DARLINGTON, S.C. – Justin Allgaier crossed Darlington Raceway off his personal bucket list with a victory in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Steakhouse Elite 200.
Allgaier, wheeling a car reminiscent of the Taz paint scheme the late Dale Earnhardt drove in the 2000 Daytona 500, took the lead during a late restart before surviving an overtime restart to earn his second victory of the season for JR Motorsports.
“This place, the reason why everybody wants to win here, is because of how difficult it is,” Allgaier said. “This place is truly special.”
Allgaier didn’t arrive at the front of the field until very late in the race. A lap 126 caution for Gray Gaulding spinning set up a round of pit stops, which saw Harrison Burton emerge with the race lead off pit road while Allgaier was scored as fourth.
During the restart that followed Burton spun his tires and didn’t get going, allowing runner-up Josh Berry to rocket into the lead. Allgaier quickly followed his JR Motorsports teammate into second before the caution waved again for Joe Graf Jr. crashing with 15 laps left.
FULL RESULTS: Steakhouse Elite 200
Berry opted to take the outside for the restart, putting Allgaier on the bottom. The restart went Allgaier’s way, with the JR Motorsports stalwart able to pull clear of Berry in turn one and slowly begin to pull away.
The final caution flag of the afternoon came with six laps left when Ryan Vargas spun his Chevrolet in turns one and two. Allgaier and Berry again lined up on the front row, this time with Allgaier on the outside and Berry on the inside for the overtime restart.
When racing resumed Berry got the jump on Allgaier as they raced into turn one. The pair stayed side-by-side until Berry’s Chevrolet got loose and washed up the track, which allowed Allgaier to pull back into the lead.
Allgaier went unchallenged from there as he rolled to his 16th Xfinity Series victory.
“The first restart there when Josh and I got out front, I felt like his car fired off a little better than mine did,” Allgaier said. “Every restart after that I felt like our car stayed about the same and everybody else seemed to loose a little bit of grip. I wasn’t sure how much guys were fighting grip there at the end.
“That last restart, when Josh and I went into turn one, I wasn’t sure we were going to make it through,” Allgaier continued. “We both drove it off into turn one really, really hard. We both knew that clean air was going to be so important and that’s ultimately what got us to victory lane.”
Berry held off a late charge from Brandon Jones to finish second, his second top-five finish during his limited Xfinity Series schedule this season.
“It was a good run for sure for us,” Berry said. “The last couple restarts were tough man. Did really well on two of them and on one of them I think Justin was able to get by me there. Just overall still a good day. I’m disappointed not to win, but happy to be here and happy just have an opportunity at these races.”
Noah Gragson originally finished fourth to win the Dash 4 Cash $100,000 bonus, but was disqualified in post-race inspection. A.J. Allmendinger, who finished 12th, will instead receive the Dash 4 Cash bonus.
Allgaier, Berry, Jones and Allmendinger will race for the final $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus of the season when the Xfinity Series heads to Dover (Del.) Int’l Speedway next weekend.