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Justin Allgaier lamented in Victory Lane that his wife, Ashley, and daughter, Harper, weren’t with him Saturday afternoon at Dover International Speedway. The consolation prize was a heart-tugging keepsake photo.

Ashley Allgaier captured 4-year-old Harper’s emotional reaction after watching her father roar to his first Xfinity win of the year in the OneMain Financial 200.

Justin Allgaier reiterated the downside of his family being at home in his post-race news conference, but said he expected that his return with Dover’s trademark Monster trophy would warmly welcomed.

“Still a cool trophy, and I’m assuming that when I get home, my daughter’s going to want this one, just because it’s pretty awesome, the Monster,” Allgaier said. “Yeah, Harper’s playroom is probably going to end up with this guy.”

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Justin Allgaier surged to victory in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series event at Dover International Speedway, holding off teammate Elliott Sadler in a fender-banging finish to pocket a $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus from the series sponsor.

Allgaier’s JR Motorsports No. 7 Chevrolet led 104 of the 200 laps in the OneMain Financial 200. His first victory of the year was his first at the Delaware mile and the sixth of his career in the Xfinity Series.

RELATED: Race results | Full schedule for Dover

The win was especially lucrative for the 31-year-old driver, who made last-lap contact with race runner-up and JRM teammate Sadler, and outran Brandon Jones and Ryan Sieg as the highest finisher among the four eligible for the Dash 4 Cash payday.

Sadler, who claimed two of the four Dash 4 Cash bonuses in this year’s program, led 33 laps and finished .306 seconds behind Allgaier at the checkered flag. Sadler made gains on his teammate over the course of the 27-lap green flag stretch that capped the race, mounting a final challenge through Turns 3 and 4. Both of their cars slid off the corner alongside each other and glanced off the outside retaining wall before making the final spurt to the finish.

“Our team right now has just been amazing,” Allgaier said. “Coming down to the end of the race, I could see Elliott in my mirror. I knew when he was able to cool his tires down a little bit that he was able to make some runs. … Obviously, there was contact with Elliott and I, but he raced me so clean all day. We had great battles throughout the course of the race, and there was just nothing either one of us could do at that point. We both wanted to win.”

MORE: Keepsake photo for Allgaier family

Sadler said if the final lap had not been a contest among teammates, the outcome — or at least, his approach — might have unfolded differently.

“We really race each other hard, but we race each other fair,” Sadler said. “We have that kind of understanding. I think us two are the leaders of JR Motorsports and we have to lead by example. Our teams do such a good job of working with each other in the shop during the week, and I think that transcends onto the race track.”

Jones won his second career Xfinity pole, led 33 laps and recovered from a pit-road penalty to take 10th place. Sieg was also flagged for a speeding penalty on pit road and finished 17th.

Sadler won the first stage, and Allgaier claimed Stage 2. Sadler leaves the Dover event with a 33-point lead over Allgaier.

Daniel Hemric came home third, spending the last lap hoping to steal a victory if the JR Motorsports teammates happened to wreck each other. “I was just trying to get myself in the best possible position in case they did run out of race track — and they tried,” Hemric said.

Christopher Bell finished fourth after starting from the rear after his car failed to make it through pre-qualifying inspection in time to make a run in time trials. Tyler Reddick, who started from the back for the same reason, came home fifth, putting three JRM drivers in the top five.

Camping World Truck Series regular Johnny Sauter finished sixth in a substitute role for the suspended Spencer Gallagher in the GMS Racing No. 23 Chevrolet. It was his first NASCAR Xfinity Series race in four years.

The Xfinity Series’ next race is scheduled May 26 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Contributing: NASCAR Wire Service

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DOVER, Del. — It only took one trip to the high banks of Dover International Speedway for Jimmie Johnson to fall in love with the Monster Mile.

To most, it’s one of the more monstrous of tracks. To Johnson, it was “heaven.”

“I remember (fellow competitor) Gary St. Amant looking at me and his eyes were like pancakes,” Johnson recalled Friday. “And he was like ‘We shouldn’t be here. This is too fast. This is crazy. Jumping into the turns and jumping off the turns.’

“And I’m like dude, I’m in heaven. This is awesome. So, since my first laps here in an ASA car, I fell in love with it.”

RELATED: Johnson: We’re victims of our own success

Thus began a 15-year love affair with the Delaware track that has produced 11 Miles the Monster winner trophies for Johnson. It also is coincidently the site of Johnson’s last win in the Monster Energy Series, marking nearly a year since the No. 48 has tabbed a win.

If there’s any place to snap a winless streak for Johnson & Co., it’s at the Monster Mile, where Johnson says he can “relax a little bit more” with his prowess. But he may have competitors within his own group, particularly with his teammate Chase Elliott, who nearly grabbed his first Monster Energy Series win at Dover last fall after leading 138 laps. His other teammates Alex Bowman and William Byron could also be in the mix to bring much-needed rain to Hendrick’s recent drought.

RELATED: Elliott on past success at Dover

Which will tame the Monster? Let’s take a look at each of the Hendrick Motorsports drivers’ outlooks and odds heading into Sunday’s race.

Jimmie Johnson: Johnson has the best driving rating (118.0) at the Monster Mile and has led more than 3,000 laps around the 1-mile oval. With his dirt background, Johnson knows better than anyone in the field how to get around the Monster’s slick curves; the key for him is the car, which he addressed as being “important” to winning at Dover. He surprisingly qualified just 19th, but given Johnson’s track prowess and the track constantly changing throughout the weekend, that shouldn’t be too much of a factor. If Johnson likes his car Sunday, his odds at snapping a losing streak increase dramatically.

A favorite to win Sunday? Yes.

Chase Elliott: Last year’s near-win wasn’t a fluke for the No. 9 driver; he’s finished every Monster Energy Series race that he’s run at Dover in the top five, giving him a wild average finish of 3.3. In his four events run, he’s also spent 93.5 percent of laps run in the top 15. A strong average starting position (sixth) on his side, Elliott should be able to get up front — and quickly. With the thought of avenging last year’s heartbreak, the young driver could turn a string of career runner-ups into his first-ever Monster Energy Series win by taming the Monster at Dover.

A favorite to win Sunday? Yes.

William Byron: This marks Byron’s first trip to Dover International Speedway in a Monster Energy Series car. He finished 18th at Bristol (the most similar track to Dover on the circuit) earlier this year and both of his Xfinity starts at the Monster Miles resulted in top-six finishes. The No. 24 has shown increased speed throughout the weekend; after qualifying 17th, he placed in the top 10 in final practices. He also ranked sixth on the 10-lap average chart in the pair of final practices, suggesting long-run speed. But Dover is tricky and tough for a rookie that doesn’t know how to quite get around the concrete surface in a Cup car.

A favorite to win Sunday? No.

Alex Bowman: Bowman nabbed a season-best fifth-place at Bristol earlier this year and has an average finish of 10.75 at tracks 1 mile or less in length. Sunday will be the 25-year-old’s first start at the Monster Mile behind the wheel of a Hendrick Motorsports-owned vehicle, so there are still plenty of unknowns. Despite the 15th-place starting position (second-best among his teammates), his team appeared to struggle a bit in final practice, ranking 23rd after 47 laps.

A favorite to win Sunday? No.

MORE: Is this the week Chevrolet finds speed?

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR announced this offseason that it will standardize at-track team rosters across all three national series in 2018, providing a structure for the number of personnel working on each vehicle during the course of a race weekend.

Official team rosters for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover International Speedway (2 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) have been unveiled.

Simply click the “print” icon above, next to the headline and social media icons, to get the full list.

RELATED: Overview of 2018 rules updates

Posted on by Staff Report

Take a look at which drivers have the best 10-lap averages this weekend at Dover International Speedway in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. (Note: No drivers ran 10 consecutive laps in Friday’s opening practice.)

FINAL PRACTICE: Results

Pos Car Driver From Lap To Lap Avg Speed
1 14 Clint Bowyer 1 10 155.880
2 18 Kyle Busch 1 10 155.584
3 12 Ryan Blaney 1 10 155.484
4 10 Aric Almirola 1 10 155.388
5 4 Kevin Harvick 2 11 155.378
6 24 William Byron # 1 10 155.263
7 9 Chase Elliott 1 10 155.143
8 41 Kurt Busch 1 10 155.063
9 2 Brad Keselowski 1 10 155.024
10 21 Paul Menard 1 10 154.895
11 78 Martin Truex Jr. 1 10 154.852
12 19 Daniel Suarez 2 11 154.841
13 11 Denny Hamlin 1 10 154.782
14 42 Kyle Larson 1 10 154.571
15 20 Erik Jones 1 10 154.355
16 48 Jimmie Johnson 20 29 154.049
17 95 Kasey Kahne 1 10 154.025
18 22 Joey Logano 29 38 153.843
19 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 1 10 153.805
20 6 Trevor Bayne 3 12 153.497
21 88 Alex Bowman 1 10 153.346
22 38 David Ragan 1 10 152.910
23 3 Austin Dillon 25 34 152.434
24 32 Matt DiBenedetto 1 10 152.058
25 43 Darrell Wallace Jr. # 22 31 151.842
26 34 Michael McDowell 1 10 151.291
27 31 Ryan Newman 22 31 151.201
28 1 Jamie McMurray 17 26 151.143
29 13 Ty Dillon 20 29 150.763
30 15 Ross Chastain (i) 1 10 150.188
31 00 Landon Cassill 1 10 149.264
32 99 * Derrike Cope 13 22 143.531

PRACTICE 2: Results

Pos Car Driver From Lap To Lap Avg Speed
1 2 Brad Keselowski 1 10 156.399
2 18 Kyle Busch 2 11 156.017
3 4 Kevin Harvick 1 10 156.005
4 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 1 10 155.845
5 14 Clint Bowyer 1 10 155.484
6 24 William Byron # 2 11 155.474
7 21 Paul Menard 1 10 155.431
8 9 Chase Elliott 1 10 155.391
9 88 Alex Bowman 1 10 155.080
10 78 Martin Truex Jr. 7 16 155.058
11 20 Erik Jones 3 12 154.965
12 11 Denny Hamlin 4 13 154.861
13 41 Kurt Busch 31 40 154.729
14 19 Daniel Suarez 4 13 154.724
15 42 Kyle Larson 11 20 154.224
16 12 Ryan Blaney 21 30 153.828
17 48 Jimmie Johnson 20 29 153.777
18 47 AJ Allmendinger 33 42 153.506
19 43 Darrell Wallace Jr. # 6 15 153.211
20 3 Austin Dillon 25 34 152.937
21 31 Ryan Newman 19 28 152.794
22 32 Matt DiBenedetto 1 10 152.330
23 1 Jamie McMurray 18 27 152.312
24 23 Gray Gaulding 8 17 149.905
25 51 Cody Ware (i) 14 23 142.248

Car must run 10 consecutive laps on the track to be included in the above chart.
* Required to qualify on time
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
# Indicates driver is running for Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors

Posted on by Staff Report

Aric Almirola topped the board in final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice Saturday at Dover International Speedway.

Almirola powered the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 10 Ford to a best lap of 158.277 mph around the 1-mile Delaware track. He’ll start 13th in Sunday’s AAA 400 Drive for Autism (2 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM).

RELATED: Final practice results | Full schedule for Dover

Chase Elliott logged the second-fastest lap in the 50-minute session, registering 158.054 mph in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 Chevrolet. Clint Bowyer, Almirola’s SHR teammate, was third-fastest with pole-starter Kyle Larson fourth and another Stewart-Haas driver, Kevin Harvick, in fifth.

Jimmie Johnson, the defending race winner and 11 times a victor at the Monster Mile, was seventh-fastest in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet.

Two teams served 15-minute penalties in final practice for failing pre-qualifying inspection twice:

  • The No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford of Kevin Harvick
  • The No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford of Kurt Busch

MORE: Best consecutive 10-lap averages

Penske drivers go 1-2 in Saturday’s early practice

Joey Logano rose to the top of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series speed chart, leading a 1-2 sweep for Team Penske in Saturday’s early practice at Dover International Speedway.

Logano clocked a lap of 157.494 mph in the No. 22 Ford. He’ll start 18th in Sunday’s AAA 400 Drive for Autism (2 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM), the 11th of 36 points-paying races this season for NASCAR’s top division.

RELATED: Practice 2 results

Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski secured the second-fastest lap at 157.453 mph in the No. 2 Ford. His best lap was just .006 seconds off Logano’s pace-setting time.

Defending series champion Martin Truex Jr. was third-fastest in the Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota with Chase Elliott and Aric Almirola completing the top five on the 1-mile track.

Kyle Larson, who won the No. 1 starting spot in Friday’s Busch Pole Qualifying, was seventh-fastest in the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 Chevrolet. Jimmie Johnson, an 11-time Dover winner, was 13th-fastest in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevy.

Competition officials assessed 15-minute practice deductions to five teams for being late to pre-qualifying inspection:

  • The No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford of Trevor Bayne
  • The No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Daniel Suarez
  • The No. 23 BK Racing Toyota of Gray Gaulding
  • The No. 95 Leavine Family Racing Chevrolet of Kasey Kahne
  • The No. 99 StarCom Racing Chevrolet of Derrike Cope
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DOVER, Del. — His eyes raw and his face flushed, the emotion was evident from Noah Gragson following his waning-lap wreck out of Friday’s Camping World Truck race at Dover International Speedway.

The sophomore driver called himself “dejected,” his typically- playful personality dwindled to a melancholy state as he spoke of his late-race aggression with race-winner Johnny Sauter that led to a hard hit into the wall.

RELATED: Sauter wins in dramatic finish | Final laps at Dover

“I blew the opportunity,” Gragson said. “There’s so many small opportunities you get as a race car driver to win these races. Just devastated. Definitely not proud of the way that I raced him. I wasn’t trying to wreck him … just really hard racing there at the end. Just really bummed out for everyone that supports me back home in Las Vegas … everybody who makes this possible. Just unacceptable on my part.”

Gragson was racing Sauter side-by-side for the win with two laps to go when his No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota spiraled down and hit the wall hard after he tried to side-draft Sauter’s No. 21. After his No. 18 came to a stop, Gragson sat in his car for a moment, as he hit the steering wheel with his fists and put his hands to his helmet.

It was “wreckers or checkers” for him, he said, and unfortunately, his No. 18 ended up on a tow truck with a 20th-place finish instead of in Victory Lane.

“Felt like I just woke up from a dream, I couldn’t believe it happened,” Gragson said of that moment. “Just really disappointed in myself.”

MORE: Sauter on Gragson: ‘I would have raced him the same way’

Gragson passed team owner Kyle Busch after leaving the infield care center, stopping for a brief conversation. His last stop was in Victory Lane, where he apologized to Sauter for the way the last laps played out.

“(I wasn’t) trying to wreck him or anything,” Gragson said. “That’s not the way I race — I wanted to win it fair and square. Sometimes when you’re at these races, it’s getting down to the end, you’re trying to push it, you sometimes step over the line. It wasn’t intentional at all.”

Sauter said he was “glad he came over and apologized. So, no harm, no foul…

“He’s learning, he’s pushing the envelope,” he said. “He’s got to figure out where the line is.”

Both Gragson and Sauter will compete in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Dover (12:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM), with Gragson competing in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, while Sauter will race the No. 23 GMS Racing Chevrolet.

Posted on by Staff Report

Brennan Poole will get behind the wheel of the No. 23 Chevrolet that competes in the Xfinity Series during a test at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Monday, GMS Racing’s Mike Beam confirmed on Friday night.

Spencer Gallagher, last week’s winner at Talladega Superspeedway and the full-time driver of the car, was suspended indefinitely by NASCAR earlier this week for a Substance Abuse Policy penalty.

MORE: Gallagher handed penalty | Gallagher, GMS issue statements

Poole raced full-time in the Xfinity Series the past two seasons and placed sixth in the standings last year.

As far as beyond Monday, nothing has been set in place yet.

“We’ve talked to a lot of people and we’re going to take it one race at a time,” Beam said after GMS’ Johnny Sauter won the JEGS 200 Camping World Truck Series race at Dover International Speedway.

Sauter is in the Xfinity car for Saturday’s OneMain Financial 200 (12:30 p.m. ET, FS1).

Posted on by Reid Spencer

DOVER, Del. — After what had happened moments earlier, Johnny Sauter’s victory in a two-lap overtime shootout seemed almost routine by comparison.

Sauter, who turned 40 on May 1, held off fellow 40-something Matt Crafton to win Friday’s JEGS 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Dover International Speedway — but not until Sauter won an intense struggle against pole winner Noah Gragson, whose race ended on the next-to-last lap of regulation when his No. 18 Toyota backed hard into the outside wall.

The victory was Sauter’s second straight at Dover, his second of the season and the 19th of his career. And it came during a bittersweet week for GMS Racing, after Spencer Gallagher, the son of team owner Maury Gallagher, won his first NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega and on Tuesday was suspended indefinitely for a violation of NASCAR’s substance abuse policy.

MORE: Full race results

“Tough week for the Gallagher family—this one’s for Spencer,” Sauter said. “He’s a smart kid, and he’ll get it right.”

Gragson grabbed the lead from Sauter one circuit after a restart on Lap 188 of a scheduled 200, but Sauter wasn’t finished. With six laps left, Sauter got a strong run to the outside, but Gragson cut him off, and Sauter’s No. 21 Chevrolet tapped the wall.

“We had to work for this one today,” Sauter said. “Noah, I had a good run on him there, and he squeezed me off. And I was like, ‘He just gave me the green light to be aggressive.’ This was just hard racing right there.”

The drivers were racing side-by-side for the lead coming to the white flag when Gragson’s attempt to side-draft Sauter’s Silverado went awry. Gragson lost control and crashed, destroying the rear end of his Kyle Busch Motorsports Tundra.

RELATED: Gragson says, ‘I’m just devastated’

Gragson, who won’t turn 20 until July 15, was disconsolate when he left the infield care center after the wreck.

“I’m really disappointed in myself,” he said. “It’s just a racing deal. These things are so hard to win, and I was so close to getting my first win (of the season). I went up to side-draft him and got pointed to the inside wall and went up to side-draft him again—and it was just a racing deal.

“Not the way I try to race people. I take full responsibility in that right there. It was a hundred percent my fault. It’s just unacceptable on my part. Man, I was so close to winning. All I can think about is just the mistake I made. I really wanted to get that monster (trophy). This is such a bad-ass track, and not to be able to get it done … I’m just devastated.”

After Gragson’s wreck and subsequent cleanup, the race restarted on Lap 209. Crafton got an excellent restart and held his own against Sauter through the first two corners but couldn’t clear him. Sauter then pulled out to a two car-length lead and took the checkered flag a lap later.

“We just did not have short-run speed,” said the 41-year-old Crafton. “For whatever reason, it would just not fire off. I had a really good restart there at the end, and I moved him up as far as I could. I was waiting for Stevie (Reeves), the spotter to tell me, ‘Clear, clear.’ I knew I was close, real close.

“Johnny turned 40 this week, so he’s part of the old man crew, and we got a lot of flak this week by being the 40-year-olds, but the 40-year-olds showed the kids how to do it, I guess.”

WATCH: Sauter celebrates second straight Dover win

One of those kids, 19-year-old Justin Haley, ran a solid, consistent third. David Gilliland came home fourth in his second start of the season, and Harrison Burton finished fifth. Cody Coughlin, Joe Nemechek, Ben Rhodes, Jesse Little and Todd Gilliland (David’s son) completed the top 10.

Sauter extended his series lead to 51 points over second-place Rhodes and 58 over third-place Gragson. The series races next at Kansas Speedway with Friday’s 250-miler (8:30 p.m. ET, FS1).

 

WATCH: Friesen slams the wall in late-race crash