Auto Racing

TALLADEGA — If the ARCA RE/MAX Series race is any indication, the rest of the races at Talladega Superspeedway this weekend could be as wild as advertised.

Justin Allgaier managed to avoid the multiple wrecks to take the checkered flag in the ARCA RE/MAX 250 at Talladega Superspeedway. Allgaier took the lead on the final lap to get the victory.

"To come out of here with a victory means so much to all of us," Allgaier said. "I think you can win anywhere you want to, but you can come to Talladega and the chances of winning are in the rest of everybody else's hands and what luck you have.

"So we feel like God is definitely on our side the past couple of weeks. He gave us the rain when we needed it last weekend in New Jersey and gave us the push we needed this weekend."

Logano came in second after holding off veteran driver Bobby Gerhart in the closing laps.

"I did everything I could do," Logano said. "I just got beat. He just schooled me. I learned a lot. I'll do things differently next time."

Star Multimedia
Slideshow: ARCA RE/MAX 250 View photos from the ARCA RE/MAX 250 race at Talladega Superspeedway.

Jeremy Clements finished the race in fourth while Patrick Sheltra rounded out the Top 5. Frank Kimmel finished sixth while John Wes Townley placed seventh. The top-10 finish felt like a win for Kimmel, who took a provisional to get into the race and struggled with the car all weekend.

"That was a win for us today for sure," Kimmel said. "The first run I wasn't even able to keep up with the pack."

Kimmel also clinched the Bill France Triple Crown Award, which honors a driver who performs best on a variety of racetracks.

The Big One came early as Brian Scott blew a tire and collected more than 10 cars just several laps into the race.

Tires proved to be the problem on Friday, as several wrecks started with blown tires sending cars into the wall in all the turns over the course of the 250-mile race. There were seven cautions in the race.

Points leader Scott Speed was collected in one of the wrecks in the second half of the race. Speed finished the race several laps down in 23rd place.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who came to Talladega second in the points, also struggled at TSS, blowing a tire and getting airborne on the track with 35 laps to go. Both teams worked furiously to get the cars back on the track to salvage points with just one race remaining on the ARCA schedule.

After the race, Speed held an 85 point advantage over Stenhouse.

Chrissy Wallace, daughter of veteran racer Mike Wallace, was involved in the first wreck of the day, but battled back and finished ninth in her first start at Talladega and only her second ARCA race.

The ARCA RE/MAX Series ends the 2008 season at Toledo, Ohio on Oct. 12.