The finish of Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Sports Illustrated Resorts 250 at Nashville Superspeedway was a classic example of a grizzled veteran facing off against a young, up-and-coming rookie for supremacy and a trophy.
Justin Allgaier, who, next Saturday, celebrates his 40th birthday, took the fight to the newly 18-year-old rookie driver Brent Crews in the closing laps of the 188-lap contest, with experience eventually prevailing and putting the driver of the No. 7 Chevrolet Camaro in Victory Lane for the 32nd time in his career.
After polesitter and early-race dominator Jesse Love had to make an unscheduled pit stop on the outskirts of the fuel window, Allgaier and Crews were the new class of the field and battled amongst themselves through a cycle of green-flag pit stops and an intriguing run to the finish.
Crews, still in search of his first career victory in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, had a significant advantage when the cycle of stops was completed, but through difficult lapped traffic and other circumstances, allowed Allgaier, a multi-time race-winner at Nashville Superspeedway, to close in.
With 20 laps remaining, things got fierce, as Allgaier drove his No. 7 BRANDT Fresh Agriculture Chevrolet to the inside lane and attempted to clear Crews, to which the wise youngster chose to cross over and go back over the 2024 series champion. This continued for a few laps, and while in lapped traffic, until Allgaier finally managed to get clear and scoot away from the Davidson, North Carolina-native.
From there, the Riverton, Illinois-native ran away from the No. 19 Toyota GR Supra in the final 15 laps of the race, extending his lead to 1.403 seconds and winning his third NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series event at Nashville Superspeedway.
“I saw Brent [Crews] struggling after that green-flag pit stop, and I knew we had a car that was capable of getting there, and we struggled on that one run, and Andrew [Overstreet] made some great calls and got ourselves back in the game, and was able to track them back down and get ourselves the win,” Allgaier said.
After leading 45 laps, Brent Crews finished in the runner-up position, matching a career-best finish from Talladega Superspeedway earlier in the season. It’s the most laps that Crews has led in a NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series event.
William Sawalich brought home a third-place finish in the No. 18 Toyota GR Supra for Joe Gibbs Racing, his third consecutive top-five finish in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. Sam Mayer finished in fourth, with Brandon Jones rounding out the top-five. Corey Day, Carson Kvapil, Kyle Larson, Taylor Gray, and Sammy Smith rounded out the top-10.
Jesse Love, who led a race-high 87 laps on the evening at Nashville Superspeedway, had to make an unscheduled pit stop early in the final stage – knocking him out of the cycle by about 20 laps to the rest of the field. The Richard Childress Racing driver finished 16th, a disappointing result after looking like he had a race car that could challenge eventual race-winner, Justin Allgaier.
Cleetus McFarland, making his second start in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series debut, finished 35th after a pair of spins and multiple pit road penalties in the final stage of the race. McFarland finished six laps off the pace but showed more speed than in his last outing in the second-tier series.
With the victory, Justin Allgaier expands his NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series points lead to 174 markers over second-place Jesse Love. The series, for the first time in 2026, will get an off-weekend before heading to Pocono Raceway in two weeks’ time, on June 13.
