Justin Allgaier colours Loudon red with Crayon 200 win

The last time Chevrolet won a NASCAR Xfinity Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the division was called the Busch Series and the #1 song was Rihanna and Jay-Z’s “Umbrella”. Over fifteen years after Kevin Harvick won at Loudon, Justin Allgaier ended the Chevrolet dry spell in convincing fashion as he dominated the final stretch for his third win of the year.

Allgaier did not lead any laps until the last fifty. Up to that point, he maintained solid pace as the Toyotas of Trevor Bayne and Ty Gibbs were the main leaders, though Allgaier was involved in an early incident when lap 90 contact with Xfinity Series newcomer Julia Landauer resulted in her wrecking. Landauer, who had not run a major race since 2020, explained in a social media statement that although Allgaier’s move was not out of malice and he subsequently apologised, the ramifications of the wreck impact her more than him.

“Justin gets to race every week. One misjudgment and contact doesn’t have much impact on his season or racing future,” began her post. “On the other hand, we had one race that we worked for months to get sponsorship for. Getting hit by a veteran (while being closer to the wall than the leader so I didn’t interfere with their battle) in Stage 1 ruined our race, and I don’t have a guaranteed next one. That moment of carelessness had a disproportionately bad effect on us.

“I know it’s racing, I know we run the risk of contact, but this was unnecessary and really hurt us as I was finding a rhythm, learning the car, and getting faster. That’s why I’m so bummed.
I know Justin is a good guy and my team, partners, and I appreciated his apology. We are working really hard to lock in a few more sponsors to get some more racing this year, and I’m hopeful I’ll see you on track again soon!

Despite pressure from Landon Cassill and Bayne, Allgaier kept them at bay after clearing the former for the lead with twenty laps to go. The win is Allgaier’s first at Loudon and a rebound after finishing runner-up to JGR’s Christopher Bell in 2021.

“We finished second here last year to [a Toyota] and I told these guys I really wanted to win here,” commented Allgaier. “This place has been so much fun over the years.”

Bayne settled for second for the second straight start, incidentally losing out to Allgaier again after doing so in Nashville in June. While he has been enjoying a solid part-time campaign for JGR with top tens in all but one race (the exception was twenty-eigth at the superspeedway-like Atlanta), he will have to wait until Las Vegas and Homestead in October to get another chance unless more races are added to his schedule.

“This is the second time I’ve run second to him—Nashville and here,” said Bayne. “Our car was good, but as the grip compound wore out of the race track, I feel like we got behind early in the race and actually got free in the second run, late in the run and took us a while to get it back. Felt like we gave up some in the short run speed there.

“On restarts, it was chaos. People missing shifts and putting us four wide. I think if we could have got there or been up front a little sooner, I think we had a shot. Allgaier was just a little better on that short run.”

Ten drivers including Landauer retired for crash damage, an unusually high number compared to just two in 2021, including pole-sitter Josh Berry and Stage #1 winner Ryan Sieg. Berry’s aggressive driving style resulted in him being clipped by Sheldon Creed on lap 126 and triggering a pile-up that caused Sieg’s rear to go airbourne. A red flag was called to clean up the track.

Cassill and Noah Gragson were disqualified after their cars were found to be too low in post-race inspection. It is the first time multiple disqualifications occurred in a national series race since the inaugural World 600 (now Coca-Cola 600) in 1960 DQ’d six drivers—Junior Johnson, Paul Lewis, Lennie Page, Lee and Richard Petty, and Bob Welborn—for improper pit entry.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	3	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
2	6	18	Trevor Bayne	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
3	19	68	Brandon Brown	Brandonbilt Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
4	21	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
5	18	2	Sheldon Creed	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
6	17	48	Ty Dillon*	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	200	Running
7	15	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
8	20	34	Kyle Weatherman	Jesse Iwuji Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
9	30	91	Mason Massey	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
10	24	4	Bayley Currey	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
11	31	08	David Starr	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	200	Running
12	26	07	Joe Graf Jr.	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	200	Running
13	33	38	C.J. McLaughlin	RSS Racing	Ford	200	Running
14	14	02	Brett Moffitt	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
15	12	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
16	28	35	Patrick Emerling	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Toyota	200	Running
17	34	44	Howie DiSavino III	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
18	22	26	Derek Griffith	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	198	Running
19	36	6	Ryan Vargas	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	198	Running
20	7	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	197	Running
21	4	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	196	Running
22	35	78	Matt Mills*	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	192	Running
23	38	66	J.J. Yeley	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	190	Running
24	29	5	Josh Williams	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	189	Electrical
25	37	13	Akinori Ogata*	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	169	Engine
26	10	88	William Byron*	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	163	Electrical
27	27	36	Alex Labbé	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	143	Accident
28	8	19	Brandon Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	142	Accident
29	16	23	Anthony Alfredo	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	138	Accident
30	13	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	133	Accident
31	1	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	127	Accident
32	11	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	124	Accident
33	23	27	Jeb Burton	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	124	Accident
34	25	31	Myatt Snider	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	124	Accident
35	2	11	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	105	Accident
36	32	45	Julia Landauer	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	90	Accident
37	5	10	Landon Cassill	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running (DSQ)
38	9	9	Noah Gragson	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running (DSQ)
DNQ		47	Bobby McCarty	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet