Justin Allgaier wins NASCAR O'Reilly race at Phoenix

In a race dominated by the sport's younger drivers, it was a 39-year-old veteran who emerged victorious Saturday night at Phoenix. This victory also vaulted Justin Allgaier into the championship lead as he seeks a second title as a NOAPS driver.

"Just so proud of this team," said Allgaier. "Andrew [Overstreet, new crew chief for 2026] has done a great job taking over. He'd been telling me all week that this is our house and we're going to go take it. It wasn't for lack of adversity, but it seems like those ones are really the ones that are great for us. Really proud of this team. We had an issue on that first pit stop and these boys rebounded."

Justin Allgaier, No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet

Photo by: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Jesse Love finished second, Carson Kvapil third, Sheldon Creed fourth, and Sam Mayer fifth. Sammy Smith, Jeb Burton, Rajah Caruth, Corey Day, and Anthony Alfredo filled out the remainder of the top ten.

Stages 1 and 2

Taylor Gray started the race from pole position, but it was Love who took command of the race. The reigning NOAPS champion led much of the first stage, but Sammy Smith eventually passed him in traffic to win Stage 1.

Smith led Love, Allgaier, Kvapil, Byron, J. Burton, Day, Crews, Creed, and B. Jones at the end of Stage 1.

During that stage, Nick Sanchez fell off the pace and pitted with no power, losing multiple laps.

The first stage saw no incidents, and the second stage was much of the same. This time, Love did win the stage, followed by Kvapil, Byron, Allgaier, Crews, Smith, J. Burton, Tay. Gray, Creed, and Clements.

Stage 3

Love was in control, but Kvapil became a real threat as the race progressed. In traffic, he and Love went back-and-forth for the lead before Kvapil prevailed with 61 laps to go. Love then began to fade, and was even passed by Creed for second.

The stage featured green-flag pit stops, with the race leader coming down pit road with 47 laps to go. 

As stops cycles through, Creed emerged with the lead over Kvapil with a successful undercut. 

The race remained caution-free as Creed led Kvapil by about a second with 40 laps to go. However, the battle for the lead was interrupted by the first natural yellow of the race as Lavar Scott spun on the back stretch, due to contact from Anthony Alfredo.

It was a hectic restart with Kvapil falling behind Mayer, who battled side-by-side with Haas teammate Creed and nosed into the race lead.

Back in the back, there was a major crash that began with Brandon Jones spinning off the nose of Smith. As he spun down the track, both of his JGR teammates -- Taylor Gray and William Sawalich, plowed into it. A couple of other cars were involved as well, including William Byron, the only full-time Cup driver in the field.

On the restart, Creed retook the lead, but hit the wall as he battled a tight condition with Love pressuring him. Allgaier then got to the outside of Love, taking the lead and never looking back.

cla	#	driver	manufacturer	laps	gap
1	7	Justin Allgaier	Chevrolet	200
2	2	Jesse Love	Chevrolet	200	0.449
3	1	Carson Kvapil	Chevrolet	200	0.879
4	00	Sheldon Creed	Chevrolet	200	2.984
5	41	Sam Mayer	Chevrolet	200	3.220
6	8	Sammy Smith	Chevrolet	200	4.365
7	27	Jeb Burton	Chevrolet	200	4.704
8	32	Rajah Caruth	Chevrolet	200	5.086
9	17	Corey Day	Chevrolet	200	6.231
10	96	Anthony Alfredo	Chevrolet	200	6.529
11	51	Jeremy Clements	Chevrolet	200	7.040
12	21	Austin Hill	Chevrolet	200	7.045
13	88	William Byron	Chevrolet	200	7.294
14	99	Parker Retzlaff	Chevrolet	200	7.352
15	54	Taylor Gray	Toyota	200	10.040
16	20	Brandon Jones	Toyota	200	11.977
17	39	Ryan Sieg	Chevrolet	200	14.057
18	19	Brent Crews	Toyota	200	23.114
19	55	Joey Gase	Chevrolet	200	29.612
20	52	Daniel Dye	Ford	199	1 Lap
21	5	Chandler Smith	Ford	199	1 Lap
22	87	Austin Green	Chevrolet	199	1 Lap
23	24	Harrison Burton	Toyota	199	1 Lap
24	28	Kyle Sieg	Chevrolet	199	1 Lap
25	26	Dean Thompson	Toyota	199	1 Lap
26	48	Patrick Staropoli	Chevrolet	199	1 Lap
27	44	Brennan Poole	Chevrolet	199	1 Lap
28	31	Blaine Perkins	Chevrolet	198	2 Laps
29	0	Garrett Smithley	Chevrolet	198	2 Laps
30	07	Josh Bilicki	Chevrolet	197	3 Laps
31	42	Nathan Byrd	Chevrolet	197	3 Laps
32	91	Mason Maggio	Chevrolet	196	4 Laps
33	45	Lavar Scott	Chevrolet	195	5 Laps
34	30	Austin J Hill	Chevrolet	195	5 Laps
35	25	Nicholas Sanchez	Ford	193	7 Laps
36	74	Dawson Cram	Chevrolet	192	8 Laps
37	18	William Sawalich	Toyota	173	27 Laps
38	02	Ryan Ellis	Chevrolet	13	187 Laps