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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The fast and furious finish in Friday night's Subway Firecracker 250 Powered by Coca-Cola didn't go Justin Allgaier's way, but the JR Motorsports driver still managed a smile afterward.
"When you come home second two restrictor-plates races in a row with fairly non-torn up race cars, it does make it nice," the No. 7 Chevrolet wheelman said. "But still this one's going to hurt for a little while."
Aric Almirola and Allgaier were running first and second, side-by-side during an overtime finish when the caution flag appeared for the final time at Daytona International Speedway.
Officials didn't immediately throw the caution when an eight-car crash on the backstretch unfolded on Lap 103 of the originally-scheduled 100-lap race, and it appeared the battle for the win might go all the way down to finish line in the NASCAR XFINITY Series event.
But eventually the yellow caution lights flashed, and Allgaier was left to wonder if he or Almirola was out front at the crucial moment.
WATCH: Final XFINITY Series restart at Daytona
"The last restart was crazy," Allgaier said. "Coming down to the end of the race there we knew it was going to be all out and everyone was going to do everything they could to get to the end. T.J. Majors, my spotter, he called the crash off of Turn 2. I pulled to the outside of Aric just trying to get any run that I could and actually had some momentum and then kind of stalled out in the middle of (Turns) 3 and 4.
"Had some momentum coming back and unfortunately the (caution) light switch flipped maybe a 16th of a foot too early for me to get the win."
Teammates Chase Elliott and Elliott Sadler finished ninth and 18th, respectively. Had Allgaier been flagged the winner Saturday night, it would have been a sweep of the plate tracks for JRM. Elliott won the season-opener here in February while Sadler scored the victory at Talladega Superspeedway.
"I told them before the race this is the best race car I've ever had at a superspeedway," Allgaier said.
"We came really close to sweeping all the restrictor plate races this year at JR Motorsports and that's a testament to the guys back at the shop, the Hendrick engine department, everybody that's involved in these cars. It's a lot of fun when you know that your race car is capable of winning every week."
Ryan Sieg, Joey Logano and Brendan Gaughan completed the top five. The race was slowed by eight cautions and was red-flagged for nearly eight minutes for a 14-car crash -- the "Big One" -- on Lap 16.
Friday's race rekindled memories of the Talladega finish, which also required video evidence to determine a winner after the caution appeared as Sadler and Brennan Poole battled for the lead.
Allgaier said he did not question the timing of Saturday's final caution call but he wasn't in a hurry to lift and possibly throw away a win either.
"I think Aric and I ran the whole rest of the lap, even after we got through the debris, trying to just be a little bit faster than other one, stay out in front, maybe that would be the determining factor," he said.
"It's so hard. At the point we were at, I don't know if it would have been better to (race) back to the line. It's the same scenario as Talladega. … If they call it a little bit before, we're ahead, if they call it a little bit later, we're ahead. But right where they called it we were behind. It is what it is.
"When they come down to the end like that you know it's going to be crazy. … Unfortunately, we were just a little bit behind."
The runner-up finish kept Allgaier fourth in points. Daniel Suarez remains the points leader in spite of a 32nd-place finish caused by a crash that sidelined the Joe Gibbs Racing driver after just 48 laps. He now leads Sadler by six points (499-493).