Allmendinger dominates in Xfinity win at Indy Road Course

Despite an early-race setback on pit road that set him back in the field, Allmendinger rebounded and led a race-high 42 of 62 laps.

Allmendinger reclaimed the lead for the final time on a restart on Lap 45 and cruised to a 2.084-second win over Cup Series regular Alex Bowman.

The win is Allmendinger’s third of the year and all have come on road courses (his other wins were at Circuit of the Americas and Portland). It’s also the 13th victory of his career.

“God, I love this place. Indy, baby! Let’s go,” Allmendinger said. “I can’t thank everybody at Kaulig Racing, all the men and women, enough. We struggled, we worked hard to get a little bit better. I knew Bowman was really good on the long runs so I tried to gap him as much as I could. God, I love Indy.

“We win and lose as a team but I knew the way our car was set up, it was not very good in traffic. We had a little bit of a brake issue, too. The guys recovered really well. I was just frustrated because we gave up stage points a little bit there as well.

“But at this point, points don’t mean a damn thing. We’re kissing the bricks!”

Justin Allgaier fought a wild battle with Ross Chastain to finally claim third place on the final lap while Chase Briscoe rounded out the top-five.

Completing the top-10 were Riley Herbst, Sam Mayer, Ty Gibbs, Austin Hill and Noah Gragson.

Stage 3

Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, several lead-lap cars pit but Bowman was among those who stayed out and inherited the lead.

Daniel Hemric was penalized for speeding on pit road while Andy Lally, Jeremy Clements and Gibbs were penalized for commitment line violations. All had to restart from the rear of the field.

When the race resumed on Lap 45, Bowman was followed by Allmendinger, Allgaier and Sheldon Creed.

Allmendinger cleared Bowman in Turn 1 to return to the lead.

On Lap 47, Creed briefly spun off course after contact with Chastain but no caution was called.

With 10 laps remaining, Allmendinger opened up a 3-second lead over Bowman as Chastain ran third, more than eight seconds behind the leader.

Briscoe got around Chastain and moved into the third position on Lap 54.

With five laps to go, Allmendinger remained ahead of Bowman by 2.5 seconds as Chastain moved back into third.

Stage 2

With many teams electing to pit under green before the stage break, Josh Berry stayed out and easily claimed the Stage 2 win over Alex Labbe.

Kaz Grala was third, Sage Karam fourth and Preston Pardus ended up fifth.

Following the break between Stages 1 and 2, a handful of cars elected to pit but Bowman stayed out and inherited the lead.

On the restart on Lap 25, Bowman was followed by Allgaier, Herbst and Gibbs.

Gibbs spun in Turn 1 after contact with Berry but was able to get straightened out as Allgaier moved into the lead. Later in the lap, Berry spun out Herbst.

NASCAR was forced to display a caution on Lap 27 for a large piece of metal that ended up on the track in Turn 1.

Gragson was forced to pit under green to repair damage to his left-front splitter. The race resumed on Lap 29 with Allgaier out front, followed by Bowman and Allmendinger.

Allmendinger quickly powered back to the lead on the restart in Turn 1.

With five laps remaining in the stage, a handful of teams elected to make green-flag pit stops, to take new tires and fuel to make it to the finish of the race.

Among those making stops were Briscoe, Creed, Austin Hill, Hemric, Chastain, Allgaier, Allmendinger and Bowman.

Stage 1

Gragson held off Myatt Snider in a two-lap dash to the finish to claim the Stage 1 win.

Bowman was third, Allgaier fourth and Herbst rounded out the top-five.

Allmendinger started on the pole and cleared Gibbs off Turn 4 on Lap 1 to take early command of the race.

Labbe was forced to pit under green on Lap 6 after twice locking up his front tires in turns on the course.

With 10 laps remaining in the stage, Allmendinger had opened a 2.7-second lead over Gibbs as Bowman ran third.

Bubba Wallace was forced to pit on Lap 10 under green as his No. 18 Toyota was overheating. He got four new tires and had some tape removed from the grille.

On Lap 15, Parker Kligerman spun and wrecked into Ryan Ellis in Turn 7 and both cars ended up stuck off the course, which brought out a caution.

Most lead-lap cars pit with Gibbs the first off pit road. Allmendinger had a slow stop as his car fell off the jack. Briscoe had to restart from the rear of the field due to a commitment line violation.

Gragson was among those who stayed out and led the way on the restart with two laps to go. He was followed by Snider and Gibbs.

The following drivers had to start the race from the rear of the field: Brandon Brown, Kligerman, Grala, Austin Dillon, Anthony Alfredo, Brandon Jones, Bayley Currey, Briscoe and Miguel Paludo.

Jeb Burton had to take his No. 27 to the garage just before the green flag due to an issue with the track bar in his car. He never completed a lap.

Cla	#	Driver		Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Laps Led	Retirement	Points	Bonus
1	16	A.J. Allmendinger		Chevrolet	62	1:56'34.844			42
2	17	Alex Bowman		Chevrolet	62	1:56'36.928	2.084	2.084	4
3	7	Justin Allgaier		Chevrolet	62	1:56'51.524	16.680	14.596	4
4	92	Ross Chastain		Chevrolet	62	1:56'52.111	17.267	0.587
5	07	Chase Briscoe		Ford	62	1:56'55.418	20.574	3.307
6	98	Riley Herbst		Ford	62	1:56'58.111	23.267	2.693
7	1	Sam Mayer		Chevrolet	62	1:57'00.350	25.506	2.239
8	54	Ty Gibbs		Toyota	62	1:57'01.598	26.754	1.248	1
9	21	Austin Hill		Chevrolet	62	1:57'02.213	27.369	0.615
10	9	Noah Gragson		Chevrolet	62	1:57'02.777	27.933	0.564	6
11	10	Landon Cassill		Chevrolet	62	1:57'05.268	30.424	2.491
12	36	Alex Labbé		Chevrolet	62	1:57'05.694	30.850	0.426
13	45	Sage Karam		Chevrolet	62	1:57'06.727	31.883	1.033
14	8	Josh Berry		Chevrolet	62	1:57'10.435	35.591	3.708	5
15	19	Brandon Jones		Toyota	62	1:57'12.039	37.195	1.604
16	02	Brett Moffitt		Chevrolet	62	1:57'14.571	39.727	2.532
17	26	Santino Ferrucci		Toyota	62	1:57'16.058	41.214	1.487
18	23	Anthony Alfredo		Chevrolet	62	1:57'21.120	46.276	5.062
19	51	Jeremy Clements		Chevrolet	62	1:57'22.030	47.186	0.910
20	6	Ty Dillon		Chevrolet	62	1:57'25.195	50.351	3.165
21	4	Bayley Currey		Chevrolet	62	1:57'26.057	51.213	0.862
22	11	Daniel Hemric		Chevrolet	62	1:57'26.394	51.550	0.337
23	2	Sheldon Creed		Chevrolet	62	1:57'26.951	52.107	0.557
24	88	Miguel Paludo		Chevrolet	62	1:57'32.968	58.124	6.017
25	08	Andy Lally		Ford	62	1:57'35.523	1'00.679	2.555
26	68	Austin Dillon		Chevrolet	62	1:57'36.857	1'02.013	1.334
27	39	Ryan Sieg		Ford	62	1:57'37.535	1'02.691	0.678
28	38	Patrick Gallagher		Ford	62	1:57'39.425	1'04.581	1.890
29	91	Preston Pardus		Chevrolet	62	1:57'40.088	1'05.244	0.663
30	34	Kyle Weatherman		Chevrolet	62	1:57'42.353	1'07.509	2.265
31	5	Scott Heckert		Chevrolet	62	1:57'42.805	1'07.961	0.452
32	48	Kaz Grala		Chevrolet	61	1:56'58.853	1 Lap	1 Lap
33	31	Myatt Snider		Chevrolet	61	1:57'20.514	1 Lap	21.661
34	47	Brandon Brown		Chevrolet	58	1:53'44.397	4 Laps	3 Laps
35	18	Bubba Wallace		Toyota	28	59'00.383	34 Laps	30 Laps
36	44	Ryan Ellis		Chevrolet	17	42'31.283	45 Laps	11 Laps
37	35	Parker Kligerman		Toyota	11	20'54.360	51 Laps	6 Laps
38	27	Jeb Burton		Chevrolet	0	12.391	62 Laps	11 Laps