After Daniel Hemric cruised to victory in the second stage, the final stage kicked off with 35 to go, with Austin Dillon and Matt Tifft on the front row after strategy shuffled the deck out front. Dillon edged ahead briefly, but Tifft got a shove from Chase Elliott to go to the top spot.
They stayed that way until Elliott made his move, shooting to Tifft’s outside in turn one with 30 to go and assuming command a lap before Cole Custer got turned to the inside by Brandon Jones. Custer then slammed the inside wall off turn two, bringing out the sixth caution of the day.
On the next restart, Preece had a similar incident after contact with John Hunter Nemechek, making heavy contact with the inside tire barrier in turn two. Preece’s accident actually necessitated a red flag to repair that tire pack, but both he and Custer were uninjured despite their hard shunts.
When racing resumed with 17 to go, it was a mad scramble out front. Elliott led the field back to the restart, but didn’t even hold the point for a full lap as he got shuffled three-wide down the backstretch. It was eventually Allgaier and his JR Motorsports teammate Tyler Reddick who drafted to the front, holding the pack at bay for a lap before slowly pulling away in tandem out front.
Though the two teammates wanted to settle the race among themselves, Elliott and company refused to let them do so. With 10 to go, it was a five-car lead pack with Allgaier in front of Reddick, Elliott, Ryan Blaney and Hemric.
Blaney marched past Elliott for third at that point, while further back in the field, Ryan Truex lost a right-front tire and glanced off the turn two wall with eight laps left before limping to pit road. The race stayed green and the intensity picked up, with the top five covered by barely a full second at five to go.
However, no one could do anything with the top two at the end. Reddick came the closest, but admitted after the race that he had a chance to get around his teammate and waited too long to attempt a pass.
“The run that I needed came together with two laps to go,” Reddick said. “I was unsure of taking it that early, though. I didn’t want to cost Justin or myself a first or second place finish. I wanted it to be off turn four, preferably on the last lap and that way it could be between he and I to get JR Motorsports into victory lane. Unfortunately, I just didn’t get the run I needed on the last lap.
“I really should have taken it with two laps to go but I just wasn’t sure and I didn’t want to ruin either of our days. I wanted to walk out of here with either a first or a second,” Reddick continued. “Hats off to Justin and the guys, though; they’ve really been clicking it off this year. I’m proud of my team. The last two weeks, we have been getting better finishes. Things are coming together at the right time for us.”
Blaney came close to scoring Team Penske’s second Indianapolis Xfinity win, but crossing the line in third, with Elliott and Hemric making it four Chevrolet Camaros in the top five at the finish.
Tifft was sixth ahead of Christopher Bell, Dillon, Chase Briscoe and Jones.
