Defending NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Justin Allgaier is set to return to the NASCAR Playoffs this Fall, after a dominant performance in Saturday’s The LiUNA! at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The native of Riverton, Illinois had the dominant racecar throughout much of the afternoon but had to put up a masterful defense against a hard-charging Aric Almirola in the closing laps of the event to secure his 26th NASCAR Xfinity Series win.
Saturday’s victory has Allgaier sitting solely in tenth place on the all-time wins list in the second-tier series, just a single victory behind Jeff Burton, who sits ninth on the list.
The 38-year-old driver led a race-high 102 of 200 laps and excelled in the short-to-medium runs – as was evident by the massive eighth-plus second margin that he had at the conclusion of the race’s first stage.
“It feels amazing, this whole team – I cannot say enough, the fans that are here, I hope we put on a good show for you. Aric [Almirola] and I were going at it, hats off to him he raced a heck of a race and just so proud of everybody on this Jarrett Camaro,” said Allgaier. “To see the speed, we had off the truck, I was really sad about the sixth-place qualifying effort, and to be able to get here.”
In the long run, though, Almirola had the quickest car, a characteristic of the No. 19 YoungLife Toyota GR Supra that allowed the part-timer to make a rally in the race’s closing laps and ultimately battle it out for the victory for the JR Motorsports driver.
Almirola, who ultimately finished 1.067 seconds behind Allgaier at the end of the race, scored his third top-three finish in three NASCAR Xfinity Series starts this season, and despite missing out on two events, sits sixth-place in series point standings.
Jesse Love finished the race in third, but 11.871 seconds behind the leading duo. It’s Love’s second top-five result of the season and fourth top-10 – the only other top-five coming in the season-opener at Daytona, which the No. 2 team won.
Austin Hill was able to edge out Sam Mayer to steal a fourth-place finish, rebounding from a loose wheel earlier in the event. Sam Mayer settled for a third top-five of the season.
Brandon Jones scored another top-10 result, in sixth, while Ryan Sieg, Harrison Burton, Connor Zilisch, and Sheldon Creed rounded out the top-10. Just outside the top-10 was Kyle Sieg, who finished 11th in the No. 28 Ford Mustang for RSS Racing.
The race was rather uneventful, in terms of on-track incidents, with just one problem throughout the afternoon – and that coming on the first lap with William Sawalich and Parker Retzlaff. Retzlaff recovered to finish 21st, with Sawalich retiring from the event and finishing last.
Saturday’s 300-miler served as the qualifier for the Dash4Cash event at Homestead-Miami Speedway, meaning Justin Allgaier, Jesse Love, Austin Hill, and Sam Mayer will fight for $100,000 in next weekend’s event.
Next for the NASCAR Xfinity Series is a trip to Homestead-Miami Speedway, which will take place on Saturday, March 22nd at 3:30 PM ET on The CW, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
