Bizarre NASCAR Finish~ Road America 6.25.11

Reed Sorenson claimed his first Nationwide Series win in nearly four years after prevailing in a very confusing finish in Saturday's Bucyrus 200 at Road America.

The race featured three green-white-checkered attempts for several wrecks in the closing laps. Sorenson's Turner Motorsports teammate, Justin Allgaier, held the lead on the final lap, but after the caution flag waved for an incident involving Aric Almirola, Allgaier ran out of fuel and stalled on the lengthy 4.048-mile road course.

Ron Fellows then passed Sorenson, and it appeared at first that Fellows took the lead. But NASCAR reviewed the finish until several minutes after the conclusion of the race. NASCAR determined Fellows moved ahead of Sorenson when the yellow flag was in sight, and therefore, awarded the victory to Sorenson.

It was Sorenson's fourth career win in the series but his first since July 2007 at Gateway International Raceway.

"I knew it was going to be close on gas for all of us, and I was just able to make it at the end," Sorenson said. "We had a good car all day, but not a winning car, but good enough to make it at the end."

Michael McDowell dominated most of the race and led in the closing laps before an accident involving newcomer Doug Harrington forced the first two-lap overtime attempt.

After the first of the three green-white-checkered restarts, Jacques Villeneuve, driving the No.22 Dodge in place of Brad Keselowski, dove to the inside of the track and made contact with Brian Scott. Villeneuve then bumped into Max Papis and sent Papis into the gravel before he hit the barrier hard.

During the second g-w-c attempt, Allgaier chased down McDowell for the lead. McDowell overshot one of the corners, allowing Allgaier to slip by and take the lead for the first time in the race.

After McDowell ran off course, a three-car wreck involving Steve Wallace, Eric McClure and Alex Kennedy set up the third and final overtime finish.

"I thought we had won it," said Allgaier, who ended up finishing 19th. "When the caution came out, I was pretty sure we had won it, but we ran out of fuel."

Fellows finished second in this race for the second year in a row.

Villeneuve bounced back from a penalty midway through the race to finish third. NASCAR penalized Villeneuve after he changed his lane prior to a restart. He was running second to McDowell at the time.

When the race ended, Papis pulled up next to Villeneuve on pit road to express his displeasure. Papis finished two laps down in 23rd.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• reed
• sorenson
• 32
• wins
• bucyrus
• 200
• nascar
• nationwide
• series
• road
• america
• 2011
• ron
• fellows
• jacques
• villeneuve
• 22
• michael
• mcdowell
• 18
• max
• papis
• 33
• justin
• allgaier
• 31
• course
• stockcar
• auto
• racing
• bumpsnotes
• yt:stretch=16:9

[ballplayer1799]

McDowell completely choked here.

[SuperColossal33]

@jrfan07 i misstyped that, i meant vickers just barely squeaked by before the line, it was questionable enough let alone the move didn't affect his position at all, he didn't gain anything by doing it.

[jrfan07]

@SuperColossal33 It's the same penalty they always give, a drive through if its under green. They're not going to give him a different penalty just because it's a long road course and he wasn't going to go a lap down. They were just being consistent.

[SuperColossal33]

What a stupid penalty to give villeneuve, it didn't affect him at all.

[mattwhite07]

all sorts going on there, real shame for justin

[stewartfan128]

Sucks for Justin