JOLIET, IL - SEPTEMBER 06: Scott Speed driver of the #2 Red Bull Toyota during the ARCA RE/MAX Series Chicagoland ARCA 200 on September 6, 2008 at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Scott Speed (#2 Red Bull Toyota) led Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (99) heading into the final race of the 2008 ARCA RE/MAX Series season. (Robert Laberge/Getty Images)

Setting The Scene: 2008 ARCA Finale at Toledo

www.arcaracing.com April 8, 2020

It was a two horse race for the 2008 ARCA Menards Series championship.

Until it wasn’t.

Heading into the final race of the season, it looked like a showdown between Scott Speed and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. for the championship.

How’d they get to that point?

Speed’s acclimation to stock car racing was off to a flying start. The then 25-year-old from Manteca, California, was two years removed from becoming the first American driver to race in Formula One in 13 years. Speed interspersed five NASCAR Cup Series starts with a full slate on the ARCA Re/Max Series for the new Red Bull Toyota entry into the sport.

It was a successful transition to that point, as Speed collected wins at Kansas Speedway, Kentucky Speedway, Michigan’s Berlin Raceway and Tennessee’s Nashville Fairgrounds. He had 10 top fives and 17 top 10s in 20 starts and the championship points lead heading into the last two races of the season.

His closest rival was a just-turnd 20-year-old from Mississippi: Stenhouse.

WATCH: 2008 Hantz Group 200 from Toledo – Thursday, 7 pm ET

Stenhouse entered the penultimate race of the season at Talladega Superspeedway trailing Speed by just 60 points.

The Roush Fenway racing development driver had a pair of wins – Kentucky and Pocono Raceway – to go with 10 top fives and 14 top 10s. He bounced back from a 17th-place finish at Salem Speedway in Indiana to finsh second behind Justin Allgaier at New Jersey Motorsports Park.

Trailing Speed and Stenhouse heading into Talladega was Allgaier (220 points back), Frank Kimmel (230) and Matt Carter (250).

Allgaier, then 22 from Riverton, Illinois, had been racing in the ARCA series since 2002 when he was 16. He picked up his first win in 2006 and then another when he ran his first full season in 2007. With his family team, Allgaier had wins at Salem, Canada’s Cayuga Speedway (now Jukasa Motor Speedway), Pocono and New Jersey.

Kimmel was looking to extend his title reign to nine consecutive years, and closed the gap with a late season surge that saw him win three times in four races. And Carter, running for car owner Larry Clement – who had paired with Kimmel during his title run – won in the series’ first visit to Toledo in 2008.

That set the stage for Talladega.

The records show both Speed and Stenhouse as “running” at the end. However, it was nowhere near where they wanted to be: Speed finishing 23rd and Stenhouse 28th.

Stenhouse blew a right rear tire on the backstretch on Lap 61 while running sixth. Less than 10 laps later, Speed was involved in a multi-car accident on the tri-oval while also running sixth.

RACING-REFERENCE: Talladega Fall Race Results | 2008 ARCA Results

Meanwhile, Allgaier got a run on then 17-year-old Joey Logano to power into the lead on the backstretch of the white-flag lap and capture the victory.

Kimmel finished sixth and Carter 10th, creating a further logjam heading into the tricky half-mile Toledo, Ohio, track for the Hantz Group 200 by Belle Tire & Federated Car Care.

Speed still held a 90 point lead on Stenhouse, while Allgaier had moved to within 110 of the top spot and Kimmel was 150 back. But for either Allgaier or Kimmel to have a chance, they’d likely have to win the race and hope that Speed and Stenhouse had trouble.