Noah Gragson Breaks Xfinity Series Tie With Justin Allgaier

JR Motorsports driver Noah Gragson finished fourth overall at Dover Motor Speedway on April 30 while teammate Josh Berry reached Victory Lane. He secured enough points to keep him in a tie for second in the standings, he won the Dash 4 Cash bonus, and he broke a tie with a fellow Xfinity Series championship contender.

Gragson entered the race weekend in a tie with teammate Justin Allgaier with four career Dash 4 Cash wins. Allgaier had captured the giant check at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2016), Phoenix Raceway (2017), Richmond Raceway (2017), and Dover Motor Speedway (2018).

Gragson won his first Dash 4 Cash during the 2020 season. He captured the June 6 race at Atlanta Motor Speedway and posed with the giant check. One year later, he added Dash 4 Cash wins at Darlington Raceway, Talladega Superspeedway, and Martinsville Speedway. Gragson captured his fifth giant check during the 2022 trip to Dover Motor Speedway.

The Xfinity Series broadcast stated that Gragson’s fifth Dash 4 Cash win tied an Xfinity Series record held by Elliott Sadler. However, the official NASCAR website lists Sadler as having six total Dash 4 Cash wins since the move to the $100,000 format. Though the site also swapped the years of Sadler’s and Tyler Reddick’s Dash 4 Cash wins at Talladega.

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The Virginia native first won the Dash 4 Cash bonus at Charlotte Motor Speedway during the 2011 season. Sadler added more bonuses at Iowa Speedway (2012), Daytona International Speedway (2013), Chicagoland Speedway (2013), Richmond Raceway (2018), and Talladega Superspeedway (2018).

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2 Organizations Have Dominated Dash 4 Cash Recently

The race at Dover was significant for JR Motorsports. The team reached $600,000 earned in the Dash 4 Cash program since the 2020 season. Gragson accounted for $500,000 with his strong performances while teammate Sam Mayer added a Dash 4 Cash win of his own at Richmond Raceway in 2022.

Kaulig Racing is the only other organization to tie this mark in the same stretch of time. AJ Allmendinger has accounted for $400,000 with two Dash 4 Cash wins in 2022, one in 2021, and one in 2020. Ross Chastain added $200,000 of his own with Dash 4 Cash wins at Talladega Superspeedway and Pocono Raceway in 2020.

Allmendinger briefly gave Kaulig Racing the advantage during the 2021 season. NASCAR officials disqualified Gragson after his Dash 4 Cash win at Darlington Raceway and said that the No. 9 had failed post-race inspection due to a violation of Rule 20.14.c.

The officials awarded the Dash 4 Cash win to Allmendinger and Kaulig Racing, but Gragson got it back. JR Motorsports appealed the disqualification and won, which brought the bonus check back to the No. 9 team.

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Allmendinger & Gragson Each Have Their Own Bragging Rights

The two Chevrolet drivers have achieved no shortage of success during the 2022 season. Gragson has the advantage in the win column with trips to Victory Lane at Phoenix Raceway and Talladega Superspeedway. He is also tied for second in the championship standings with Ty Gibbs.

Allmendinger, however, holds the top spot in the standings despite having one fewer win in 2022. He has a 43-point advantage over both Gibbs and Gragson due to his consistency. He is the only driver that has posted a top-10 finish in every single Xfinity Series race this season.

The two drivers will continue to battle with each other — and Gibbs — for the regular-season championship trophy. The next stop is Darlington Raceway, the track where Gragson punched his ticket to the playoffs in 2021. Allmendinger has only made two Xfinity Series starts at The Lady in Black. He finished 13th during the spring 2021 race and 20th overall later that season.

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