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.
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