Allgaier takes Xfinity race at Road America; Elliott 20th
ELKHART LAKE, WIS. » Race leader Justin Allgaier watched in the mirror as the two cars closest to his Chevrolet made contact, essentially bumping his two closest rivals out of contention.
The coast was clear for Allgaier to sail to victory Saturday at Road America for his fourth win of the season.
But Allgaier kept thinking about everything else that could go wrong.
What if he didn’t hit his mark on a turn? What if his car ran over a debris on the track? What if he just ran out of fuel?
“OK if I run out of gas I may not go back to the garage area,” Allgaier said in recounting his internal conversation. “I may just walk back home to Charlotte.”
Instead, he’ll head back with his second victory in three weeks, both coming on road courses, after pulling away over the final five laps. Allgaier held a 5.4-second advantage over second-place Matt Tifft to take the tense race filled with bumps, scrapes and spin-outs around the 14-turn course. Daniel Hemric, Tifft’s teammate at Richard Childress Racing, was third.
The victory erases the sting of a close call in 2011, when Allgaier led late in the race before running out of fuel during a yellow flag.
This time, Allgaier was the beneficiary of late-race commotion. With three laps to go, second-place James Davison and third-place Justin Marks were jockeying for position trying desperately to catch Allgaier when their cars spun out around a tight left turn.
Tifft blew past Davison and Marks. But no one could catch Allgaier, who started 11th. The victory allowed him to leapfrog Christopher Bell atop the series driver standings.
NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott finished 20th after coming out of retirement to take his first ride Xfinity ride around Road America. The 62-year-old Elliott started 23rd, then climbed up to 17th before spinning out and falling back.
“It was a heck of a lot of fun,” Elliott said. Most of the attention coming into the race fell on Road America rookies like Elliott. British racer Katherine Legge, who was driving in her second NASCAR race, finished 14th.