Justin Allgaier earned the ultimate redemption for last week’s heartbreak in Phoenix where he led until Overtime by driving his car into Las Vegas victory lane ahead of same driver who won last week. Allgaier withstood a challenge from Aric Almirola in the final stage to win Saturday’s Xfinity Series event at Las Vegas.
The win is Allgaier’s 26th career win and extends his streak of Xfinity seasons with a win to nine, but it’s also his first win of the season and his first win ever at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It was a dominant performance for the defending series champion, leading a race-high 102 of 200 laps in a race that went green all the way except for the stage breaks and a spin by William Sawalich on the first lap.
Allgaier won Stage 1 and Almirola won Stage 2, with the decisive pass coming during the pit cycle with Allgaier gaining the advantage. Almirola was able to regroup and get close in the final laps but was unable to make the pass, ultimately finishing 1.067 seconds behind in second. For his part, Allgaier credited his team with giving him the track position advantage.
“Any time you can go to victory lane is huge,” said Allgaier. “This track has been so good to me. I’ve come so close to winning so many times. I cannot say enough about this entire 7 team.
“It was a battle, I knew whoever was ahead would control it once we got some laps on the tires. I knew my only job today was not to make mistakes and we did it. We called a great race,” he said.
It was the culmination of a good weekend for Allgaier’s JR Motorsports team, which started with a lockout of the first three positions in qualifying. Ironically, Allgaier qualified furthest back of the group and went on to win.
“Proud of JR Motorsports,” he said. “All four of our teams were fast.”
The win not only locks Allgaier into the Playoffs and guarantees the chance to fight for a back-to-back championship but also gives him the points lead. Five different drivers have won each of the first five races of the year.
Runner-up Aric Almirola said that, despite the disappointment not to be able to score back-to-back wins, the battle with Allgaier in the closing laps was enjoyable.
“You always hate to finish second, but Justin and that team was the class of the field I felt like today,” Almirola admitted. “We were close. They could just take off so much faster than I could. I think that was really the difference.
“I thought my only hope was to cycle in front of him during the green flag stop. We did, and then I just got caught up behind some lap traffic there that I misjudged. I wasn’t sure which way they were going, and he got by me. Then he just built such a big gap that I used my stuff up trying to get back to him.”
Jesse Love, Austin Hill, and Sam Mayer rounded out the top ten. Brandon Jones was sixth, followed by Ryan Sieg and Harrison Burton in eighth. Sheldon Creed finished in tenth.
Connor Zilisch, Allgaier’s teammate, was running third and in contention for the win until he picked up a speeding penalty on the final round of pitstops and was forced to come back down pit road. He could only manage to recover for ninth overall after leading 28 laps in the race.
“It was really good until it wasn’t, just one mistake ended my day,” Connor Zilisch said after the race.
The race was the qualifier for the first Dash 4 Cash event. As the top-four full-season contenders, Allgaier, Love, Hill, and Mayer will compete for a bonus $100,000 when the Xfinity Series returns at Homestead-Miami Speedway next Saturday. Almirola is only running a part-time schedule and so is not eligible.
