Written by Adrian Beecher
Spencer Gallagher made his way to victory lane on Saturday for the first time in his young Xfinity Series career after winning the Sparks Energy 300 at Talladega Superspeedway.
“This is a day that I will remember for the rest of my life.” said Gallagher, ” Today was the culmination of what we at GMS have worked for, for years.”
A late caution at Talladega on Saturday gave new hope to a field that had no one closer than 25 seconds to leader Justin Allgaier. During the caution, Allgaier stayed out on the track and then just before the field was set to go back to green flag racing, he ran out of gas.
This put Austin Cindric out in front for the restart. However, as the field went to the green flag, Cindric was nowhere to be found as the field cross the start-finish line with Tyler Reddick in the lead. Turn’s out, Cindric ran out of gas as well. This put Gallagher in prime position to make his move.
On lap 114, Gallagher took his opportunity and made the pass on Reddick. Then as the field made one last lap around the Superspeedway, Gallagher make the blocks of his life on the backstretch to stay out in front. With 30+ cars weaving and bobbing on the Alabama Gang Backstretch, it looked like a sure bet that someway, somehow, the carnage would ensue. That didn’t happen, however, and as Gallagher crossed the start-finish line, the victory was his.
“I think everyone got preoccupied trying to side draft each other up high going into turn three there(On the 2nd to last lap). And if y’all are going to leave a half a race track, I’m going to take it, thank you very much!” said Gallagher, reliving the final laps from his point of view, “Then, once we got side by side, I just knew I had to get clear of Tyler going into turn one and that was going to decide the race. And I was able to stay close to him getting in, give him a good side draft, breakaway from him, get a little momentum and get myself clear. Then from there its block until you get wrecked or you see the checkers. fortunately, we found the latter option.”
The win for Gallagher comes in his 49th career race in the Xfinity series and puts him into the playoffs and comes in only his second ever race at Talladega.
The Xfinity Series now sets their sights on Dover, Delaware and the Monster Mile where they will battle it out in the One Main Financial 200 on Saturday, May 5, at 12:30 pm EST.
