It was almost a picture-perfect day for Justin Allgaier and his No. 7 JR Motorsports team at Dover International Speedway. Allgaier qualified eighth for the NASCAR Xfinity Series race and worked his way up early taking the lead on Lap 27.
His No. 7 Northeastern Supply Chevy was strong enough to win both the stages. However, pit strategy and late-race cautions cost him late in the going. In the end, Allgaier finished runner up to race winner Cole Custer.
“Disappointing,” Allgaier told MRN Radio. “I feel like we give Cole (Custer) a gift there. Our Northeastern Supply Camaro was really strong today. I felt like we made decent changes throughout the course of the race. We got track position. Obviously points are what they are and we maximized the points in the stages and that’s all we really could do. But at the end there, I feel like we made the right pit strategy. Those guys went five laps further than what I thought we could on fuel.”
“Just disappointing to come out first for the cars that had pitted and to be able to show for it. It’s disappointing, but to get Northeastern Supply in their first race under the hood a good finish and moving on to the next round is a big deal.”
Austin Cindric and his No. 22 Team Penske team had a quiet day for the most part. He raced with Allgaier for parts of the race before racing on his own. Cindric finished third and second in both stages, before coming home third.
“You feel like when you run all three races and you run 12th, we were the best car,” Cindric described to MRN Radio. “Worst finish is third. Really proud of our MoneyLion team. I don’t think we had a car capable of winning today. In clean air, we could hold our own but once we got behind, we were a third-place car and that’s where we finished. I’m proud of that and proud of that effort. Definitely proud of the recovery we made from practice. Trying to keep bringing this momentum into the next round.”
