Allgaier dominates to win Xfinity race

LEBANON, TENN. » Justin Allgaier routed the field at Nashville Superspeedway on Saturday for his second Xfinity Series victory of the season.

The JR Motorsports driver led 134 of the 188 laps in his Chevrolet and beat Trevor Bayne by 4.513-seconds on a hot, steamy afternoon in which in-car temperatures inched toward 130 degrees.

“That was a butt-kicking,” Allgaier radioed his team. “Thank you guys so much, it never gets old.”

He said he can’t recall a time he’s had such a dominant race car, and was glad to have it at Nashville. It was his eighth career Xfinity Series start at Nashville and first time Allgaier collected the winner’s celebratory custom guitar.

Riley Herbst finished third and was followed by Ty Gibbs, Sam Mayer and Ryan Preece, winner of the Truck Series race on Friday night.

Truex Jr. returning to JGR

LEBANON, TENN. » It took Martin

Truex Jr. only seven words to end the season-long speculation about his future in NASCAR.

“I’m back in the 19 next year,” Truex said at Nashville Superspeedway. A statement from Joe Gibbs Racing was even more brief: “I’m coming back,” was Truex’s attributed quote.

Nice and succinct for the 2017 NASCAR champion, who has never been verbose but particularly short on details as he pondered his future the last several months. His contract with JGR expires at the end of the year, and the most Truex would reveal was that the organization needed a decision from the driver this summer.

“The competitive side of me said I’m not done and I’m going to keep fighting, so here we are,” said Truex, who turns 42 on Wednesday.

Next year will be his 18th season in the Cup Series, and the New Jersey native has 31 career wins and a pair of Xfinity Series titles. He heads into Sunday’s race at Nashville winless on the season but ranked sixth in the standings.