A.J. Allmendinger wins Mid-Ohio 170 with final-stage rally

A.J. Allmendinger is now part of some rare company in the NASCAR Xfinity Series: he joins Marcos Ambrose as the only drivers to have five wins in the series on road courses. After suffering a pit penalty prior to the final stage in Saturday’s B&L Transport 170 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Allmendinger fought his way through the order to win become the track’s first multi-time NASCAR winner.

Allmendinger started the race in twelfth while Austin Cindric, also a road course ace, was on the pole alongside Ty Gibbs, who won last week’s race and at the Daytona Road Course in his Xfinity début, and had also triumphed in the ARCA Menards Series event at Mid-Ohio the previous day. Kris Wright and Ryan Ellis began their days at the back due to unapproved adjustments.

Cindric, who has four road course wins, led the first half of the opening stage but drama was apparent almost immediately. After just one lap, Noah Gragson went off course in the opening corner, spilling oil that caused Cody Ware to spin. Another fluid caution came on lap nine. Allmendinger would take the lead for the restart on lap 13 and lead to the stage victory ahead of Cindric, Justin Haley, Jeb Burton, Justin Allgaier, Brandon Jones, Riley Herbst, Alex Labbé, Michael Annett, and Jeremy Clements.

Despite claiming a stage point, Clements stalled his car on lap 42 for what would be the lone yellow flag of the second stage. Gibbs had led much of the segment until the caution, and Allmendinger’s Kaulig Racing team-mate Haley would take the lead with five laps remaining to win as many of the leaders including Allmendinger elected to pit before the green-checkered flag. Jones, Burton, Herbst, Cindric, Labbé, Myatt Snider, Brandon Brown, Annett, and Ellis rounded out the top ten.

Between stages, Allmendinger was slapped with a penalty for not meeting the fifty-second mimimum pit time. The regulation, introduced in 2020 but not used that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was among a litany of pit rules implemented for all standalone Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series races. As a result, he began Stage #3 in nineteenth.

Cindric dominated the final stage until Burton spun into the gravel on lap 70. Three laps later, Jones overshot turn five and collected Labbé, Wright, and Kyle Weatherman while all five were running in the top ten. The incident resulted in overtime as Allmendinger led.

While Cindric’s overtime and race went south after being forced off course in a three-wide battle with Gibbs and Haley, Allmendinger drove off to claim his second win of the year and seventh in his career.

An open-wheel and sports car racer, Allmendinger previously recorded Xfinity road course victories at Road America (2013), Mid-Ohio (2013), and the Charlotte Roval (2019 and 2020). The first Mid-Ohio win came at the track’s inaugural Xfinity event. Ambrose, a Supercars Championship great, is the only other driver with five Xfinity road wins; four came at Watkins Glen and the fifth at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Interestingly, Allmendinger’s lone Cup Series victory came on a road course after defeating Ambrose at Watkins Glen in 2014.

“(Michael Shank) came here to see me,” Allmendinger commented. Shank had won the Indianapolis 500 the previous week while his sports car programme won the 2012 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona with Allmendinger. “How lucky am I? I love Shank.

“This is (Kaulig Racing owner) Matt Kaulig‘s Super Bowl […] It’s just such a big deal. I always want to win for him, but here, I put a lot more pressure on myself to try to win.”

Haley finished second to mark a Kaulig 1–2 finish. Andy Lally tied his career best in fifth for the fourth different time, while Josh Berry placed eighth to give Jordan Anderson Racing—who had missed the first ten races with no owner points—three top tens in as many starts. Cindric’s overtime incident relegated him to fourteenth.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	12	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	78	Running
2	10	11	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	78	Running
3	2	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	78	Running
4	7	19	Brandon Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	78	Running
5	27	23	Andy Lally	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	78	Running
6	6	68	Brandon Brown	Brandonbilt Motorsports	Chevrolet	78	Running
7	15	1	Michael Annett	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	78	Running
8	31	31	Josh Berry	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	78	Running
9	23	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	78	Running
10	24	92	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	78	Running
11	16	36	Alex Labbé	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	78	Running
12	11	18	Daniel Hemric	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	78	Running
13	19	48	Jade Buford	Big Machine Racing	Chevrolet	78	Running
14	1	22	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	78	Running
15	21	17	Cody Ware	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	78	Running
16	4	10	Jeb Burton	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	78	Running
17	40	52	Gray Gaulding	Jimmy Means Racing	Chevrolet	78	Running
18	17	4	Ryan Vargas	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	78	Running
19	34	66	Matt Jaskol	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	78	Running
20	20	6	Landon Cassill	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	78	Running
21	9	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	78	Running
22	30	15	Colby Howard	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	78	Running
23	32	5	Matt Mills	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	78	Running
24	22	78	Jesse Little	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	78	Running
25	39	90	Preston Pardus	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	78	Running
26	35	47	Kyle Weatherman	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet	78	Running
27	29	8	Miguel Paludo	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	78	Running
28	28	99	Ryan Ellis	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	78	Running
29	14	2	Myatt Snider	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	78	Running
30	37	07	Joe Graf Jr.	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet	77	Running
31	18	02	Brett Moffitt	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	75	Fuel Pump
32	33	26	Kris Wright*	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	71	Accident
33	8	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	68	Running
34	26	0	Jeffrey Earnhardt	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	68	Running
35	5	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	67	Running
36	36	61	David Starr	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	66	Running
37	38	74	Bayley Currey*	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet	30	Electrical
38	3	20	Harrison Burton	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	19	Accident
39	25	44	Tommy Joe Martins	Martins Motorsports	Chevrolet	7	Engine
40	13	9	Noah Gragson	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	0	Accident

Source link