Watch:: Allmendinger edges Cindric for Food City 300 win in classic Bristol finish | Sports

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BRISTOL – move to Earnhardt-Labonte. There’s a new biggest finish in Bristol Motor Speedway history.

AJ Allmendinger won the NASCAR Xfinity Series Food City 300 on Friday night when his and runner-up Austin Cindric crossed the finish line sideways and triggered a collision with several cars after the checkered flag.

Allmendinger, who won the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship in the regular season with his fourth win of the year, got out of his destroyed racing car and clenched his fist in the air to the cheers of the crowd. Then he had to ride an ambulance to the Infield Care Center before heading to the Victory Lane.

His crashed No. 16 Chevrolet racing car was dragged back into the pits, too torn apart to celebrate with him on the unique victory lane on the roof.

Allmendinger contacted Cindric on the last restart so that Justin Allgaier could pull alongside. Allmendinger shot to the end of the track in a three-way battle for the lead, taking first place with his first Bristol win and the ninth Xfinity win of his career.

“That was crazy in the end. You have a chance downstairs and I slipped in Austin to accelerate, ”said Allmendinger. “Then in (turn) one there was more contact. I expected to be run over. It happened in the previous corner. It’s frustrating to be hit so hard in the ladies but we’re fighting to win. It’s bristol baby That’s what it’s about. “

Cindric freed himself from another three-way battle with Allgaier and Riley Herbst and then stormed towards the rear of Allmendinger’s car with his Penske Ford No. 22 team. Cindric made contact at turn four, spinning both cars over the finish line, and then crashing into the inside wall. Allmendinger’s car came over the track again and was hit again in one of the wildest finishes in NASCAR history.

A total of seven cars were involved in the accident when the race ended in overtime after 306 laps.

“He really wanted to win and I hate that it completely destroyed our Ford Mustang,” said Cindric. “I feel like maybe I shouldn’t have given up on the ground. It looks like the 7 (Allgaier) broke up there and then AJ drove through us. Hey one hell of a race and I’ve tried.

“I’m sure everyone in the stands will remember that tonight. For sure I will. That’s two years in a row in this race that I think we should have won. “

Herbst survived the carnage, finishing third in the No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford. Allgaier was fourth in the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet while Brandon Jones was fifth in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

“That was fun. A lot of people out here use their bumpers tonight and what I expected just because it’s the regular season end and playoff points,” said Herbst. “It got aggressive, but it was cool.”

Justin Haley, Harrison Burton, Myatt Snider, Sam Mayer and Daniel Hemric completed the top 10. Allgaier went to his teammate Mayer to apologize after sending Mayer into a fight for second place to set up the wild finish. There were a total of 10 warnings for 72 laps.

EARLY STAGES

Allgaier held Hemric back to win the first stage of the race. He seemed on the way to a stage win, but contact with Joe Graf Jr.’s lapped car made Allgaier slide to the side. Remarkably, he got the car back under control without falling.

Hemric withdrew from Allgaier when he restarted and won the second stage. Allgaier’s fate soon changed when he and his teammate Noah Gragson were caught too quickly on the pit lane. For the strong finish, however, he stormed forward.

PLAYOFF QUALIFIERS

The top 12 drivers in the Xfinity Series classification qualified for the playoffs.

Cindric and Allmendinger are at the top of the table with 2,044 points. Cindric holds the tiebreaker with 5-4 wins. Allgaier, Gragson, Haley and Hemric are the rest of the top six.

The bottom six are Jeb Burton, Harrison Burton, Snider, Jones, Herbst, and Jeremy Clements.

LOCAL CONNECTIONS

Jesse Little, whose mother is a Donna Dobyns-Bennett graduate, finished 28th in the No. 78 Chevrolet. Knoxville driver Chad Finchum, a former Kingsport Speedway champion, finished 31st in the No. 61 Toyota.

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