Justin Allgaier holds off Knoxville's Trevor Bayne to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series Tennessee Lottery 250

LEBANON — After finishing second to Kyle Busch in the inaugural NASCAR Xfinity Series Tennessee Lottery 250 in 2021, Justin Allgaier won the second annual race Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway.

Allgaier held off Knoxville's Trevor Bayne, the 2011 Daytona 500 winner who considers Nashville his home track

It was the second win and 10th top-10 finish of the season for the 36-year-old Allgaier, a Spaulding, Illinois, native who won all three stages in the race.

Holding off Bayne

Allgaier had built a comfortable 3-6 seconds lead late in the race. The only threat came when Bayne moved from fifth to second with 25 laps left.

"Knowing Trevor really, really well and knowing this is almost home for him and he's been trying to get back to victory lane so bad, I knew he was going to be tough to beat," Allgaier said. "I knew he was pushing hard then it was like, 'OK, how do we try to maintain the gap?' He made some good time there for a little bit and I just tried not to cook the tires off of it and over five or six laps we were able to pull back out a little bit."

Allgaier said he was worried a caution flag would come in the final 10 laps giving Bayne an opportunity on the restart. It didn't happen.

"I'm not going to lie, I was really worried about that and to not get that felt really good," Allgaier said.

Even after making such a strong push late Bayne knew it would be an uphill battle to overtake Allgaier.

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"I really feel like our car was there, I feel like I was there," Bayne, 31, said. "We've just got to be perfect if we’re going to win, and that’s what (Allgaier) was today. They were good all the way through, had a great car but we were catching them good."

It was Allgaier's 18th career Xfinity Series win and 15th with JR Motorsports. He moved to third in the points standings.

Allgaier took the lead from Xfinity Series points leader A.J. Allmendinger on lap 159 and led the rest of the way. He led all but 53 of the 188 laps.

Beating the heat

Several drivers mentioned the intense heat they had to endure after a quick shower came just before the start of the race. Temperatures were in the mid-90s for much the race.

Allgaier said he refused to allow the heat to affect his mindset.

"I kept looking up in the grandstands every time on turn 4 and the people were packed in up there in the sun; I could see the sun beating down on the fans," Allgaier said. "I could see them up there cheering us on lap after lap, staying engaged in the race and I just kept thinking about how hot it probably was up there. It made me realize my job wasn't too bad sitting where I was."

Also in the mix

Riley Herbst finished third, Ty Gibbs was fourth and Sam Mayer was fifth.

Ryan Preece, who won the Camping Word Truck Series Rackley 200 Friday night for the second consecutive year, finished sixth.

Another local favorite, Josh Berry from Hendersonville, moved to sixth early and was running ninth on lap 104 when he and Preece got close to each other and Berry spun out. Berry finished 29th.

Jeffrey Earnhardt, the grandson of Dale Earnhardt Sr. and nephew of Dale Earnhardt Jr., caused a caution on lap 115 when he got sideways. He was able to recover and finished seventh.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Justin Allgaier wins NASCAR Xfinity Tennessee Lottery 250 in Nashville