There were a number of different drivers who showed to potentially have race-winning speed at the drop of the 2026 BetRivers 200 at Dover Motor Speedway. Brandon Jones led the majority of Stage 1 and won the stage. Meanwhile, Ross Chastain took over the lead and dominated Stage 2 have Jones had trouble on pit road. Near the end of Stage 2, Rajah Caruth looked to be pretty sporty prior to having his own issues. Early on, one driver who was never in the conversation was series veteran Justin Allgaier. He ran modest, quietly in the back half of the top 10 in both stages. And he and his team knew that if they were going to have a chance to win this race, they were going to have to get off strategy.
The gamble was seemingly going to work out as Allgaier pitted a handful of laps early of the leaders, putting him in the lead under the next caution when the field cycled through. In the final run of the race, it looked like Justin Allgaier was in prime position to win the race. He surpassed the milestone of 600 laps led at Dover. That makes him 5th all time. However, in the last stretch, Corey Day started coming on fresh tires, eating into the lead of the No. 7.
Corey Day chased down Allgaier to pass him with 4 laps to go, using a lap car as a pick. It was clear at that point that, despite his efforts, Justin Allgaier just didn’t have what it took to get back to the rookie in the No. 17. Corey Day went on to lead the final 4 laps of the race to score the second win of his 2026 campaign in a thrilling finish with one of O’Reilly’s all-time greats.
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