Justin Allgaier becomes first to win in 10 consecutive O’Reilly Series seasons at Phoenix

AVONDALE, Ariz — Justin Allgaier pounced on the late restart to win the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Phoenix Raceway.

Now he becomes the only driver to win a race in the series for ten consecutive seasons.

Allgaier restarted sixth with 15 laps to go and made swift work to cut through the top five.

He jumped to fifth right away on the restart. Then took advantage of Kvapil and Mayer’s dust up into turn three on the next lap to move up to third.

Sheldon Creed scuffed the wall shortly after which slowed his momentum and allowed Jesse Love to gain the lead, Allgaier gained another spot to second.

Finally, he hounded Love over the next few laps before taking the lead for good with eight to go.

Jesse Love led a race-high 114 laps, collected the most stage points, and led late but comes home second.

Carson Kvapil finished third but contended for the win the whole night before the final caution.

The Haas Factory Team duo closed out the top five and both had chances to lead late in the race. Sheldon Creed finished fourth while Sam Mayer finished fifth.

Jeb Burton had a solid seventh-place run. He qualified in the top ten and kept his car in the back half of the top ten all night.

Rajah Caruth began his first race in the Jordan Anderson Racing No. 32 with eighth. He made a tremendous comeback from a lap down to a top ten run.

Anthony Alfredo finished his first race of his weekend with tenth while Jeremy Clements ran top ten the whole night fell just shy of a top ten in eleventh.

This was Allgaier’s third series win at the track where he also leaves with a three and five point lead over Love and Austin Hill.

Stage One and Two Recaps

Taylor Gray led Jesse Love and the field to green. Gray led for a few laps before Love’s car came to life to take the lead.

Ryan Ellis went behind the wall early on lap eight with an apparent right-rear issue after smoke trickled from the rear of the car. He rejoined the race 122 laps down but finished 37th and last.

Nick Sanchez suffered a power issue midway through the stage. His crew replaced the battery and got back running but four laps down but failed to recover. He ended his day three additional laps down to finish 35th.

The Chevrolets had their long-run cars dialed in while the Toyota’s were the complete opposite as polesitter Gray fell outside the top ten by stage end.

Love led the most laps in stage one but a hard-charging Sammy Smith won the stage after taking advantage of him with lap traffic.

Jesse Love and crew won the race of pit road. With no adjustments he set back off into the race lead in the second stage.

He never looked back in the second stage. He easily won the stage without a fight or a caution.

Love led the race with 19 stage points and here are the other drivers who accumulated stage points in the GOVX 200: Carson Kvapil(17), Sammy Smith(15), Justin Allgaier (14), William Byron(i – 13), Brent Crews(9), Jeb Burton(9), Corey Day(4), Sheldon Creed(4), Taylor Gray(3), Brandon Jones(1), Jeremy Clements(1)

Final Stage Recap

Jesse Love and Carson Kvapil came off pit road exactly how they entered. They restarted alongside each other to start the final stage.

The defending series champion jumped out to another sizeable gap much like in the first two stages but crew chief Rodney Childers put his magic touch in Kvapil’s setup to drastically close the gap with 75 to go.

They battled hard side by side for eight laps before Kvapil prevailed while the race leader fought tight conditions in lap traffic.

Sheldon Creed passed Love for second a few laps later. Then he proceeded to kick off the green flag pit cycle on lap 49, effectively splitting the final stage in half.

Much like in the INDYCAR race earlier, the undercut was powerful.

Creed relayed his early stop into a two second lead over Kvapil with 45 to go after the lead cars cycled through.

Kvapil quickly cut the gap to just two-tenths of a second, but Anthony Alfredo spinning Lavar Scott into the inside wall with 35 laps to go brought out the first incident caution and disrupted his charge toward a first career O’Reilly Series win.

Creed held the lead on the restart, but the cautions breed cautions.

With 27 to go, Brandon Jones tried to clear himself off Sammy Smith and triggered the multi-car wreck.

His teammates Taylor Gray and William Sawalich sustained damage in the wreck with Sawalich unable to continue. He DNF’d in 36th.

Below are the full results of the GOVX 200 at Phoenix Raceway

Full Results