By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service
Justin Allgaier used pit strategy and a fast No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet to take the lead of Saturday’s Cabo Wabo 250 at Michigan International Speedway with 16 laps of regulation remaining and then held off the field in two laps of overtime – before a caution came out ending the race for an accident mid-field.
Allgaier pit for fuel seven laps later than the next six front-runners at the time, returned to the track and ultimately – methodically – picked each car off to claim the late lead. He took the white flag signaling one lap remaining and a few moments later one of the late-race leaders Carson Kvapil hit the wall in what became a chain reaction melee involving Chandler Smith and Kyle Sieg, whose car flipped end-over-end. Sieg was able to quickly climb out of his car and walked to the waiting medical crew.
Meanwhile Allgaier took the yellow and checkered flags just ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing’s Sheldon Creed, JGR’s John Hunter Nemechek, Our Motorsports’ Anthony Alfredo and JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith.
It’s the sixth consecutive top-10 finish in as many races for the 38-year-old Allgaier, who with the win – the 25th of his career – is now 10th on the NASCAR Xfinity Series all-time win list moving ahead of his team owner, NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr.
A bright rainbow hung in the sky as the field sat on pit road just before the overtime re-start as NASCAR track workers dried the famed two-mile Michigan track after the second brief rain shower of the day.
Asked to rally again, Allgaier proved his muster, ultimately passing his teammate Sammy Smith on the re-start and then holding off both JGR teammates Creed and defending race winner Nemechek for his second victory of the season.
“Just cannot say thank you enough to this team and all these guys standing right here,” Allgaier said. “It’s been an incredible week. We did not show up at [the last race in] Indianapolis like we wanted to and these guys have worked tirelessly through this break.
“It’s truly special, winning at Michigan.”
It was a record 11th runner-up finish for Creed – breaking a tie with current NASCAR Cup Series driver and former Xfinity Series champion Daniel Hemric and NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett for most second-place finishes in the series without a win.
Trophy or not, it was a productive day for Creed, who started from pole position and also announced…
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