Allgaier Takes Crews to School In Battle For Nashville O’Reilly Win

Jesse Love dominated Saturday night’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Sports Illustrated Resorts 250 at Nashville Superspeedway, but came away from the night empty handed after a loose wheel hampered his strong effort.

With Love out of contention, it looked like 18-year-old rookie phenom Brent Crews was in position to score his first career O’Reilly Series win. Then, Justin Allgaier did what he’s done so many times before. The driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet came to life in the closing laps, and after an excellent battle with Crews, made the race-winning pass with 20 laps to go.

“I saw Brent struggling after that green flag pit stop, and I knew we had a car that was capable of getting there. We struggled on that one run, and [Crew Chief] Andrew [Overstreet] made some great calls, and we got ourselves back in the game, and I was able to track him down and get the win,” Allgaier explained with a smile.

Allgaier never looked back, and would score his fourth win of the 2026 season by more than 1.4 seconds over Crews. The 39-year-old racer’s 32nd career victory marked his third career win at Nashville Superspeedway.

“To win at Nashville, you fans, this place is electric. I love coming to Nashville,” Allgaier said after his latest win.

After picking up the win, Allgaier performed his patented roof-hatch exit celebration, and as he popped out of the roof of his car, he performed Kyle Busch’s patented bow celebration to the joy of the crowd. Allgaier, like the other winners since Busch’s untimely passing a week ago, wanted to pay tribute to the fallen legend.

“First of all, it’s been a rough couple of weeks,” Allgaier said. “Thoughts and prayers to Samantha, Kyle, Brexton, and Lennix. It’s been an emotional couple of weeks. I wish my wife, my kids, and my mom and dad were here to celebrate.”

While Allgaier was enjoying the spoils of victory lane, Crews was left wondering what might have been, but he did find some positives from his evening.

“Well, man, the positive is that I thought we were going to win that race,” Crews quipped.

Crews continued, “Got to start 33rd, worked our way up to the lead, got to lead a lot of laps, and got to race one of the best guys in our series of all-time for the win there in the last few laps. Couldn’t ask for much more than to beat him.”

William Sawalich would come home with a third-place finish, while Sam Mayer and Brandon Jones rounded out the top-five finishers in the event.

Love, who looked poised to score his first win of the season, was left frustrated again, as he was credited with a 16th-place finish on Saturday night. The defending series champion is chomping at the bit to find out why wheels keep being left loose on his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet on pit road.

“Yeah, it’s definitely really frustrating,” Love stated. “A lot to be proud of today. Our Whelen Camaro was really fast. I know we had a misstep on pit road, but we have the best pit crew on pit road right now, and it’s really not even close. I’ve got a lot of faith in everyone, and we’re going to figure out what is making these wheels come loose, because my pit crew is getting them tight. It’s not on those guys, or at least that’s how I understand it.”

Heading into an offweekend for the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, Allgaier holds a firm 179 point lead over Jesse Love for the regular season point lead with eight races remaining until the Chase for the Championship begins.

Crews now sits 14th in the championship standings, and is 15 points out from the final spot (12th) inside the Chase grid.