NASCAR at Darlington: Justin Allgaier earns victory, edges Noah Gragson

Justin Allgaier snapped a 34-race winless streak by taking the checkered flag in The Mahindra ROXOR 200 at Darlington Raceway on Saturday.

Darlington was the scene of Allgaier’s last win a year ago, and he showed his excitement by taking the checkered flag off the flag stand and celebrating with fans on the front stretch.

“It feels great being back in Victory Lane and it is great to do it in front of a great crowd,” Allgaier said.

Allgaier battled some adversity before the race began. He was supposed to start the race third but had to go to the back of the field after replacing a battery moments before the start of the race.

Allgaier didn’t stay in the back too long as he moved up through the field just 20 laps into the race.

“I really feel that coming through field at the beginning of the race was the difference maker today,” Allgaier said. “Having the ability to see traffic and see how people are moving made a big difference in how I attacked especially at the end of the race.”

The win was Allgaier’s 17th of his career and third straight for Jr. Motorsports. Noah Gragson won two weeks ago at Talladega and Josh Berry last week at Dover. That last time Jr. Motorsports won three races in a row was in 2014.

Allgaier said he and Gragson were out on the track at 6 a.m., riding their bikes on the track. During the bike ride, Allgaier rode on the bottom which is what he did to make the final pass of the race. The Illinois native passed AJ Allmendinger, who stayed out on old tires after a late caution, and drove away from the field.

Gragson, who finished second behind his teammate, won the first two stages of the race but Allgaier took the lead on pit stops between the second and final stages.

Allgaier’s pit crew kept him out front on two other occasions in the final stage.

“This team right here, the pit stops, they were killing it,” Allgaier said. “They won the race for us today and were difference makers.”

Riley Herbst was third, John Hunter Nemechek fourth and Sam Meyer fifth.

Penalty ends Berry’s chance at win

Berry might have made it three Jr. Motorsports drivers in contention if it wasn’t for penalty with fewer than 30 laps left. He was sitting in second place behind Allgaier and appeared to take the lead on a restart.

But NASCAR said Berry jumped the restart and made him serve a one-lap penalty. He finished 18th.

“I just need to go back and watch it,” Berry said after the race. “I say I probably jumped it. It is coming down to the end of the race and clean air is big. I felt like if we could have got out front we could have won. I just pushed it too much.”

Last-lap wreck ruins Clements’ day

South Carolina native Jeremy Clements was close to his first top-five finish since 2020, but he collided with Ryan Truex on the final lap of the race.

Clements said after the race he thought he had enough room but that wasn’t the case. He ended up finishing 29th, a tough pill to swallow for the small family team.

“I was just trying to give it all I had on old tires,” Clements said. “The spotter said ‘move up, so I moved up. I don’t know if I was clear or not. I was trying to protect position. I hate it happened. I didn’t want to wreck anyone. ... But you learn from it. But you are just fighting hard and top fives are hard to come by for a small team like ours.”

Results

This story was originally published May 7, 2022 at 1:06 PM.

Lou Bezjak

The State

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Lou Bezjak is the High School Sports Prep Coordinator for The (Columbia) State and (Hilton Head) Island Packet. He previously worked at the Florence Morning News and had covered high school sports in South Carolina since 2002. Lou is a two-time South Carolina Sports Writer of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Support my work with a digital subscription