Justin Allgaier holds off Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson to win Help a Hero 200 at Darlington

Justin Allgaier used an excellent restart with about 16 laps to go to claim the win at the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 at Darlington on Saturday afternoon. It was an unbelievable bit of driving to get in front and hold the lead against some hard chargers.

Kyle Larson had dominated the majority of the race on Saturday afternoon. But he lost the lead late off a pit stop and had to battle his way back to the front.

The veteran NASCAR Cup Series driver showed his class in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series for the second straight week, nearly racking up back-to-back victories. But he never could quite get back to the front. Justin Allgaier held him off brilliantly in the closing stage to secure the win.

“We definitely weren’t the best all day,” Allgaier said after the race. “Kyle obviously was amazing. You’re just hoping on that last restart, he said never give up. If we can get the lead, we got clean air, we’re going to win this thing. And we did.”

In fact, Allgaier got by a couple Cup Series veterans for the win. Christopher Bell was also in the mix at the end, finishing in third place. Brandon Jones finished in second.

Allgaier’s win was his fourth at Darlington and his second in three weeks. He also won at Phoenix. He credited his pit crew for keeping him up front all day long.

“All these guys right here. We have not been the best on pit road all year,” Allgaier said. “These guys have never quit, they have gone to work, they have never given up and they were on top of it all day on pit road. Huge thank you to these guys. Andrew Overstreet, this whole 7 team to get BRANDT Professional Agriculture back in victory lane this year, at Darlington of all places.”

The win was Justin Allgaier’s 30th all-time at the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series level. He is just the eighth driver to win that many races at the NOAPS level. The others are below, per NASCAR Insights.

Most wins in NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series

Kyle Busch – 102
Mark Martin – 49
Kevin Harvick – 47
Brad Keselowski – 39
Carl Edwards – 38
Jack Ingram – 31
Joey Logano – 30
Justin Allgaier – 30