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AJ Allmendinger has won the NASCAR Xfinity Series “Food City” 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway after a miraculous series of last lap events involving Austin Cindric and Justin Allgaier.
Entering last evening’s race AJ Allmendinger (No. 16) and Austin Cindric (No. 22) anticipated a very thorough battle, as they had sat only a few points apart for regular season points lead, and this race was the final one of the regular season. Both drivers needed to outcompete the other if they wanted to become the regular season champion, which has a big points benefit in the Xfinity Series Playoffs.
Surprisingly the two top notch drivers did not have an opportunity to battle door to door for a majority of the race. as they remained a few positions a part for much of the night. While these drivers struggled to get to the front of the field, two other big name drivers Justin Allgaier (No. 7) and Daniel Hemric (No. 18) swapped back and forth for the lead. Allgaier and Hemric showed some really good speed but trouble came for Justin Allgaier as he joined his teammate Noah Gragson (No. 9) in speeding on pit road, and would be forced to restart in the rear of the field.
With Allgaier out of the way, Daniel Hemric drove away with the lead, hoping for his first career victory, but that was short lived as Austin Cindric caught up with Hemric’s No. 18 Toyota Supra and stole the lead. Surprisingly, not too long after Justin Allgaier was back in the top-5, recovering from his speeding penalty, this time joined by one of his other JR Motorsports teammates the No. 8 of Sam Mayer, who is was 18 years old. Allgaier had battled a loose condition all night and because of that, he had been sideways multiple times causing some minor damage to his race car. That combined with Sam Mayer’s expertise at Bristol Motor Speedway made Justin Allgaiers pass on the No. 8 car nearly impossible. Unfortunately as Allgaier trailed Mayer for several laps, Mayer’s rookie title made an appearance. As Mayer attempted to pass some very troublesome lap traffic, he became unsure of what lane he wanted to follow, because both lanes were blocked by slower car. Mayer originally chose the top lane, but as the bottom lane began to clear he dove low to try and get past the car in front of him. To Mayer’s surprise, the No. 7 of Justin Allgaier had just begun to pass Mayer and with nose of the No. 7 car on the rear bumper of the No. 8, Sam Mayer spun from 2nd place collecting a lap car which was the No. 92 of Josh Williams.
Following this event, the race was sent into overtime, meaning that there was a two lap shootout just waiting to determine the race winner. Did you forget about the No. 16 of AJ Allmendinger? Well guess what, he’d been trailing the No. 22, No. 8, and No. 7 for the last while, and was ready to pounce. I must explain for those who don’t know, but at some NASCAR race tracks there is a choose cone, which means on restarts drivers get to choose which lane the want to restart in. As Allmendinger sat in 3rd coming to the choose cone, Austin Cindric and Justin Allgaier who were in front of him both chose the top lane, which meant that Allmendinger would restart on the front row alongside the No. 22 of Cindric.
As the “Food City” 300 went into the final restart, under overtime, distress was in the air as chaos ensued. The top lane consisting of the No. 22 of Austin Cindric and the No. 7 of Justin Allgaier began to pull away, as the race leader (Cindric) had to be on the throttle first. AJ Allmendinger barely hung on to the second position down the front and back straightaways as Allgaier attempted to pass him. Going into turns three and four, Allmendinger drove his No. 16 Camaro hard into the corner, and up the race track, allowing him to carry more momentum into the corner and catch up with Austin Cindric. Nose to nose the No. 16 and the No. 22 made contact, and Allmendinger fell back to 3rd, as Justin Allgaier passed him on the front stretch. As the field barreled into turns one and two, the the same exact see scenario re-occurs as the No. 7 of Allgaier bangs door to door with the No. 22 of Cindric. The slows both the No. 22 and the No. 7 down and like what happened only one lap before, the race car in the 3rd poison passed the 2nd place car, and this time the leader as well. As the No. 7 and the No. 22 recover from this heavy contact, the No. 16 of AJ Allmendinger pulls away with only half a lap to go, and Allgaier suffers a tire rub and falls back.
As the field approaches the final two turns of the race track the No. 22 of Austin Cindric has caught the No. 16 of AJ Allmendinger and the regular season championship is only seconds from being determined. Cindric followed Allmendinger into the corner, and on exit dove low on the track, which gave him a huge run on the No. 16. The No. 22 of Austin Cindric is on the door of the No. 16 of AJ Allmendinger as the are yards from the checkered flag, and that’s when both cars slam doors and slide sideways across the finish line. AJ Allmendinger’s No. 16 car spun across the line first, and won the race in one of NASCAR’s most wild finishes of all time. As the leaders wreck past the finish line, the slam into the safer barriers, and then the field behind them destroying multiple race cars.
AJ Allmendinger let’s down the window net on his No. 16 “Barger Precast” Camaro and get out. The victorious driver lets out a yell of joy, and the crowd went crazy! While unharmed by the crazy finish, Allmendinger was taken to the infield care center due to safety precaution as the fans awaited a victory lane celebration. Several torn up race cars sat on the track, and tempers flared, but everyone had themselves to blame as the world of NASCAR witnessed a finish that will not soon be forgotten here at Bristol Motor Speedway.
AJ Allmendinger was crowned the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series regular season champion.
Justin Allgaier won the first stage of this race, and Daniel Hemric won the second stage of this race.
The following are the complete race results:
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| NASCAR.com (Click to Enlarge) |
ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?@AJDinger crashes, and wins anyway at @BMSUpdates! The win makes him the @NASCAR_Xfinity regular season CHAMPION! pic.twitter.com/BEYxVHfgcg
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) September 18, 2021
Teammates come together late in the #FoodCity300 at @BMSupdates as @J_Allgaier and @sam_mayer_ collide! pic.twitter.com/nuuExUBIxd
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) September 18, 2021
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