Justin Allgaier swept both stages in Saturday’s Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 at the Texas Motor Speedway. However, a wild final stage left him in fifth place across the stripe as John Hunter Nemechek passed both he and Parker Kligerman late to secure his 10th career NASCAR Xfinity Series win, a series-leading 7 of which coming this season, to stamp his name into the Round of 8 of the playoffs.

His No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led only 38 of the day’s 200 laps, but managed to get around Big Machine Racing’s Parker Kligerman and race off to a 1.005-second victory – his second at the 1.5-mile Texas track.

Allgaier led a race-high 133 of 200 laps but on a restart with 86 laps remaining, Chandler Smith pushed Allgaier’s No. 7 Chevrolet off the preferred lane in Turn 2, putting his car on skates as a result. Allgaier dropped 14 spots going from 1st to 15th and had to climb his way back forward after.

On his pursuit back forward, a caution flew shortly after. With track position now gone, he and fellow playoff drivers Austin Hill and Daniel Hemric elected to come down pit road for service. It put them off strategy but they had nothing else to lose.

Cole Custer led the restart but Nemechek took over after and led all the way until his pit stop on Lap 155. Custer pit one lap prior (Lap 154). This was what most assumed would be the final stops of the race.

Nemechek and Chandler Smith hit pit lane on Lap 155. Sammy Smith, Ryan Sieg and Kligerman on Lap 156. Then came a beneficial caution for Allgaier, Hill and Hemric for Daniel Dye in Turn 2.

It not only cycled the trio to the top three spots, but they were now in position to remain there with getting their final stops under caution on Lap 161.

Allgaier led the field to the restart as he had to endure a couple of late race cautions. With the race now back on his shoulders, he was in command. Until the final restart.

Kligerman sent it deep in Turn 3 with 7 to go and while he didn’t make contact with Allgaier above him, it was enough of a bobble to send Allgaier up too high and out of the gas a result dropping him from first to fifth.

The incident allowed Nemechek to sneak by and score his third career playoff win, two of which coming here.

“I messed up that restart, but I knew I had to push hard and try to recover right there and man, hats off to this team, Joe Gibbs Racing, it’s been amazing what we’ve been able to accomplish this year and we’re not done yet,’’ said Nemechek, 26.

“We’re preparing for the Round of 8,’’ he continued. “My goal coming into today was to lock ourselves into the next round. Our road courses haven’t been that great for myself. Joe Gibbs as an organization has been really good on road courses. But going into the [Charlotte] ROVAL and hot having to worry about that is definitely a relief.’’

Kligerman, who is racing in his first NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs, was hugely disappointed on pit road despite tying a career best runner-up effort (also at Road America this summer) in the No. 48 Big Machine Racing Chevrolet. His work at Texas brought him to within a single point of the eight drivers who can advance to the next Playoff round following the Oct. 7 Charlotte ROVAL race – the elimination event of this round.

“Had a great run, got to him [Allgaier] and I don’t know how much we got squeezed or didn’t. I thought I could clear him super easily, but I got super loose,’’ he said. “Feels like I got choked, he says he gave a lot of room. I’ll have to look at it.’

“I’m really disappointed right now,’’ Kligerman added. “I could see that one, I could feel it. That was the best restart I’ve ever had in my life, put us in perfect position and had the tire advantage, just choked. This one will hurt, but we’ll go make up for it next weekend.’’

Over his last 10 races, he’s finished 9th, 2nd, 8th, 7th, 3rd, 4th, 24th, 3rd, 31st, 2nd and gained 21 points on the day.

For his part, Allgaier was equally as disappointed and frustrated. He approached Kligerman on pit road after the race to discuss the close racing and fallout from it. He had battled from the back after being squeezed out of the lead pack earlier in the race by Chandler Smith which forced him to take his last set of fresh tires earlier than his competitors. Nemechek and Kligerman were able to take new tires on their last stop during a caution with 20 laps remaining while Allgaier’s tires had 11 laps on them at that point and stayed out – in the lead – during that final caution.

Kligerman and Nemechek made their way back toward Allgaier quickly on their fresh tires with Kligerman pulling forward to try and make the winning move in the final 10 laps.

“At that point, obviously we had a really fast Camaro all day,’’ said Allgaier, who already advanced to the next Playoff round by winning the Playoff opener at Bristol, Tenn. last week.

“We put ourselves in good position. That last caution kind of hurt us because we didn’t have tires, but still thought we’d do a good job.

“Parker, when I went and I talked to him, said I squeezed him. I felt like I left him plenty of room there knowing he’d go to the bottom and he drove it in super, super deep into [turn] three. And he’s been around the sport long enough to know what’s going to happen. Just disappointed. Not only did it mess up battling for second it put us way up in the marbles.”

Allgaier has finished 5th, 16th, 1st, 7th, 18th, 1st, 5th in the last 7 weeks. He’s also led 243 laps in two playoff races thus far as well with stage finishes being 2nd, 1st, 1st, 1st.

Sammy Smith finished third in his No. 18 Toyota for his first top five result in the last 10 races. He had finished 31st, 38th, 28th, 18th, 21st, 17th, 35th, 9th in the 8 races prior to Texas.

Chandler Smith came from last to fourth. He came away fifth last Friday night in Bristol too. Prior to the playoffs, he ended the regular season with finishes of 20th, 37th, 20th, 34th, 8th, 22nd, 12th, 32nd.

With a season-high 12 caution periods on Saturday, there was plenty of drama. Only 17 cars in the 38-car field managed to avoid any kind of accident involvement. And by mid-race, half of the 12-driver Playoff field had dealt with some incident.

JR Motorsports’ driver Sam Mayer, a two-time race winner this season and Playoff contender hit the wall on the opening lap doing enough damage to his No. 1 JRM Chevrolet he couldn’t continue and suffered a last place finish (38th).

He started the Texas race ranked 10th only 14 points behind Sheldon Creed in the final cutoff position – but left the Lone Star State ranked last among the Playoff competitors, 34 points back and essentially needing a walk-off victory in the next Playoff race at the Charlotte ROVAL.

“We’re going to have to make something happen,” Mayer said, “our backs are up against the wall.’’

Mayer has finished 19th, 11th, 38th, 35th, 38th since his Watkins Glen victory. The good thing for him is the fact that he knows he has to win the ROVAL and with his record on road courses this season, watch out. Mayer was 7th in COTA, 3rd in Portland, 10th in Sonoma, 18th on the Chicago street course, 1st in Road America, 2nd in Indy and 1st in Watkins Glen.

With one race remaining in this opening Playoff round, Nemechek and Allgaier have automatically secured their next round positions as has Custer, who clinched Saturday by virtue on points earned. The regular season champion Hill holds a 44-point edge on the Playoff elimnation line. Chandler Smith and Sammy Smith are 32 and 18 points to the good, respectively. Creed takes a nine-point edge to the good into the Charlotte ROVAL race. Daniel Hemric – who finished 24th Saturday – holds a tenuous single-point edge over Kligerman, who is in the ninth position.

Jeb Burton (-19), Josh Berry (-27) and Mayer (-34) are behind Kligerman – all three involved in incidents at Texas.

Berry scored 8 stage points (8th, 6th) but was collected on the restart to begin the final stage when Trevor Bayne got loose under him sending them both into the Turn 4 wall. He was second at the time dropping him to 27th at the end. He was 36th last week.

Jeb Burton had a great day going and was 8th in the second stage before developing a vibration on Lap 75. 10 laps later, he was down to 17th. He held on through the stage but while under caution, his left rear tire literally fell off. He went behind the wall and finished 31st. That’s his worst finish since Sonoma (26th).

Up next is the Oct. 7 Drive for the Cure 250 presented by BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina at the Charlotte ROVAL (3 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) – the final Playoff race of this round.