian Keselowski in Turn 3. A second yellow came out on lap 54 for debris; and by lap 75 of the 300 lap event, the top-ten running order was Busch, #38 Kasey Kahne, #27 Greg Biffle, #22 Brad Keselowski, #20 Joey Logano, #60 Carl Edwards, #32 Reed Sorenson, #33 Kevin Harvick, #12 Justin Allgaier, and #99 Trevor Bayne.
Busch would carry the lead until lap 79, relinquishing the top spot to #38 Kasey Kahne, just as a caution came out for a big wreck involving #7 Scott Wimmer, #11 Brian Scott , #16 Colin Braun, and #66 Steven Wallace….this resulted in a red flag for over 12 minutes. In his first race in the JRM, #7 Scott Wimmer took the lead on lap 93- which led to the start of multiple lead changes. Lap 125 brought out the yellow for an incident in turn 2 involving Buescher, #23 Coleman Pressley, and #99 Trevor Bayne. Soon after, lap 147 brought a wreck involving Kyle Busch, and #88 Kelly Bires. .
At this point the top-ten were #60 Edwards, #27 Biffle, #18 Busch, #62 Gaughan, #33 Harvick, #12 Allgaier, #22 Keselowski, #20 Logano, and #7 Wimmer Many in the front of the field would choose to pit, some electing to stay out, including Greg Biffle. At the halfway point the top-ten were Biffle, Gaughan, Allgaier, Keselowski, Kahne, Raines, Bliss, LaGasse Jr. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Carl Edwards. With Biffle still leading, on lap 188, came a caution for a multi-car wreck with #28 K. Wallace, #34 Raines, #38 Kahne, #62 Gaughan, #70 Howard, and #99 Bayne involved. Polesitter Keselowski would take the lead on lap 203, and five laps later, yellow number eight would fly for the #73 Derrike Cope and #87 Joe Nemechek tangling on lap 208 in Turn 4.
The sixth caution of the day would come out for a wreck involving Kahne, #70 Shelby Howard, and Brendan Gaughan. The restart on lap 197 found the top-ten running as #10 Leffler, #22 Keselowski, #98 Menard, #27 Biffle, #12 Allgaier, #21 Townley, #18 Busch, #60 Edwards. #22 Keselowski would assume the lead on lap 203, and his teammate Justin Allgaier gradually closed in from a consistent top-five run. Lap 228 found the ninth yellow for an altercation involving #40 Mike Bliss and #23Coleman Pressley; who had been running fifteenth at the time in his season debut. Shortly after the restart, on lap 252, yellow number 10 came out for #6 Ricky Stenhouse Jr, and #15 Michael Annett. That was followed on lap 267 by an accident involving #21 Townley, #24 McClure, #34 Raines, #35 Keller, and #61 Wise.
- March 20, 2010, Bristol, TN/
Brad Keselowski & Justin Allgaier
/David J. Griffin
TheHotLap.com
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Meanwhile #12 Allgaier had pulled into the second spot, and the two Penske entries left the field behind. Keselowski would give up the lead on lap 274 to Allgaier.
With 5 to go the race for the lead was still between the Penske teammates, Allgaier would hold Keselowski off for the finish, scoring a 1-2 finish for Penske and Dodge. On the last lap, Kevin Harvick would bump and run on Logano, sending Logano into the wall, leading to a 14th place finish for the #20, and a top-five for Harvick. The finishing top-ten were #12 Allgaier, #22 Keselowski, #18 Busch, #60 Edwards, #33 Harvick, #27 Biffle, #32 Sorenson, #40 Bliss, #10 Leffler, and #7 Wimmer. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was the highest finishing rookie-way back in 25th.



