At the end of proceedings of the Xfinity Series in Phoenix, Chandler Smith had his head held high in Victory Lane, but there was a part of him that believed it should have been Dale Earnhardt Jr‘s prodigy, Justin Allgaier. Smith had a controversial time on the track as he was responsible for spinning out his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate John Hunter Nemechek. The 21-year-old made amends by winning the race in the end, but everyone knows that he was just extremely lucky.

That’s because with just 5 laps remaining, Allgaier had a comfortable 3-second lead and seemed unstoppable. So when his tire blew out, no one could quite believe what they were seeing. It allowed Smith to nail the restart and take the checkered flag but even the JGR star believes that the JR Motorsports racer was a more deserving victor.

Despite ‘heartbreak’, Joe Gibbs Racing star quick to take the plaudits of victory

Chandler Smith claimed to have been in similar situations as Allgaier was in the past, which is probably why he felt as bad as he did. The 21-year-old evidently has a lot of respect for his much-experienced counterpart, who was left frustrated and fuming at the end of the day. Dale Earnhardt Jr must have been feeling the same way as it was his car that fell apart. He will definitely be looking for answers from the #7’s crew and mechanics next time he’s at the shop.

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Speaking to the media after the race, Smith claimed that he was heartbroken over what happened with the #7. But his heartbreak soon turned into pride for his crew as he booked an early spot in the playoffs. In today’s day and age, winning is everything. Yes, you can feel bad if another driver has to face something unfortunate, but if that opens up a window for you to win, you’d be wise to take it. That’s exactly what the JGR youngster did.

“My heart broke for him honestly, I’ve been there, that’s horrible because he had it in the bag, it was his race to win and it wasn’t meant to be for him, unfortunately. It’s easy for me to say sitting here in victory lane but I’ve been in that and it sucks and I hate it for those guys. Nevertheless, really proud of everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing, they have me a really solid #81 Toyota GR Supra. There were parts where we struggled a little bit. Even there at the end, we needed to be a bit better to be better than the #7. Proud of the effort, proud that we’re parked in victory lane and got good notes for the next time we come,” he said.

The JR Motorsports man was distraught after the accident and understandably so. There are several things that can frustrate a motorsports athlete but the right there has to be on the top of that list.

Dale Earnhardt Jr probably has a mentally deflated driver at the moment

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Speaking to the media after the race, Dale Earnhardt Jr’s prodigy sounded like he was not that surprised by it as he called it the story of his season so far. It was the left rear tire that let the 37-year-old down and the team down. This knock was hard and it could easily shatter a driver’s confidence. Unfortunately, Allgaier’s words give off that kind of a vibe.

“This is the story of our year so far. We’ve had really fast Camaros every week and just nothing to show for it. I think the heartbreaker from today was being that far out, knowing we had the car to win at the end there. Clean air was so important, and we got it. I felt it [left rear tire] go down through the dogleg, and that was kind of it, and I was just a passenger at that point. I hate it for all of our guys, hate it for all of our partners, just a sucky way to end the day,” he said as per Frontstretch.

Will the veteran race car driver to able to come back from this setback with a good performance at the Circuit of the Americas next weekend? Given his road course record that answer tends to be no but in NASCAR, you can’t predict anything.