Allgaier beats heat to win Tennessee Lottery 250

Jun. 28—GLADEVILLE — On a hot Saturday afternoon at Nashville Superspeedway, no one was hotter than Justin Allgaier as he won the Tennessee Lottery 250 Xfinity Series race.

The driver of the No. 4 Chevrolet took the checkered flag by 4 1/2 seconds ahead of Trevor Bayne. He led 130 of the 188 laps in winning the trophy guitar which he adds to his collection.

"I've been coming here for a long time," said Allgaier, who ran the first of his eight races at NSS in 2009 and finished second behind Kyle Busch last year when racing returned to the track following a decade absence. "This guitar, there's something about it. I collect guitars. I got a ton of guitars in the house. This is obviously a lot more special than the others I've got.

"It's been on my bucket list for a long time. There are a select few trophies that are iconic in this sport, and this is one of them."

The Illiinois native was happy to be able to return here to resume his quest for the guitar.

"When we lost this racetrack on the schedule (in 2012), I was so disappointed because I loved coming here. I love the fans we have here. When they put it back on the schedule and to have the fan fare that we have... When the local community is excited about our sport, it makes it even that much sweeter to come and race at this racetrack. It's been nice to be here."

Allgaier won each of the first two stages before falling behind on the restart of Stage 3. He passed A.J. Allmendinger for the lead with 39 laps remaining.

"I told our team yesterday, 'If we can qualify decent and we can get some clean air there's no question we can win this race," Allgaier said.

The drivers had to endure in-car temperatures of around 130 degrees while fans and crews battled temps in the 90s.

"I kept looking up in the grandstands everytime we came out of Turn 4 and the people were packed in up there in the sun," Allgaier said. "I could see the sun beating down on the fans. They were up there cheering us on every lap we would come by. Even when it got spread out a little bit, the fans were still engaged in the race.

"I just kept thinking about how hot it was sitting up there. My job wasn't too bad sitting where I was at... I hope everybody was okay. It was extremely hot. I hope nobody got too overheated."

Allmendinger, starting on the outside of Row 1, shot past pole-sitter Riley Herbst to take the opening lead. Allgaier, who started fifth, moved up to challenge Allmendinger and took the lead on Lap 19.

Allgaier opened a six-second lead on a track whose rubber had been washed away by a heavy rain shower which hit the track more than an hour before the green flag, cutting short Cup qualifying. Stage 1 zipped through the first 45 laps caution free with Allgaier leading Trevor Bayne by six seconds.

Allgaier came out of his pit stop leading ahead of Josh Berry, whose crew gained him five spots during the caution. Berry slid back to fourth on the restart with Ty Gibbs moving up to second behind Allgaier. A speeding penalty on Pit Road dropped Allmendinger out of the top 10.

Stage 2 was as clean as the first as Allgaier worked up a two-second lead over Gibbs 90 laps in.

The first in-race incident came early in Stage 3 when Berry spun out and was contacted by Ryan Preece, who had won his second straight Rackley Roofing 200 Truck Series race the night before.

Allgaier maintained his lead on the restart on Lap 110 as Bayne settled into second place ahead of Gibbs and Allmendinger.

But Jeffrey Earnhardt tapped Sheldon Creed on Lap 117 to bring out the next caution. Allgaier led the leaders into the pits for tires and fuel. Bayne was hit with a penalty during the stop for equipment interference as two of his tires rolled into the next stall, dropping him to 13th.

Allmendinger completed his comeback as he was back in first place on the restart ahead of Brandon Jones.

But Sheldon Creed, Jeb Burton and Joe Graf Jr., collided, forcing another caution on Lap 125.

Jones went inside to pass Allmendinger for the lead on Lap 135. Allmendinger got the lead right back on the next turn around the track as the two continued to battle for first place.

Allgaier moved past Jones for second place with 42 laps to go and went past Allmendinger for the lead with 39 turns remaining.

Noah Gragson and Bayne passed Jones and Allmendinger for second and third place, four seconds behind Allgaier, with 25 laps remaining.

With no cautions coming, some of the leaders had to pit under green with around 20 laps remaining. Gragson and Jones came in while Allgaier stayed out with a four-second lead over Bayne.

Allgaier admitted to being nervous down the stretch.

"I needed some antacids when we pitted for tires because I thought it was too early," he said. "I didn't know what it was going to be like.

"About 10 to go I was expecting a caution. I'm not going to lie. The car felt really good."

Bayne, a Knoxville native who has been looking for a fulltime ride since leaving Rousch Fenway in 2018, said mistakes cost him in the end.

"We drove to second twice, from the back," Bayne said. "The second stage, we came in with Riley and hit a pit crew member, not intentionally, but it can happen. Then fell back to 15th and drove back to second.

"Then we had a loose wheel and had to go to the very back and drove back and was catching Allgaier. He's my buddy, Gator, congrats to him. Happy for him, but, man, I wanted to win that guitar and win here at Nashville."

Tennessee Lottery 250 Xfinity Series Nashville SuperspeedwayLebanon, Tenn.,June 26

(5) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 188.

(3) Trevor Bayne, Toyota, 188.

(1) Riley Herbst, Ford, 188.

(14) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 188.

(21) Sam Mayer, Chevrolet, 188.

(27) Ryan Preece(i), Ford, 188.

(11) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Toyota, 188.

(4) Austin Hill #, Chevrolet, 188.

(24) Ryan Sieg, Ford, 188.

(15) Brett Moffitt, Chevrolet, 188.

(17) Brandon Brown, Chevrolet, 188.

(25) Parker Retzlaff, Ford, 188.

(6) Noah Gragson, Chevrolet, 187.

(8) Brandon Jones, Toyota, 187.

(23) Stefan Parsons(i), Chevrolet, 187.

(2) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 187.

(10) Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, 187.

(12) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 187.

(29) Ryan Vargas, Chevrolet, 187.

(26) Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet, 187.

(18) Tyler Reddick(i), Chevrolet, 186.

(22) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 186.

(31) Alex Labbe, Chevrolet, 186.

(20) Ryan Ellis, Chevrolet, 185.

(28) Kyle Sieg #, Ford, 185.

(38) Patrick Emerling, Chevrolet, 185.

(35) Myatt Snider, Chevrolet, 185.

(34) BJ McLeod, Ford, 185.

(9) Josh Berry, Chevrolet, 184.

(30) Dillon Bassett, Chevrolet, 182.

(36) Bayley Currey, Chevrolet, 181.

(37) Natalie Decker, Toyota, 181.

(33) JJ Yeley, Toyota, 157.

(32) Josh Williams, Chevrolet, Electrical, 136.

(7) Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, Accident, 126.

(19) Sheldon Creed #, Chevrolet, Accident, 124.

(13) Joe Graf Jr., Ford, Accident, 123.

(16) Kyle Weatherman, Chevrolet, Power Steering, 118.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 119.319 mph.

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 5 Mins, 44 Secs. Margin of Victory: 4.513 Seconds.

Caution Flags: 5 for 27 laps.

Lead Changes: 13 among 5 drivers.

Lap Leaders: R. Herbst 0 A. Allmendinger 1-18 J. Allgaier 19-47 A. Allmendinger 48 J. Allgaier 49-92 J. Berry 93 T. Gibbs 94-96 J. Allgaier 97-98 T. Gibbs 99 J. Allgaier 100-118 A. Allmendinger 119-133 B. Jones 134 A. Allmendinger 135-148 J. Allgaier 149-188.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Justin Allgaier 5 times for 134 laps; AJ Allmendinger 4 times for 48 laps; Ty Gibbs 2 times for 4 laps; Brandon Jones 1 time for 1 lap; Josh Berry 1 time for 1 lap.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 7,18,98,16,21,8,54,19,1,9

Stage #2 Top Ten: 7,54,1,98,18,9,8,19,5,