With cars that bounced off each other like pinball machines in two extra laps, AJ Allmendinger won his Kaulig Racing Chevrolet with the number 16 in the three-way competition, overtook Justin Allgaier and Austin Cindric in the last lap and won the Food City on Friday evening 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
The victory gave Allmendinger the NASCAR Xfinity Series Regular Season Championship 10 points ahead of Cindric, who held the lead in the race when the 10th.
In the overtime it went crazy. Cindric and Allgaier chose the top lane and Allmendinger chose the inside of the first row. On the White Flag lap, Allmendinger drove hard into turns 3 and 4 and slipped into Cindric’s No. 22 Team Penske Ford.
Allmendinger dropped to third place, but the contact between Allgaier’s Camaro and Cindric’s Mustang was there Allmendinger had the chance to slip into the lead under both cars.
But the race wasn’t over yet. On the last lap, Cindric stormed out of the last corner, crashed into Allmendinger and both cars slid sideways over the finish line, Allmendinger being the winner with 0.082 seconds.
After the checkered flag, Allmendinger raced over the inner wall and slid across the track into traffic and received a huge hit from Kaulig Racing team-mate Justin Haley.
« I expected to be hit, » said Allmendinger. “It happened in the previous corner. It’s frustrating to be hit so hard to get to the checker but we’re fighting to win. It’s bristol baby That’s what it’s about.
“I didn’t have many chances to win in Bristol so you know what? If you have the opportunity to do it, you have to do it. If I don’t take this chance, I don’t belong in a racing car because my team deserves victory. «
Can you believe this finish?!?!?!? 😱 @ AJDinger wins the race and the title in the regular season ahead of @AustinCindric on the line! pic.twitter.com/BYxm1L5fMB
« I thought we had a great fight all season up to this point, so congratulations to Kaulig and AJ, » said Cindric, who led 75 rounds, third most behind Allgaiers 92 and Daniel Hemrics 78. « These guys didn’t mean us to win really bad, and I hate that it completely destroyed our Ford Mustang.
» That’s all I have, man … It looks like whether the 7 (Allgaier) has just come loose there (in Spinning Mayer) and AJ obviously just drove through us. You’ll have that in the green and white checkered race. ”
The win was Allmendinger’s first in Bristol, his fourth of the season and the ninth of his career. The final lap of overtime was the only lap he led as the race went six laps over the planned 300 lap distance.
The cutoff race in the regular season also set the final positions for the lap of the final 12 in the Xfinity Series playoffs. As expected, Brandon Jones, Riley Herbst and Jeremy Clements scored the last three points without a new winner when the series starts at the start of the playoffs on September 25 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Herbst finished third behind the wrecking truck from Allmendinger and Cindric. Allgaier fell back to fourth place on the last lap, Jones and Haley were fifth and sixth. Harrison Burton, Myatt Snider, Mayer and Hemric completed the top 10.
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