Justin Allgaier dominates in NASCAR Xfinity win at Darlington
Allgaier took both stage victories and in the final stage the pit crew on his No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet team got him first off pit road during two critical stops.
A late-race caution sent all the cars down pit road and after Allgaier beat his teammate Sam Mayer off pit road, he easily cleared for the lead on the restart and cruised to a 3.407-second win over Austin Hill.
The victory is the first this season for Allgaier and 24th of his career. Allgaier, 37, is now tied with his team co-owner, Dale Earnhardt Jr., for 10th all-time in series wins.
“We’ve had a such a heck of a year. We’ve led a ton of laps and just haven’t been able to do it,” said Allgaier, who led 119 of 147 laps Saturday, including the final 95. “It’s a true testament to (my crew) and everybody back at JR Motorsports.
“Having a little gray hair today helped me out though especially those long green flag runs.”
Allgaier’s previous best finish this season was third at Texas. He and Mayer have now both qualified for the series playoffs with victories this year.
Cole Custer rebounded from having to pit twice midrace to fix loose lug nuts and ended up third, Mayer was fourth and Aric Almirola rounded out the top five.
Completing the top 10 were Parker Kligerman, Riley Herbst, Jesse Love, Sheldon Creed and Brandon Jones.
Stage 1
Allgaier grabbed the lead on a restart with 20 of 45 laps to go and held off Hill to take the Stage 1 win. Mayer was third, A.J. Allmendinger fourth and Kligerman rounded out the top five.
Stage 2
Allgaier led every green flag lap and beat Hill by 0.728 seconds to complete a sweep of both stage victories. Kligerman was third, Mayer fourth and Almirola ended up fifth.
Stage 3
During the break between Stages 2 and 3, the lead-lap cars all elected to pit with Allgaier first off pit road. He led Hill, Almirola and Mayer when the race returned to green with 49 laps remaining.
Hailie Deegan had a left-rear tire come apart and spun in Turn 1 on lap 102 which brought out a caution and sent all the lead-lap cars down pit road for new tires.
Only a handful of cars hit pit road for new tires and Allgaier remained on the track and in the lead when the race resumed with 39 laps to go.
Kyle Sieg spun off Turn 2 to bring out another caution on lap 123 and the entire field decided to pit for new tires. Allgaier was first off pit road and led Mayer and Hill on the restart with 16 laps remaining.
Allgaier maintained a solid lead over Hill and Custer with 10 laps to go.
CLA
DRIVER
#
MANUFACTURER
LAPS
TIME
INTERVAL
PITS
POINTS
1
J. Allgaier
7
147
1:48’57.622
6
2
A. Hill
21
147
+3.407
1:49’01.029
3.407
7
3
C. Custer
00
147
+4.194
1:49’01.816
0.787
8
4
S. Mayer
1
147
+4.843
1:49’02.465
0.649
7
5
A. Almirola
20
147
+5.776
1:49’03.398
0.933
7
6
P. Kligerman
48
147
+5.951
1:49’03.573
0.175
8
7
R. Herbst
98
147
+9.009
1:49’06.631
3.058
7
8
J. Love
2
147
+9.432
1:49’07.054
0.423
7
9
S. Creed
18
147
+9.791
1:49’07.413
0.359
7
10
B. Jones
9
147
+10.075
1:49’07.697
0.284
7
11
W. Byron
17
147
+10.395
1:49’08.017
0.320
8
12
C. Smith
81
147
+10.694
1:49’08.316
0.299
9
13
R. Sieg
39
147
+11.118
1:49’08.740
0.424
7
14
A. Alfredo
5
147
+12.577
1:49’10.199
1.459
7
15
S. van Gisbergen
97
147
+13.849
1:49’11.471
1.272
7
16
J. Burton
27
147
+14.353
1:49’11.975
0.504
7
17
K. Weatherman
91
147
+15.779
1:49’13.401
1.426
7
18
T. Gray
19
147
+16.139
1:49’13.761
0.360
7
19
C. Kvapil
88
147
+16.462
1:49’14.084
0.323
7
20
B. Poole
44
147
+16.624
1:49’14.246
0.162
7
21
J. Williams
11
147
+16.842
1:49’14.464
0.218
8
22
J. Bilicki
92
147
+19.539
1:49’17.161
2.697
7
23
J. Nemechek
26
147
+19.545
1:49’17.167
0.006
9
24
D. Starr
14
147
+19.961
1:49’17.583
0.416
7
25
M. DiBenedetto
38
147
+22.271
1:49’19.893
2.310
7
26
C. Finchum
35
147
+22.545
1:49’20.167
0.274
7
27
B. Perkins
29
147
+22.637
1:49’20.259
0.092
7
28
D. Cram
4
147
+33.222
1:49’30.844
10.585
7
29
G. Smithley
6
146
+1 Lap
1:49’05.913
1 Lap
6
30
L. Honeyman
42
146
+1 Lap
1:49’10.673
4.760
9
31
P. Retzlaff
31
146
+1 Lap
1:49’15.166
4.493
8
32
K. Sieg
28
146
+1 Lap
1:49’21.577
6.411
9
33
E. Patrick
07
146
+1 Lap
1:49’23.413
1.836
7
34
S. Smith
8
146
+1 Lap
1:49’23.823
0.410
8
35
A. Allmendinger
16
126
+21 Laps
1:49’18.117
20 Laps
8
36
H. Deegan
15
102
+45 Laps
1:15’04.096
24 Laps
6
37
J. Clements
51
94
+53 Laps
1:49’21.702
8 Laps
8
38
R. Ellis
43
71
+76 Laps
49’38.665
23 Laps
6
