Justin Allgaier Wins in the Peach State

After 163 laps around the 1.5-mile track of Atlanta Motor Speedway, it was Justin Allgaier who led the final lap. The win marks Allgaier’s first victory of the 2021 season and his fifteenth career win in the series. Notably, his first career win at Atlanta also guarantees his spot in the 2021 playoffs. 

“First of all, God is good, man. This one is for Rowdy. Our pit crew is emotional because of Rowdy. You fans are awesome,” Allgaier said of his win. 

“Just proud of the effort we put in today. Martin had a great racecar, and he definitely had the car to beat. We made great adjustments,” said Allgaier. 

During the initial start of the race, Austin CIndric was the control car. Cindric obtained the pole position due to NASCAR’s formula calculations. Cindric remained in the lead until Martin Truex Jr., who started eighteenth, took the lead on lap 6. Truex remained in the lead until the competition caution appeared on lap 20. Following the competition caution, Truex was able to pick up right where he left off. The race continued under green until the first incident-related caution appeared with 5 laps to go in stage one. Dexter Bean was the cause of the caution. This set up a one-lap shootout to determine the stage one winner. During the shootout, there was a large accident to end the stage. The incident began when Brandon Jones spun sideways after receiving light contact from Brett Moffitt. Noah Gragson, David Starr, Austin Cindric, Timmy Hill, and A.J. Allmendinger all sustained damage from this pileup. With the mess behind him, Truex went on to claim the stage one win. 

Stage two had no cautions, and Truex went on to dominate the stage en route to his second stage win of the day. 

Truex remained in the lead throughout stage three until lap 113 saw another yellow flag for Mason Massey. This caution, of course, brought the field to pit road for fresh tires. On pit road, leader, Martin Truex Jr., suffered from a speeding penalty. Once back on the track, the sixth yellow flag of the day quickly appeared for Jeremy Clements and Jeb Burton, who were both having strong runs. Following the caution, Justin Allgaier was able to grab the lead. Allgaier continued leading until a yellow flag came with only 32 laps to go. Josh Berry’s spin was the cause. Berry sustained heavy damage from the grass, which ended his day. 

The race continued under green the rest of the way with Allgaier coming out victorious. Allgaier managed to hold off Truex, who trailed by a mere 1.449 seconds to finish in the runner-up position. Meanwhile, Harrison Burton, Noah Gragson, and A.J. Allmendinger all finished out the top five. 

Notably, the action didn’t stop at the wave of the checkered flag. On pit road, top-five finisher Noah Gragson got into a physical altercation with Daniel Hemric following the race due to a disagreement about an incident on pit road earlier in the day. 

The NASCAR Xfinity Series will not be back in action until their race at Martinsville Speedway. Be sure to tune into FS1 on Friday, April 9 at 8 PM ET to catch all the short track action. 

 

Kaylee Hiner