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Charges from midfield to claim victory in Sports Illustrated Resorts 250
An afternoon that saw on track action interrupted multiple times due to rain and thunderstorms turned into a beautiful evening in Lebanon Tennessee for the Sports Illustrated Resorts 250. A heavy rain around noon had cancelled qualifying, which meant that yet another race this weekend would have the lineup set per the NASCAR rulebook, putting Jesse Love on pole for the event. While qualifying was cancelled, practice would go on and it was clear that the No. 2 Richard Childress team put in their work to get the car setup, as Jesse Love had a rocket ship from the drop of the green flag. By lap 37 the No. 2 car of Love would lead the No. 17 of Corey Day by a full corner of the track.
The No. 2 crew wasn’t the only team that was able to find speed during practice. The JR Motorsports No. 7 driven by Justin Allgier who started 17th was quietly making his way to the front during a caution free stage 1. After pitting during the break between stage 1 and 2, Allgier would emerge in second position, and claim the lead from Jesse Love on lap 56. After putting some distance between himself and the No. 2 car of Love, Allgier would feel some pressure again 10 laps later and give the lead back to Love on lap 76, beore reclaiming the lead again on lap 86, just before the caution flag would wave again for the second stage break at lap 90.
Allgier would end up dropping to fifth place after the stage break pit stops, however it didn’t take him long to start making his way back to the front to contend for the lead. While Allgier was making his way back to challenge the leaders, the No. 19 car of Brent crews, who started 33rd and worked his way through the field, would claim the lead from Love on lap 119. The No. 2 of Love would come to pit road on lap 120 and see his hopes of winning diminish, as a pitstop miscue caused him to go a lap down. Brent Crews would regain the lead after a cycle of green flag pit stops, however a hard charging Allgier would catch Crews and make the pass for the lead on lap 169 after some hard, clean side-by-side racing lap-after-lap. Allgier would continue to put distance between himself and the No. 19 of Crews to seal the victory by 1.4 seconds. Sawalich, Mayer, and Jones would round out the Top 5.
Saturday nights vistory was Allgaier’s third win at the 1.33-mile Nashville concrete oval and the 32nd overall win of his championship career. Allgaier celebrated on the track at the finish line by climbing out of his Chevy’s roof hatch then bowing to the Nashville crowd, paying tribute to the trademark winning celebration of the late Kyle Busch, who passed away last Thursday.
“First of all, it’s been a rough couple of weeks, and lots of prayers to Samantha and Kyle and Brexton and Lennix – it’s been an emotional couple weeks,” said Allgaier. “This team, right here, they are incredible. To win in Nashville, you fans. .. this place is electric. I love coming to Nashville.”
“I told them before the race, that we were going to go to victory lane,” said a grinning Allgaier, who turns 40 years old next week and is capping his winning race weekend by running a triathlon in downtown Nashville Sunday. “What a race,” he added with a grin.
The near-miss marks the North Carolinian Crews’ second runner-up this season. He led the race twice for a total of 45 laps – the most he’s ever led in a single race. “the most fun I’ve had without winning”, said Crews after climbing from his car on pit road after the race. “Man, the positive was, I thought we were going to win that race,” Crews said when asked about the takeaway from the race. “I’m happy for our guys.”
“Had to start 33rd and worked our way up to the lead and led a lot of laps and got to race one of the best guys in our series of all-time for the win in the last few laps,” he said. “Couldn’t ask for much more, other than to beat him.’”
Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love finished 16th after leading the most laps (87) on the night. A late race pit stop miscue would put the reigning series champion a lap down at one point, before he rallied back. Love lost some ground to Allgier in the title run and now sits 179 points behind the 2024 series champion.
“Definitely really frustrating,” a disappointed Love said after the race. “Our Camaro was really fast and I know we had a misstep on pit road but we’ve got the best pit crew in the garage right now, it’s not even close. The only thing I can control is the way I prepare and keep showing up even when it hurts and I know right now, my path isn’t necessarily coming with a lot of wins and that can be frustrating but it’s the past now, so all I can do is keep showing up and preparing. It’s going to turn around. It has to. There’s no other possible way it’s not going to and having faith in that will get me through all this.”
Saturdays race, while caution free except for stage breaks, saw plenty of good racing throughout the field, with many two and three wide passes during the race. Cup Series veteran Kyle Larson who rolled off in sixth position would end up dropping a few spots and finishing in eigth place. Noteable YouTube personality Cleetus McFarland finished 36th in his second NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series start – rallying from a series of late race pit stop miscues and penalties to take the checkered flag in the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.
