UPDATE: Following post-race inspection, Daniel Dye, the initial ninth-place finisher of Saturday’s Tennessee Lottery 250, was disqualified. Dye’s No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet failed to meet minimum rear heights in post-race tech.
Justin Allgaier continues to assert his dominance in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2025. In Saturday’s Tennessee Lottery 250 at Nashville Superspeedway, Allgaier led a race-high 101 laps, won Stages 1 and 2, and turned the Xfinity Fastest Lap on his path to his third win of the season.
RESULTS: Tennessee Lottery 250 at Nashville
With the dominant performance, Allgaier was able to score maximum points as he held off his JR Motorsports teammate Connor Zilisch for the race win by 1.289 seconds.
“These guys right here, they deserve this more than anything. I screwed them over last week by making a pit call. Had equally as good of a car, but this Hellmann’s Chevrolet was absolutely on rails,” Allgaier said after the race.
After picking up the 28th win of his illustrious NASCAR Xfinity Series career, the defending series champion saw his regular-season point lead grow to 92 points over Austin Hill, who finished seventh on Saturday night.
The win is the second of Allgaier’s career at Nashville Superspeedway, which means the driver now has a guitar for each of his daughters.
Zilisch, a rookie contender who has driven like a cagey veteran this season, had a car capable of winning on Saturday night, but he was unable to defeat Allgaier on a Lap 141 restart. In the end, the result of that restart determined the winner of the race.
“Yeah, you know, I thought I might be able to get back by him, but clean air was everything,” Zilisch said after the race. “The first 20 laps of a run, if you had the clean air, you were going to prevail on the long run just keeping your stuff cooler and not having to run as hard.”
With the runner-up finish, Zilisch, the winner from Circuit of the Americas earlier this year, has finished second two weeks in a row. It’s frustrating to be so close, but not snag a win, but the 18-year-old says that’s a good problem to have.
“Being frustrated with second is a good thing,” Zilisch quipped.
Sam Mayer would end the race with a solid third-place finish ahead of his Haas Factory Team teammate Sheldon Creed, who finished fourth.
Behind the Haas duo was NASCAR Cup Series full-timer, and the winner of last Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600, Ross Chastain, in fifth.
Aric Almirola, Austin Hill, Jesse Love, Carson Kvapil, and Sammy Smith rounded out the top-10 finishers in the race.
Daniel Dye was the initial ninth-place finisher in the race, but he was disqualified after his No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet failed to meet minimum heights in post-race inspection. As a result, Dye was credited with a 38th-place finish.
Rookie of the Year contender Dean Thompson was having a solid race, as he ran inside the top-15 for the majority of the evening, but electrical issues late in the event foiled his great run. Thompson would finish four laps down in 34th.
William Sawalich, another rookie contender, started the night from the pole position and led the opening 37 laps of the race. However, he was mired in traffic after a restart near the end of Stage 1 didn’t shake out his way, and he would spin through the infield grass on Lap 135 in an incident with Sammy Smith.
Sawalich would retire from the race on Lap 164 with mechanical issues.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series will be off next weekend, but will return for The Chilango 150 in Mexico City on Saturday, June 14. That race will be televised on The CW, and the broadcast for the event will kick off at 4:30 PM ET.
