Red-hot Allgaier looks to add another Dover trophy to historic season

The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series heads to Dover Motor Speedway for Saturday’s BetRivers 200 (4 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and judging by his remarkable season statistics, the best “bet” to claim the checkered flag is JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier, who not only is dominating the 2026 season, but has the best track record at Dover among his competitors this weekend.

The two-time Dover winner is the only previous winner entered. His six first or second-place finishes all-time at the track tie him with Kyle Busch for second place on that list. Only Logano (seven) has earned more first or second-place finishes at "The Monster Mile." And the 2024 series champion Allgaier arrives in Delaware with a series-best five first or second-place finishes already this season.

A three-race winner in 2026, Allgaier’s amazing 155-point lead over Haas Factory Team’s Sheldon Creed atop the standings is greater than the margin between second-place Creed and 10th-place Joe Gibbs Racing’s Taylor Gray. And Allgaier’s consistency -- finishing top five in all but two of the 26 stages this season -- has been impressive even for a driver already regarded as consistently atop his game.

Add to that, Allgaier’s  JR Motorsports team, as a whole, is riding an incredible 70-race streak of earning at least one top-10 finish -- the second-longest such streak in series history. Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing holds the top position with 79 straight top 10s.

Certainly, Allgaier expects the challenge this weekend from his teammates -- Sammy Smith and Rajah Caruth -- but the reigning series champion, Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love, brings four consecutive top-10 finishes into the weekend. JGR’s Brent Crews has a streak of five straight top-10s.

Connor Zilisch is the defending Dover race winner, but one of the 2026 season’s four first-time winners, JGR’s Taylor Gray started on pole position, led 49 laps (second only to Zilisch) and finished seventh last year. His JGR teammate, Brandon Jones, finished third (second best among the full-time drivers) and finds himself in a very respectable fourth place in the championship coming to Dover.

NASCAR Cup Series regular Ross Chastain will drive the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet.

Practice will be followed immediately by Kennametal Pole Qualifying beginning at 9:30 a.m. ET on Saturday.  Both sessions will be broadcast on the CW App.