Justin Allgaier made the outside lane work on the final restart of the race, pulling away from Brandon Jones to win Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway.
This is Allgaier’s second win of the season, 30th of his career, and the fourth straight for JR Motorsports.
“All of these guys right here,” said Allgaier. “We have not been the best on pit road all year, but these guys have never quit. They have gone to work and never given up, and they were on top of it all day on pit road. Huge thank you to these guys, and Andrew Overstreet (crew chief), and this entire No. #7 team.
He continued, saying, “Kyle was obviously amazing; he had us covered. Andrew told me on that last restart to ‘never give up, if we can get the lead, we got clean air and we’re going to win this thing,’ and we did.” “Nobody will ever know, the later you get into your career, how much these victories mean. “And to come at Darlington, a place I’ve loved for so long, is really special.”
Kyle Larson started on the pole, dominated the two stages, and led 107 of the 147 laps before a slow pit stop on the final stop, leaving Larson restarting in fifth place, causing his dominating day to end without the win.
“It became tougher to pass,” said Larson. “At the end, the pace picked up, and you’re stuck. Unfortunate, but that’s the way racing is sometimes. That sucks, but I had a lot of fun today.”
Brandon Jones finished second.
“The 7 (Allgaier) just kept getting just barely better launches than I could on that second lane,” Jones said, “and he had just a little more juice in the tank on the short run today. We were matching, if not slightly better, on the long run, but just ran out of laps there at the end, but this is what we needed with the 20 group.
“That’s the 20’s team mentality – getting better in the races, and staying in contention to have a shot. That is all I can ask for. I think this is how you are going to see our season change, and this is how you begin to start winning races again – is running up front like we did. To beat two of the very best here, Justin (Allgaier) is one of the best here – we are going against some really heavy hitters. I’m proud of that effort. Really big points day as well to tack on it.” Jones said.
Christopher Bell finished third, Larson fourth, and Carson Kvapil rounded out the top-5 finishers.
“Yeah, we definitely lost the handle of it in stage two and fell back,” Bell said. “We had a couple of good pit stops and good adjustments that got us back up to the front. It just felt like we were on the wrong side of the track. Really loose in the daylight, and then really tight when it got shaded up. I don’t know. It was a lot of fun out there. I’m really happy to Sport Clips Supra home third. I know that’s not what they are looking for, but I got a good finish out of it.”
After Darlington, Justin Allgaier holds the series points lead over Jesse Love by 52 points, 84 points over Carson Kvapil, 88 over Sheldon Creed, and 96 over Austin Hill.
The race featured three caution flags for 25 laps, and six lead changes among four drivers.
Next, the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series heads to Martinsville Speedway for the NFPA 250 on Saturday, March 28, at 3:30 pm ET on the CW Network.
NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series
Race Results for the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 – Saturday, March 21, 2026
Darlington Raceway – Darlington, SC – 1.366 – Mile Paved
Total Race Length – 147 Laps – 200.802 Miles
| Fin | St | No | Driver | S1 | S2 | S3 | Points | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 7 | Justin Allgaier | 5 | 4 | 0 | 69 | Running |
| 2 | 8 | 20 | Brandon Jones | 4 | 3 | 0 | 50 | Running |
| 3 | 2 | 19 | Christopher Bell(i) | 2 | 9 | 0 | 0 | Running |
| 4 | 1 | 88 | Kyle Larson(i) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Running |
| 5 | 3 | 1 | Carson Kvapil | 3 | 2 | 0 | 49 | Running |
| 6 | 12 | 17 | Corey Day | 0 | 8 | 0 | 34 | Running |
| 7 | 13 | 0 | Sheldon Creed | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30 | Running |
| 8 | 5 | 99 | Parker Retzlaff | 6 | 5 | 0 | 40 | Running |
| 9 | 18 | 8 | Sammy Smith | 0 | 0 | 0 | 28 | Running |
| 10 | 6 | 41 | Sam Mayer | 0 | 0 | 0 | 27 | Running |
| 11 | 10 | 2 | Jesse Love | 7 | 0 | 0 | 30 | Running |
| 12 | 21 | 96 | Anthony Alfredo | 9 | 7 | 0 | 31 | Running |
| 13 | 22 | 39 | Ryan Sieg | 0 | 0 | 0 | 24 | Running |
| 14 | 9 | 9 | Ross Chastain(i) | 10 | 6 | 0 | 0 | Running |
| 15 | 15 | 54 | Taylor Gray | 0 | 0 | 0 | 22 | Running |
| 16 | 27 | 25 | Nick Sanchez | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21 | Running |
| 17 | 7 | 18 | William Sawalich | 8 | 10 | 0 | 24 | Running |
| 18 | 23 | 44 | Brennan Poole | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | Running |
| 19 | 30 | 51 | Jeremy Clements | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 | Running |
| 20 | 32 | 7 | Josh Bilicki | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17 | Running |
| 21 | 33 | 26 | Dean Thompson | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16 | Running |
| 22 | 14 | 24 | Harrison Burton | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | Running |
| 23 | 19 | 32 | Rajah Caruth | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | Running |
| 24 | 17 | 92 | Josh Williams | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | Running |
| 25 | 20 | 5 | JJ Yeley | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | Running |
| 26 | 25 | 27 | Jeb Burton | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | Running |
| 27 | 24 | 0 | Garrett Smithley | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | Running |
| 28 | 31 | 87 | Austin Green | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | Running |
| 29 | 28 | 48 | Patrick Staropoli # | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | Running |
| 30 | 26 | 31 | Blaine Perkins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | Running |
| 31 | 37 | 55 | Joey Gase | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | Running |
| 32 | 36 | 2 | Ryan Ellis | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | Running |
| 33 | 35 | 30 | Myatt Snider | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | Running |
| 34 | 38 | 42 | Nathan Byrd | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | Running |
| 35 | 11 | 21 | Austin Hill | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | Running |
| 36 | 29 | 45 | Lavar Scott # | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Accident |
| 37 | 16 | 28 | Kyle Sieg | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | DVP |
| 38 | 34 | 91 | Alex Labbe | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Accident |
