NASCAR
Justin Allgaier Takes Third Nashville Superspeedway Win Over Brent Crews
LEBANON, Tenn. – The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same. Justin Allgaier remains the Music City master, clinching his third Nashville Superspeedway win in five years. Saturday night was far from an easy drive for the JR Motorsports veteran, however. Allgaier had a very back-and-forth late battle against Joe Gibbs Racing rookie phenom Brent Crews. The No. 7 finally bested the No. 19 for the guitar trophy with 20 laps left. Coming into the night as the O’Reilly Series points leader, Allgaier now has four victories on the season and further extends his monster points lead.
From the pole, Jesse Love was unbeaten in Stage 1 by leading every lap. A new challenger emerged in Stage 2 though, with 17th-place starter Justin Allgaier rallying. The Nos. 2 and 7 traded several slide jobs for the top spot, with this stage win going to Allgaier.
Love would be forced to give up the lead and pit with a loose wheel not far into Stage 3. This handed P1 to Brent Crews, who soon had a mirror full of Allgaier. This duo took blows at each other for multiple straight laps, with the 7 eventually coming out on top. Allgaier took his 32nd career O’Reilly Series win by over a second and just a week before his 40th birthday.
“First of all, it’s been a rough couple of weeks,” Allgaier said. “Lots of prayers to Samantha and Kyle [Busch] and Brexton and Lennix. It’s been an emotional couple weeks. 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. Wins are wins and they’re understated, what it means to this team, the organization, Chevrolet, and all of our partners. Just so proud of this team. What a race.”
O’Reilly checkered flag number 32 for Allgaier breaks a tie with NASCAR Hall of Famer Jack Ingram for sixth on the series’ all-time wins list. ‘Little Gator’ now chases ‘Cousin Carl’ Edwards’ 38 wins mark.
Allgaier plans to celebrate his third Nashville victory by running a Sunday morning triathlon in downtown Nashville. Behind Allgaier and Crews at the finish were: William Sawalich, Sam Mayer, and Brandon Jones. The rest of Nashville’s top-10 were: Corey Day, Carson Kvapil, Kyle Larson, Taylor Gray, and Sammy Smith.
YouTube superstar Cleetus McFarland also ends his second ever start in 35th-place and six laps down, after a few spins and penalties.
Allgaier now also extends his mammoth championship lead to 179 points over Love.
Following 16-straight races, O’Reilly Series teams have their first break next week. Cars will hit the track again on Saturday in two weeks, June 13 from Pocono Raceway. The Miller Tech Battery 250 goes green at 4 p.m. ET on The CW, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo credits to Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images
