Justin Allgaier prevailed in an action-packed Crayon 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Saturday, earning his third victory of the season and a special birthday present for his wife, Ashley.
A race trophy.
The driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet delivered Chevy’s first win at the one-mile track in 15 years. It’s Allgaier’s third win of the season — coming a comfortable 3.869-seconds ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver Trevor Bayne, who was trying to earn the JGR team its seventh consecutive New Hampshire win.
“We finished second here last year to one (Toyota), and I told these guys I really wanted to win here,” said Allgaier, who has three wins in the last eight races. “This place has been so much fun over the years.”
“First of all, it’s my wife’s birthday, so if I can’t be with my wife on her birthday, the best thing to do is take home a trophy to her. Just proud of the team.”
It was, at times, a dramatic drive for the 36-year old Illinois driver. He had an incident with Julie Landauer’s car early — apologizing to her after the race. And although he ran top-five for most of the day, he didn’t lead the race until 48 laps remaining — dicing it up with Landon Cassill, who was looking for his first career win.
The two exchanged the lead five times in the closing 60 laps, with Allgaier pulling away for good with 19 laps to go.
Cassill, who led for 17 laps, ultimately had his third-place finish disqualified for post-race inspection violations — the rear of his No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet was ruled too low.
The fourth-place finisher, Allgaier’s JR Motorsports teammate Noah Gragson in the No. 9 JRM Chevrolet, also was disqualified after a failed post-race inspection. His car failed front-body inspection heights and was too low. The DQ dropped him from fourth place to fifth place in the season standings, now 99 points behind leader A.J. Allmendinger but safely in the playoffs with two victories.
The two disqualifications moved fifth-place finisher Brandon Brown in the No. 68 Brandon Brown Racing Chevrolet officially into third place in the race results — the best result and first top-5 of the season for the 29-year old Virginian’s family-owned team.
It may have been a Toyota victory circle for most of the past few years, but even with the disqualifications to Cassill and Gragson, Chevrolet drivers still made up nine of the top 10 positions on Saturday.
Ty Dillon, Austin Hill, Kyle Weatherman, Mason Massey and Bayley Currey rounded out the top-10. It marked the second top-10 of Weatherman’s season and the second top-10 of both Massey and Currey’s careers.
The race included 10 caution periods, including a nearly eight-minute red flag. And there were 15 lead changes among 10 drivers, with Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs leading the most laps (49) on the day.
Both Gibbs and championship leader Allmendinger were noticeably absent from that group atop the scoreboard. Gibbs’ No. 54 JRG Toyota suffered a mechanical problem just after the Stage 2 break, and he finished 21st — the second week in a row he’s had a sub-20th-place showing.
Allmendinger was involved in one of the multi-car accidents, hitting the wall with 58 laps remaining and forced to pit for extensive repairs to his No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet. He finished one position ahead of Gibbs in 20th place.
The rough day for Gibbs and the good day for Allgaier shook up the points standings, with Allmendinger now leading Allgaier by 16 points.
Gibbs is now in third place, 28 points back, as the series races next in the Explore the Pocono Mountains 225 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway (Saturday, 5 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Austin Cindric is the defending winner.
NASCAR Xfinity Series Race – 28th Annual Crayon 200
New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Loudon, N.H.
Saturday, July 16, 2022
1. (3) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 200.
2. (6) Trevor Bayne, Toyota, 200.
3. (19) Brandon Brown, Chevrolet, 200.
4. (21) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 200.
5. (18) Sheldon Creed #, Chevrolet, 200.
6. (17) Ty Dillon(i), Chevrolet, 200.
7. (15) Austin Hill #, Chevrolet, 200.
8. (20) Kyle Weatherman, Chevrolet, 200.
9. (30) Mason Massey, Chevrolet, 200.
10. (24) Bayley Currey, Chevrolet, 200.
11. (31) David Starr, Ford, 200.
12. (26) Joe Graf Jr., Ford, 200.
13. (33) CJ McLaughlin, Ford, 200.
14. (14) Brett Moffitt, Chevrolet, 200.
15. (12) Sam Mayer, Chevrolet, 200.
16. (28) Patrick Emerling, Toyota, 200.
17. (34) Howie Disavino III, Chevrolet, 200.
18. (22) Derek Griffith, Toyota, 198.
19. (36) Ryan Vargas, Chevrolet, 198.
20. (7) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 197.
21. (4) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 196.
22. (35) Matt Mills(i), Chevrolet, 192.
23. (38) JJ Yeley, Toyota, 190.
24. (29) Josh Williams, Chevrolet, Electrical, 189.
25. (37) Akinori Ogata(i), Toyota, Engine, 169.
26. (10) William Byron(i), Chevrolet, Electrical, 163.
27. (27) Alex Labbe, Chevrolet, Accident, 143.
28. (8) Brandon Jones, Toyota, Accident, 142.
29. (16) Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet, Accident, 138.
30. (13) Riley Herbst, Ford, Accident, 133.
31. (1) Josh Berry, Chevrolet, Accident, 127.
32. (11) Ryan Sieg, Ford, Accident, 124.
33. (23) Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, Accident, 124.
34. (25) Myatt Snider, Chevrolet, Accident, 124.
35. (2) Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, Accident, 105.
36. (32) Julia Landauer, Chevrolet, Accident, 90.
37. (5) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 200.
38. (9) Noah Gragson, Chevrolet, 200.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 86.24 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 27 Mins, 13 Secs. Margin of Victory: 3.869 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 9 for 56 laps.
Lead Changes: 15 among 10 drivers.
Lap Leaders: D. Hemric 1-5;T. Bayne 6-22;T. Gibbs 23-37;R. Sieg 38-47;T. Gibbs 48-81;W. Byron(i) 82-103;L. Cassill 104-111;J. Berry 112-122;L. Cassill 123-127;B. Brown 128-139;S. Creed # 140-149;L. Cassill 150-151;J. Allgaier 152-179;L. Cassill 180-181;J. Allgaier 182-200.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Ty Gibbs 2 times for 49 laps; Justin Allgaier 2 times for 47 laps; William Byron(i) 1 time for 22 laps; Landon Cassill 4 times for 17 laps; Trevor Bayne 1 time for 17 laps; Brandon Brown 1 time for 12 laps; Josh Berry 1 time for 11 laps; Sheldon Creed # 1 time for 10 laps; Ryan Sieg 1 time for 10 laps; Daniel Hemric 1 time for 5 laps.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 39,54,16,88,68,18,23,11,7,98
Stage #2 Top Ten: 88,54,16,18,11,7,8,98,39,2
–By NASCAR Wire Service, Special to Field Level Media