DOVER, Del. — Some results sting more than others.
And Justin Allgaier got one on Saturday in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Dover Motor Speedway, finishing second at the “Monster Mile” after he was unable to hold off a resurgent Corey Day with three laps remaining. The result is Allgaier’s 38th career runner-up finish in O’Reilly Series action.
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“Obviously, Corey was doing a great job there,” Allgaier said after getting out of the car. “Probably ran the bottom just a little bit too long and got the right front a little harder than I wanted, and ultimately just got beat by a lap car today. He went left and went right and went left again, and then left the top open after I went to his inside. Just super frustrating, but you know, that’s how it goes.”
He continued, “We’ve won plenty that probably we shouldn’t have won, and we’ve lost plenty like today that probably we should have won. So again, hats off to Corey. He drove a great race, and to stick on the outside like that, you know, it was the move of the race. So, we’ll go back, I’ll watch the race again. And look, this is probably one of the hardest Dovers I’ve ever seen. I hope tomorrow’s better.”
The strategy shifted during a Lap 126 restart. Allgaier, who finished 10th and eighth in Stages 1 and 2, respectively, cycled to the race lead, and Day moved into the top five. As the laps wound down, Day’s No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet began working a higher lane to challenge the 17-year O’Reilly Series veteran.
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Allgaier attempted to build a gap between his No. 7 Chevrolet and Day but ran into issues with lapped traffic, notably Blake Lothian and the No. 55 Joey Gase Motorsports Toyota. The maneuvering by Lothian led Allgaier to speak with the 23-year-old driver post-race about the final laps.
“Blake’s learning. He’s a good kid, really good kid,” Allgaier said. “We got a lot of conversations … My big thing was, he went left, then he went right, then he went left. I think that’s the hardest part. When you’re into the corner at 170 miles an hour, 160 miles an hour, whatever it is, you’re making split-second decisions, and when you’re watching the guy in front of you move all over, and you’re not really sure which lane he’s gonna go to, sometimes you know the guy behind is at an advantage, right? You’re able to see the lane open up, and that’s what he was able to do.”
Despite the lapped traffic, the 2024 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion clearly understands the talent Day has, not to mention the growth the 20-year-old has shown in his rookie O’Reilly campaign. To Allgaier, Day has adapted to the stock-car grind in more ways than one, especially compared with earlier in the season when the young driver had run-ins with others in the field.
Allgaier, who exits Dover 175 points clear of Sheldon Creed atop the driver standings, recognizes Day’s hard-fought win and that, sometimes, you have to move on to the next one. The O’Reilly Series field will next race at Charlotte Motor Speedway next Saturday (5 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
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“Corey is ultra-aggressive — in a good way — and I thought he raced super good today,” Allgaier said. “You know, like at the beginning of the year, we had a lot of conversations about how to harness some of the energy, and I think he’s done a really good job with that. That 17 team, they’re doing a great job, and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, they always do a great job. Corey is ultra-talented. He’s just trying to get his feet wet and figure out the stock-car thing, and he’s doing a pretty darn good job of it.”
He added, “I’m disappointed to lose to him, but at the same time, you watch what he was doing out there. I mean, obviously, he was running a heck of a race, and it was gonna be hard to hold him off, even if the lap car wasn’t there. So we’ll go back and reboot, figure out what we could have done better, but ultimately it just wasn’t our day.”
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