Justin Allgaier capped off the first Chase of the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series event, Fleetio 200, at Darlington Raceway on Saturday, September 5, by retaining the points lead despite fading amid a strong on-track performance.
The 2024 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion from Riverton, Illinois, was untouchable throughout the first stage period as he took command from teammate, Chaser and pole-sitter Carson Kvapil through the first two turns on the opening lap. The early pace was all about maintaining the clean air from Kvapil while also preserving the tires for Allgaier. Despite opting to pit with a majority of the field for fresh tires during the event’s first caution period that first flew just past the Lap 30 mark, Allgaier used his four fresh tires to go from fifth to first in a single lap during a six-lap shootout to conclude the first stage period. When the first stage period concluded on Lap 45, Allgaier, who led all but four of the opening 45 laps, notched his ninth stage victory of the 2026 season.
“The Arby’s Steak Nugget Chevrolet was really good early in the night,” Allgaier said on the CW Network. “I felt like when we were out front there, we were able to kind of save some tires and cruise. I felt like our pace was really good.”
After remaining on the track along with a majority of the field, Allgaier retained the lead from Kvapil during the second stage’s start on Lap 52. Following a caution for an on-track incident on Lap 60 and a Lap 64 restart, Allgaier was outdueled by Kvapil. For the stage’s remainder, which featured two additional cautions for on-track incidents, Allgaier lost ground on the lead and ultimately fell to sixth place when the stage concluded.
Restarting in fifth place for the third and final stage period, Allgaier, who pitted with the field during the second stage’s break period, ran as high as third place on the track, but could not mount closer to the lead. Then, as he was struggling with the rear and handling of his No. 7 entry, Allgaier scraped the outside wall entering the third turn when his left-front tire locked up. The incident occurred with 23 laps remaining as he was trying to maintain fourth place from Austin Hill. Amid the incident, Allgaier continued without drawing a caution, but he continued to fade on the leaderboard.
With 17 laps remaining, Allgaier dropped out of the top-five mark, and he fell out of the top-10 category with five laps remaining. When the checkered flag flew, he ended up in 17th place.
“The last part of the race there, even with making great adjustments on the pit box and fantastic pit stops all night, we just didn’t have the car that we needed at the end,” Allgaier said. “Obviously, I was hanging on. I was just trying to do everything I could. I had a really weird moment where the left front locked up getting into [Turn] three and knocked the fence down. Once that happened, you’re just kind of along for the ride, hanging on and trying to do as little damage as you can.”
Despite having his 10-race streak of finishing in the top-10 mark at Darlington snapped and not sweeping both Darlington victories (he won earlier in March), Allgaier maintains the points lead by seven points over Sheldon Creed. Overall, he led the event’s most laps (60 of 147). He now shifts his focus to the remaining eight Chase events, beginning next weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway, and aims to maintain his dominance throughout the season to contend for his second championship.
“We still got the points lead,” Allgaier said. “We got to another racetrack we’re really good at next week and go have some fun.”
Justin Allgaier’s 2026 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase for the championship resumes next Saturday, September 12, at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois, for the Nu Way 225. The event begins at 7:30 p.m. ET on the CW Network, MRN Radio, and SiriusXM.
