Justin Allgaier improved his resume for “Father of the Year” on Saturday night, earning a second Gibson guitar trophy – one for each of his daughters – for his victory in the Tennessee Lottery 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Nashville Superspeedway.

Allgaier, driving the No. 7 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports, swept all the stages on his way to his third NASCAR Xfinity Series win of the year, his second at Nashville Superspeedway, and the 28th victory of his career, good for ninth all-time. Chevrolet has won 12 of the first 14 Xfinity Series races of the season – a Series first.

“There’s no cooler feeling than to win at a place like this,” said Allgaier in front of the grandstands with fireworks exploding behind the backstretch. “These fans are incredible. I really wanted to get a second guitar. [My daughters] can fight over one of them or both of them.”

By that point his daughters — Harper and Willow — and wife Ashley had run across the infield grass to join Dad at the start-finish line. Both children joined the defending NASCAR Xfinity Series champion in the car as he guided it to Victory Lane, where his car owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. waited to congratulate him.

“It was a really great run,” Earnhardt said. “Justin runs so good here. It’s no surprise to see him up there contending.”

Allgaier led a race-high 101 laps, including the final 48 circuits following a critical pass of Brandon Jones on the inside during the race’s final restart.

“JR Motorsports brought some incredible Chevrolets today,” Allgaier said. “That final restart was the key. Having clean air, and being out front … you have to make the most out of having good days. “This team never gives up. [My pit crew] deserves this more than anything. This [car] was on rails.”

Allgaier, the Xfinity Series points leader, beat rookie Connor Zilisch, his JR Motorsports teammate, to the checkered flag by 1.289 seconds. Sam Mayer was third, followed by Sheldon Creed in fourth and NASCAR Cup Series star Ross Chastain in fifth.

“[Justin] had the clean air at the end and I couldn’t quite get there,” said Zilisch, who led 18 laps. “Really good job by Justin there on that final restart.”

“Overall, we had a really solid day,” said Mayer. “Unfortunately, we didn’t execute on pit road and we got shuffled back on some restarts. Being disappointed in a third-place finish is good long term.”

Allgaier, 38, from Springfield, Illinois, averaged 111.006 mph around the 1.33-mile concrete oval, completing 188 laps in 2 hours, 15 minutes and 9 seconds. Six caution periods took up 39 laps while seven leaders exchanged the lead eight times.

Earlier Saturday, rookie William Sawalich, driving the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, earned his second career pole, with a lap of 155.152 mph (30.86 seconds) during Wilson County Convention and Visitors Bureau Qualifying. Sawalich led 37 laps but finished 35th after losing engine power.

Among other notables, former NASCAR Cup Series drivers Aric Almirola and Harrison Burton finished sixth and 13th, respectively, while Jeffrey Earnhardt placed 20th.

At the end, everyone was looking up at Allgaier, who was soaking in the time with his loved ones — and maybe thinking about where to put the latest family trophy.

“To have my daughters and wife here — these are the moments that are really, really special,” Allgaier said.

NSS PR

Dennis Hauger quickly figured out the best way to avoid potential and real chaos Sunday in the INDY NXT by Firestone Detroit Grand Prix – stay out front.

Pole sitter Hauger, from Norway, led all 45 laps of the race on the streets of downtown Detroit in the No. 28 Rental Group car for his fourth victory in five races this season in the INDYCAR development series. He held off the No. 76 HMD Motorsports car of 2024 series Rookie of the Year Caio Collet by 1.0460 seconds in a one-lap dash for the checkered flag after a restart at the end of Lap 44.

SEE: Race Results

“The tires, they cool down really quickly, so that last lap was sketchy,” Hauger said. “I think I heated up the tires nicely, and we got a good gap after the back straight.

“Super happy with that. We kept it clean, and we got a good win today.”

Hauger expanded his series lead to 38 points over fellow rookie teammate Lochie Hughes, who is the only other driver to win a race this season.

Rookie Juan Manuel Correa earned his career-best finish of third in the No. 39 HMD Motorsports car. His previous best result was 14th in the second race of the Indianapolis road course doubleheader last month.

Series veteran Josh Pierson completed a solid day for HMD Motorsports, which fielded the cars that finished second, third and fourth, with a fourth-place result in the team’s No. 16 machine. Hughes rallied from a late pit stop due to a damaged front wing to round out the top five in the No. 26 McGinley Clinic/USF Pro Championship car.

Just six of the 20 cars in the race finished on the lead lap, as the tight confines of the nine-turn, 1.645-mile temporary circuit on the streets of downtown Detroit induced chaos nearly from the green flag.

At the start, Hauger and Hughes raced side by side into the first turn, with Hauger clinging to the top spot. In Turn 4 on the same lap, the No. 99 Abel/Force Indy car of Myles Rowe was sent into a spin due to rear contact from the No. 17 car of teammate Callum Hedge.

That incident spawned a caution period due to a bottleneck that blocked the track and led to an accordion effect of collisions, with nine cars involved and many suffering damage.

Hauger held steady on the restart on Lap 3 and gradually eased away from Hughes and Andretti Global teammate Salvador de Alba in the No. 27 Grupo Indi machine.

De Alba passed Hughes for second place on Lap 5 and stayed within four-tenths of a second of Hauger by Lap 10.

But Hauger expanded his lead to 1.5 seconds by Lap 19 as de Alba, Hughes, Collet and Correa dueled – often side by side – for second through fifth. There was some contact, and the front wings on the cars of Hughes and de Alba were damaged.

The wing damage, which also included rubbing a deep groove into his right front Firestone Firehawk tire, forced de Alba to pit from second place on Lap 24. Hauger had all but checked out up front by then, ahead by 6.5 seconds.

Hughes’ front-wing damage compromised his car’s performance, and Collet passed him for second on Lap 38. Hughes was forced to pit for a front wing change on Lap 39 from third place.

It looked like Hauger was going to canter to the checkered flag, as his lead had reached double digits by Lap 40. But Jordan Missig spun exiting Turn 2 on Lap 41 in the No. 48 Abel Motorsports car, triggering the second and final caution of the race and erasing Hauger’s big lead.

The field lined up for a final restart and one-lap shootout at the end of Lap 44, but Hauger got a big jump at the green and never was threatened by Collet or Correa.

The next INDY NXT by Firestone race is Sunday, June 15 at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois, just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis. It’s the first of four oval races this season for the series.

IndyNXT PR

The NASCAR Cup Series made its debut at the Nashville Superspeedway in 2021 after the circuit didn’t come through the city for nearly 40 years, and the venue has quickly entrenched itself as a compelling annual stop again.

Following post-race inspection at Nashville, NASCAR has disqualified Daniel Dye and the No. 10 Kaulig Racing car. Dye originally finished P9, which would have been his sixth top-10 of the season. Instead, he is now credited with a 38th-place finish after failing rear ride-height requirements.

Daniel Dye is going to take a good hit in the points after tonight. He picked up 35 points with his performance tonight, but it was all for nothing. Kaulig Racing is wondering what they have to do to not get wrecked or penalized in Nashville this weekend.

Let’s run down the Xfinity Series results for Kaulig today: Christian Eckes P36 after restart wreck totaled his Chevy. Josh Williams, involved in the same restart incident, fought back for a paltry P18 finish. Dye DQ’d and relegated to last place.

Oh, on top of that, AJ Allmendinger suffered a massive penalty today in Cup Series practice for an unapproved adjustment on pit road. Ty Dillon is the only driver who hasn’t had on or off-track troubles today.

The winner of tonight’s race, Justin Allgaier, passed inspection. He records his third win of the season. As for Daniel Dye, he needs to take these next two weeks before Mexico City to regroup and refresh.

NASCAR has been really DQ-heavy this season. It started with the disqualification of Parker Kligerman from the Daytona Truck Series race, which he had originally won. Since then, we have seen a number of infractions handed down from NASCAR to various teams.

In the Xfinity Series, we had two DQs at Rockingham. Jesse Love, the winner of that race, was disqualified, as well as Justin Bonsignore. Sammy Smith had his top-five finish at Charlotte taken away after post-race inspection just a week ago.

Daniel Dye gets hit with DQ after AJ Allmendinger Cup penalty

Like I said, Kaulig Racing is really taking it on the chin this weekend. Chris Rice and Matt Kaulig have to be wondering what in the world is going on. They can’t catch a break no matter how hard they try.

It really felt like Daniel Dye was going to be the bright spot of the night. Two cars were involved in an ultimately avoidable restart pileup. Then you have your Cup Series star get hit with a penalty that will make him lose pit selection, lose his car chief, his car chief has had his hard card pulled for the year, and Allmendinger will have to start at the rear on Sunday before he performs a stop-and-go penalty. Yikes.

I’m not sure what this organization did to anger the racing gods. But things need to turn around soon. So, Ty Dillon, you’re the only hope, it looks like, for salvaging the weekend at Nashville.

Oscar Piastri strengthens his F1 world championship lead, beating McLaren teammate Lando Norris, while Max Verstappen drops to 10th spot after post-race penalty.

Formula One championship leader Oscar Piastri has won the Spanish Grand Prix from pole position in a McLaren one-two to go 10 points clear of teammate Lando Norris in the world championship title battle.

The Australian’s win on Sunday by 2.4 seconds over Norris was his fifth in nine races this season and McLaren’s seventh.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc completed the podium places on Sunday after passing Max Verstappen’s Red Bull six laps from the end following a safety car period that triggered the main talking point of the afternoon with the champion demoted from fifth to 10th place.

“It’s a nice way to bounce back from Monaco. A superb weekend,” said Piastri, who finished third last weekend in a race won from pole by Norris.

Verstappen, who made four stops in total and ended up on the slower hard tyres against rivals on softs, collided with Leclerc and twice with Mercedes’s George Russell after the safety car restart.

The Dutch driver was given a 10-second penalty – added to his overall time post-race – for the second Russell collision, which was clearly his fault.

He and Leclerc also faced a post-race investigation for their clash, which could lead to further sanctions.

“I tried to push him to the left. There was a bit of contact but fortunately no consequences,” Leclerc said. Verstappen claimed the Monegasque had rammed into him and should have given back the place.

Russell finished fourth after eventually being let through by Verstappen, who reluctantly did as his team told him.

Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg finished a surprising and morale-boosting fifth for the future Audi team after passing Ferrari’s seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton on the penultimate lap.

Hamilton was a disappointing sixth, Isack Hadjar seventh for Racing Bulls and Pierre Gasly eighth for Renault-owned Alpine.

Home hero Fernando Alonso scored his first points of the season with Aston Martin, who had only one car on the grid due to Lance Stroll’s withdrawal through injury after Saturday’s qualifying.

Piastri keeps his cool out front

Piastri led away cleanly at the start with Verstappen seizing second from Norris while Hamilton and Leclerc moved up to fourth and fifth at the expense of Russell.

Hamilton let Leclerc through on lap 10 of 66 after the two Ferraris had run nose to tail.

Norris took back second place from Verstappen on lap 13 with the Dutch driver making no attempt to defend against the quicker McLaren and pitting on the next lap for new tyres.

Verstappen took the lead again on lap 23 after Piastri pitted. Norris made his first stop on lap 21 and came out behind the Red Bull, but that lasted only until Verstappen pitted for a second time on lap 30.

Verstappen came in for a third stop on lap 47, and Norris pitted a lap later to defend second place.

A safety car was deployed on lap 55 after rookie driver Kimi Antonelli beached his Mercedes in the gravel, bunching up the field and triggering a rash of pit stops.

The McLarens came in together for new tyres, double-stacking, and comfortably resumed ahead of Verstappen, who questioned the switch to a set of hards but was told that was the only option available.

The next round of the 2025 season will be the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal on June 15.