NASCAR Nationwide Series
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NNS: Allgaier’s ‘Road’ Has Been Rocky
Justin Allgaier has struggled mightily on road courses...
Mike Hembree  |  Posted August 27, 2010   Charlotte, NC
In four career starts on road courses, Justin Allgaier has an average finish of 30.5 and has completed only 162 of 290 possible laps. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Justin Allgaier might figure he’s due on road courses.

History would agree.

In the Nationwide Series’ first road-course event this year, at Road America in Wisconsin, Allgaier had a decent starting spot – 18th – but didn’t get a shot to improve on it. A first-lap part failure left him with a 35th-place finish.

Later, at Watkins Glen, Allgaier started 20th and finished 34th after being involved in an accident.

Last year, in his debut event at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, site of Sunday’s NAPA Auto Parts 200 Nationwide race, Allgaier drove only 25 laps before an accident sidelined him, resulting in a 35th-place finish.

In four career starts on road courses, Allgaier has an average finish of 30.5 and has completed only 162 of 290 possible laps.

Considering these rather dark statistics, Allgaier could be forgiven for approaching Sunday’s Montreal race with a bit of trepidation. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

“I’m really looking forward to heading to Montreal,” he said. “It’s definitely a very challenging race track. We had a curveball thrown at us in this race last year. We practiced and qualified in the rain and raced in the dry.

“I didn’t turn a lap around the place in dry weather until the race started. It goes without saying that our lap times increased significantly as a result. Unfortunately, I wound up taking Ron Fellows out, so I couldn’t have had a worse race.”

Then there are this year’s two left-and-right races, both downers for Allgaier.

“The first two road-course races of the season haven’t exactly gone the way we would have liked, so I’m looking forward to redeeming myself this weekend,” he said.
Justin Allgaier has endured tough luck at road courses. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

The two road-course finishes are Allgaier’s worst of the season.

“I know our finishes at Road America and Watkins Glen don’t reflect it, but Justin continues to make steady progress with his road-racing skill set,” said crew chief Chad Walter. “We’ve run well in practice, and we were fast at Road America after we made repairs and got back on track. I feel like we can have a solid finish at Montreal.”

With 11 races left in the season, Allgaier, at fourth place, is the top full-time, Nationwide Series-only driver on NASCAR’s No. 2 tour. Next in the standings among Nationwide regulars is seventh-place Steve Wallace, who is 315 points behind Allgaier.

Brad Keselowski, Allgaier’s Penske Racing teammate and also a full-time Sprint Cup racer, leads the standings.

Practice rounds for Sunday’s race are scheduled at 9 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Saturday. Qualifying is scheduled for 5:05 p.m. Saturday. The race is scheduled at 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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