Allgaier Secures Second Career O'Reilly Series Championship!
HOMESTEAD, F.L. - Justin Allgaier became the tenth two time champion in NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series history Saturday night, November 7! After two instances of rear tire issues for Justin Allgaier, he found a way to persevere and win the championship by 14 points over Jesse Love. Allgaier finished the race in 7th, meanwhile Brandon Jones secured his second win of 2026 to round out the season!
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The race started with Haas Factory Team showing a lot of speed a Sheldon Creed eaarned the pole. Teammate Sam Mayer qualified 12th, but it became apparent in the first stage both drivers in their final races with the team had cars capable of winning. Both drivers finished 1-2 in the stages with Creed winning stage one and Mayer winning the second stage.
But similar to the truck race the night previous, championship drama displayed itself early on. How early you ask?
Well, on lap 8, championship hopes ended for Corey Day. Day making a move under Rajah Caruth for 9th attempted to clear Rajah before the corner. Day however was not clear, and proceeded to get turned nose first into the outside wall. Day's car had signficant damage and had to be towed behind the wall to be repaired. Day returned to the race on lap 24, but Corey was 17 laps down from the mistake, and his championship hopes were dashed.
As for drama, it didn't stop in the opening stage for champion contenders. Carson Kvpil faced voltage issues causing his team to make a fix to the alternator after the conclusionn of stage one, and Justin Allgaier faced the biggest issue within the opening stage. In the closing laps, the right rear for Allgaier began to go flat after wall contact, causing him to limp to the end of the stage and lose some valuable points. Allgaier finished stage one in 7th, but that was not the end.
Stage two went clean for Allgaier, but then on lap 139 with 60 laps to go, Allgaier faced a tire issue yet again. Allgaier for the second time in the race had hit the wall fairly hard enough and caused his tire to go flat. Luckily for Allgaier, he was able to make it to pit road yet again, but for Justin it would habe been a lengthy task to get to the end as that would have been his longest run on tires of the day.
Luckily for Allgaier, he wouldn't need to go long as the race had its final caution on lap 146.
The reason for the caution was due to Jordan Anderson Racing's Andrew Patterson entering pit road hot causing him to spin. In the process of the spin for Anderson, he hit the pit barells sending sand all over the pit lane. This required NASCAR to also throw the red flag to replace them for safety reasons.
The red flag lated just10 minutes and 24 seconds, but it was the perfect caution to mix up strategy as many drivers were in the middle of a pit cycle. Justin Allgaier was 10th, the last car on the lead lap at that point. As for Brandon Jones, he was the big winner as he was still yet to pit, so he go to hit pit road with a big cushion.
But, the caution also led to drivers playing strategy for the restart. Carson Kvpail and Sam Mayer opted to stay out with Jesse Love for the restart, but it was Brandon Jones and Justin Allgaier who showed a hard charge.
In turn one of the restart, Love had a bobble causing him to fall back to 8th. Allgaier, who restarted 8th moved up to 5th. As for Brandon Jones, he restarted 5th, third on the outside line and found himself making a charge for the lead briefly taking it on lap 154 from Sam Mayer.
Mayer then fought back briefly on lap 155, but Jones took control for a few laps after getting clear in turn three.
On lap 160, Jones had a slip up getting into the wall, that allowed Carson Kvpail to get to his inside and take the lead. What proceeded was an intense battle between the two, as Kvapil led from laps 161 to 165 until Jones briefly took the lead again on lap 166.
Though, Kvapil fought hard on the outside line and fought his right to maintain the lead. Kvapil did such until the tires of Brandon Jones came back to life and became too much to handle.
On lap 187, Brandon Jones had the big run of momentum and cleared Kvapil in turn three. It was at that point Jones checked out as he went on to win by 3.937 seconds over Kvapil.
As for the championship, with Jesse Love running in 4th and Kvapil in 2nd, Justin Allgaier carefully completed the final 13 laps and safely routed his way home to winning the championship!
OTHER NOTES:
For Brandon Jones this win isn't just momentum for Joe Gibbs Racing after a disappointing outcome to the organizations chase. Jones tallied his 20th top ten of the season with the win, the most of his career. On top of it for Jones, this marked the first time in his career where he had back-to-back multi-win seasons.
But he was not the only standout from Gibbs, Brent Crews raced his first ever race at Homestead and came out successful. The 18-year-old finished 3rd in his first ever race along with providing a 6th place effort in both of the stages. A real promising end to the season for a driver who has not just a lot of promise, but also has potential championship expectations in 2027.
Parker Retzlaff ended off the impressive year for Viking Motorsports with his fifth top five of 2026. Retzlaff finished the race in 5th. With both Retzlaff and teammate Anthony Alfredo returning to the program in 2027, the positive signs along with the alliance with Richard Childress Racing has played dividends, as the two both expect things to get stronger next season. The potential for Viking to also add a third car looms as a possibility which is something that could benefit the program as well next season.
Lastly, it was a great day for Kyle Sieg as he finished 11th while his brother Ryan Sieg finished 12th. But the standout performance came from Joey Gase Motorsports and Will Rodgers as Rodgers earned a 13th place finish.
It was announced earlier in the day that Rodgers would be replacing Patrick Staropoli at Big Machine Racing in 2027. So, the finish for Rodgers is big momentum for him as he will have a huge opportunity next season.
UP NEXT:
Only one race remains in the 2026 NASCAR Season as Sunday, November 8, the NASCAR Cup Series will crown a champion. It is highly favored that Kyle Larson will win the championship as he holds a 67-point lead over Christopher Bell and a 70-point lead over Denny Hamlin. Larson will the race 4th two spots behind Hamlin as he will start 2nd. As for Christopher Bell he will start 6th two positions behind Larson.
Coverage of NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race can be found on NBC and MRN with the green flag slated for 3:00 P.M. ET. The race is slated for 400 miles, 267 laps! Chase Briscoe will start the race from the point on the pole.
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