Winning Stage 2. Leading a race-high 83 laps. His daughter’s 13th birthday. Almost everything was going JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier’s way until a late-race incident involving his Joe Gibbs Racing rival Brent Crews ruined his winning contention. While he failed to get a fair chance to even try till the end, Allgaier made sure to vent out his disappointment clearly after the race.
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“It’s a shame, you know, I thought our BRANDT Professional Agriculture Precision Build Chevrolet was really good today. And I thought we did a really good job,” Allgaier told The CW Sports.
The Dale Jr champ, who ended his day in an unfortunate 24th, was in good contention to win after winning Stage 2. When others pitted on Lap 161, he stayed out and then pitted for fresh tires on Lap 185. This helped him charge from 24th to third, but it was the penultimate restart that spoiled it all.
JGR’s Brent Crews made contact with Ryan Sieg, who in turn hit Allgaier and put him back at 24th. After the race, Allgaier first went up to Crews and had what looked like a frustrated chat where a silent Crews just listened. When asked what he told the No. 19 Toyota driver, Allgaier said,
“I told Brent, I said, you’re way too good of a racer to make mistakes like that.”
Even race-winner Carson Kvapil agreed that Allgaier’s strategy to stay out and opt for fresher tires later could’ve been dangerous for him. “I knew the 7 (Allgaier) was on fresher tires, so that was my biggest concern there,” Kvapil said after his consecutive win of the season.
Allgaier even mentioned that it was fair if his strategy gamble hadn’t worked out, as it would’ve then been a fair loss. But losing a winning contention in this manner was “just a shame” in his words. And to add salt to the wound, there was a personal motivation behind why he was chasing the checkered flag.
“It’s my daughter’s 13th birthday today. And so happy birthday, Harper. I really, really wanted to go to Victory Lane for her. So, you know, disappointed that that didn’t happen.”
Nonetheless, three out of the top four finishing cars were from JR Motorsports, which included Rajah Caruth (2nd) and Ross Chastain (4th) apart from race-winner Kvapil. And though Allgaier was frustrated, he managed to cheer himself up a bit for the next.
“All of our partners, everybody at Junior Motorsports, Chevrolet, Hendrick Engine shop, everybody that’s a part of this group, just really frustrated that it didn’t work out in our favor. But we’ll rebound. We’ll go to Daytona in a couple weeks and go have some fun.”
Meanwhile, it wasn’t an easy win for Kvapil either.
Junior’s another champ shines in a chaotic restart
After winning at the Brickyard, the No. 1 JRM driver once again found himself in the victory lane after he survived the chaotic double-overtime finish at Iowa.
There’s no doubt that his own JRM teammate Allgaier was his biggest threat that got taken care of. However, in the final laps, Ross Chastain led most of that run, but a caution before the last five laps changed things.
Before Crews messed up the race for Allgaier, it was Chastain who spun his tires and allowed Kvapil to move ahead. Kvapil then beat Chastain once again in double overtime while Caruth moved up to second, leaving the No. 9 Chevy in fourth place.
“I think the 9 (Chastain) probably had it (before) the yellow came out there at the end,” said Kvapil. “We were fast running him down there – we just didn’t have enough to fill the gap.”
Heading into the Chase, the race also stirred positions at the cutline. William Sawalich, who finished third, is now two points up in 11th place, while Crews, who finished 16th, is now one point down at 12th, right above the cutoff.