Justin Allgaier was not to be denied amid a slow pit service in the late stages as he rallied to win the GOVX 200 at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday, March 7.
The 2024 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion from Riverton, Illinois, led the final 11 of 200 scheduled laps. He started in 17th place and motored his way to the front. After accumulating a pair of fourth-place results during the event’s first two stage periods. However, Allgaier hit a roadblock due to slow pit service and lost numerous spots.
Despite restarting in 21st place to start the final stage period, Allgaier methodically carved his way back towards the front. Then, through two late-race restarts, including the last one with 15 laps remaining, Allgaier positioned himself into race-winning contention as he reeled in the top-four leaders. Once he assumed the runner-up spot with 13 laps remaining, Allgaier cycled past Jesse Love for the lead two laps later. From there, Allgaier fended off late challenges from Love and teammate Carson Kvapil to score his first victory of the 2026 campaign.
On-track qualifying determined the starting lineup on Friday, March 6. Taylor Gray secured his first pole of the season with a lap at 130.743 mph in 27.535 seconds. Gray was joined on the front row by Jesse Love, who posted the second-fastest single-lap qualifying run at 130.695 mph in 27.545 seconds.
Before the event, the following drivers, including Nathan Byrd, Ryan Ellis and Sam Mayer, dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments that were made to their respective entries.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Taylor Gray, who elected to start from the outside lane, launched ahead as the field dived through the frontstretch’s dogleg before navigating through the first two turns. Gray cycled back to the frontstretch and led the first lap while teammate Brandon Jones challenged Jesse Love for the runner-up spot.
Over the next four laps, Gray maintained his early advantage by within three-tenths of a second over Love and Jones. Teammate Brent Crews and William Byron followed suit in the top five, respectively. As Anthony Alfredo, Sammy Smith, Jeb Burton, Carson Kvapil and Justin Allgaier trailed in the top 10, respectively, Byron overtook Crews for fourth place. Meanwhile, Gray maintained a narrow lead over Love by Lap 10. Love, though, would overtake Gray to assume the lead for the first time during the following lap.
Through the Lap 20 mark, Love, who stretched his advantage to more than a second since assuming it on Lap 11, was leading Byron as the latter assumed the runner-up spot from Gray three laps earlier. Behind, fourth-place Sammy Smith trailed by more than two seconds, while fifth-place Jones and sixth-place Crews both trailed by more than three seconds. A few laps later, Justin Allgaier cracked the top five after he overtook both Crews and Jones. As Joe Gibbs Racing’s Gray, Jones and Crews slipped to fifth, seventh and ninth, respectively, Sammy Smith muscled up into second place over Byron while Love continued to lead by a second at the Lap 30 mark.
Then on Lap 41, Sammy Smith, who was reeling in on Love, capitalized on Love being mired in lapped traffic by getting beneath Love and leading for the first time through the frontstretch. Smith proceeded to lead the next four laps before he captured his first stage victory of the 2026 O’Reilly season on Lap 45. Love settled in second ahead of Smith’s three JR Motorsports teammates (Carson Kvapil, Allgaier and Byron) while Jeb Burton, Corey Day, Crews, Sheldon Creed and Jones were score in the top 10, respectively. By then, 29 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.
Under the event’s first stage break period, the lead lap field led by Smith pitted for a first round of pit service. Following the pit stops, Love exited pit road first and he was followed by Kvapil, Smith, Allgaier and Jones. During the pit stops, Corey Day overshot his pit box and had to re-adjust his car since he parked too close to his pit stall on the driver’s left side. The move dropped Day to 23rd place in the running order.
The second stage period started on Lap 56 as Love and Kvapil occupied the front row. At the start, the field dived through the frontstretch’s dogleg. Love motored ahead of Kvapil, Allgaier, Byron, Smith, Crews, Jones and the field through the first two turns. Love led the next lap and retained the lead through the Lap 60 mark while the field fanned out and jostled for on-track spots.
At the Lap 70 mark, Love stretched his advantage to more than two seconds over Kvapil. Third place, Byron trailed by more than three seconds. Meanwhile, Crews, Allgaier and Gray trailed by four seconds in the top-six mark. Smith, after losing the lead during the first stage break period on pit road and could not rally his way back to the front, was mired in seventh ahead of Jones, Sheldon Creed and Sam Mayer. Over the next 10 laps, Jeb Burton cracked the top-10 mark. Corey Day rallied his way back up into the top-15 mark and Austin Hill was mired within the top-20 mark. Meanwhile, Love added another second to his advantage as he led by three seconds over Kvapil on Lap 80.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 90, Love, who built his lead to more than four seconds, cruised to his second O’Reilly stage victory of the 2026 season. Kvapil settled in second ahead of teammates Byron and Allgaier while Crews, teammate Smith, Jeb Burton, Gray, Creed and Jeremy Clements were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, 29 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.
During the event’s second stage break period, the lead lap field led by Love returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Love retained the lead by exiting pit road first while Gray, Kvapil, Crews and Byron followed suit, respectively. During the pit stops, Allgaier, who pitted from the top five, plummeted to just outside the top-20 mark after enduring a slow pit service, where his pit crew had issues changing the right-rear wheel.
With 99 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Love and Gray occupied the front row. At the start, the field dived through the frontstretch’s dogleg for a third time. They fanned out to multiple lanes (as wide as five lanes) through the first two turns. Amid the on-track jostling and battles, Love retained the lead for the following lap. Gray retained second place while Kvapil, Creed, Byron and Mayer followed suit in the top six, respectively.
As the event reached its final 90-lap mark, Love stretched his lead to more than a second over Gray, Kvapil and Creed. Fifth-place Mayer trailed by two seconds. Behind, Byron, Smith, Crews, Clements and William Sawalich occupied the top-10 spots ahead of Jones, Jeb Burton, Corey Day, Austin Hill and Allgaier. Anthony Alfredo, Ryan Sieg, Dean Thompson, Parker Retzlaff and Rajah Caruth trailed in the top 20, respectively.
Fifteen laps later, Love’s advantage shrank to half a second over Kvapil as the latter reeled in the leader through every turn and straightaway. Meanwhile, third-place Creed trailed by more than three seconds. Mayer and Byron trailed in the top five ahead of Crews, Clements, Gray, Smith and Allgaier.
Then, with 66 laps remaining, the battle for the lead ignited. Kvapil drew himself beneath Love in a side-by-side battle for the lead through the first two turns. Despite Kvapil leading the next lap and having a faster car than Love, the latter refused to surrender from the outside lane through every turn and straightaway. As both navigated through a handful of lapped competitors, they continued to swap and duel fiercely over the next several laps before Kvapil cleared Love with 62 laps remaining. Kvapil proceeded to lead by two seconds with 55 laps remaining.
With approximately 50 laps remaining, a late cycle of green-flag pit stops occurred. Sheldon Creed was the first of the front-runners to pit along with Brennan Poole and William Sawalich. Jeremy Clements, Byron and Jones pitted with 48 laps remaining and Crews and Anthony Alfredo pitted during the next lap before the leader Kvapil, Mayer, Love, Allgaier and Gray pitted with 46 laps remaining. As the pit stops cycled through, Creed benefitted from pitting early by cycling to the lead. Creed proceeded to lead by a second over Kvapil with 40 laps remaining.
With 36 laps remaining, the caution flew when Anthony Alfredo made contact and spun Lavar Scott entering the backstretch. By then, Creed was leading by a second over a hard-charging Kvapil. Mayer, Love and Clements were scored in the top five. During this caution period, some drivers, including Gray and Sawalich, pitted. The rest, led by Creed, remained on the track.
The beginning of the next restart, with 29 laps remaining, featured Kvapil briefly motoring ahead of Creed and Mayer from the outside lane through the frontstretch’s dogleg. However, the latter two used the inside lane and the dogleg to overtake and slide in front of Kvapil through the first two turns. Teammates Creed and Mayer then battled dead even through the frontstretch for the next lap. They continued to battle fiercely during the following lap while Love, Kvapil and Clements tried to reel them in.
Seconds later, the caution returned with 27 laps remaining due to a multi-car wreck that erupted in Turn 2. The wreckage occurred when Jones, who was battling Ryan Sieg for eighth place, got hit by Smith. This caused Jones to slide through the first two turns and barely clip the rear end of Byron before he was hit on the left side by his teammates Gray and Sawalich, with Thompson and Blaine Perkins also piling into the carnage.
As the field restarted with 15 laps remaining, the field dived through the frontstretch’s dogleg. The front-runners that included Creed, Love, Mayer and Kvapil raced nearly four-wide deep through the first two turns. Amid the scramble, Creed motored ahead and he led the next lap over Love. Behind, Mayer and Kvapil went wide entering Turn 3, which allowed Allgaier to move into third place. Allgaier overtook Creed for second place with 13 to go and proceeded to catch Love. Creed, meanwhile, was being pressured by Mayer and Kvapil for third place.
Then with 11 laps remaining, Allgaier used the outside lane through the backstretch to overtake Love for the lead. As Allgaier led the next lap, Love kept Allgaier in front of his windshield. Kvapil, Creed and Mayer all trailed by a second. As Love tried to reel in on Allgaier’s rear bumper with the laps dwindling, Kvapil also started to reel in on the two leaders. Kvapil then drew himself within sight of Love’s rear bumper while Allgaier continued to lead by three-tenths of a second with five laps remaining.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Allgaier remained in the lead by four-tenths of a second over Love and by a second over teammate Kvapil. Despite Love’s late attempts to use the dogleg and the turns to reel in on Allgaier, he could not make up the deficit. Allgaier smoothly navigated around Phoenix for a final time, cycling back to the frontstretch to claim the checkered flag and the victory by four-tenths of a second over Love.
With the victory, Allgaier achieved his 29th career win in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series division, which moves him into a tie with Matt Kenseth on the series’ all-time wins list. By winning at least a single O’Reilly race for a 10th consecutive season, Allgaier also notched his third victory at Phoenix and his first series’ win since Nashville Superspeedway in May 2025.
Allgaier’s Phoenix victory marked the second in a row in recent weeks for JR Motorsports and kept Chevrolet four-for-four to start the 2026 O’Reilly season. He also achieved his first victory with his new crew chief Andrew Overstreet
“[I’m] Just so proud of this team,” Allgaier said in Victory Lane on the CW Network. “Andrew Overstreet has done a great job taking over [as a crew chief]. He’s been telling me all week this is our house and we’re going to go take it. It wasn’t for lack of adversity. It seems like those are the ones that are great for us. Really proud of this team, everybody on this No. 7 team. We had an issue on that first pit stop and these boys rebounded, did a great job…It never gets old winning.”
Jesse Love, who led a race-high 114 laps, settled in second place. He was just four-tenths of a second shy of winning at Phoenix for a second consecutive time. Carson Kvapil led 22 laps and was within striking distance of achieving his first O’Reilly victory. However, he had to settle for third place for his 11th top-five career result.
Haas Factory Team’s Sheldon Creed and Sam Mayer, led a combined 31 laps and finished fourth and fifth, respectively. Sammy Smith, Jeb Burton, Rajah Caruth, Corey Day and Anthony Alfredo completed the top-10 results in the final running order.
Notably, William Byron, Taylor Gray and Brent Crews finished 13th, 15th and 18th, respectively, after pitting before the final restart. Brandon Jones ended up in 16th place. In addition, Nick Sanchez, who had early power issues, finished the event seven laps down in 35th place.
There were 20 lead changes for nine different leaders. The event featured four cautions for 37 laps. In addition, 19 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the race, Justin Allgaier leads the standings by three points over Jesse Love. He is five points ahead of Austin Hill, 38 over teammate Carson Kvapil and 41 over Sheldon Creed.
Results:
- Justin Allgaier, 11 laps led
- Jesse Love, 114 laps led, Stage 2 winner
- Carson Kvapil, 22 laps led
- Sheldon Creed, 20 laps led
- Sam Mayer, 11 laps led
- Sammy Smith, 10 laps led, Stage 1 winner
- Jeb Burton, one lap led
- Rajah Caruth, one lap led
- Corey Day
- Anthony Alfredo
- Jeremy Clements
- Austin Hill
- William Byron
- Parker Retzlaff
- Taylor Gray, 10 laps led
- Brandon Jones
- Ryan Sieg
- Brent Crews
- Joey Gase
- Daniel Dye, one lap down
- Chandler Smith, one lap down
- Austin Green, one lap down
- Harrison Burton, one lap down
- Kyle Sieg, one lap down
- Dean Thompson, one lap down
- Patrick Staropoli, one lap down
- Brennan Poole, one lap down
- Blaine Perkins, two laps down
- Garrett Smithley, two laps down
- Josh Bilicki, three laps down
- Nathan Byrd, three laps down
- Mason Maggio, four laps down
- Lavar Scott, five laps down
- Austin J. Hill, five laps down
- Nick Sanchez, seven laps down
- Dawson Cram, eight laps down
- William Sawalich – OUT, Accident
- Ryan Ellis – OUT, Suspension
Next on the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule is The LiUNA! at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, March 14, and air at 5:30 p.m. ET on the CW Network, PRN Radio and SiriusXM.
