With pit strategy and weather in play at Pocono Raceway, ARCA Racing Series driver Justin Allison earned his first series win in the ModSpace 125.
Justin Allison is the third member of the Allison family to win an ARCA race. Davey won eight times and Bobby once.
“It’s pretty cool to win here,” he said. “The Allison’s have a lot of history at this track. It definitely means a lot to get this first win here.”
Rain delayed the race for nearly an hour, with a short shower passing through Pocono Raceway at the start of driver introductions. The race began after drying the track.
Keeping a close eye on the weather, Allison came to the pits for fuel with a call by Team Manager, Howard Bixman and Crew Chief Teddy Brown as soon as they saw a clearing of the skies. That move paid off about 25 laps later when Justin Allison picked up the lead.
“That was definitely the right call,” Allison said in victory lane. “We didn’t talk about it or plan to pit early, but all of a sudden, when the caution came out, they were like ‘pit now.’ I’m happy with the way things worked out.”
Will Kimmel tied his career-best by finishing second, with Tom Hessert in third. Brennan Poole finished fourth after leading 31 laps – a race best – and Justin Boston rounds out the top-five.
ARCA Racing Series requires all cars to pit at least once before ten laps to go. So after a couple of early cautions, Allison, Kimmel and Hessert all pitted for fuel – just topping off. Waiting to pit did not pay off for Poole, Boston and Mason Mitchell. Once they did pit, they lost their lead in the race.
Hessert explains his team’s pit strategy.
“The first time we pitted it was to make a track bar adjustment,” Hessert said. “We kept coming down and topping off, just in case. At that point, I tried to save fuel to make sure we would make it the rest of the way.”
The pole sitter, Mitchell led early in the race but Poole passed him, driving his first ARCA race of the season. Mitchell finished seventh behind Nick Igdalsky in sixth. Also finishing in the top-ten were Austin Wayne Self, eighth and Cody Coughlin in ninth with Michael Lira rounding out the top-ten.
Mitchell took over the series point lead, however, Grant Enfinger, Frank Kimmel and Matt Tifft were in a wreck earlier in the race. Enfinger had the points lead, but finished 26th after running just 12 laps.
Team BCR has now won five times this season – four with Enfinger and one with Allison.
“It’s just about everybody on the team in the right place and working together,” Team Manager Bixman said. “When Enfinger left for GMS Racing, it sort of threw our team a little, but we’ve stuck with the program on the No. 88 and that’s important. It paid off today.”
The ModSpace 125 will re-air on FOX Sports 1 at 10 am ET August 5th.
Next up for the ARCA Racing Series is Berlin Raceway on Saturday, August 9th.