Xfinity Series race results: Justin Allgaier wins after long, rainy Charlotte weekend
Justin Allgaier could agree that his Xfinity Series race win at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Monday night was worth the wait.
On all fronts.
It was worth the almost-13-hour day of racing from start to finish — starting race festivities just after 11 a.m. and ending them just before midnight.
It was worth the 14 years of running in the Xfinity Series without a win at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
It was worth finding a balance, conserving fuel, going slower than he wanted but faster than the rest in the last 20 laps or so, matching and holding off what John Hunter Nemechek was doing.
It was worth it all.
“I’ve been a little bit at a loss for words over the course of the night. To win on Memorial Day — obviously nobody wanted to be here on Monday — but to win on Memorial Day, it’s just truly special,” Allgaier told reporters post-race.
Allgaier of JR Motorsports, which is co-owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr., started on the pole and subsequently notched his 20th win in 417 Xfinity Series races but only his first victory in 2023. He’s now won seven times in seven years — the most by a non Cup full-time driver.
John Hunter Nemechek posted second. Cole Custer finished third. Parker Retzlaff, who finished sixth, was the highest-finishing rookie.
All Xfinity drivers — and really everyone who descended on the racetrack in Concord this Memorial Day weekend — endured a lot. Rain washed out on-track activities Saturday and Sunday. More drizzles postponed the Xfinity event mid-race because FOX Sports needed to get its longest Cup race in its mid-afternoon window of 3 p.m. (The Xfinity race restarted just before 10 p.m.)
But Allgaier was the one who prevailed through it all.
“We were down early,” Allgaier said. “I did a terrible job on pit road tonight. I got myself in a couple of messes, got some damage. They had to try to fix the damage up, make adjustments. Obviously saving fuel at the end of the race.
“There are just so many things that happened throughout the course of the night, I don’t even know how to explain it. It was quite the race. To save the fuel like we did, to be able to make it to the end, have enough fuel to do a burnout — that was pretty special.”
Visit NASCAR.com for full race results.
This story was originally published May 30, 2023 at 12:36 AM.
