Waving Dale Jr.’s JR Motorsports flag high, Justin Allgaier claimed the victory once again in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race on Saturday. Despite starting as a non-favorite to win the race against the likes of Kyle Larson, the 2024 Xfinity Series winner showed his mettle and took home the victory in the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 at the Darlington Raceway.

Allgaier shines at Darlington in O’Reilly Auto Parts Series

With the win, the old veteran driver claimed his 30th victory in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, and fourth at Darlington. A track which is known as ‘Too tough to tame,’ has become a happy hunting ground for him, but not for Larson, who regretted losing spots on pit road:

“I mean, just losing the spots on pit road and having to restart in the third row with a short run at the end as it’s cooling down, the pace just picks up and becomes tougher to pass,” Larson said in the post-race interview. “I think I looked really good in the short run, or sorry, I mean I was good the whole race, but the run before that, I was able to pressure the #7, I think just because we thought that the run was gonna be super long.”

Following this, the HMS driver, who will participate in the Cup Series race on Sunday alongside Allgaier, shed light on how he failed to control the race in the end and lost the race eventually.

“So we’re all kind of saving our tires, but yeah, there at the end, it just the pace picks up, and you’re stuck. So yeah, unfortunate, but that’s kind of how racing goes sometimes. A lot of how my Darlington’s typically go, I feel like throughout my career, win the first few stages, and you lose control at the end and can’t regain, so that sucks,” Larson further added.

Thanks to the victory, Allgaier has tied Joey Logano on the all-time NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series wins list with 30 wins. Brandon Jones, Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, and Carson Kvapil finished behind him. Allgaier’s win comes after his recent Phoenix victory, and as things stand, he is the only driver with two wins this season.

He is also the second O’Reilly Auto Parts Series driver to win a race in the series. This is simply surprising, given Austin Hill is the only other driver who won at Daytona. Following which, it was just a Cup Series drivers’ affair. Sheldon Creed of Haas Factory Team won at Atlanta, followed by Shane van Gisbergen at COTA. Allgaier won at Phoenix, and Kyle Larson won at Las Vegas.

This time as well, numerous Cup Series drivers participated in the race, such as Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Ross Chastain, among many others. Larson of Hendrick Motorsports, who started the race from pole position, won Stage 1 and Stage 2, but in the end, it was not enough to stop Justin Allgaier.

Justin Allgaier hailed JR Motorsports after Darlington victory

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s driver, Justin Allgaier, did not shy away from hailing his team, JR Motorsports, after he claimed the Darlington O’Reilly Auto Parts Series win. Speaking about how he picked the victory in the post-race interview, Allgaier said:

“All these guys right here. We have not been the best on pit road all year. These guys have never quit.
They have gone to work. They’ve never given up, and they were on top of it all day on pit road. I huge. Thank you to these guys…. This whole #7 team to get brand-fresh right culture back in victory lane again this year at Darlington of all places. We definitely weren’t the best all day, you know, Kyle obviously was amazing.”

Thanks to his win, Justin Allgaier has extended his lead in the Drivers’ Standings to 52 points over Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love. Allgaier has 306 points, with two wins, four top 5s, and five top 10s.