Road America 180

Road America 180

NASCAR Xfinity Series
Venue	Road America
Location	Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, United States
Corporate sponsor	Johnsonville Foods
First race	2010
Distance	182.16 miles (293.16 km)
Laps	45
Previous names	Bucyrus 200 Presented by Menards (2010–2011) Sargento 200 (2012) Johnsonville Sausage 200 Presented by Menards (2013) Gardner Denver 200 Fired Up by Johnsonville (2014) Road America 180 Fired Up by Johnsonville (2015-present)
Most wins (team)	Richard Childress Racing (3)
Most wins (manufacturer)	Chevrolet (4)
Circuit information
Surface	Asphalt
Length	4.048 mi (6.515 km)
Turns	14

The Road America 180 fired up by Johnsonville is a NASCAR Xfinity Series race that takes place at Road America. Winners of the race are awarded a Harley-Davidson XR1200 motorcycle.^[1] Since the inception, the race has featured highly competitive races and is considered one of the most unpredictable races of the season.

History

The track held its first Xfinity event in 2010 after the Milwaukee Mile's race was moved to the track. Road America had held a Grand National (now Sprint Cup Series) race in the 1956 that was won by Tim Flock. Carl Edwards won the inaugural 50-lap race, named the Bucyrus 200, after holding off Canadian road course ringers, Jacques Villeneuve and Ron Fellows.

In 2011, the Bucyrus 200 was won by Reed Sorenson after a confusing series of events in which numerous drivers either crashed, were penalized, or ran out of gas. This was the first Xfinity Series race to require three green-white-checker finish attempts, extending the race to 57 laps. Michael McDowell had the race in the bag until he ran out of gas on the first GWC-finish attempt, handing the lead to Justin Allgaier. On the final lap, Allgaier slowed down after running out of gas. When the dust settled, Ron Fellows appeared to have won the race, but, after a 10-minute delay, NASCAR determined that Fellows had made a pass on leader Reed Sorenson after a final-lap caution came out, handing the win to Sorenson and dropping Fellows to second.

The next year, in the newly renamed Sargento 200, Brazilian Nelson Piquet, Jr. won his first career race ahead of Michael McDowell and Ron Fellows. In 2013, the once again renamed Johnsonville Sausage 200 pole winner was A. J. Allmendinger. Allmendinger, Owen Kelly, and Billy Johnson all took turns leading, with Allmendinger leading the most at 29. Allmendinger would go on to win the race after eight caution flags waved and the race was extended to 55 laps due to two green-white-checker finish attempts. The race became memorable when road course ringer, Max Papis got furious with Billy Johnson for spinning him out twice; on pit road Papis slapped Johnson and walked off grinning.^[2] The race was renamed as the Gardner Denver 200 for 2014.

Rain tire used during the 2014 event

In 2014 the race suffered rain, delaying the start by one hour. Despite this, NASCAR had the cars put on rain tires and race in the rain for the first time since 2009 in Montreal's NNS event. Sam Hornish, Jr. led over 25 laps and dominated. However Alex Tagliani controlled the second half of the race. When he was about to take the white flag, a yellow flag period began. Just after the caution came out, Tagliani ran out of gas and stalled at the start/finish line. Brendan Gaughan prevailed after holding off a charge from deep in the pack by Tagliani for his first NNS win.

In 2015, the race was moved from June to the last weekend of August and it takes place during an off-weekend for the Sprint Cup Series, the race was reduced from 202.4 miles to 182.16 miles for 2015.^[3] Paul Menard took advantage of Blake Koch's ignition troubles to hold off Ryan Blaney for an emotional victory near his hometown in Wisconsin.^[4] In 2016, road ringer Alex Tagliani won the pole while Michael McDowell led the final 24 laps en route to his first NASCAR win.

Past winners

Allmendinger celebrates his 2013 win

Year	Date	No.	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Race Distance		Race Time	Average Speed (mph)
						Laps	Miles (km)
2010	June 19	60	Carl Edwards	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	50	202.4 (325.731)	2:57:17	68.501
2011	June 25	32	Reed Sorenson	Turner Motorsports	Chevrolet	57*	230.736 (371.333)	2:55:24	78.929
2012	June 23	30	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Turner Motorsports	Chevrolet	50	202.4 (325.731)	2:22:35	85.171
2013	June 22	22	A. J. Allmendinger	Penske Racing	Ford	55*	222.64 (356.224)	2:58:50	74.697
2014	June 21	62	Brendan Gaughan	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	53*	214.544 (345.275)	2:48:03	76.6
2015	August 29	33	Paul Menard	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	45	182.16 (293.158)	2:20:21	77.874
2016	August 27	2	Michael McDowell	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	48*	194.304 (312.702)	2:36:20	74.573

• 2011, 2013, 2014, and 2016: Race extended due to an overtime.
  • 2011 took 3 attempts.
  • 2013 took 2 attempts.
• 2012: Piquet scored his first win in NASCAR competition; he was the first Brazilian driver to win a NASCAR national touring series event.

Multiple winners (teams)

# Wins	Team	Years Won
3	Richard Childress Racing	2014, 2015, 2016
2	Turner Motorsports	2011, 2012

Manufacturer wins

# Wins	Make	Years Won
5	Chevrolet	2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016
2	Ford	2010, 2013

Television broadcasters

Year	Network	Lap-by-lap	Color commentator(s)
2010	ESPN	Allen Bestwick	Dale Jarrett Andy Petree
2011		Allen Bestwick
2012
2013
2014	ABC
2015	NBCSN	Rick Allen Dave Burns	Dale Jarrett
2016
2017	NBC

Notes

• The race will move from Saturday to Sunday.
• As a deal with broadcasting changes, the race will move to NBC.

References

1. "NASCAR Bucyrus 200 Victor to Win H-D XR1200". Motorcycle USA. Retrieved 2012-08-16.
2. "NNS: Max Papis Slaps Billy Johnson — Road America 2013". Fox Sports. 2013-06-22. Retrieved 2013-06-22.
3. "NASCAR reveals 2015 schedules for national series". NASCAR. August 26, 2014. Retrieved August 26, 2014.
4. Knight, Chris (August 29, 2015). "Wisconsin native Menard wins at Road America". NASCAR.com. NASCAR Media Group, LLC. Retrieved June 1, 2016.

External links

• 2011 Bucyrus 200 Website