Phoenix Xfinity race falls Chandler Smith’s way after ‘Big One,’ Allgaier crash

AVONDALE, Ariz. — If it weren’t for a blown tire with four laps to go, Justin Allgaier would have won his third NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday.

But the left rear Goodyear on his No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevy gave way as he entered Turn 1 while leading. His gap over second-place Chandler Smith was more than 2.5 seconds, and there was no indication of anything wrong that might keep him from his 24th career Xfinity victory.

Midway through the race’s final stage, a messy restart resulted in a multi-car crash involving John Hunter Nemechek, Sam Mayer, Riley Herbst, and Aric Almirola, among others. Several contenders’ days ended prematurely on the backstretch, and the finish led to an all-Joe Gibbs Racing and Richard Childress Racing top four.

Allgaier thinks he might have run a piece of debris over, which caused the tire to fail. He said the tire fall-off wasn’t bad enough to cause a blowout.

“Wear-wise, there was no way we were wearing the left rear far enough to do that,” he said. “Going through the dogleg, it felt it wiggle a bit, and I kind of knew what that already meant. But at that point, when there are (four) laps to go, you got to hope that it holds on, and unfortunately, it just blew out.”

He ended up 29th after leading 52 laps.

Smith, who started on the front row beside pole sitter Cole Custer, said he would have been content with a runner-up. He led 88 laps and won Stage 1 before taking his first checkered flag as a full-time driver for JGR.

“I definitely hate it for those guys,” Smith said of Allgaier’s accident. “… to be as good as he was and have something like that happen was heartbreaking for those guys … I wish chipping away and P2 wouldn’t have been bad.”

Smith and teammate Nemechek made contact while racing three-wide for position during a restart on Lap 145. Smith was in the middle, and Nemechek was on the outside. It wasn’t an aggressive move that led to either driver getting nudged. They rain out of space as the track narrows from Turn 2 to the backstretch.

“We’ll talk about it Monday for sure, but it’s just typical Phoenix restarts,” Smith said. Phoenix has become known for chaotic restarts since the track’s reconfiguration in 2018. With the start-finish line before the dogleg, drivers go well below the apron on restarts to try to gain position heading into Turn 1.

Nemechek was asked about his view of the accident, but since he hadn’t seen a replay when he was interviewed, he couldn’t explain what happened.

“I don’t know,” he said. “There was a little bit of contact. The next thing I knew, I was sideways—part of it.

“I’m sure we will have good conversations on Monday about the whole situation and whatnot, but now that I’m out, the only goal was to go win. Now, the focus is on (Sunday). We have a really good No. 42 Toyota Camry XSE. I’ve got to figure out how to drive from 19th to the front.”

Jesse Love finished second for RCR in the No. 2 Chevy, and its former driver, Sheldon Creed, finished third. Creed is still looking for his first career Xfinity win, and after a day of chaos with the leaders, it was almost within grasp.

“I tried to get a good restart. If I could have stayed outside of the 81 (Smith), that would be alright,” he said. “The restart was okay out of the box, and then I don’t know – the distance, or whatever, I was starting to bleed really bad at the end of that green flag run. I just really struggled with grip there. Needed all four tires to fire there, but a top-five after starting in the back that’s not something to be too upset about. Just need to be a little better to be able to contend all day.”