Justin Allgaier joked before the start of Saturday’s Tennessee Lottery 250 that he needed to win his second NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Nashville Superspeedway so he could earn another guitar trophy and have one for each of his two young daughters.
Hours later, his dominant work in the race was indeed sweet music for his title hopes. For the second time in his career, the veteran Allgaier swept both stages and went on to claim victory at the 1.33-mile concrete oval — his third win of the 2025 season.
The reigning series champion had to hold off 18-year-old rookie and JR Motorsports teammate, Connor Zilisch, in the closing laps, however, before ultimately driving his No. 7 Chevrolet to the win by a slight 1.289 seconds.
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The two had been separated by less than half a second for much of the closing 20 laps before lapped traffic helped the Allgaier pull away in the longest green flag run — 48 laps. In all, he led a race-high 101 of the race’s 188 laps.
“These guys right here, they deserve this one more than anything,” Allgaier, who turns 39 next week, said, shaking hands with his JR Motorsports crew as members came up to congratulate him. “I screwed them over last week [at Charlotte] by making a [wrong] pit call with an equally as good car. But this time it was Chevrolet, which was absolutely unreal. [His wife] Ashley and the kids are here and it’s so cool to get a win here at Nashville. The fans here are incredible. This place is special to me.
“I said before the race, I really wanted to get a second guitar so both kids would have a guitar. So they can fight over them. I’m really proud of JR Motorsports.”
You’d be hard-pressed to tell it was Zilisch’s first-ever race at the concrete Nashville oval. He earned points in both stages, had good pit stops and moved up through the field and into the top five by Lap 70. He led 18 laps, but his run out front was interrupted by a caution with 53 laps remaining. Allgaier took the lead in a three-wide battle up front on the ensuing restart with 48 to go and never looked back.
“I thought I might be able to get back by him, but clean air is everything and the first 20 laps of a run if you had clean air you’d prevail on a long run, just keeping your stuff cooler and not having to run as hard,” Zilisch said. “Congrats to Justin. He did a really good job executing on that restart. It’s the second week in a row I’ve finished second because of a restart. It’s frustrating.
“I’m really happy with the progress we’re making and being frustrated with second [place] is a good thing,” he added with a smile.
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Haas Factory Team’s Sam Mayer’s No. 41 Ford finished third, just in front of his teammate Sheldon Creed in the No. 00 Ford and a third JR Motorsports Chevy, driven by last week’s Cup Series race winner, Ross Chastain.
Aric Almirola, Austin Hill, Jesse Love, rookie Carson Kvapil and Sammy Smith rounded out the top 10.
It marks the first win for a full-time Xfinity Series driver in the last three races and extends Allgaier’s points lead over Richard Childress Racing’s Hill to 92 points.
The Xfinity Series has an off-week coming up before returning to competition Saturday, June 14 (4:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) in The Chilango 150 at Mexico City’s famed Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
NOTE: Post-race inspection is complete in the Xfinity Series garage. Justin Allgaier’s win was confirmed. The No. 10 has been disqualified for failing rear heights. The No. 88 had two lug nuts not safe and secure.