It’s been one of the best years of Justin Allgaier’s tenure in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, and it only continued to get better with a victory in Saturday’s MillerTech Battery 250 at Pocono Raceway, his fifth win of 2026.
Allgaier, after spending a large portion of the final stage battling toe-to-toe with former teammate Sam Mayer, used a major push from William Byron on the final restart of the race to get clear of the No. 41 Chevrolet and other challengers, driving away and crossing the start-finish line a half-second ahead of the field.
The Riverton, Illinois-native led a race-high 35 of 100 laps at the 2.5-mile triangle-shaped course on Saturday, but didn’t appear to have the quickest race car in the closing stages of the event, but persevered and found a way to stay in front of Sam Mayer as the laps clicked off and the restarts unfolded.
For Mayer, who paced the field for 14 laps, the final nail in the coffin was the final restart of the race, where, instead of pushing his Audibel-sponsored Chevrolet in front of the pack, his Haas Factory Team teammate Sheldon Creed ducked inside three wide, causing Mayer to lose momentum and drop to fourth.
Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) rookie Brent Crews was able to pip NASCAR Cup Series regular William Byron for the second position at the start-finish line on the final lap, with Sam Mayer having to settle for a fourth-place finish. Sheldon Creed rounded out the top five.
Anthony Alfredo picked up his best finish since last Spring at Talladega Superspeedway, and his best non-superspeedway finish since 2024 with a sixth-place result for Viking Motorsports. Rajah Caruth scored another top-10 while driving the No. 32 for Jordan Anderson Racing, finishing seventh, with Brandon Jones, Connor Zilisch, and Carson Kvapil rounding out the top-10.
Saturday’s 100-lap contest featured a record-tying 10 cautions in what ended up being a wacky rendition of the second-tier division’s annual trip to the racetrack called “The Tricky Triangle”. That, of course, started with Lap 1, when Corey Day spun exiting Turn 1 and collected Jesse Love (who was quickest in Saturday morning’s practice session).
The hits just kept on coming, with Ryan Sieg and Nathan Byrd crashing on Lap 9, Connor Zilisch and William Sawalich crashing on Lap 26, Leland Honeyman and Patrick Staropoli on Lap 39, Patrick Emerling on Lap 43 (and again on Lap 84), and then a couple of multi-car wrecks at the end of the race that collected front-runners Sammy Smith and Taylor Gray.
39 of the 100 laps were run under the caution flag.
Leaving Pocono, Justin Allgaier, with his incredible five-win season, has a whopping 250-point lead over second-place in the standings, Jesse Love, who finished 37th this weekend after a first-lap wreck. Corey Day, Sheldon Creed, and Brandon Jones continue to hold the top-five spots.
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Naval Base Coronado for the inaugural Street Course event in San Diego. Coverage will be on The CW next Saturday, June 20 at 5:00 PM ET.
Photo: Getty Images
