From the NASCAR Wire Service
When Josh Berry crossed the finish line at Charlotte Motor Speedway—giving JR Motorsports its first NASCAR Xfinity Series win at its home track—second-place Ty Gibbs was just reaching the 200-foot-long Speedway TV screen television on the backstretch.
After JRM teammate Justin Allgaier scraped the outside wall for the second time and had to pit during the final 81-lap green-flag run, Berry won Saturday’s Alsco Uniforms 300 by an astonishing 18.039 seconds over Gibbs.
But the race wasn’t that lopsided before Allgaier had to bring his No. 7 Chevrolet to pit road on Lap 186 of 200.
True, Berry and Allgaier were racing in a different zip code from the rest of the field, but their battle was intense until Allgaier nicked the wall on Lap 178 and hit the Turn 2 barrier even harder eight laps later.
With Allgaier out of the picture, Berry enjoyed a pleasure cruise for the remaining 14 laps and finished three-quarters of a mile ahead of Gibbs.
“Man, it’s so amazing,” Berry said. “This car was so good. (Crew chief) Mike (Bumgarner) and this whole group works so hard. We’ve been getting better every week. I think the sky is the limit as we continue to learn about each other and keep getting better.
“That was a battle with Justin. It always is with us. We always seem to run good at the same places and always have to race each other. He slipped up in (Turn) 1—and I got loose, too, and it all worked out.”
In fact, JR Motorsports, co-owned by NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr., enjoyed another banner day from green flag to checkered flag. Sam Mayer started from the pole position and finished third. Berry won the first stage and Allgaier the second, giving JRM its 10th consecutive stage victory—extending the series record established last week at Kansas Speedway.
Five drivers led laps on Saturday—four of them from JRM. Berry led a race-high 89 circuits, followed by 63 for Allgaier, 36 for Noah Gragson and two for Mayer. Gragson dropped off the lead lap with a cylinder down, but, with power seemingly restored, he recovered to finish fourth.
Berry won for the second time this season and the fourth time in his career. JRM has won four of the last five Xfinity Series races.
“I think everybody knew that this was going to be a good benchmark for our organization, and I think I speak for everybody in saying that we exceeded expectations,” Berry said.
Ryan Preece came home fifth in the top Ford, with Daniel Hemric, Allgaier, Sheldon Creed, Trevor Bayne and Myatt Snider completing the top 10.
Allgaier had the lead on Lap 163 after a full cycle of green-flag pit stops, and he held it until Berry beat him to the stripe by .022 seconds on Lap 176. Allgaier regained the top spot on Lap 177 but scraped the wall for the first time a lap later.
“We tried to put on a show for the fans,” Allgaier said. “I don’t know if you can drive any harder. At one point we were literally barreling off into Turn 1 harder than we did in qualifying.
“I thought we were going to be OK there and battle it out again (after the first contact with the wall), but unfortunately, my right rear started to go flat.”
— NASCAR Wire Service —
See the recap from NBC Sports:
Detroit News shares the AP recap:
Alsco Uniforms 300 Results:
1 8 Josh Berry
2 54 Ty Gibbs
3 1 Sam Mayer
4 9 Noah Gragson
5 5 Ryan Preece
6 11 Daniel Hemric
7 7 Justin Allgaier
8 2 Sheldon Creed
9 18 Trevor Bayne
10 31 Myatt Snider
11 2 Brett Moffitt
12 27 Jeb Burton
13 44 Ryan Ellis
14 21 Austin Hill
15 4 Bayley Currey
16 19 Brandon Jones
17 68 Brandon Brown
18 66 JJ Yeley
19 16 AJ Allmendinger
20 55 Matt Mills
21 36 Garrett Smithley
22 51 Jeremy Clements
23 38 CJ McLaughlin
24 35 Shane Lee
25 98 Riley Herbst
26 6 Ryan Vargas
27 78 Josh Williams
28 99 Nicholas Sanchez
29 10 Landon Cassill
30 45 Stefan Parsons
31 48 Austin Dillon
32 39 Ryan Sieg
33 23 Anthony Alfredo
34 7 Joe Graf Jr.
35 47 Brennan Poole
36 34 Kyle Weatherman
37 26 Jeffrey Earnhardt
38 13 Timmy Hill
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