After a rare weekend off, only eight races remain to set the 12-driver Chase field, as the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series returns to action at Pocono Raceway in Saturday’s MillerTech Battery 250 presented by KOA (4 p.m. ET on The CW, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Connor Zilisch is the defending race winner. And the only fulltime series driver with a past victory in the race’s 10-year history is Austin Hill, driver of the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, who won in 2023.
As has become the theme for the season, the question is whether anyone can slow JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier’s torrent pace. The 2024 series champion is turning in a career year – his four wins already one victory shy of his career best mark.
And he leads all drivers in everything from trophies to top fives (11), top 10s (13), average finish (7.9), laps led (422) and stage wins (six). Seven times he’s finished first or second. Perhaps most impressive is that his 179 points over reigning series champ, RCR driver Jesse Love atop the championship standings is larger even than the gap between second place (Love) and 11th place (Sam Mayer).
Instead of discouraging the competition, Allgaier’s dominance has instead been motivating.
Love, for example, who finished runner-up to Zilisch last year at Pocono, has been close to a trophy, finishing runner-up three times and failing to win even after leading the most laps at Nashville, the series’ most recent race.
He’s the only driver ranked among the top-five without a victory. Yet only halfway through the calendar and he’s already led more laps (374) than he has in any previous entire season.
The competition at the other end of the Chase standings is tight – positions 10th (Parker Retzlaff) and 15th (Ryan Sieg) are separated by only 32 points.
The last three Pocono race winners – Hill, Cole Custer and Zilisch are all entered this weekend as is NASCAR Cup Series regular William Byron. Practice gets underway at 10:30 a.m. ET Saturday (CW App) followed by Kennametal Pole Qualifying at 11:35 a.m. ET (CW App). Chase Elliott started from pole position last year. Custer is the only polesitter (2019) to win at Pocono.
— NASCAR Wire Servie