SPRINGFIELD, IL :: Brennan Poole won his second ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards event of the season Sunday afternoon, winning the Allen Crowe 100 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds.Spencer Gallagher, in the No. 23 Allegiant Travel Chevrolet, finished second with Cunningham Motorsports driver Tom Hessert third in the No. 77 Barbera’s Autoland Dodge. Frank Kimmel was fourth and Justin Boston fifth. Poole, in the Renton Coil Spring-Tork Chevrolet, qualified third, then grabbed the lead on lap 98 from Gallagher. The caution flew, setting up green-white-checker finish for the Venturini Motorsports driver.
“It’s awesome to win at such a historic place,” Poole said after his fifth career ARCA victory. “It was a real battle out there. I was battling and fighting all day.”
Poole was driving the No. 15 car which also went to victory lane last week with Erik Jones behind the wheel.
“It was a battle just to pass out there,” Poole said. “Cars were banging into each other, hitting the guard rail. I muscled my way to the front there at the end. I was nervous on those last laps. It was tough.”
Gallagher grabbed his first lead of the day with five laps to go, then Poole got by him two laps later.
“I had the thing locked up,” Gallagher said. “It was so dusty out there it was tough to see coming out of turn two. The Allegiant Travel Chevrolet was fast all day, and P-2 ties my career best. It was definitely intense out there.”
Hessert finished third in a strong finish for Cunningham Motorsports.
“Good car, good day,” he said following the race.
Just prior to the fourth and final caution during lap 96, Poole edged past Gallagher for the lead. On the re-start, Kelly Kovski in the No. 16, and A.J. Fike in the No. 11 car, moved past Poole, beating him to the start-finish line. ARCA Racing Series officials ruled that both drivers had jumped the re-start and they were black-flagged as the leaders – Poole and Gallagher – took the white flag for the final lap. Neither Kovski or Fike relinquished their position to the race leader on the final lap and Poole drove under the checkered flag for the win.
Kovski and Fike were penalized for the infraction and scored in 13th and 14th place.
Kimmel’s day started with difficulty because of an electrical fire that forced his Ansell-Menards crew to change parts before qualifying. He led from laps 51 to 70 and finished fourth, his 24th consecutive top 10 finish in an ARCA Racing Series car.
Boston, in the ZLOOP Computer & Recycling Chevrolet, was the SCOTT Rookie Challenge recipient with his fifth top five finish of the season.
Several drivers had impressive finishes.
Chris Windom in the Reliance Tool-Roulo Brothers Racing Ford, finished sixth; Benton, Ill. driver Shane Cockrum ran up front for most of the day and finished eighth in his Illinois Lottery No. 17 Ford while Taylor Ferns, 17, of Shelby Township, Michigan, snagged a top 10 finish in ninth in her National Auto Placement-Motor City Transport Toyota. Ferns qualified fourth but had to start at the back of the field because of multiple changes to her car as a result of an accident after qualifying.
Tyler Speer of Woodstock, Ga., in the Mallory Marine Chevrolet, finished in 12th place and was the last car on the lead lap.
“We were quick,” Speer said. “It was just tires. We were up to fourth at one point. We were passing a lot of cars out there.”
Polesitter Mason Mitchell led the first 21 laps in his Happy Cheeks Ford and finished seventh.
The Allen Crowe 100 took 1 hour and 16 minutes to complete. The race, which had four cautions for 24 laps, officially went 104 laps. It will be aired at 11 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network.
Poole, who led a race-high 43 laps, said he is excited about seeing the race on television.
“I’ve never had an in-car camera before,” he said. “I can’t wait to watch it.”
The ARCA Racing Series returns to a short track next week with the Herr’s Live Life With Flavor 200 at Madison International Speedway in Wisconsin. It will be the 16th of 21 series races.
