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SPEEDWAY, Ind. -- Justin Allgaier won the season's fourth and final Dash 4 Cash paycheck Saturday afternoon at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Allgaier finished fifth in the XFINTY Series' Lilly Diabetes 250, which was won by Sprint Cup Series regular Kyle Busch. But the effort was one position ahead of Allgaier's JR Motorsports teammate Elliott Sadler , and that was enough to earn the special $100,000 incentive.
The race for the bonus money got intense in the final laps with Allgaier passing Elliott in Turn 4 on the last restart with two laps remaining to take the position and take the incentive money.
"Under that last caution, I was thinking, 'Hey I'm racing a teammate' and that changes the game," Allgaier said. "Just knowing he was a teammate and had the same stuff I did, how do you force the pass? I was fortunate. We got behind him coming off Turn 4. ... It was the only time today I went through Turn 4 perfectly and was able to get next to him and then pass him.
"Everything had to come down to that perfect moment. Just very fortunate to get up here with this check."
Only full-time XFINITY Series championship competitors are eligible to collect in the four-race Dash 4 Cash incentive. Four drivers are set through two 20-lap heat races before a 60-lap main event. Allgaier, Elliott, Daniel Suarez and Erik Jones qualified to be participants at Indy.
Series rookie Jones won the Dash 4 Cash money twice (at Bristol and Dover) this season while Ty Dillon (Richmond) won once.
Jones' two victories would have been enough to put him in the XFINITY Series' inaugural Chase for the championship this year, but he earned a position anyway as the race winner in the Bristol race.
Allgaier, who drives the No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet, joked after the race that he absolutely planned to keep the oversized check recognizing the Dash winner. It was the first time he'd won the award.
"Been trying to get up here and hold one of these checks up here and finally got to today," Allgaier said.
"This one goes home with me and will go on the wall for sure. Really proud to be able to hold one of these checks up."
The race result for Allgaier was also significant in the big picture, moving him up two positions in the XFINITY Series standings to fourth place, only 16 points behind third place Ty Dillon .
Suarez still leads the championship by 14 points over Sadler entering the next race -- an XFINITY stand-alone event next Saturday at Iowa Speedway.