(Photo: Sam Draiss | The Podium Finish)
LOUDON, N.H. — Justin Allgaier snagged the lead from Landon Cassill on a restart with 19 laps to go and drove away to win the Crayon 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Allgaier won his third race of the season, all of which have come in the last eight races.
“It’s a little bit of a weight off the shoulders,” Allgaier said after securing his first win at New Hampshire. “We were able to make some good adjustments to the car and get ourselves in good position and most importantly, just get good track position in the end.
“Just proud of our team. It was kind of the race of attrition. Some of the cars that I thought we would be battling up there toward the front had issues today, whether that be crashes or mechanical failures.”
The win was the first time that JR Motorsports went to victory lane at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Previously, Allgaier finished second in this race last year.
“I’ve never been in that victory lane before in my life,” JR Motorsports owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. “It’s pretty cool… just happy for Justin. Super, super great guy. Represents our organization so well. He’s so great to all the employees and works so hard.”
Allgaier started the race in third and moved into second behind Ty Gibbs, who passed polesitter Daniel Hemric five laps into the race. But, on Lap 35, Allgaier made contact with Julia Landauer, who ran one lap down.
Landauer, 30, made her first career Xfinity start on Saturday.
“I still don’t know what happened between Julia and I,” Allgaier said. “I feel really bad. I’ll have to look at the replay, but regardless of what happened, I feel bad about it. Never do I want to make contact with a competitor, whether it’s for position or not.”
Allgaier said that the incident with Landauer threw him off and that it took a while for him to get back in a rhythm.
“It was at a point in the race where it didn’t matter,” Allgaier said. “The 88 and I were racing hard, and it ultimately fed into what happened. When you’re racing hard and something happens, whether it be malicious or not.
“In these cars, you have to be 100% to have your instincts working… being cautiously aggressive, I don’t think you can do that when you’re not at 100%.”
(Photo: Josh Jones | The Podium Finish)
After pitting, Allgaier finished Stage 1 in ninth. He then gained three positions to finish sixth in a caution-free Stage 2.
However, chaos quickly ensued. Many contenders crashed or had mechanical failures to shake up the race. Notably, Ty Gibbs went four laps off the pace with brake issues while Hemric, Josh Berry, Brandon Jones and others crashed.
After Jones and AJ Allmendinger crashed on Lap 144, the race restarted with Sheldon Creed in the lead. Cassill passed him and took the lead for two laps until Allgaier passed both and drove away. On Lap 175, NASCAR called a caution for fluid on the race track to set up another restart.
Allgaier led the field green, but once again, Cassill jumped to the lead on the inside. On Lap 182, Allgaier passed him back and kept it for his 19th Xfinity victory. It’s also JR Motorsports’ seventh win of the season.
“All of our cars are running good,” Allgaier said. “Regardless of the outcome, there’s a lot of hanging our head high about our entire organization. Name me an organization that runs as good consistently with every car as ours.”
Trevor Bayne finished second for his second consecutive race in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 car. His last start came at Nashville Superspeedway in June. Landon Cassill and Noah Gragson took the checkered flag third and fourth respectively but were both disqualified for ride height violations. Brandon Brown crossed the line fifth after late tire strategy but finished third after the two disqualifications.
Results
STAGE 1: Ryan Sieg, Ty Gibbs, AJ Allmendinger, William Byron, Brandon Brown, Trevor Bayne, Anthony Alfredo, Landon Cassill, Noah Gragson, Daniel Hemric.
STAGE 2: William Byron, Landon Cassill, Ty Gibbs, AJ Allmendinger, Trevor Bayne, Daniel Hemric, Justin Allgaier, Josh Berry, Riley Herbst, Ryan Sieg.
FINAL: Justin Allgaier, Trevor Bayne, Landon Cassill, Noah Gragson, Brandon Brown, Jeremy Clements, Sheldon Creed, Ty Dillon, Austin Hill, Kyle Weatherman
Next
The NASCAR Xfinity Series travels to Pocono Raceway on Saturday, July 16 for the Explore the Pocono Mountains 225. The race will be broadcast at 5 p.m. ET on USA Network. Austin Cindric is the defending winner.
