AUSTIN, Texas — With 26 laps to go in the Pit Boss 250 (March 25) at Circuit of the Americas, AJ Allmendinger was in 29th place. The road-course ace was mired deep in the pack due to pit strategy. Then, his car was battered and bruised by an incident in turn 1, leaving him at the tail end of the pack.
Could he really come back from that? Well, he restarted 25th on lap 23 and drove up to eighth place by lap 26, all under the green flag. With 14 laps to go, the Los Gatos, Calif. native was up to second. He then got into Sheldon Creed, sending the No. 2 car spinning. ‘Dinger zoomed by unscathed never relinquished the lead.
William Byron gave chase to Allmendinger the rest of the way, keeping the lead at or below one second. As Byron closed in on the final lap, he missed his mark in the esses and couldn’t get back to Allmendinger. Ty Gibbs came home third, sweeping the top three for Cup Series regulars. Sammy Smith finished fourth and Justin Allgaier rounded up the top five.
This was the first race in years to feature no cautions at the end of stages. Allgaier let Frontstretch know how much he liked that “new” twist after the race.
Winners
Allmendinger scored his 16th Xfinity Series win and his 11th on road courses. The come-from-behind nature of the win adds to his legacy and brings back memories of his Portland win last season. This was the first win for Kaulig Racing since the Charlotte ROVAL, the last time we were at a road course. Can you guess who won that race? Here’s a hint: His name rhymes with “all-time ringer.”
Oh, what could’ve been for Creed. He won stage two and had a great run going until the contact from Allmendinger dropped him back to 24th with just 14 laps to go. The 25-year-old then staged a comeback of his own. He went on to finish ninth and thanks to his stage results of second and first, he scored the most points on the day.
Smith showed he will be a factor on the road courses despite his rookie status. The Johnston, Iowa native held his own with teammate Gibbs. Smith collected points in both stages and finished fourth.
It appeared Riley Herbst might lose his top-10 streak. He ran a clean race, but was 12th with four laps to go. Misfortune for John Hunter Nemechek and a pass on Jeb Burton kept…
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