It has been a great seven days for A.J. Allmendinger. Last Saturday, he won the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega for his first superspeedway victory. Four days later, Kaulig Racing elevated him to a full-time Cup Series schedule in 2023.

Three days after that, he became the first driver to win double-digit road courses at the Xfinity level when he held off Ty Gibbs for the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval triumph. He has never lost an Xfinity race at the Roval since making his first start there in 2019, having gone four-for-four since. When combined with his two in the Cup Series, he now has twelve total national series road course wins, including three others in 2022 at COTA, Portland, and Indianapolis.

Allmendinger started on the pole and was the obvious favourite as he led twenty-five of seventy-two laps and won Stage #1. Gibbs provided his best challenge alongside Sheldon Creed until the latter was spun by Sage Karam on lap 60. Riley Herbst brought out the caution on the penultimate lap to set up overtime before spinning again to force a second restart, both of which resulted in his elimination from the playoffs.

“We got in the wall a little bit there on both of the restarts and never could get back to the #16 (Allmendinger),” said Gibbs. “We had great speed. I just want to thank my team. I had a great time in the race today and happy that we’re moving onto the round of eight.”

Ryan Sieg (finished ninth), Jeremy Clements (fourteenth), and defending champion Daniel Hemric (seventeenth) were also eliminated.

James Davison impressed by finishing fourth in his first NASCAR start of 2022, while Alex Labbé notched a top ten by placing sixth. Daniil Kvyat was fifteenth in his Xfinity début while Marco Andretti‘s maiden NASCAR start ended with a wreck on lap 47.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	1	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	72	Running
2	2	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	72	Running
3	37	9	Noah Gragson	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	72	Running
4	16	18	James Davison^	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	72	Running
5	5	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	72	Running
6	12	36	Alex Labbé	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	72	Running
7	15	19	Brandon Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	72	Running
8	14	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	72	Running
9	17	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	72	Running
10	7	10	Landon Cassill	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	72	Running
11	6	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	72	Running
12	18	23	Anthony Alfredo	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	72	Running
13	31	31	Myatt Snider	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	72	Running
14	10	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	72	Running
15	24	26	Daniil Kvyat	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	72	Running
16	4	2	Sheldon Creed	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	72	Running
17	3	11	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	72	Running
18	23	27	Jeb Burton	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	72	Running
19	25	66	J.J. Yeley	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	72	Running
20	33	78	Brandon Brown	B.J. McLeod Motorsprots	Chevrolet	72	Running
21	19	91	Preston Pardus	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	72	Running
22	26	5	Scott Heckert	B.J. McLeod Motorsprots	Chevrolet	72	Running
23	27	35	Brad Pérez*	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Toyota	72	Running
24	36	6	Ryan Vargas	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	72	Running
25	13	45	Stefan Parsons*	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	72	Running
26	32	4	Bayley Currey	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	72	Running
27	35	7	Joe Graf Jr.	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	72	Running
28	34	13	Timmy Hill*	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	72	Running
29	8	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	70	Running
30	9	2	Sage Karam	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	70	Running
31	29	8	Andy Lally	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	69	Running
32	11	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	67	Accident
33	28	38	Patrick Gallagher	RSS Racing	Ford	67	Engine
34	20	44	Josh Bilicki*	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	66	Running
35	21	34	Kaz Grala*	Jesse Iwuji Motorsports	Chevrolet	59	Accident
36	30	48	Marco Andretti	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	45	Accident
37	22	92	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	35	Track Bar
38	38	68	Kris Wright*	Brandonbilt Motorsports	Chevrolet	7	Accident
DNQ		47	Gray Gaulding	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet
DNQ		52	Brennan Poole*	Jimmy Means Racing	Chevrolet
DNQ		32	Austin Wayne Self	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet

Bold – Currently in playoffs
^ – Currently in owner playoffs
Underline – Eliminated from playoffs
Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points