Larson Dominates, But Allgaier Wins Darlington O'Reilly Series Race

Darlington, S.C. — Kyle Larson was dominant in Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Spot Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway, as he led every lap in the opening two Stages of the race after starting from the pole position.

However, when it mattered most, Larson lost positions on pit road, and after dropping to fifth-place heading into the final restart of the race, the track position was simply too much to overcome. As Larson faltered, Justin Allgaier, his JR Motorsports teammate, came to life over th final 20 laps of the race.

Allgaier worked his way around Brandon Jones for the race lead on the final restart, and he wouldn’t look back as he marched to the victory, the 30th of his illustrious NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series career.

While Allgaier says he didn’t have a car that was capable of winning for the majority of the day, his crew chief, Andrew Overstreet, and No. 7 pit crew kept fighting.

“You know, we weren’t quite as good as I wanted to be. You know, this team, though, they just never quit,” Allgaier said in his post-race press conference. “And the pit stop at the end there to get the track position, and racing with somebody that I respect a lot, Brandon Jones, to get the lead, there, and to get clean air. I mean, it’s just so important. I’m really proud of this team, proud of the effort.”

With his second win of the season, Allgaier continues to assert himself as a favorite for the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship. Allgaier will exit Darlington with a 52-point lead over Jesse Love, the defending series champion, for the point lead.

Jones would start reeling Allgaier in over the closing few laps, but could only get within 0.578 seconds of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet at the checkered flag.

“[Allgaier] just kept getting just barely better launches than I could on that second lane, and he had just a little more juice in the tank on the short run today,” Jones said. “We were matching, if not slightly better on the long run, but just ran out of laps there at the end, but this is what we needed with the 20 group.”

Christopher Bell would take the top finish in the race among full-time NASCAR Cup Series competitors, as he finished third behind the wheel of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota GR Supra. While Bell is typically expected to contend for wins when he drops down to the O’Reilly Series, he was happy to rebound from losing the handle on his car in the second Stage of the race.

“Yeah, we definitely lost the handle of it in stage two and fell back. We had a couple of good pit stops, and good adjustments that got us back up to the front,” Bell explained. “It just felt like we were on the wrong side of the track. Really loose in the daylight, and then really tight when it got shaded up. I don’t know. It was a lot of fun out there. I’m really happy to Sport Clips Supra home third. I know that’s not what they are looking for, but got a good finish out of it.”

Larson would finish a disappointing fourth. The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion says it was simply a matter of changing track conditions perfectly aligning with his loss of track position that did him in.

“Just losing the spots on pit road and having to restart in the third row, with a short run at the end as it’s cooling down, the pace just picks up and becomes tougher to pass,” Larson stated.

Carson Kvapil, who ran second to Larson for a large portion of the race, would come home with a fifth-place result. Kvapil, who is splitting his season between three different cars, finds himself third in the championship standings, and is 84 points behind Allgaier after Darlington.

Corey Day continued his strong start to the season with a sixth-place finish, as he came out ahead of Sheldon Creed, Parker Retzlaff, Sammy Smith, and Sam Mayer, who rounded out the top-10 finishers in the race.

There were several issues on pit road throughout the day, and among the drivers, who found trouble were Jesse Love and Ross Chastain, a NASCAR Cup Series competitor, who spun out coming to their pit stalls.

Love would be credited with an 11th-place finish, while Chastain would come home in 14th.

It was a disastrous day for one of the top contenders for the series championship, Austin Hill. Hill got into the outside wall early in the event, suffered a flat tire, which put him a lap down early. He’d encounter more incidents, including a late-race crash on his way to a 35th-place finish. Hill finished the race five laps off the pace of Allgaier.

Taylor Gray held onto his grasp of the final spot inside the Chase Grid with a 15th-place run.

William Sawalich, 13 points behind Gray, is the first driver on the outside looking in, and he is followed in the standings by Brennan Poole (-16), and Jeb Burton (-17).

Next up for the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series is the NFPA 250 at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday, March 28. That race will be televised on The CW, and coverage is of the event is set to begin at 3:30 PM ET. The Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will serve as the radio broadcasting partners for that race.

*This story will be updated with post-race quotes and additional information

Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 Results

1. 7-Justin Allgaier (X)
2. 20-Brandon Jones
3. 19-Christopher Bell (i)
4. 88-Kyle Larson (S1) (S2) (i)
5. 1-Carson Kvapil
6. 17-Corey Day
7. 00-Sheldon Creed
8. 99-Parker Retzlaff
9. 8-Sammy Smith
10. 41-Sam Mayer
11. 2-Jesse Love
12. 96-Anthony Alfredo
13. 39-Ryan Sieg
14. 9-Ross Chastain (i)
15. 54-Taylor Gray
16. 25-Nick Sanchez
17. 18-William Sawalich
18. 44-Brennan Poole
19. 51-Jeremy Clements
20. 07-Josh Bilicki
21. 26-Dean Thompson
22. 24-Harrison Burton
23. 32-Rajah Caruth
24. 92-Josh Williams
25. 5-JJ Yeley
26. 27-Jeb Burton
27. 0-Garrett Smithley
28. 87-Austin Green
29. 48-Patrick Staropoli #
30. 31-Blaine Perkins
31. 55-Joey Gase
32. 02-Ryan Ellis
33. 30-Myatt Snider
34. 42-Nathan Byrd
35. 21-Austin Hill
36. 45-Lavar Scott #
37. 28-Kyle Sieg
38. 91-Alex Labbe

(S1) Stage 1 winner
(S2) Stage 2 winner
(X) Xfinity Fastest Lap
# Rookie of the Year contender
(i) driver ineligible to score series points

Time of Race: 1 hour, 47 minutes, 9 seconds
Average Speed: 112.442 mph
Margin of Victory: 0.578 seconds
Cautions: 3 for 25 laps
Lead Changes: 6 among 4 drivers

This article was originally published on www.si.com/onsi/racing-america as Larson Dominates, But Allgaier Wins Darlington O’Reilly Series Race.

Read the full article here