Justin Allgaier Marches To Win In Martinsville O'Reilly Series Race

Martinsville, V.A. -- Justin Allgaier continued his climb through the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series record books on Saturday evening at Martinsville Speedway, as he collected his 32nd career win in the NFPA 250.

The JR Motorsports driver, who started from the top starting spot, led a race-high 114 laps, but as the race was drawing to a close, it didn't look like he was the guy to beat late. But as things got chaotic in the closing laps, it was the veteran stability of Allgaier that was able to capitalize on the situations that played out.

In just the seventh race of the season, Allgaier is already up to three victories in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, two shy of his career-best of five, which he achieved in 2018.

"If I'm also being frank, I'm probably in the spot of my career where I'm having the most fun," Allgaier said in his post-race press conference. "I know that sounds dumb, but I know that the days are coming closer to an end than they are to starting."

There were questions as to how Allgaier would perform this year without Jim Pohlman, his longtime crew chief, who left to be the crew chief for Kyle Busch in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Needless to say, Allgaier is doing just fine, and a lot of that is because Pohlman's fingerprint is still on things.

"We have a lot of Jim still living within this 7 group. A lot of what we run on a weekly basis is still stuff that we developed together," Allgaier explained.

The veteran driver says that his new crew chief Andrew Overstreet has helped him and the No. 7 team try to take each race weekend and maximize it to their fullest potential.

Allgaier will now prepare to compete in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out 400 at Martinsville, as he'll start 21st behind the wheel of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Allgaier is filling in for Alex Bowman, who is sidelined due to a bout with vertigo.

The win also marks the fifth consecutive O'Reilly Series win for JR Motorsports, and team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. says the team is reaping the rewards of some hard work in the offseason after multiple internal changes.

"We worked really hard in the offseason. There were some rule changes and stuff that everybody in the O'Reilly Series was having to work around and understand," Earnhardt explained, "and we had a lot of changes as well with our personnel. We moved some crew chiefs around, and had some drivers shipped around, some new drivers came in. So, just a bunch of change really in the organization, you always worry about that."

Allgaier would cross the finish line ahead of Hendrick Motorsports' developmental talent Corey Day, who snagged a career-best second-place run. Day, who had a rocky start to the season, has come into his own as Saturday's runner-up finish marked his sixth consecutive top-10 result.

Sammy Smith would collect a third-place result, and he would be followed closely by Sheldon Creed, who picked up another solid finish at Martinsville Speedway. This run is Creed's sixth consecutive top-10 finish at the 0.526-mile short track.

Lee Pulliam was the story of the race, for good reasons early, and not so good reasons late, in Saturday's race. Pulliam, a short track ace making his series debut, held the lead late in the event. Driving the No. 9 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports, Pulliam missed a shift on a late-race restart with 15 laps remaining, which triggered a massive melee, which ended the day of several competitors.

Despite the late-race error, Pulliam had an excellent debut race in the series, as he led the race twice for a total of 40 laps, and he ended the race with a top-five finish.

Austin Hill, Dean Thompson, Ross Chastain, Ryan Sieg, and Brent Crews rounded out the top-10 finishers in the race.

Jesse Love, the 12th-place finisher, would confront Rajah Caruth (25th) after the race. Love was displeased with late-race contact from Caruth, which caused both drivers to miss out on top-10 finishes.

After a near-10-minute conversation, both drivers gave each other a fist bump, and cooler heads prevailed.

With his third win of the season, and third Stage win of the year, Allgaier was able to extend his NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series points lead on Saturday afternoon. Allgaier will exit Martinsville with a 92-point advantage over Jesse Love, the defending series champion.

Sheldon Creed moved up a spot to third in the standings, and he sits 116 points behind Allgaier.

Taylor Gray is in possession of the 12th, and final, position inside the Chase grid, and he holds a 20-point advantage over Anthony Alfredo, the first driver on the outside looking in. William Sawalich (-21), and Ryan Sieg (-24) also find themselves in the mix, but are currently outside of the cutline.

Next up for the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series is the North Carolina Education Lottery 250 Presented by Black's Tire at Rockingham Speedway on Saturday, April 4. That race will be televised on The CW, and television coverage of the event will begin at 2:30 PM ET/

NFPA 250 Race Results

1. 7-Justin Allgaier (S1) (X)
2. 17-Corey Day
3. 8-Sammy Smith
4. 00-Sheldon Creed
5. 9-Lee Pulliam
6. 21-Austin Hill (S2)
7. 26-Dean Thompson
8. 91-Ross Chastain (i)
9. 39-Ryan Sieg
10. 19-Brent Crews #
11. 99-Parker Retzlaff
12. 2-Jesse Love
13. 54-Taylor Gray
14. 44-Brennan Poole
15. 96-Anthony Alfredo
16. 48-Patrick Staropoli #
17. 31-Blaine Perkins
18. 20-Brandon Jones
19. 30-Myatt Snider
20. 18-William Sawalich
21. 42-Brad Perez
22. 45-Lavar Scott #
23. 41-Sam Mayer
24. 55-Joey Gase
25. 88-Rajah Caruth
26. 24-Harrison Burton
27. 0-Garrett Smithley
28. 1-Carson Kvapil
29. 87-Austin Green
30. 27-Jeb Burton
31. 32-Andrew Patterson
32. 92-Josh Williams
33. 25-Nick Sanchez
34. 28-Kyle Sieg
35. 07-Josh Bilicki
36. 02-Ryan Ellis
37. 51-Jeremy Clements
38. 5-Luke Baldwin (i)

(S1) Stage 1 winner
(S2) Stage 2 winner
(X) Xfinity Fastest Lap
# Rookie of the Year contender
(i) Driver ineligible to score series points

Time of Race: 2 hours, 23 minutes, 25 seconds
Average Speed: 55.015 mph
Margin of Victory: 0.258 seconds
Cautions: 14 for 153 laps
Lead Changes: 14 among 8 drivers