LAS VEGAS, Nev: Justin Allgaier had an eventful Alsco Uniforms 302 at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway but at the end of the race, his bid to earn his first career Xfinity Series championship got off to a solid start with a runner-up performance.
Allgaier had an incredibly fast No. 7 Brandt Chevrolet Camaro throughout the 201-lap race, but the driver and his team were plagued with compliments from other drivers, including teammate Noah Gragson that his automobile was leaking fluid.
Allgaier’s team took an opportunity to survey the situation at the competition caution and while the team found nothing concerning, their decision to inspect the claims nearly backfired.
On the restart, a 12-car accident erupted in Turn 1 with Allgaier narrowly escaping the carnage.
Finishing Stage 1 outside the top-10 and losing critical Playoff points, crew chief Jason Burdett adjusted the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro which woke up the race car and allowed the 16-time Xfinity Series winner to charge through the field in Stage 2 and take the stage win.
In Stage 3, Allgaier continued his dominating ways, but as the sun set over the 1.5-mile speedway, the handling worsen slightly allowing JR Motorsports teammate Josh Berry to close the gap and take the lead at Lap 160.
With Berry stretching the lead in the later stages of the race, Allgaier and his No. 7 team opted to make their final pit stop before Berry which allowed them to erase their four second deficit and retake the lead at Lap 183, but Berry’s car continued to showcase the pace from earlier and the driver of the No. 1 Pilot Travel Centers Chevrolet reclaimed the race lead at Lap 185.
16 laps later and no caution to bunch up the field and give Allgaier one last opportunity to win the Xfinity Series Playoff opener, he was left finishing 4.398 seconds behind Berry and claim his fourth runner-up finish of the 2021 season.
Towards the end of the race, Allgaier informed his team that he was giving everything he had behind the wheel to catch Berry.
After the race, he explained how actually tough it was.
“It was super tough,” said Allgaier. “First off, hats off to Josh and the No. 1 team, they obviously had a lot of adversity this year, so for them to come home with a victory was really cool. JRM 1-2-3. I told someone before the race I thought we could be 1-2-3-4, I was close, but Sam (Mayer) had that issue on the restart.
“I’m just proud of our guys. Everybody on this No. 7 team. Our Brandt Chevrolet was really good. I was disappointed in the middle of the race there, we felt like we were really good and as the sun fully went down we just needed a little bit of right rear grip and I feel like there’s where the No. 1 (Berry) had us beat.
“We’ll rebound. We’ll go next week to Talladega, should have gotten some decent points tonight.”
Allgaier said while it was disappointing to not be able to check the box and advance to the next round with Talladega and the Charlotte ROVAL waiting ahead, but he understood the importance of the win for the No. 1 team, especially since it’s a Playoff eligible team.
“The owner points for them (No. 1), there obviously locking their way into the next round. That is a big deal for them,” added Allgaier. “It is tough. That’s probably part of the disappointment in tonight is not being able to check the box going into the ROVAL and Talladega. Those are two wild cards.
“It would have been nice to do it tonight, but we got two more shots at it. We bring great race cars each and every week. The Hendrick engine department did a fantastic job getting our stuff to where we needed to be at.
“The last few races we have really stepped up the program and just proud of our team.”
Heading to Talladega, Allgaier is seeded third overall in the Playoff standings and 38 points ahead of the eighth-place cutoff spot.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
