By David Morgan, Associate Editor
BRISTOL, Tenn. – One driver’s misfortune was another’s gain.
Coming into Friday night’s Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway to close out the NASCAR Xfinity Series season, it appeared to be Justin Allgaier’s points lead to lose with a healthy lead over Cole Custer and others in the points standings.
It was going to take some misfortune on Allgaier’s part for Custer and the others to be in position to strike and that’s exactly what happened.
After leading the opening 60 laps, Allgaier found himself caught up in an accident not of his own doing when Austin Green ricocheted back across the track, making contact with the rear of Allgaier’s Chevrolet, ripping the rear bumper cover off and sending him to pit road for repairs. That incident would drop him out of the top-20, but he was able to rebound to 18th at the end of the first stage.
Allgaier would again be involved in an incident on Lap 154 when he was spun on the backstretch after contact with Sheldon Creed, the front-end impact with the inside wall was the more devastating hit for Allgaier, who would eventually fall a number of laps down and finish in 30th place.
With Allgaier out of the picture, Custer went to work, climbing to the lead on Lap 209 and never relinquishing it, streaking to the finish ahead of the Joe Gibbs Racing duo of Creed and Chandler Smith.
Banking his second win of the season, the victory was enough to propel him past Allgaier in the points race, earning him the regular season championship and the points bonus that comes with it as he looks to defend his championship from a year ago before moving back to the Cup Series in 2025.
“It’s huge to get this momentum because our confidence was going down there this last month, so to get this win really means a lot,” Custer said.
“Man, what a car. What a race. I mean, these guys did such a great job with this thing. I can’t thank HighPoint.com enough. Every race we’ve wanted to do better with them and this was finally a race we put it all together. It was just an unbelievable car. I could really drive through the field and do everything I needed. It’s a real testament to this team of what we can bring to the Playoffs.”
Jesse Love came home in fourth place, followed by Ryan Truex and Brandon Jones as the top-six drivers.
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. overcame a host of issues of his own to finish in seventh, with Ryan Sieg, Sam Mayer, and…
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