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Justin Allgaier Dominates To Tame The Lady In Black For Third Darlington Victory

by Hunter Thomas May 11, 2024 1 comment

DARLINGTON, S.C. – Justin Allgaier dominated the Crown Royal Purple Bag Project 200 on Saturday at Darlington Raceway to earn his first victory of the 2024 season.

Allgaier started the race in seventh, swept all stages and led all but 28 laps en route to this third-career Darlington victory. The win marks the 24^th of his career in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

“God has been so good,” Allgaier said. “We’ve had a heck of a year. We’ve led a ton of laps, and we haven’t been able to do it (win)…I just can’t say enough, this Darlington weekend, you fans, I mean this weekend is always my favorite.”

A late caution set the field up for a 16-lap dash to the finish, but despite the field being clumped together, no one had anything for Allgaier in the JR Motorsports No. 7 BRANDT Heritage Chevrolet. The win comes at a good time for Allgaier. He was on a streak of top-five finishes between Martinsville and Texas, but lately, Allgaier crashed out at Talladega and finished 17^th at Dover.

Austin Hill brought the Richard Childress Racing No. 21 Bennett Transportation Chevrolet home in second place. Hill finished second in all three stages.

“We had a really fast Bennett Chevrolet all day,” Hill said. “On restarts, I could get through the gears really good with the 7 (Allgaier). I would just get down into Turn 1 and I would kind of drag the splitter just a little bit and shoot up the track.

“I think there are things I can do inside of the race car to be better. To do a better job. I think the race car was just a touch better than I was today. I think that whoever got the lead between the 7 and I, while we were close enough in speed, whoever got the lead got that clean air and just kept dirty air on the guy behind him probably is going to keep the lead.”

Rounding out the top-five was polesitter Cole Custer, Sam Mayer and Aric Almirola. Parker Kligerman finished sixth, followed by Riley Herbst, Jesse Love, Sheldon Creed and Brandon Jones. NASCAR Cup Series driver, William Byron finished 11^th.

Throughout the afternoon, there were only five lead changes among four drivers. Allgaier led a race high of 119 laps.

The caution only flew on five occasions for 31 laps. No yellow flags were for multicar accidents. On Lap 103, Hallie Deegan spun on the frontstretch, and on Lap 124, Kyle Sieg spun in Turn 2.

Hill leads the NASCAR Xfinity Series standings by three points over Custer.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series will take a weekend off before heading to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the BetMGM 300 on Saturday, May 25. Live coverage will broadcast on FOX at 1 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Greyson Johnson/TheFourthTurn.com