A.J. Allmendinger takes Talladega win on final lap

Sam Mayer was hoping to finally break through and score his maiden NASCAR Xfinity Series win, but A.J. Allmendinger had other plans as the regular season champion overtook him in the closing stretch to win at Talladega Superspeedway for the first time.

Allmendinger, pushed by Kaulig Racing team-mate Landon Cassill, beat Mayer to the finish by .015 of a second. It is his fourth win of 2022 and the seventh for Kaulig at a superspeedway (four at Talladega, three at Daytona).

Austin Hill, who has established himself as one of the series’ top superspeedway drivers despite being a rookie, looked to be the favourite as he led 60 of 113 laps. However, despite him and Richard Childress Racing partner Sheldon Creed finishing 1–2 in Stage #1 and their strong day, they were shuffled back in the late-race madness and placed outside the top ten.

While Talladega is infamous for its multitude of crashes, Ty Gibbs‘ spin on lap four was the only caution of the day for an on-track incident, yet even he rebounded to finish seventh. Remarkably, all thirty-eight cars finished the race, the third time in series history that such a feat occurred after the 1988 Hampton 200 at Langley (twenty-three drivers) and 1998 Pepsi 200 at Michigan (forty-three).

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	8	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	113	Running
2	13	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	113	Running
3	18	10	Landon Cassill	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	113	Running
4	14	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	113	Running
5	7	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	113	Running
6	9	48	Parker Kligerman*	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	113	Running
7	2	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	113	Running
8	12	11	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	113	Running
9	5	19	Brandon Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	113	Running
10	6	9	Noah Gragson	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	113	Running
11	23	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	113	Running
12	3	2	Sheldon Creed	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	113	Running
13	11	18	Trevor Bayne^	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	113	Running
14	1	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	113	Running
15	4	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	113	Running
16	20	23	Anthony Alfredo	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	113	Running
17	16	27	Jeb Burton	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	113	Running
18	35	66	J.J. Yeley	MBM Motorsports	Chevrolet	113	Running
19	30	36	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	113	Running
20	37	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	113	Running
21	25	5	Joey Gase	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Ford	113	Running
22	19	07	Joe Graf Jr.	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	113	Running
23	26	26	Derek Griffith	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	113	Running
24	24	4	Bayley Currey	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	112	Running
25	33	08	David Starr	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	112	Running
26	32	78	B.J. McLeod	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	112	Running
27	36	13	Timmy Hill*	MBM Motorsports	Chevrolet	112	Running
28	22	34	Jesse Iwuji	Jesse Iwuji Motorsports	Chevrolet	112	Running
29	28	38	C.J. McLaughlin	RSS Racing	Ford	112	Running
30	10	6	Ryan Vargas	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	112	Running
31	31	45	Caesar Bacarella	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	112	Running
32	34	44	Howie DiSavino III	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	112	Running
33	17	68	Brandon Brown	Brandonbilt Motorsports	Chevrolet	112	Running
34	38	47	Mike Harmon	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet	111	Running
35	21	31	Myatt Snider	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	111	Running
36	15	02	Blaine Perkins*	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	110	Running
37	27	35	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Ford	109	Running
38	29	91	Mason Massey	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	95	Running