BRISTOL, Tenn. – Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: JR Motorsports had the fastest two cars in a NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race.
On Friday, Sept. 18, at Bristol Motor Speedway, Carson Kvapil and Justin Allgaier were in position to repeat history. Allgaier won stage one and Kvapil won stage two, along with leading the most laps as JRM appeared set for another 1-2 NOAPS finish.
However, about 50 laps before the conclusion of the race, Kvapil suffered a loose wheel, which led to mechanical problems. Just like that, his bid for victory was over.
Allgaier then took the lead. The 2024 champion had a slim edge over Taylor Gray until a caution came out, setting up the race for a 15-lap dash to the checkered flag.
On the restart, Allgaier led, but Jesse Love dove to the inside, trying to usurp the lead but instead making significant contact with Allgaier’s No. 7 Chevrolet.
Love suffered more damage to his No. 2 Chevrolet, later pitting during a caution flag period that sent the race to overtime. He wound up 17th. Allgaier kept his car, which also sustained nose damage from contact with Nick Sanchez earlier in the race, in contention.
Yet he wasn’t able to earn his seventh win of the season, fading to fourth as Sheldon Creed emerged as an unlikely winner. The incident also cost Allgaier a chance to regain the point lead.
So, instead of a trip to victory lane, Allgaier walked over to Love’s car on pit road postrace, sharing his displeasure about the incident.
After walking away from Love’s car, Allgaier was then consoled by team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. before turning around and facing the media.
Allgaier kept the contents of his Love conversation private while going public with his frustration over how the final laps of the race played out.
“I don’t know that he had a response, to be honest with you,” Allgaier then told media members about his conversation with Love. “I just told him I was disappointed. I mean, he knew it was a bad decision and I knew how fast his car was. My big thing was, ‘I’ve raced you clean. I haven’t put a bumper to you. All night long, we battled and passed him clean all night.’
“I just feel like that was egregious, but at the end of the day, it’s Bristol. Like what Dale Jr. said, ‘It’s Bristol, baby,’ and things will happen with inside 10 to go. Sometimes you’re the bug, sometimes you’re the windshield. Sometimes that’s how things go.”
“Well, I’m not going to tell you what he said to me, but [I] drove into him; we all saw what happened,” Love said in response. “… I screwed up and made a bad judgment call and in a lot of ways, screwed myself.
“Well, on entry, yeah [thought he had enough room to make the move]. But you have to understand how it works. I drove in there, got into him, and once I got really close to him and put myself in that spot, you know I ggt loose and start knocking him up the racetrack. Once we make that initial contact, the second piece of contact, we’re both a little bit along for the ride. So, it wasn’t even processing if he had enough room or not when he hit the wall on exit because the damage was already done by my action in [turn] 1.”
Both drivers are Chase competitors battling for the season championship. Allgaier left second in points, 11 behind Creed. Love is 41 points behind in fourth. Both will have a few days to regroup as the NOAPS has an off week before going to Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Will there be bad blood at Vegas? Probably not. But will the duo talk before then?
It remains to be seen.
“That whole group over there, we have a good relationship with them, we talk to them a lot, obviously, you know, Chevrolet,” Allgaier noted. “That’s why it’s disappointing. Not because we didn’t win the race. I mean, obviously we had a great run. Who knows how it comes out. I just feel like … [it was] unnecessary. [Love] knows he messed up … when I went out there to talk to him, he didn’t have anything to say ’cause he knew, right. Like, I could tell on his face he was not happy with the decision he made.”
“Well, if I was him, I don’t know if I answer my phone call,” Love added. “To be honest, I’m still going to talk to him. I don’t know, man. He’s never really done me like that. And I’m not going to explain my thought process right now ’cause it’s not going to fix anything. But I made a wrong move; I made a dumb decision, and I’m going to pay the price for it. And yeah, that’s not good.”
Mark Kristl joined Frontstretch at the beginning of the 2019 NASCAR season. He is the site's ARCA Menards Series editor. Kristl is also an Eagle Scout and a proud University of Dayton alum.
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