Noah Gragson squeezed past JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier with four laps remaining, a move that caused Allgaier to crash, and Gragson held on at Bristol Motor Speedway for his second win of the season. 

Gragson also won the season-opening race at Daytona to begin his second year with Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s race team. Gragson was winless in 2019, his first full season in NASCAR’s second-tier series.

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His victory Monday night was set up by a caution with 13 laps remaining that wiped away Allgaier’s lead. The Chevrolet teammates lined up side-by-side for the restart with seven laps remaining but Allgaier cleared him on the restart. 

Gragson chased him and as he passed Allgaier for the lead, Allgaier wiggled into the wall and crashed for a caution.

“Really unfortunate, I take full blame there,” Gragson said of the incident. “I saw the bottom open up there and I sailed it in. We were racing side by side after that and I don’t know. This track’s like an ice rink, it’s so hard to get around. That’s no excuse, he’s my teammate.”

Allgaier, said he was frustrated in himself but admitted Gragson wrecked him too.

“The team did a great job getting us track position we needed,” Allgaier said after leading a race-high 156 of 303 laps. “I’m more mad at myself for making a mistake and getting off the bottom, but yeah we got wrecked.”

Gragson had to race Chase Briscoe and Brandon Jones in a two-lap overtime finish but beat them both to claim the checkered flag.

Allgaier, earned a series-best fourth stage victory of the season by winning the second stage of the Xfinity race at Bristol. He led the final 42 laps of the stage.

Gragson won the first stage of the Xfinity Series race at Bristol. He led 46 laps in winning the stage himself.

The race was a Dash 4 Cash qualifier as Gragson, Chase Briscoe, Brandon Jones and Harrison Burton will go for a chance at a $100k bonus on Saturday in Atlanta.

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