Justin Allgaier starts from rear, still leads most laps for Darlington win

Justin Allgaier faced an uphill battle if he wanted to go back-to-back in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Darlington Raceway, but he was more than up for the challenge. He led seventy-six of 147 laps, twenty-one more than JR Motorsports team-mate Noah Gragson as he held off said ally in overtime to win for the first time in 2022.

A rained-out qualifying placed Ty Gibbs on the pole and Allgaier in third, but the latter started at the rear due to a battery change. As Allgaier knifed through the order, Gibbs and Gragson traded the lead in Stage #1 with Gragson winning out. Josh Berry, Allgaier, Riley Herbst, A.J. Allmendinger, Ryan Sieg, Landon Cassill, Ryan Truex, and Friday’s Truck Series race winner John Hunter Nemechek followed. Timmy Hill and Jeb Burton were responsible for cautions during the stage, while Sheldon Creed exited with an engine failure.

Allgaier led his first laps of the day between stages and to kick off the second, holding the top spot before Myatt Snider wrecked on lap 76. Gragson and Allgaier battled for the lead only for the former to go two-for-two in stage victories, while Gibbs got by Allgaier to place second again. Nemechek, Tyler Reddick, Berry, Sam Mayer, Allmendinger, Truex, and Herbst.

The Allgaier/Gragson duel continued in the final segment until furious charges from Allmendinger and Reddick enabled them to join the fight. Unfortunately for Reddick, a tyre went down and sent him into the wall. Allmendinger, who was on older tyres than Allgaier and Gragson, led to begin overtime but quickly fell back.

Gragson’s chase failed as Allgaier scored his first win of the year and snapping a thirty-four-race winless streak dating back to last year’s spring Darlington event. That race also saw JRM cars finish first and second, with Berry filling the latter.

“We’ve been doing this way too long, and you know how great it feels to get back to Victory Lane,” said Allgaier. “It was awesome racing my team-mates. That was probably the coolest part, racing my team-mates all day, so hats off to those guys.”

JRM drivers have now won three consecutive races. Gragson took the victory at Talladega a fortnight ago, while Berry did so last week at Dover.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	3	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
2	4	9	Noah Gragson	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
3	8	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	147	Running
4	23	26	John Hunter Nemechek*	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	147	Running
5	7	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
6	13	10	Landon Cassill	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
7	6	19	Brandon Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	147	Running
8	5	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
9	11	11	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
10	12	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
11	9	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	147	Running
12	31	34	Kyle Weatherman	Jesse Iwuji Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
13	16	02	Brett Moffitt	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
14	15	27	Jeb Burton	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
15	14	23	Anthony Alfredo	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
16	1	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	147	Running
17	36	45	Tommy Joe Martins	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
18	2	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
19	18	36	Alex Labbé	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
20	35	99	Stefan Parsons	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
21	24	6	Ryan Vargas	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
22	32	91	Mason Massey	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
23	30	4	Bayley Currey	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
24	29	35	Patrick Emerling	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
25	20	66	J.J. Yeley	MBM Motorsports	Ford	147	Running
26	34	48	Tyler Reddick*	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	147	Running
27	27	08	David Starr	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	147	Running
28	37	44	Josh Bilicki	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
29	22	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
30	28	18	Ryan Truex	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	147	Running
31	33	5	Matt Mills	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
32	26	38	Kyle Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	147	Running
33	38	13	Timmy Hill*	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	147	Running
34	25	78	Josh Williams	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	144	Running
35	17	68	Brandon Brown	Brandonbilt Motorsports	Chevrolet	142	Running
36	21	07	Joe Graf Jr.	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	135	Accident
37	19	31	Myatt Snider	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	73	Accident
38	10	2	Sheldon Creed	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	16	Engine

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for Xfinity points