Justin Allgaier won the NASCAR Xfinity Series Lilly Diabetes 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for his fifth win of the season.
The JR Motorsports driver was able to stay ahead of the field in the closing laps of a wild race that featured the same aerodynamic rules package used last year at Indy to take the checkered flag. The race was originally scheduled for Saturday but postponed to Monday due to heavy rains around the Indianapolis area all weekend.
“I used to come here and stand in the grandstands and watch the Brickyard 400 and this one is for my dad,” said Allgaier. “He used to drive me up here to Brickyard Crossing every Wednesday night to help me become the best driver I could be … this is awesome.”
Allgaier is the first JR Motorsports driver to win five times in a season. He was tied at four with William Byron (2017), Kevin Harvick (2014) and Brad Keselowski (2009).
He led 41 of the day’s 100 laps, including the final 17.
Reddick, Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott and Daniel Hemric rounded out the top five.
Matt Tifft, Christopher Bell, Austin Dillon, Chase Briscoe and Brandon Jones completed the first 10 finishers.
John Hunter Nemechek and Hemric won the first two stages of the race.
The race was tough one for two drivers in the battle for the series regular season championship in Elliott Sadler and Cole Custer.
Sadler was involved in a Lap 22 crash when there was contact with Ty Dillon and other cars racing through the first turn. Sadler spun into the outside wall and was eliminated from the race.
“Sorry guys, had no place to go,” Sadler told his crew over the in-car radio.
Custer made contact with Brandon Jones and lost control of his car sliding into the inside SAFER Barrier before riding back up on to the track.
“You’re trying to make blocks and trying to get runs and trying to be as aggressive as you can and things just happen,” said Custer, who was credited with a “I thought our Haas Automation Mustang was pretty fast, we just couldn’t get many people to work with us. It seemed like we just got hung out to dry a lot, but I just made a mistake there trying to make a block, so we’ll try and go to Vegas and win one.”
The race also had a red flag after Ryan Preece made hard contact with the infield tire barrier after spinning on lap 78.
“I don’t know, man,” said a dejected Preece. “These restarts are tough for sure. The air is just off it at that point. I don’t know. It’s tough. You try to get all that you can. Probably when he (John Hunter Nemechek) got loose is when I felt the air right there. Tough deal. It’s upsetting for sure, but I’ll be back in the next eight weeks.”
The NASCAR Xfinity Series now heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway next Saturday afternoon.
