After 12 previous attempts, Justin Allgaier made his 13th attempt of winning at Michigan International Speedway pay off to perfection as he utilized pit strategy to withstand an overtime shootout and win the rain-delayed Cabo Wabo 250 on Saturday, August 17.
The 38-year-old Allgaier from Riverton, Illinois, led three times for a race-high 37 of 128 over-scheduled laps in an event where he qualified in 16th place, but managed to methodically carve his way to the front as he nearly won the first stage period on Lap 30 before settling in fourth place amid the draft. Then through a flurry of pit strategies, on-track chaos and a fight against time with Mother Nature, Allgaier, who pitted several laps later than most of his front-runners including teammate Carson Kvapil, Sheldon Creed and John Hunter Nemechek cycled his way into the lead for the third and final time with 16 laps remaining.
Despite having his progress to the victory halted as the caution flag flew with 10 laps remaining due to a late incident involving Kyle Weatherman and having to wait on pit road for more than 23 minutes due to a second red flag period for inclement weather, Allgaier managed to muscle ahead of teammate Sammy Smith at the start of an overtime shootout. He then proceeded to drive away from Creed, Nemechek and the field before claiming the checkered flag and the victory under caution amid a harrowing multi-car wreck on the final lap that resulted in Kyle Sieg going airborne, flipping and sliding on his roof through the backstretch’s infield.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, August 16, Sheldon Creed notched his second Xfinity pole position of 2024 and the third of his career with a pole-winning lap at 171.645 mph in 41.947 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Riley Herbst, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 171.233 mph in 42.048 seconds.
Prior to the event, Ryan Ellis and Joey Gase dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Sheldon Creed and Riley Herbst dueled for the lead in front of Taylor Gray, Cole Custer and the rest of the field through the first two turns. Then as the field fanned out through the backstretch amid the draft, this being due to the field running superspeedway restricted engines with intermediate aerodynamics, Gray attempted to execute a three-wide pass on Creed and Herbst for the lead, but Creed managed to muscle his No. 18 Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Toyota Supra ahead from the outside lane through Turns 3 and 4 as he just managed to lead the first lap.
Over the next four laps, Creed retained a narrow advantage over Herbst as Custer, Brandon Jones and Ryan Sieg followed suit in the top five. Behind, Carson Kvapil occupied sixth place in front of Noah Gragson, Sammy Smith and Justin Allgaier while Gray, who dropped back as far as 11th in the opening laps due to losing the draft from the leaders, was fending off teammate Chandler Smith for 10th place. With the majority of the front-runners running in a single file line towards the outside wall, Creed continued to lead by a tenth of a second over Herbst.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Creed stabilized his advantage to a tenth of a second over Herbst followed by Custer, Jones and Ryan Sieg as Kvapil, Sammy Smith, Gray, Noah Gragson and Chandler Smith were racing in the top 10. Behind, Justin Allgaier occupied 11th place ahead of John Hunter Nemechek, rookie Jesse Love, Parker Kligerman and Austin Hill while AJ Allmendinger, Daniel Dye, Anthony Alfredo, Jeb Burton and Parker Retzlaff occupied the top 20 ahead of Sam Mayer, Kyle Weatherman, Lawless Alan, rookie Shane van Gisbergen and Kyle Sieg.
Three laps later, the event’s first caution period flew when Gray, who was battling Sammy Smith for seventh place, got loose underneath Smith and slid his No. 19 Operations 300 Toyota Supra sideways towards the apron between Turns 1 and 2 before he steered and looped his car in a 360 spin below the track as he then proceeded without sustaining any significant damage.
During the event’s first caution period and with early pit strategy amid weather concerns commencing, some led by Carson Kvapil and including Jesse Love, Austin Hill, AJ Allmendinger, Sam Mayer, Daniel Dye, Noah Gragson, Shane van Gisbergen, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Jeremy Clements, Jeb Burton and Gray pitted while the rest led by Creed and including top-five contenders Herbst, Custer, Jones and Ryan Sieg remained on the track.
When the race restarted under green on Lap 18, Creed muscled ahead from the outside lane as he retained the lead through the first two turns while the rest of the field behind fanned out to multiple lanes. In the midst of the three-wide battle, Sammy Smith fell off the pace due to sustaining a flat right-rear tire to his No. 8 Allstate Peterbilt Group Chevrolet Camaro through the first two turns and the backstretch. With the race remaining under green flag conditions as Smith limped his car to pit road without damaging it and eventually lost a lap due to pitting, Creed retained the lead by a tenth of a second over Herbst by the Lap 20 mark as Jones, Chandler Smith and Allgaier followed suit in the top five.
Then on Lap 23, the caution flew when the leader Creed got aero loose off the front nose of Herbst’s No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang, slipped sideways and spun towards the outside wall in Turn 4, where he then proceeded to straighten his car and drive through pit road. With Creed spinning and plummeting below the leaderboard, Herbst inherited the lead as Jones, Chandler Smith, Allgaier, Parker Kligerman and Ryan Sieg followed suit in the top six.
During the caution period, select names including Custer, Nemechek, Parker Retzlaff, Sam Mayer, Brennan Poole, Leland Honeyman, Jeremy Clements, Blaine Perkins, Kyle Weatherman and Creed pitted while the rest led by Herbst remained on the track.
With the race restarting under green with three laps remaining in the first stage period, Herbst launched ahead from the outside lane to retain the lead before Allgaier muscled ahead from the inside lane amid the draft as he led for the first time. With Allgaier leading, Ryan Sieg would follow suit in second while Herbst was battling Chandler Smith, Jones and Kyle Sieg to retain third place as the field behind battled within close quarters and fanned out through all corners and straightaways.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 30, Ryan Sieg, who received a draft from Chandler Smith and Brandon Jones to overtake Allgaier through the backstretch on Lap 29, proceeded to claim his second Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Jones followed suit in second and Chandler Smith edged Allgaier for third place while Lawless Alan, Austin Hill, Herbst, Kyle Sieg, Allmendinger and Kligerman were scored in the top 10.
Immediately after the first stage period concluded, rain started to hit the track. Soon after, the field, led by Ryan Sieg, was directed to pit road, halted and placed in a red flag period due to the damp conditions, beginning on Lap 33.
More than nine minutes later, the red flag lifted as the track was deemed dry from the wet weather and the field led by Ryan Sieg returned to the track under a cautious pace. During the caution period, some led by Chandler Smith and including Lawless Alan, Kyle Sieg, Kligerman and Matt DiBenedetto pitted while the rest led by Ryan Sieg remained on the track.
The second stage period started on Lap 36 as Ryan Sieg and Allgaier occupied the front row. At the start, Sieg and Allgaier dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. Then as the field fanned out, Austin Hill, who was trying to execute a three-wide move on Allgaier and Sieg in his bid for the lead, turned across the right-front fender of Kvapil and spun his No. 21 United Rentals Chevrolet Camaro below the track and through the infield grass before he came back up across the track and was dodged by the field just past the backstretch and in Turn 3. In the process, Allgaier managed to move into the lead over Sieg as Herbst, Allmendinger and Kvapil were scored in the top five.
The start of the next restart period on Lap 41 featured Allgaier and Allmendinger, the latter of which moved up to start on the front row during the choose lane option the lap prior, dueling for the lead entering the first two turns as the field fanned out. With Allgaier receiving a shove from Ryan Sieg from the outside lane, he continued to battle Allmendinger before he muscled ahead and retained the lead for the following lap Behind, Allmendinger slipped to third as Sieg moved back into second while Kvapil would overtake Herbst for fourth place.
Herbst would then be overtaken by Love, Nemechek and Jones for the following lap as he slipped out of the top five as a flurry of battles ensued behind him. With a majority of the front-runners running in a single-file line amid the draft towards the outside wall, Allgaier continued to lead by a tenth of a second ahead of Ryan Sieg, Kvapil, Love and Nemechek, respectively, as Herbst, Jones and Gray followed suit by the Lap 45 mark.
Then on Lap 47, the caution returned when Herbst, who was battling Sieg for fourth place, veered right and got turned off the left-front fender of Sieg as Herbst went head-on into the outside wall in Turn 3 while Jones slid his No. 9 Menards Chevrolet Camaro as he was trying to dodge Herbst’s carnage. With Herbst left with a wrecked No. 98 Monster Energy Ford, Jones, who was dodged by most of the field through Turns 3 and 4, was then hit on the driver’s side by teammate Sam Mayer, which sent Jones’ car back up the track as he received a shunt in the rear by Cole Custer’s No. 00 Autodesk Ford Mustang. Amid the carnage, Herbst, Jones and Mayer were knocked out of contention while Custer continued with a patched-up nose.
During the caution period, the leader Allgaier along with Kvapil, Ryan Sieg and Gragson pitted while the rest led by new leader John Hunter Nemechek remained on the track.
When the race restarted under green on Lap 54, the field jostled for spots amid two tight-laned packs as Nemechek and Allmendinger dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. For the following lap, Nemechek would prevail from the outside lane and retain the lead. Behind, Jesse Love would retain second over Allmendinger while Gray, Sammy Smith, Chandler Smith and Gray battled for fourth place. With more battles ensuing around the track just past the Lap 55 mark, Nemechek remained as the leader ahead of Love and Allmendinger.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 60, Nemechek captured his second Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season after he fended off Love by three-tenths of a second. Love settled in second ahead of Allmendinger, Gray and Sammy Smith while Chandler Smith, Allgaier, Creed, Jeb Burton and Anthony Alfredo were scored in the top 10 amid a flurry of on-track battles.
During the stage break, nearly the entire field led by Nemechek pitted for service while a select few led by Kvapil and including Clements and Josh Williams remained on the track. With mixed strategies ensuing, Nemechek exited pit road first with only two fresh tires ahead of Gragson and Allgaier while Chandler Smith, Austin Hill and Parker Retzlaff followed suit.
With 61 laps remaining and the sun brightly overshadowing the Michigan circuit, the final stage commenced as Kvapil and Nemechek occupied the front row. At the start, Nemechek received a draft from Allgaier that moved Nemechek’s No. 20 Pye Barker Toyota Supra into the lead through the first two turns. With the field fanning out through the backstretch and back to the frontstretch, Nemechek retained the lead ahead of Allgaier as Kvapil, Chandler Smith and Sammy Smith were in the top five.
A lap later, however, the caution returned for a multi-car wreck that started when Lawless Alan got loose and clipped both Jeb Burton and Daniel Dye. The contact sent the former spinning below the track’s infield grass while the latter backed his No. 10 Race to Stop Suicide Chevrolet Camaro into the outside wall and was hit by Alan, all of which occurred in Turn 2 and which knocked both Dye and Alan out of contention. During the recent caution period, some including runner-up Allgaier, Clements, Williams, Allmendinger, Ryan Sieg and van Gisbergen pitted while the rest led by Nemechek remained on the track.
The start of the next restart period with 54 laps remaining featured another duel for the lead, this time between Nemechek and Sammy Smith, while the rest of the field behind began to fan out through the first two turns. With the field still fanned out through the frontstretch and jostling for late positions, Nemechek maintained the lead and he would proceed to lead with 50 laps remaining by a tenth of a second over Kvapil while Sammy Smith, Gragson and Chandler Smith followed suit in the top five. By then, van Gisbergen was penalized for a restart violation while Custer lost multiple laps due to pitting under green.
With 40 laps remaining, Nemechek continued to lead by a tenth of a second over Kvapil while third-place Sammy Smith trailed by half a second. Meanwhile, fourth-place Gragson trailed the lead by a second as he was trying to fend off Chandler Smith for the spot while Creed, Gray, Hill, Love and Allgaier were scored in the top 10 ahead of Kligerman, Allmendinger, Alfredo, Kyle Sieg, Matt DiBenedetto and Ryan Sieg.
Shortly after, Kvapil overtook Nemechek through the backstretch to lead the proceeding lap with 39 laps remaining. Kvapil’s overtake on Nemechek allowed Sammy Smith, Gragson, Chandler Smith, Creed and Gray to all close in on runner-up Nemechek amid the draft. In the process, Chandler Smith overtook both Gragson and Sammy Smith for third place. In addition, Creed would move back up into the top five and Gragson slipped to sixth. With Allgaier overtaking Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill and Love for eighth place, Kvapil extended his advantage to more than a second over Nemechek with less than 35 laps remaining.
Down to the final 25 laps of the event, Kvapil continued to stretch his advantage as he was leading by more than two seconds over Nemechek as Creed trailed Nemechek by less than two-tenths of a second. With JR Motorsports’ Allgaier and Sammy Smith mired in the top five, Chandler Smith followed suit in sixth along with Gragson and Gray, all of whom trailed the lead by more than four seconds, while Hill and Love rounded out the top 10.
Five laps later, Kvapil stabilized his advantage to less than two seconds over Nemechek as teammate Creed, Allgaier and Sammy Smith battled for third place. With the top-five competitors separated by two seconds, sixth-place Chandler Smith trailed by five seconds along with Gray, Gragson and Hill while Love and 11th-place Allmendinger trailed by eight seconds.
Another three laps later and with a cloud overcast hovering around Turns 3 and 4, Kvapil, who tried extending his dry fuel tank as far as possible, surrendered the lead to pit his No. 88 Clarience Technologies Chevrolet Camaro for fuel. Meanwhile, Allgaier, who powered past Creed and Nemechek over the last few laps, cycled his No. 7 Hellmann’s/Meijer Chevrolet Camaro into the lead. With Love also pitting his No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Camaro under green, Nemechek and Creed moved up to second and third behind Allgaier while Sammy Smith and Gragson were scored in the top five. Allgaier would proceed to lead by half a second over Nemechek as Creed followed closely behind with 15 laps remaining.
Then with 10 laps remaining, the caution flew due to Kyle Weatherman blowing a right-front tire and hitting the Turn 2 outside wall hard. At the time of caution, Allgaier was leading by four-tenths of a second over Creed as Sammy Smith, Nemechek, Gray and Gragson were running in the top six. During the caution period, select names including Chandler Smith, Ryan Sieg, Kligerman, Retzlaff and Leland Honeyman pitted while the rest led by Allgaier remained on the track.
Amid the caution period as the laps dwindled, a drizzle started to fall and soon began to increase into a steady rain. With the light rain continuing to fall, however, the field led by Allgaier was directed to pit road and placed in a second red flag period for more than 23 minutes and with two laps remaining of the event’s scheduled distance.
When the red flag was lifted, the field led by Allgaier returned to track under a cautious pace as the event was sent into overtime.
The start of the first overtime attempt featured Sammy Smith, who opted to start alongside teammate Allgaier on the front row and attempted to slide up in front of Allgaier through the first two turns. Allgaier, however, managed to duel and overtake Smith through the backstretch as the field fanned out to multiple lanes. With Smith losing ground as he got shuffled out of the draft while being pinned in the middle lane and being overtaken by a bevy of competitors, Creed muscled his way up to second followed by Nemechek and Gragson as Alfredo charged his way into the top five, all of which occurred through Turns 3 and 4.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Allgaier remained as the leader by six-tenths of a second over Creed and a flurry of competitors jostling for positions. Then as Allgaier kept his No. 7 Meijer/Hellmann’s Chevrolet out in front through the first two turns and the backstretch, the event concluded under caution when Caesar Bacarella made contact and turned Kvapil into the backstretch’s outside wall. This ignited a chain reaction wreck as Chandler Smith and Kyle Sieg were sent spinning towards the inside wall, with Sieg then getting airborne and rolling over onto his roof, where his No. 28 Bailey Excavating Ford Mustang slid through the infield backstretch and into the grass before the car rolled back over and came to rest on all four wheels.
With the event concluding under caution, Allgaier was able to coast his car back to the frontstretch and claim the checkered flag for his second Xfinity race victory of the 2024 season.
With the victory, Allgaier notched his 25th career win in the Xfinity Series, which moved him into sole possession on 10th place on the all-time wins list after he was initially tied with his team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tommy Houston for the mark. The Michigan victory was also the Illinois veteran’s first since winning at Darlington Raceway in May as he became the fifth multi-race winner of this year’s Xfinity Series season. Allgaier’s Xfinity victory was also the fourth for JR Motorsports and the 12th for the Chevrolet nameplate through 21 scheduled events in 2024.
“[I] Just cannot say thank you enough to this team, all these [No. 7] guys standing right here,” Allgaier said on USA Network. “The effort that’s been put in is incredible. We did not show up to Indianapolis two, three weeks ago like we wanted to and these guys have worked tirelessly through this break. It’s truly special and to win here at Michigan, manufacturer’s backyard, these fans. I can hear them all chanting whenever we were sitting in the car under the red flag. I hope whoever got turned over over here’s OK and we’ll go on and celebrate this one for a while.”
Amid his flip and slide on his roof on the final lap, Kyle Sieg, who ended up in 28th place, the first competitor scored a lap down, emerged uninjured.
With Allgaier winning, Sheldon Creed, the pole winner who led 23 laps and was announced to be driving for Haas Factory Team in 2025 earlier in the day, ended up in second place, where he has now accumulated the most runner-up results in the Xfinity Series as a winless competitor for the 11th time.
This [runner-up finish] frustrates me the most just because I was saving fuel there behind [Nemechek], we were, maybe, three to four laps short there, so I was just trying to buy some time,” Creed said. “I knew [Allgaier] wasn’t going to have to [save fuel] as much. [I] Kind of let him go and yeah, a caution at the wrong time that hurt us. Once I went and got around [Nemechek] and was running [Allgaier] down, I felt like I had a car just as fast as Xfinity Internet and could’ve passed him. That one stings a little bit, but I’m super proud of everyone. Starting today at 13 races left, I really think we’re turning into a team that can make a really good fight for this championship.
Teammate John Hunter Nemechek had enough fuel, like teammate Creed, to settle in third place after he led 31 laps while Anthony Alfredo and Sammy Smith finished in the top five. The rally for Smith to achieve the top-five result ended up being crucial as he launched himself back into the top-12 cutline to make the 2024 Xfinity Series Playoffs and holds sole possession of the final transfer spot by a single point over 13th-place finisher Ryan Sieg with five regular-season events remaining on the schedule.
Noah Gragson, Matt DiBenedetto, Taylor Gray, Caesar Bacarella and AJ Allmendinger completed the top 10 in the final running order.
There were 10 lead changes for seven different leaders. The race featured nine cautions for 39 laps. In addition, 27 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the 21st event of the 2024 Xfinity Series season, Cole Custer continues to lead the regular-season standings by 12 points over Justin Allgaier, 70 over Austin Hill and 84 over Chandler Smith.
Results.
1. Justin Allgaier, 37 laps led
2. Sheldon Creed, 23 laps led
3. John Hunter Nemechek, 31 laps led, Stage 2 winner
4. Anthony Alfredo
5. Sammy Smith
6. Noah Gragson
7. Matt DiBenedetto
8. Taylor Gray
9. Caesar Bacarella
10. AJ Allmendinger
11. Parker Kligerman
12. Leland Honeyman
13. Ryan Sieg, seven laps led, Stage 1 winner
14. Ryan Ellis
15. Jeremy Clements
16. Jeb Burton
17. Shane van Gisbergen
18. Austin Hill
19. Josh Williams
20. Parker Retzlaff
21. Jeffrey Earnhardt
22. Patrick Emerling
23. Blaine Perkins
24. Josh Bilicki
25. Logan Bearden
26. Carson Kvapil, 25 laps led
27. Chandler Smith
28. Kyle Sieg, one lap down
29. Jesse Love, one lap down, one lap led
30. Cole Custer – OUT, Suspension
31. Joey Gase – OUT, Fuel Pump
32. Kyle Weatherman – OUT, Accident
33. Brennan Poole – OUT, Oil Pump
34. Daniel Dye – OUT, Accident
35. Lawless Alan – OUT, Accident
36. Brandon Jones – OUT, Accident
37. Sam Mayer – OUT, Accident
38. Riley Herbst – OUT, Accident, four laps led
Next on the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is Daytona International Speedway for the Wawa 250. The event is scheduled to occur next Friday, August 23, and air at 7:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.
