Race Report: Richmond

Justin Allgaier, driver of the BRANDT Professional Agriculture Chevrolet, drove his way to a third-place finish in Friday night’s 250-lap NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Richmond Raceway. The JR Motorsports driver’s top-five finish earned him a spot in the NXS Dash 4 Cash at the upcoming race at Talladega Superspeedway. Allgaier and the No. 7 team moved up to fifth in the NXS point standings.

With rain washing out qualifying, Allgaier lined up seventh for the race and was up to second by lap 4. He relayed to the BRANDT team shortly after that the No. 7 Camaro was free on entry and exit and tight through the center of the turns. On lap 20, the Illinois native made a pass for the lead, pacing the field until lap 37 when Christopher Bell got by. He was still running in second when the caution flag waved on lap 66. Allgaier came to pit road for four tires, fuel and an adjustment to help with the handling on the No. 7 BRANDT Chevy. Restarting in second on lap 71, Allgaier was able to retake the lead and win Stage One when the green-and-white checkered flag waved with 75 laps complete.

Starting Stage Two from the first position on lap 82, Allgaier held on to the lead for several laps until a caution flag waved on lap 127. With a rain cell moving over the track, strategy started to come into play. The BRANDT team opted to stay out under the caution, with many of the cars behind them coming to pit road. He restarted in the top spot on lap 138, but when Stage Two came to an end on lap 150, Allgaier was scored in the 14^th position.

The team called Allgaier to pit road under the stage-ending caution for four tires and fuel. When the green flag dropped for the final stage, Allgaier drove from 16^th on lap 161 up to second within 10 laps. He was still in the runner-up spot when the yellow flag came out on lap 212 and the team took to opportunity to come to pit road for the final time for fresh tires. He restarted in second on lap 219 but lost a few positions on the track. A wreck quickly put the race back under yellow-flag conditions and when the field went back to green with 26 laps to go, Allgaier started working his way back towards the top spot. He moved up two positions in the final laps to take the checkered flag in third.

Cole Custer won the race and was followed by Austin Cindric and Allgaier, with Tyler Reddick and Ryan Sieg rounding out the top five.

Justin Allgaier, driver No. 7 BRANDT Professional Agriculture team

“We had a lot of positives to take away from today. We had some things that didn’t work out the way we wanted them to, but I’m really proud of everybody on this BRANDT Professional Agriculture team. I thought we had speed, especially early on when the rubber got laid down. We just needed a little bit more at the end. To be able to come back from where we were there in the final stage was huge. With the year we’ve had, a solid third-place finish and a good points night was exactly what we needed. I’m excited to be able to compete for that $100,000 Dash 4 Cash prize at Talladega in a couple weeks.”