Pocono Restart Takes Out Allgaier and Bell After Four-Wide Battle

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer

Justin Allgaier’s bid of scoring his second win of the season without worrying about fuel was all for not after he and Christopher Bell were collected in a crash during Saturday’s Pocono Green 250 at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania.

Allgiaer, who crossed the line in third on Stage 2, gave up track position for fuel on Lap 55 in order to remain in contention, putting his No. 7 Breyer’s 2-in-1 Chevrolet Camaro at mid-pack.

Laps later, Bell also made a pit stop to assure himself he’ll make it to the finish. However, a speeding penalty put him in a deep hole and like Allgaier, had to work his way back to the front of the field.

Then on Lap 61, the nature of restarts at Pocono soon took over the headlines.

Entering the Long Pond Straightaway, the field was bunched up and soon created a four-wide battle between he, Bell, Alex Labbe and Dylan Lupton with Allgaier’s teammate Elliott Sadler giving him a boost.

Push came to shove and it send Allgaier into Dylan Lupton and slammed the wall. The impact sent Allgaier’s car into Bell, also sending him into the wall as his  No. 20 Ruud Toyota Camry briefly lifted upon impact. The rest of the field made it through unscathed and was only a two-car wreck.

Allgaier got out of his car unhurt and credited with a 37th place finish, his worst of the season.

“These restarts has been so crazy all day today,” Allgaier on the accident. “Unfortunately got spun to the right and went back to the left. Not the ideal situation. It looked like the No. 28 (Lupton) got me first. I’m not really sure, but really fast Breyer’s 2-in-1 Camaro. Car looked great this weekend, so I hate it for those guys and everybody back at JR Motorsports because they’ve been working their tails off.

“Obviously not how we wanted to end today, but we’ll regroup and we’ll go next week to Michigan. Hopefully, we can take what we learned this weekend and use it to our betterment next week and go have a better day.”

Bell limped his car into the pits and called it a day, finishing a spot ahead of Allgaier, but dropped from second to fifth in the championship standings.

Bell described the accident as part of the nature of restarts at the “Tricky Triangle” and his speeding penalty didn’t do him any favors.

“I don’t know. Just restarts at Pocono (Raceway). It’s the bottom line. I feel like our Ruud Camry was exceptional and doing everything I needed it to,” said Bell. “I just made a mistake there whenever I followed Kyle (Busch) to Pit Road at the end of the first Stage. He was going really fast and I thought I could, too. And I just ended up speeding.

“There was nothing I could have done there with Justin for that matter. We were just victims of Pocono restarts. It just got really hairy. It was exciting. That’s why sometimes we love it and sometimes we hate it.”

The accident marked both Allgaier and Bell’s third DNF of the season, and will head to Michigan International Speedway for better results.