‘They Ruined a Fantastic Race’

DOVER, Del. — Saturday’s (April 27) NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Dover Motor Speedway will be a race to forget for Justin Allgaier.

It was a day where he had potential winning speed and was undone in the final 50 laps by a caution for rain and a series of late-race restarts.

“I don’t even know where to start with today, it was just a comedy of errors on all sides,” Allgaier said.

Cole Custer and Allgaier were running first and second when a caution came out for rain on lap 159, and they rolled the dice and banked on a rain shower that would end the race.

Instead, the heavy rain never arrived despite a brief red-flag hold on lap 167. The cars were soon re-fired and because the cars had the opportunity to come down pit road before the red flag was displayed, the pits remained closed until the next restart. Custer had to pit for gas and serve the penalty, while Allgaier reluctantly stayed on track for the upcoming restart.

Not reopening the pits after the red, NASCAR’s decision to throw the caution for rain when it did and confusion on the choose for the restart were all sources of frustration for Allgaier on pit road after the race.

“We called the caution for no rain and decided to go back [racing] when the rain actually started to come down,” Allgaier said. “Then [race control] told us one-to-go choose, we picked the outside, and the No. 21 (Austin Hill) stayed doubled up with us when I was above the choose cone. And then they come in and tell us we have to go to the bottom when we chose the outside.

“They didn’t open pit road, we couldn’t come down and put fuel in it, you go through the comedy of errors that they made, and it’s frustrating.

“You know, they ruined a fantastic race today, and it is what it is. Whether I win the race or not it doesn’t really matter, but when you make errors like that it’s uncalled for. I’ve already asked to go talk to [NASCAR], and hopefully they’ll give me some resolution on it, because I don’t understand this one.”

Allgaier still had a chance to salvage his day after pitting out of sequence, as a series of late restarts allowed him to climb up to sixth for the final restart. But even that went awry, as a last lap crash saddled him with a 17th-place finish.

“Last lap, the right rear [tire] was going down from the damage in that last restart,” Allgaier said. “With the way…