Gallagher Makes a Strong Bid for First-Career Victory at Talladega

After 94 laps of volatile restrictor-plate racing at Talladega Superspeedway, Spencer Gallagher, driver of the No. 23 Allegiant Travel Chevrolet, put his Silverado in contention to score his first-career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) victory. On a green-white-checkered finish, the Las Vegas native’s bid for victory came up short and he was relegated to finish 18th.

Gallagher’s Allegiant Travel team showed their strength in qualifying by advancing to the final round, and earning a ninth-place starting position. The Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender raced inside the top 10 in the lead draft as the first caution flew on lap 13. Crew chief Jeff Stankiewicz brought Gallagher to the attention of the Allegiant Travel team for Sunoco race fuel and returned him to the track inside the top 10.

Until the next caution on lap 37 caution, Gallagher continued to fight for position in the frantic lead draft, running inside the top 10. Gallagher would make his second stop under yellow for right-side tires fuel, and a track bar adjustment to address a tight condition on corner exit. On the ensuing green flag run, Gallagher asserted himself as one of the strongest entries in the field, working both the inside and outside lanes to position himself in the top five after his final pit stop on lap 72.

As cautions at lap 81, 86, and 92 put an added emphasis on restarts, Gallagher positioned himself in fourth place for the final restart on lap 97. As the field exited Turn Two, Gallagher had drafting help and made a formidable move to the bottom of the track for the race lead down the backstretch. Contact with his rear bumper from another competitor turned Gallagher sideways and resulted in a race-ending caution. Consequently, Gallagher was credited with an 18th-place finish and holds the 10th position in the NCWTS driver championship standings.

SPENCER GALLAGHER QUOTE:

“(On the last restart) I was going to try and push whoever I was behind. We tried working with Timothy (Peters). We started slicing and dicing off of turn 2, and wound up getting turned around. It’s not the finish we wanted, but we had a fast Allegiant Travel Chevrolet, and our teammate, Brandon Jones, was strong as well. It’s satisfying to see both trucks be as fast as we were today. That’s great validation of all the work GMS Racing is putting in at the shop during the week. The truck isn’t too crunched up, so we’ll take it back to the shop, get it fixed, and bring it to Daytona next year and try to win.”

GMS Racing PR