By Holly Cain / NASCAR
Brooklyn, Mich. –– Justin Allgaier used pit strategy and a fast No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet to take the lead of Saturday’s Cabo Wabo 250 at Michigan International Speedway, with 16 laps of regulation remaining and then held off the field in two laps of overtime — before a caution came out to end the race.
Allgaier pitted for fuel seven laps later than the next six front-runners at the time, returned to the track and ultimately — methodically — picked each car off to claim the late lead. He took the white flag signaling one lap remaining and a few moments later one of the late-race leaders, Carson Kvapil, hit the wall in what became a chain reaction melee involving Chandler Smith and Kyle Sieg, whose car flipped end-over-end. Sieg was able to quickly climb out of his car and walk to the waiting medical crew.
Meanwhile, Allgaier took the yellow and checkered flags just ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing’s Sheldon Creed, JGR’s John Hunter Nemechek, Our Motorsports’ Anthony Alfredo and JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith.
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It’s the sixth consecutive top-10 finish in as many races for the 38-year-old Allgaier, who with the win — the 25th of his career — is now 10th on the Xfinity Series all-time win list moving ahead of his team owner, NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr.
A bright rainbow hung in the sky as the field sat on pit road just before the overtime restart as NASCAR track workers dried the famed 2-mile Michigan track after the second brief rain shower of the day.
Asked to rally again, Allgaier proved his muster, ultimately passing his teammate Sammy Smith on the restart and then holding off both JGR teammates Creed and defending race winner Nemechek for his second victory of the season.
“Just cannot say thank you enough to this team and all these guys standing right here,” Allgaier said. “It’s been an incredible week. We did not show up at [the last race in] Indianapolis like we wanted to and these guys have worked tirelessly through this break.
“It’s truly special, winning at Michigan.”
It was a record 11th runner-up finish for Creed — breaking a tie with current Cup Series driver and former Xfinity Series champion Daniel Hemric and NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett for most second-place finishes in the series without a win.
Trophy or not, it was a productive day for Creed, who started from pole position and also announced before the race that he signed a multi-year contract to drive for the new Haas Factory Team in Xfinity next season. He was among the seven race leaders, out front for 23 laps and his rally to runner-up was more impressive, considering he spun out while leading early in the race.
“This one might have frustrated me the most out of all of them so far,” Creed said. “I had a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota GR Supra as fast as Xfinity internet today, and led the beginning, got spun there and rallied back.
“I was probably too conservative behind the 20 (Nemechek) trying to save fuel. I was a couple, few laps short on fuel there and the 7 (Allgaier) was in a little bit better spot, and once the 7 got around both of us, and the 88 (Kvapil), I know I needed to go. I probably set behind the 20 another two laps and then charged and was running the 7 down. Just had a really good car, but that caution for rain came at a bad time for us.”
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Cup Series regular Noah Gragson, Matt DiBenedetto, Craftsman Truck Series championship contender Taylor Gray, Caesar Bacarella and AJ Allmendinger rounded out the top 10. It marks only the third top 10 of Bacarella’s career.
With five regular season races remaining, Sammy Smith moves into 12th place in the championship standings, holding the final playoff position by a single point over Ryan Sieg, who won Stage 1 and finished 13th on Saturday.
Cole Custer finished an uncharacteristic 30th place after his Ford suffered damage in a mid-race accident. The defending series champion continues to lead the regular season championship, but his advantage has been trimmed now to only 12 points over Michigan race winner Allgaier.
The Xfinity Series moves to the famed Daytona International Speedway for Friday’s Wawa 250 Powered by Coca-Cola (7:30 p.m. ET, USA, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). Allgaier is the defending race winner.
NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed without issue in the Xfinity Series garage, confirming Justin Allgaier as the winner.