CONCORD, N.C. -- A decision to stay out in the final stage put Justin Allgaier at a tire disadvantage during Saturday's overtime finish. This could be chalked up to a simple miscommunication, but Allgaier ultimately blamed himself.
"I'll own this one," Allgaier said after finishing fourth at Charlotte Motor Speedway. "At the end of the day, they told me to pit. They had the plan, and it was just a bad decision on my part."
MORE: Xfinity Series Results
Allgaier was in the lead with fewer than 20 laps remaining, and it appeared that he had the car to beat. William Byron, who had swept the first two stages, was mired back in traffic and trying to recover from a speeding penalty on Lap 94.
Byron made progress during green flag runs, and he put himself inside the top 10. Yet, it didn't appear that he would complete the comeback.
The situation ultimately changed on Lap 178. The caution flew for Carson Kvapil spinning and set up one final pit stop for the Xfinity drivers. However, Allgaier stayed out on older tires while the majority of other drivers headed to their respective pit stalls.
"I mean, 99.9% of the time, I leave that decision up to the team," Allgaier said about staying out on Lap 180 instead of pitting. "I saw a couple of guys that were staying out with me if I stayed out, and I just made a spur-of-the-moment decision to just shoot back onto the race track.
"In hindsight, was it the right one? Obviously, not, but you look at all of those cautions that happened, and you look at the chaos that ensued from what was happening on the race track. Do we get wrecked if we pit?"
Allgaier led the field to the green flag on Lap 184, and he stayed ahead of the other drivers on older tires -- Jeb Burton, Sheldon Creed, Jesse Love, and Blaine Perkins. He did not have time to build up an advantage as Perkins and several other drivers wrecked.
Allgaier had another opportunity to clear for the lead on Lap 189, but the caution flew on the restart as JJ Yeley collided with Katherine Legge and wrecked them both.
The race went green again on Lap 195, but the caution flew on Lap 196 for another multi-car wreck. This was the incident that sent the race to overtime. It also occurred after Byron worked his way into third place on fresher tires.
"The decision to stay out, I'm frustrated at myself for staying out, but I thought there were going to be some games on pit road," Allgaier said. "I thought that clean air was so important.
"If more guys stayed out with us or more guys took two tires, it was going to net positive for us. Unfortunately, it didn't. All of those back-to-back cautions let the guys who had four tires get a spot or two on every yellow, and ultimately, it's just the price you pay."
Allgaier led the field to the green flag for overtime. He had Connor Zilisch on his outside and Byron behind him. All he needed to do was hold off the field for a mere two laps. He had the clean air, but he was at a significant tire disadvantage.
"I feel like coming to the last restart, I definitely had a chance to win," Byron told AltDriver after the race. "So then it was thinking about, 'How do I execute this restart and try to get clean air?'"
Byron did exactly what he needed to. He pushed Allgaier to the lead on the restart before making the race-winning pass in Turns 3 and 4. A wreck after the white flag brought the race to an end.
Byron was in the lead at the time of the caution, so he was the winner of the race. He celebrated for the fifth time in the Xfinity Series while Allgaier thought about how one decision took away his third win of the season.
"What is the saying? If 'ifs and buts were candies and nuts, it'd be Christmas all year round?'" Allgaier continued. "I'd love to walk out of here and be standing in victory lane, saying, 'Man, I made the right call, and it was awesome.'
"But it's just not the case today."