Justin Allgaier is celebrating NASCAR Nashville win

Following an exhilarating series of door-to-door battles in the final stages of the race, veteran Justin Allgaier from JR Motorsports secured his fourth NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series victory of the season.

The 2024 series champion successfully defended his position against the skilled 18-year-old rookie, Brent Crews, who described the competitive racing during Saturday night’s Sports Illustrated Resorts 250 at Nashville Superspeedway as “the most fun I’ve had without winning.”

Allgaier’s win in the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, finishing 1.4 seconds ahead of Crews, marked his third victory at the 1.33-mile Nashville concrete oval and the 32nd triumph of his career. It required intense, clean side-by-side racing to ultimately surpass Crews’ No. 19 Joe Gibbs Motorsports Toyota with 20 laps remaining, securing the win.

The seasoned Allgaier celebrated by exiting through his Chevrolet’s roof hatch and bowing to the Nashville audience, honoring the signature celebration of two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch, who recently passed away due to pneumonia and sepsis.

“First of all, it’s been a rough couple of weeks, and many prayers to [Busch’s wife] Samantha and Kyle and [their children] Brexton and Lennix - it’s been an emotional couple of weeks,” Allgaier stated.

“This team, right here, they are incredible. To win in Nashville, you fans... this place is electric. I love coming to Nashville.”

“I told them before the race that we were going to go to victory lane,” said a smiling Allgaier, who turns 40 next week and plans to conclude his victorious race weekend by participating in a triathlon in downtown Nashville on Sunday.

“What a race,” he added with a smile.

The near-miss marks North Carolinian Crews’ second runner-up finish this season. He led the race twice for a total of 45 laps, the most he has ever led in a single race.

“Man, the positive was, I thought we were going to win that race,” Crews said regarding his takeaway from the race. “I’m happy for our guys.”

“Had to start 33rd and worked our way up to the lead and led a lot of laps and got to race one of the best guys in our series of all time for the win in the last few laps,” he said. “Couldn’t ask for much more, other than to beat him.”

Crews’ teammate William Sawalich finished third, securing his third consecutive top-five finish. Haas Factory Team’s Sam Mayer came in fourth, marking his fifth straight top 10 at Nashville, with another JGR driver, Brandon Jones, completing the top five.

Corey Day, Carson Kvapil, reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson, Taylor Gray, and Sammy Smith rounded out the top 10. Notably, Smith is competing in the Nashville triathlon alongside his JR Motorsports teammate Allgaier.

Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love finished 16th after leading the most laps (87), with a late race pit stop error putting the reigning series champion a lap down at one point before he recovered. He lost some ground in the title race and now sits 179 points behind the 2024 series champion Allgaier in the championship standings.

“Definitely really frustrating,” a disappointed Love said post-race. “Our Camaro was really fast and I know we had a misstep on pit road but we’ve got the best pit crew in the garage right now, it’s not even close.”

“The only thing I can control is the way I prepare and keep showing up even when it hurts and I know right now, my path isn’t necessarily coming with a lot of wins and that can be frustrating but it’s the past now, so all I can do is keep showing up and preparing. It’s going to turn around. It has to. There’s no other possible way it’s not going to and having faith in that will get me through all this.”

YouTube personality Cleetus McFarland finished 36th in his second NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series start, overcoming a series of late race pit stop errors and penalties to take the checkered flag in the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

After a streak of 16 consecutive races, the series will have its first off-week next weekend before returning to competition on June 13 in the Miller Tech Battery 250 at Pocono Raceway (4 p.m., The CW, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Connor Zilisch is the defending race winner.