2011 Bucyrus 200

The 2011 Bucyrus 200 presented by Menards was a NASCAR Nationwide Series race held on June 25, 2011, at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. The race was the 16th of the 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series and the 2nd iteration of the event. Michael McDowell won the pole for the race and led the most laps but the race featured a crazy and controversial finish as Reed Sorenson won the race in the end as the race became a wreckfest towards the end.

Background
Road America is a motorsport road course located near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, United States on Wisconsin Highway 67. It has hosted races since the 1950s and currently hosts races in the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series, WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, IndyCar Series, SCCA Pirelli World Challenge, ASRA, AMA Superbike series, and SCCA Pro Racing's Trans-Am Series.

Entry List

 * (R) denotes rookie driver
 * (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points

Qualifying
Michael McDowell won the pole for the race, his first of his career, with a time of 2:13.230 and a speed of 109.381.

* – Brian Scott, Jennifer Jo Cobb, Alex Kennedy, and Derrike Cope had to go to the rear of the field due to adjustments after impound.

Race
Pole sitter Michael McDowell led the first lap of the race. The first incident of the day did not take long as it happened on lap 2 when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. made contact with Reed Sorenson and both spun in turn 3. It happened right in front of J. R. Fitzpatrick who went through the grass to avoid Stenhouse and Sorenson. No caution flew as they got their cars back going again. The first caution flew on lap 7 when Doug Harrington spun in turn 12 and got stuck in the gravel traps. Michael McDowell won the race off of pit road but Steve Wallace, Elliott Sadler, Jason Bowles, Michael Annett, and Timmy Hill did not pit although Hill went to pit before the green flag and Wallace led the field to the restart on lap 10. On lap 11, Jacques Villeneuve took the lead from Wallace. On lap 13, Jason Bowles' car got loose in turn 11 and slid up the track into the wall and taking out one of the Bucyrus signs. On lap 14, Trevor Bayne's car spun in turn 1 but no caution was thrown as Bayne got rolling again. On lap 15, Michael McDowell took the lead from Villeneuve. On lap 17, Billy Johnson spun in turn 5 and no caution flew as he got his car rolling. On that same lap, McDowell came into pit handing the lead to a veteran road course ringer in Ron Fellows. On lap 20, Doug Harrington spun out of turn 6 but did not bring out a caution as he got rolling again. The second caution flew when Kevin Conway spun in turn 1 on lap 21 and got stuck in the gravel trap. Some drivers went in to pit like Fellows while others stayed out because they pitted under green like McDowell and McDowell led the field to the restart on lap 25. On the restart, Jacques Villeneuve took the lead from McDowell in turn 5. Unfortunetly for Villeneuve, he would be penalized for changing lanes before they reached the start finish line on the restart handing the lead to Michael McDowell once again.

Final laps
With 24 laps to go, the third caution flew when Jeremy Clements' car stalled up the hill entering turn 6 after his engine let go. The race would restart with 21 laps to go. McDowell had a challenge for the lead in Elliott Sadler but Sadler could not get past McDowell. Soon green flag pitstops began with 17 to go. With 16 to go, McDowell pitted and gave the lead to Ron Fellows. Fellows pitted with 15 to go and handed the lead to Jacques Villeneuve. Villeneuve pitted with 14 to go giving the lead to Mike Wallace. Wallace soon pitted with 12 to go and handed the lead to Brian Scott who would lead the next 5 laps before Michael McDowell took the lead from him with 7 laps to go. McDowell was looking for his first ever win in all of NASCAR 3 years after his violent qualifying crash at Texas as he began to pull away from Scott with the 3rd place car in Ron Fellows being over 7 seconds back. Unfortunately for McDowell and some others, the fourth caution would fly with just 4 laps to go when Doug Harrington crashed in turn 11. The caution would turn things upside down as the race became a fuel strategy race to see who had enough to make it around 8 miles and take home the checkered flag and it would also set up three attempts of a green-white-checkered finish. McDowell took the lead from Fellows on the restart. But for some reason, Jacques Villeneuve thought it was a good idea to go to Brian Scott's right side before the pit road exit lane ended and Villeneuve clipped the grass and ended up sliding up the track and wrecking both Scott and Max Papis in the process in turn 1 bringing out the 5th caution of the race. The caution would set up a 2nd attempt of a green-white-checkered. McDowell took the lead from Fellows on the restart. But in turn 3, Justin Allgaier charged his way and challenged McDowell for the lead. McDowell got in front of Allgaier in turn 5 but McDowell pushed up the track in the turn and Allgaier sneaked under McDowell and took the lead. McDowell tried to catch Allgaier but slid up again in turn 6 and ended up spinning out in the grass ending his chances of winning. While he was spinning, Eric McClure, Alex Kennedy, and Steve Wallace all spun out in the same turn with McClure and Wallace crashing out while Kennedy got stuck in the gravel trap. This would bring out the 6th caution of the race and set up a final attempt of a green-white-checkered. Cars frantically started saving fuel as the race would restart for the last time. On the restart, Allgaier took the lead from Fellows and began to pull away. Soon, cars started spinning everywhere. Aric Almirola spun in turn 5 while Brian Scott spun in turn 6 on the same lap. Almirola got stuck in the gravel trap and could not get back going again. Allgaier took the white flag before the 7th and final caution flew for Almirola's car stalling in turn 5 when Allgaier was in turn 3. Allgaier had to make it around 11 more corners and cross the finish line first to take the win which would be his third career Nationwide Series win and the second of the season. But coming up the hill to turn 6, Allgaier's car ran out of gas and as a result of NASCAR's rule, if you don't maintain pace car speed you lose your position. Ron Fellows passed Allgaier and Fellows was the new race leader. Allgaier's teammate Jason Leffler, who was in 5th, also ran out of gas. Ron Fellows took the checkered flag in first place as he was looking for his 7th career NASCAR victory and his first since the 2008 NAPA Auto Parts 200 at Montreal.

Post race
While Fellows was taking the checkered flag, Reed Sorenson pulled up alongside Fellows as if to argue he won. But when replays were shown, Fellows was in third when the caution came out and Fellows did not slow down and passed by Sorenson under caution while still on the gas before he slowed down when he was right behind Allgaier. After Allgaier ran out of gas and Fellows passed him, Fellows continued to speed up and not go pace car speed until he caught up to the pace car out of turn 10. After looking at the replays, NASCAR determined that Ron Fellows passed Reed Sorenson under caution which is illegal and Reed Sorenson is the race winner with Fellows finishing in 2nd. This would be Sorenson's first win of 2011, his 4th and final career Nationwide Series win, and his first win since the 2007 Gateway 250. Jacques Villeneuve, Elliott Sadler, and Mike Wallace rounded out the top 5 while Andrew Ranger, Michael Annett, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ricky Carmichael, and J. R. Fitzpatrick rounded out the top 10. All four Canadian drivers in Fellows, Villeneuve, Ranger, and Fitzpatrick all finished in the top 10.

After the race, tempers flared against Jacques Villeneuve. Brian Scott and Max Papis, who Villeneuve both wrecked, took turns expressing their frustrations at Villeneuve. Scott ran into the rear of Villeneuve on the pit road and then Papis pulled up alongside Villeneuve's car to talk about what happened. The conversation between Villeneuve and Papis was not caught on camera.