Absolutely nothing was going right for Justin Allgaier halfway through Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series championship race at Phoenix.
After crashing in practice on Friday, Allgaier and his backup car were flying through the field — until a restart violation on lap 101 forced him to come down pit road to serve his penalty.
Allgaier’s situation was compounded when it was revealed he sped on pit road while serving his initial penalty, putting him even further behind.
While Allgaier eventually got back on the lead lap, he still had quite the mountain to climb. On the lap 163 restart, Allgaier was third of the Championship Four, running in 11th.
But on the race’s final long green-flag run, Allgaier’s Camaro came to life. After getting around his JRM teammates in Sam Mayer and Connor Zilisch, Allgaier got to the back bumper of championship leader Cole Custer, tapping his bumper to take away the championship lead.