PHOENIX, Ariz. – JR Motorsports’ driver Justin Allgaier pushed forward when it mattered most, his No. 7 Chevrolet leading only the last 11 laps of Saturday night’s GOVX 200 at Phoenix Raceway to claim his third win at the one-mile oval and take over the championship lead in NASCAR’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
Allgaier had to pass the night’s most dominant driver, Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love to earn the trophy. Love came into the race with the best average finish in the last four Phoenix races and again proved how good he is in the desert, leading a race best 114 of the 200 laps.
There were no caution periods in the opening two stages of the race – the first stage won by Allgaier’s teammate Sammy Smith and the second stage won by Love.
Two late race yellow flags however, bunched the field on restarts and allowed Allgaier’s team to rally from a slow pit stop earlier in the night. The two former champions went door-to-door following the final restart with 15 laps to go, the 2024 series champ Allgaier ultimately besting the 2025 champ Love with a daring move on the outside and then holding him off by .449-seconds at the finish line to earn JR Motorsports’ 107th victory.
“So proud of this team,” said Allgaier, praising the team for overcoming a poor stop early. “It wasn’t for lack of adversity and it seems like those are the ones that are big for us. I cannot say enough about this team.
“It never gets old winning,” added Allgaier, who has now won at least one race for a record 10 consecutive seasons. “This team rallied and never gave up.”
As encouraging as the night was – a stage win and fourth consecutive top-10 finish on the season for Love, the 21-year-old was understandably frustrated to finish runner-up after such a dominant showing.
“The car tightening up there at the beginning of stage three put us behind, so just frustrated,” said Love, noting that he refused to just walk away happy with a runner-up showing after such a strong effort.
“Obviously not why I’m here [to finish second]. Just beyond frustrated with myself. I don’t know what else to say, just upset, upset with myself.”
The top finishing 14 cars were Chevrolets. Allgaier’s JR Motorsports teammate Carson Kvapil, who looked strong midrace and led 22 laps, finished third, followed by Haas Factory Team co-drivers Sheldon Creed and Sam Mayer.
Sammy Smith, Jeb Burton, Rajah Caruth, Corey Day and Anthony Alfredo rounded out the top-10. It’s the third top-10 of the season for both Smith and Day.
The championship standings now mirror Saturday’s outcome with Allgaier holding a three-point advantage over Love as the series heads to the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway for next week’s The LiUNA (5:30 p.m. ET on CW, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Allgaier is the defending winner of that race.
NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Race – GOVX 200
Phoenix Raceway
Avondale, Arizona
Saturday, March 7, 2026
1. (17) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 200.
2. (2) Jesse Love, Chevrolet, 200.
3. (14) Carson Kvapil, Chevrolet, 200.
4. (16) Sheldon Creed, Chevrolet, 200.
5. (12) Sam Mayer, Chevrolet, 200.
6. (7) Sammy Smith, Chevrolet, 200.
7. (9) Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, 200.
8. (25) Rajah Caruth, Chevrolet, 200.
9. (8) Corey Day, Chevrolet, 200.
10. (4) Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet, 200.
11. (21) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 200.
12. (13) Austin Hill, Chevrolet, 200.
13. (6) William Byron(i), Chevrolet, 200.
14. (31) Parker Retzlaff, Chevrolet, 200.
15. (1) Taylor Gray, Toyota, 200.
16. (3) Brandon Jones, Toyota, 200.
17. (18) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, 200.
18. (5) Brent Crews #, Toyota, 200.
19. (35) Joey Gase, Chevrolet, 200.
20. (29) Daniel Dye(i), Ford, 199.
21. (24) Chandler Smith(i), Ford, 199.
22. (27) Austin Green, Chevrolet, 199.
23. (11) Harrison Burton, Toyota, 199.
24. (10) Kyle Sieg, Chevrolet, 199.
25. (23) Dean Thompson, Toyota, 199.
26. (28) Patrick Staropoli #, Chevrolet, 199.
27. (20) Brennan Poole, Chevrolet, 199.
28. (26) Blaine Perkins, Chevrolet, 198.
29. (22) Garrett Smithley, Chevrolet, 198.
30. (33) Josh Bilicki, Chevrolet, 197.
31. (32) Nathan Byrd, Chevrolet, 197.
32. (37) Mason Maggio, Chevrolet, 196.
33. (30) Lavar Scott #, Chevrolet, 195.
34. (34) Austin J Hill, Chevrolet, 195.
35. (19) Nick Sanchez, Ford, 193.
36. (36) Dawson Cram, Chevrolet, 192.
37. (15) William Sawalich, Toyota, Accident, 173.
38. (38) Ryan Ellis, Chevrolet, Suspension, 13.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 93.909 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 7 Mins, 47 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.449 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 4 for 37 laps.
Lead Changes: 20 among 9 drivers.
Lap Leaders: T. Gray 1-10;J. Love 11-40;S. Smith 41-50;C. Kvapil 51;J. Love 52-95;C. Kvapil 96;J. Love 97-132;C. Kvapil 133;J. Love 134;C. Kvapil 135-137;J. Love 138;C. Kvapil 139-153;J. Burton 154;R. Caruth 155;S. Creed 156-170;C. Kvapil 171;S. Creed 172-173;S. Mayer 174-184;S. Creed 185-187;J. Love 188-189;J. Allgaier 190-200.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Jesse Love 6 times for 114 laps; Carson Kvapil 6 times for 22 laps; Sheldon Creed 3 times for 20 laps; Sam Mayer 1 time for 11 laps; Justin Allgaier 1 time for 11 laps; Sammy Smith 1 time for 10 laps; Taylor Gray 1 time for 10 laps; Jeb Burton 1 time for 1 lap; Rajah Caruth 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 8,2,1,7,88,27,17,19,00,20
Stage #2 Top Ten: 2,1,88,7,19,8,27,54,00,51
******
Newgarden Hunts Down Victory, Takes Series Lead at Phoenix
Official NTT INYCAR Release
AVONDALE, Ariz. (Saturday, March 7, 2026) – It took Josef Newgarden 17 races last year to earn his only victory of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES season.
That winning box already is checked this year, two races in.
SEE: Race Results
Two-time series champion Newgarden earned his first victory of the season and 33rd of his illustrious career by closing down and passing leader Kyle Kirkwood with seven laps remaining to win the Good Ranchers 250 on Saturday at Phoenix Raceway. Newgarden, who started second, drove away to a 1.7937-second victory in the No. 2 XPEL Team Penske Chevrolet over the No. 27 JM Bullion/Gold.com of Andretti Global driver Kirkwood.
“I’m very surprised,” Newgarden said. “In the middle of the race, I don’t know that I was fully believing that we had the capability to win. We just kept working through it, and I’m like, ‘Look, if we get another opportunity, we’re going to be aggressive, we’re going to be on the offense.’
“We took tires, and the thing was like a rocket ship when it needed to be, right at the end of the race. Hats off to the whole crew. I’m pumped.”
NTT P1 Award winner David Malukas finished third in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet as Roger Penske’s legendary team celebrated its 60th anniversary season with two podium positions.
Pato O’Ward finished fourth in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, with Marcus Armstrong rounding out the top five in the No. 66 ROOT Insurance Honda of Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian.
INDYCAR’s first race in Phoenix since 2018 – Newgarden and Team Penske also won that event – featured plenty of action throughout the field, as there were 565 on-track passes, an INDYCAR record at the 1-mile desert oval. But a combination of tire strategy and deft maneuvering in traffic delivered the victory to Newgarden, who also won the season-ending race last August at Nashville Superspeedway to avoid a winless 2025.
Kirkwood made his last stop on Lap 192 and was running fourth behind teammate Will Power, Christian Rasmussen and O’Ward on Lap 207. Power and Rasmussen were engaged in a ferocious duel for the lead, with the left front wing end plate of Rasmussen’s No. 21 ECR Splenda Stevia Chevrolet making contact with the right rear tire of Power’s No. 26 TWG AI Honda exiting Turn 2.
That impact cut Power’s tire, triggering the final caution period of the race and ending his chances of an improbable victory after starting last in the 25-car field. Rasmussen’s car also was damaged.
During that final caution period, Newgarden and a handful of other drivers near the front entered pit lane for fresh Firestone Firehawk tires, as tire grip was a far bigger strategic factor in this race than fuel management. Rasmussen, Kirkwood, Malukas and Armstrong were among the drivers who decided to stay on track, opting for track position over traction.
Rasmussen led at the final restart of the 250-lap race on Lap 218, but his damaged car ended up being no match for Kirkwood, who drove past Rasmussen for the lead on Lap 242. Rasmussen faded in the last eight laps with car damage and worn tires, placing a bitterly disappointed 14th after thrilling the large crowd with many daring passes to get to the front five times for 69 laps.
“We were the class of the field today – best car out there,” Rasmussen said. “It’s so frustrating because we should have won the race today.”
Kirkwood led Newgarden by six-tenths of a second when he took the lead, but Newgarden’s tire advantage was obvious within less than a lap. Newgarden gnawed into Kirkwood’s lead and drove under Kirkwood in Turn 4 for the lead for good just two laps later, on Lap 244.
“We thought about it, but we were talking about it, and the pits opened,” Kirkwood said about the possibility of pitting during the late caution. “(Staying out) was the right thing to do at the time.”
As a bonus in this young season, Newgarden became the first driver other than four-time series champion Alex Palou to lead the standings since June 2024. Two-time Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge winner Newgarden leads Kirkwood, 78-73, after two races as he tries to win the series crown for the first time since 2019.
“Do we really have the lead?” Newgarden said. “Two races in, so I wouldn’t read too much into it. But momentum is a big deal. It’s very difficult to understand how things work. Sometimes things go against us, sometimes they go for us. It was just great execution by the team.”
Palou placed 24th, completing just 21 laps in No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, after side-by-side contact with the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet of Rinus VeeKay led to a trip into the SAFER Barrier.
It was Palou’s worst finish since he placed 25th last June in Detroit after contact eliminated him from that street race.
