In the definitive moment on the first overtime restart, Cole Custer got bogged down on a restart while behind Austin Hill, himself on older tires. Without hesitation, Justin Allgaier waited for his moment to shoot the gap up the middle to pass them both.
Then, a wreck in the back forced the race into double overtime, where Allgaier nearly crashed as he cut in front of Jesse Love to take the lead.
He got away with it and then gave a charging Riley Herbst plenty of room as they raced towards the checkered flag, sacrificing the win but protecting the bigger prize — he was finally a NASCAR Xfinity Series champion in his seventh Championship 4 appearance.
It was a tough road there. Allgaier started from the rear in a backup car, suffered a flat tire, faced two penalties under green, spent most of the final stage a lap down — and still emerged victorious.
Was there a point where Allgaier thought it was game over? “Yeah, like 10 times,” he said, tears in his eyes. “You fans are awesome. I don’t think I have a voice left because I was yelling.
“I’ve been doing this a long time, and these people that are standing around me, I can’t — there’s no words. [Sponsors] Rick Brandt is here, Kristie Brandt, the whole Brandt crew, Jarrett, Hellman’s, all of our partners, what an engine this weekend, Chevrolet. It’s understated what they’ve done. My wife and my kids, they have given up so much for me to come do this job. God is good, man. I said it all weekend, I don’t know what the plan is. I don’t know what that looks like. But he’s got a reason for everything, and tonight is truly that. It’s mind-blowing. It really is.”
He also thanked his team owners at JR Motorsports — Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt Miller. Dale Jr. was right there to embrace his longtime driver, who later said of Allgaier: “He’s worked so hard. He’s given so much to our team. He’s just done so much for us … He drives hard, sometimes too hard but I’d rather have a driver like that going for it, pushing as hard as he can.”
Custer ended up as the championship runner-up with an eighth-place finish, unable to defend his 2023 title. A.J. Allmendinger in ninth will be third in points and Austin Hill in tenth will be fourth in points.
For Herbst, it was his third career win and his second of the 2024 season.
Fighting back
Towards the end of Stage 2, Allgaier faced a major setback while racing cars on a tire deficit. Contact with Riley Herbst caused damage to the left rear and he appeared to have a tire going down. Allgaier limped to the stage end and pitted, but things only got worse from there with 100 to go.
Allgaier was nailed with a restart violation for pulling out of line before the start/finish line and forced to serve a pass-through penalty. The nightmare continued as he sped while serving the penalty. He came down pit road again for the speeding penalty, returning to the race one lap down.
Custer was firmly in control of the championship, riding in second behind teammate Herbst. Allmendinger was charging with nine-lap fresher tires, but stalled out after going from 19th to seventh.
The final round of green-flag pitstops began with 55 laps to go, but Allgaier stayed out, praying for a caution. Well, fortune finally smiled upon him as Anthony Alfredo smacked the wall, forcing a caution with over 40 laps left in the race. Allgaier, who had yet to pit, was back up to 12th and on the lead lap again.
He then ran down Custer and prevailed after a heated battle for the lead. But moments later, a caution forced the race into overtime. Austin Hill took two scuffed right-sides and moved into the lead for the restart, but his title rivals lined up right behind him. Allgaier found the hole as Hill held up the field and it was enough to put his hands on the Xfinity championship trophy.
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