DARLINGTON, S.C. — Justin Allgaier used a dominating efficiency Saturday to win his first Xfinity race of the season and the third of his profession at Darlington Raceway.
Allgaier led 119 of 147 laps, sweeping each phases as he completed forward of Austin Hill and defending sequence champion Cole Custer.
Allgaier moved previous Hill early within the second stage and by no means gave up the lead, staying in entrance for the ultimate 95 laps.
“I feel having slightly grey hair at this time actually helped me out, although, with these lengthy green-flag runs,” stated Allgaier, 37. “With the ability to know what’s labored prior to now right here.”
Solely two of the 5 cautions within the race have been for accidents — they usually proved to be Allgaier’s trickiest moments of the race.
The primary got here with 39 laps to go after Hailie Deegan wrecked, and the opposite got here with 16 laps left when Kyle Sieg spun out. Allgaier sped off from the sphere each instances and cruised to his twenty fourth profession Xfinity victory to equal the full of JR Motorsports proprietor Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Allgaier additionally moved up in Darlington historical past, his three wins right here tying for fifth with the late Dale Earnhardt, Matt Kenseth and Geoff Bodine.
Sam Mayer, Allgaier’s JR Motorsports teammate, completed fourth and AJ Allmendinger fifth.
Hill, who was runner-up to Denny Hamlin in final September’s Xfinity race at Darlington, blamed himself for one more second-place displaying.
“I simply could not get into Flip 1 on restarts like I actually wanted to all day and I feel plenty of it is simply me,” Hill stated. “I’ve simply bought to determine what to do in another way.”
Three-time Cup Collection winner William Byron was the most important identify within the area and figured to contend at a observe the place a number of from the sports activities’ high sequence have gained earlier than. However Byron’s probability ended when he hit the wall early within the race.
A foul pit cease left him three laps down lower than 15 laps in, and he ended up ending eleventh.
The sequence takes subsequent week off earlier than resuming at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Could 26.