March 21, 2026 | By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service

Justin Allgaier gets fourth NASCAR O'Reilly Series victory at Darlington

DARLINGTON, S.C.—Justin Allgaier’s formula for winning Saturday’s Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway was simple enough: take advantage of excellent pit stops and muscle his way into the lead on the final two restarts.

The result was Allgaier’s fourth NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series victory at the 1.366-mile track, his second of the season and the 30th of his career, tying him with Joey Logano for seventh on the series’ career win list.

After a slow pit stop under the third and final caution on Lap 127 buried the dominant car of Kyle Larson in fifth place, Allgaier seized the lead from Brandon Jones on the last restart with 15 laps left and beat Jones to finish line by 0.578 seconds.

Allgaier is the first repeat winner of the 2026 season, but his victory is the fourth straight for JR Motorsports Chevrolets.

“These guys have never quit all year—they won the race,” Allgaier said of his pit crew. “They’ve never given up. They were on top of it all day on pit road.

“We definitely weren’t the best all day. Kyle (Larson) obviously was amazing. He had us covered… I didn’t do a very good job with it all day, if I’m being honest with you. Probably one of the worst days personally I’ve had here at Darlington.

“At the end there, I was worried about Brandon (Jones)—he had a fast car—and I was worried that the 19 (third-place finisher Christopher Bell) and the 88 (Larson) were going to get through the traffic there.”

But it was the 39-year-old Allgaier who took the checkered flag, and the driver of the No. 7 JRM Camaro savored the victory.

“Nobody will ever know, the later you get into your career, how much these victories mean,” Allgaier said. “And to come at Darlington, a place I’ve loved for so long, is really special.”

Larson was able to catch and pass Allgaier after a restart on Lap 99, after losing a spot to Jones on pit road and watching Allgaier flash past into the lead on the restart lap.

But the final restart, which followed a five-car wreck involving Dean Thompson, Austin Hill, Kyle Sieg, Alex Labbe and Lavar Scott, was another matter. Larson could gain only one position and finished fourth ahead of Carson Kvapil.

“It became tougher to pass,” explained Larson, who led the first 94 laps from the pole and won the first two stages. “At the end, the pace picked up, and you’re stuck.

“Unfortunate, but that’s the way racing is sometimes. That sucks, but I had a lot of fun today.”

First off pit road under each of the final two cautions, Jones chose the bottom lane for the final restart, but Allgaier powered into the lead from the top lane.

“The 7 (Allgaier) just kept getting just barely better launches than I could on that second lane, and he had just a little more juice in the tank on the short run today,” Jones said. “We were matching, if not slightly better on the long run, but just ran out of laps there at the end.”

Corey Day finished sixth, posting his fifth-straight top 10 in his rookie season. Sheldon Creed, Parker Retzlaff, Sammy Smith and Sam Mayer completed the top 10.

Allgaier heads for next Saturday’s race at Martinsville Speedway (3:30 p.m. on CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with a 52-point lead over second-place Jesse Love in the series standings. After spinning on pit road during the first stage break, Love recovered to finish 11th, his first result outside the top10 this season.


NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Race Number 6
Race Results for the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 - Saturday, March 21, 2026
Darlington Raceway - Darlington, SC - 1.366 - Mile Paved
Total Race Length - 147 Laps - 200.802 Miles

Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Saturday, 3/21/2026 @ 07:55 PM Eastern

Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Pts Pos Status Tms Laps Pos
1 4 7 Justin Allgaier BRANDT Chevrolet 147 5 4 69 Running 2 31
2 8 20 Brandon Jones Menards/Pelonis Toyota 147 4 3 50 Running 2 8
3 2 19 Christopher Bell(i) Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota 147 2 9 0 Running
4 1 88 Kyle Larson(i) HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 147 1 1 0 Running 2 107
5 3 1 Carson Kvapil Champion Irrigation Chevrolet 147 3 2 49 Running
6 12 17 Corey Day HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 147 8 34 Running
7 13 00 Sheldon Creed Ollie's Chevrolet 147 30 Running
8 5 99 Parker Retzlaff South Carolina Outcast Chevrolet 147 6 5 40 Running
9 18 8 Sammy Smith Allstate Peterbilt Group Chevrolet 147 28 Running
10 6 41 Sam Mayer Audibel Chevrolet 147 27 Running
11 10 2 Jesse Love Whelen Chevrolet 147 7 30 Running
12 21 96 Anthony Alfredo Dude Wipes Chevrolet 147 9 7 31 Running
13 22 39 Ryan Sieg SciAps/SA Recycling Chevrolet 147 24 Running
14 9 9 Ross Chastain(i) Jarrett Logistics Chevrolet 147 10 6 0 Running
15 15 54 Taylor Gray Operation 300 Toyota 147 22 Running
16 27 25 Nick Sanchez Paynuity/Travel Curious Ford 147 21 Running
17 7 18 William Sawalich Soundgear Toyota 147 8 10 24 Running
18 23 44 Brennan Poole CWSons.com/Clark's Chevrolet 147 19 Running
19 30 51 Jeremy Clements Fly and Form Structures Chevrolet 147 18 Running
20 32 07 Josh Bilicki Rita's Chevrolet 147 17 Running
21 33 26 Dean Thompson Thompson Pipe Group Toyota 147 16 Running
22 14 24 Harrison Burton DEX/Sharp Toyota 147 15 Running
23 19 32 Rajah Caruth Black Effect Chevrolet 147 14 Running
24 17 92 Josh Williams Down Syndrome Foundation of FL Chevrolet 147 13 Running 1 1
25 20 5 JJ Yeley Victory Custom Trailers Ford 147 12 Running
26 25 27 Jeb Burton State Water Heaters Chevrolet 147 11 Running
27 24 0 Garrett Smithley Knight Fire Protection Chevrolet 147 10 Running
28 31 87 Austin Green 3Dimensional Services Chevrolet 146 9 Running
29 28 48 Patrick Staropoli # Syfovre Chevrolet 146 8 Running
30 26 31 Blaine Perkins Capital City Towing Chevrolet 146 7 Running
31 37 55 Joey Gase NFPA Chevrolet 145 6 Running
32 36 02 Ryan Ellis Sweetwater Chevrolet 145 5 Running
33 35 30 Myatt Snider Barrett Wines/Proof Ice Cream Chevrolet 145 4 Running
34 38 42 Nathan Byrd Randco Chevrolet 145 3 Running
35 11 21 Austin Hill 1-800-PACK-RAT Chevrolet 142 2 Running
36 29 45 Lavar Scott # Sunoco Chevrolet 123 1 Accident
37 16 28 Kyle Sieg Night Owl Companies Chevrolet 121 1 DVP
38 34 91 Alex Labbe Berry's Injection Molding Chevrolet 120 1 Accident

Fastest Lap Bonus: #7 , lap 134 / 304.38

Race Comments: Justin Allgaier won the 44th running of the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 at Darlington, his 30th victory in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series. Prior to the start of the race, the following cars dropped to the rear of the field under penalty for the reasons indicated: Nos. 25, 42, 48 (Unapproved adjustments), 91 (Engine).

Failed to Qualify: (1) 35 Matt DiBenedetto.

Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 47 Mins, 9 Secs. Average Speed: Margin of Victory:

Caution Flags: 3 for 25 laps; Laps: 47-55 (Stage 1 Conclusion [92]); 92-98 (Stage 2 Conclusion [92]); 124-132 (#21, 28, 91, 26, 45 Incident Backstretch [51]).
6 among 4 drivers; K. Larson(i) 1-94; B. Jones 95-98; J. Allgaier 99-114; K. Larson(i) 115-127; J. Williams 128; B. Jones 129-132; J. Allgaier 133-147. Lead Changes: 112.442 MPH .578 Seconds

Stage 2 Top 10: 88, 1, 20, 7, 99, 9, 96, 17, 19, 18
Stage 1 Top 10: 88, 19, 1, 20, 7, 99, 2, 18, 96, 9

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

Next Race: March 28, 2026 - Martinsville Speedway

NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications @ P.O. Box 2875, Daytona Beach, FL 32120-2875


CURRENT NASCAR O'REILLY AUTO PARS SERIES STANDINGS

Through March 21, 2026

UNOFFICIAL UNOFFICIAL

1. Chandler Smith 38 4 0 172 0 0 1 1
2. Kaden Honeycutt 11 4 -4 139 -33 33 0 1
3. Layne Riggs 34 4 -2 131 -41 8 1 1
4. Giovanni Ruggiero 17 4 0 127 -45 4 0 0
5. Ty Majeski 88 4 2 121 -51 6 0 0
6. Christian Eckes 91 4 -3 119 -53 2 0 1
7. Ben Rhodes 99 4 5 119 -53 0 0 1
8. Corey Heim 5 2 -13 114 -58 5 1 1
9. Andres Perez De Lara 44 4 2 90 -82 24 0 0
10. Justin Haley 16 4 0 89 -83 1 0 0
11. Brenden Queen # 12 4 0 83 -89 6 0 0
12. Tyler Ankrum 18 4 0 82 -90 1 0 0
13. Stewart Friesen 52 4 5 82 -90 0 0 1
14. Daniel Hemric 19 4 -5 75 -97 7 0 0
15. Jake Garcia 98 4 1 74 -98 1 0 0
16. Tanner Gray 15 4 -1 74 -98 0 0 0
17. Grant Enfinger 9 4 -6 71 -101 3 0 0
18. Connor Mosack 7 2 -8 65 -107 6 0 0
19. Daniel Dye 3 6 64 -108 1 0 0
20. Cole Butcher # 13 4 5 61 -111 3 0 0