Justin Allgaier, driving his No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, brought home his first Xfinity Series win this season and his first ever at Dover International Speedway Saturday afternoon.
Elliott Sadler made the last lap exciting by trying to get a run on Allgaier but ended up getting loose and falling back enough to give Allgaier the win in the OneMain Financial 200. Allgaier made it look easy by dominating the competition and leading 104 of 200 laps during the race. He topped it off by winning the final Dash 4 Cash prize of $100,000. It was a great way to finish the week off for Allgaier’s car owner, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who just had his first baby (a girl) with wife, Amy.
Allgaier commented on that last lap stating, “Well, unfortunately, I thought the 15 was going to go to the bottom and he went to the top, I got on my brakes and almost spun myself out.” He added, “ That race, I couldn’t ask for anything better, these guys and everyone at JR Motorsports have done a fantastic job. I think we have a great shot at going for the championship.”
Stage 1 was fairly uneventful only having two cautions, one for Matt Tifft spinning and the second when Josh Bilicki tagged the wall. Sadler was the dominant car in this stage of the race, but Allgaier and Brandon Jones were right up there fighting for the lead. Sadler would win Stage 1 followed by Allgaier, Brandon Jones, Daniel Hemric, and Ryan Truex rounding out the top five.
Stage 2 would see Tyler Reddick come to the front and take the lead, but 25 laps into the stage Allgaier would take the lead back and finish out the stage taking the win. The top five in Stage 2 were Allgaier, Reddick, Austin Cindric, Christopher Bell, and Tifft.
The final stage is where it really started to heat up. The drivers started going three wide trying to get to the front for the win, and that’s when the cautions started coming out. There were three cautions in this stage involving drivers such as John Hunter Nemechek, Cindric, Alex Labbe, Dylan Lupton, and Ty Majeski.
Allgaier would dominate the final stage leading most of the laps. Sadler did his best to get to Allgaier to make a pass for the lead and the two of them were side by side on the last lap, when they got together. Sadler got loose and backed off giving Allgaier the win.
A dejected Sadler commented, “ I gave it my best, I’m just proud of everyone on my team. I really want to give these guys a win, I’m tired of finishing in the top five but don’t have any checkered flags to show for it. I did the best I could but it just wasn’.t good enough today.”
Hemric ran in the top 10 most of the race and came home in third. A frustrated Hemric commented, “My Lord, we’re doing everything we can to put ourselves in a good position. I just want to figure out what it takes to close one of these things out, but I hate finishing third.”
Bell and Reddick round out the top five. Johnny Sauter, Noah Gragson, Tifft, Cindric, and Jones finished sixth through 10th, respectively.
Sadler leads the Xfinity Series standings with 401 points. Allgaier is in second with 368 points followed by Reddick in third with 363 points, Bell is in fourth with 349 points and Hemric rounds out the top five with 343 points.
The Xfinity series heads next to Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 26.
