MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Justin Allgaier ended the day where he started — out front — but it was a dramatic and challenging route to the trophy hoist in Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts NFPA 250 at the historic half-mile Martinsville Speedway.

En route to his win, the 2024 series champion started from pole position and led the most laps (114 of 250). The driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet claimed his second win in as many weeks — third of the season and 31st of his career.

Allgaier led the opening 65 laps of the race, won Stage 1, and then led the final 26 laps, bookending a typically thrilling edition of competition at the famed paperclip track.

“I keep saying it and I keep talking about how great this team is, but we have fired off 2026 better than I could have imagined,” said Allgaier, whose win marks the JR Motorsports organization’s fifth consecutive this season — one shy of the record set by Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008.

“It is pretty incredible, just the emotion,” added the 39-year-old, who has increased his advantage atop the standings to 92 points over reigning series champion Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love. “I said it last week, but you get later on in your career, and you never know if you’ll win another one and this year has been pretty special.”

The victory is hard-earned, considering the race was slowed 13 times because of incidents on the notorious, challenging short track.

Most impactful, a 19-car pileup on a late race restart brought out a 26-minute red flag, massively reducing the field of true contenders. Late model superstar Lee Pulliam, making his first-ever start in a NASCAR national series driving the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, brought out the caution period after missing a shift on the restart from his front row starting position.

His team co-owner, NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr., reassured and encouraged Pulliam on the radio during the race stoppage, telling him, “I know you didn’t want that to happen, and you’ll handle it like a pro, we all make mistakes.” Adding post-race, “all in all, incredible to come in, run a race, lead laps, and run the car up front and get a great result in a tough place, he survived. He’s a helluva driver.”

After the race Pulliam, whose 40 laps led were second only to Allgaier, immediately addressed the late-race restart situation. “Just first off real quick, I’d like to apologize to everyone we tore up there. I just couldn’t get going with the older tires and it was just a little bit of inexperience.”

“Just so thankful to be here and do this. What a dream come true to drive for Dale Earnhardt Jr.,” added the well-respected and highly revered 37-year-old North Carolina native, who sold out of t-shirts commemorating his NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series debut this weekend.

“The whole experience has been pretty special for me, something I’ve wanted to do my entire life. Just thankful for everybody that led to this moment, and I hope I made all you fans proud leading all those laps.”

“Man, that was super cool driving away. Just wish I could have gotten going on the restarts a little better, and if I ever get another chance to do this, I’ll learn from my mistakes and come back stronger.”

Corey Day’s second-place finish in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 17 Chevrolet was a career-best for the 20-year-old and marked an impressive sixth consecutive top-10 finish for the young driver. Sammy Smith finished third and posted his seventh top-10 finish in eight races at Martinsville. Haas Factory Team’s Sheldon Creed finished fourth in the No. 00 Chevrolet with Pulliam rounding out the top five.

Austin Hill was sixth, followed by Dean Thompson, Cup Series regular Ross Chastain, Ryan Sieg and 18-year-old rookie Brent Crews, who rounded out the top 10.

The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series moves to Rockingham Speedway for next Saturday’s North Carolina Education Lottery 250 Presented by Black’s Tire (2:30 p.m. ET, CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Sammy Smith is the defending race winner.

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Race — NFPA 250

Martinsville Speedway

Martinsville, Virginia

Saturday, March 28, 2026

1. (1) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 250.

2. (7) Corey Day, Chevrolet, 250.

3. (9) Sammy Smith, Chevrolet, 250.

4. (6) Sheldon Creed, Chevrolet, 250.

5. (12) Lee Pulliam, Chevrolet, 250.

6. (26) Austin Hill, Chevrolet, 250.

7. (22) Dean Thompson, Toyota, 250.

8. (38) Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 250.

9. (14) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, 250.

10. (4) Brent Crews #, Toyota, 250.

11. (10) Parker Retzlaff, Chevrolet, 250.

12. (8) Jesse Love, Chevrolet, 250.

13. (13) Taylor Gray, Toyota, 250.

14. (17) Brennan Poole, Chevrolet, 250.

15. (15) Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet, 250.

16. (27) Patrick Staropoli #, Chevrolet, 250.

17. (28) Blaine Perkins, Chevrolet, 250.

18. (3) Brandon Jones, Toyota, 250.

19. (37) Myatt Snider, Chevrolet, 250.

20. (16) William Sawalich, Toyota, 250.

21. (34) Brad Perez, Chevrolet, 250.

22. (36) Lavar Scott #, Chevrolet, 250.

23. (11) Sam Mayer, Chevrolet, 250.

24. (33) Joey Gase, Chevrolet, 250.

25. (2) Rajah Caruth, Chevrolet, 250.

26. (24) Harrison Burton, Toyota, 248.

27. (25) Garrett Smithley, Chevrolet, 242.

28. (5) Carson Kvapil, Chevrolet, Accident, 234.

29. (30) Austin Green, Chevrolet, Accident, 233.

30. (23) Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, Accident, 233.

31. (19) Andrew Patterson, Chevrolet, Accident, 233.

32. (31) Josh Williams, Chevrolet, Accident, 233.

33. (18) Nick Sanchez, Ford, Accident, 213.

34. (35) Kyle Sieg, Chevrolet, Suspension, 207.

35. (21) Josh Bilicki, Chevrolet, 205.

36. (32) Ryan Ellis, Chevrolet, Brakes, 183.

37. (20) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, Oil Cooler, 89.

38. (29) Luke Baldwin(i), Ford, Accident, 31.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 55.015 mph.

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 23 Mins, 25 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.258 Seconds.

Caution Flags: 14 for -153 laps.

Lead Changes: 14 among 8 drivers.

Lap Leaders: J. Allgaier 1-65;C. Day 66-102;S. Mayer 103-111;A. Hill 112-114;S. Mayer 115-119;A. Hill 120-125;R. Caruth 126-129;H. Burton 130;R. Caruth 131-144;H. Burton 145-160;J. Allgaier 161-183;L. Pulliam 184-187;B. Jones 188;L. Pulliam 189-224;J. Allgaier 225-250.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Justin Allgaier 3 times for 114 laps; Lee Pulliam 2 times for 40 laps; Corey Day 1 time for 37 laps; Rajah Caruth 2 times for 18 laps; Harrison Burton 2 times for 17 laps; Sam Mayer 2 times for 14 laps; Austin Hill 2 times for 9 laps; Brandon Jones 1 time for 1 lap.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 7,20,88,19,00,8,96,1,2,18

Stage #2 Top Ten: 21,41,54,39,18,96,88,24,17,7

–Field Level Media

Riding their first three-game winning streak in more than two months, the Golden State Warriors will try to make it four in a row when they visit the surging Denver Nuggets on Sunday night.

Golden State (36-38) holds the 10th and final spot in the play-in, trailing Portland by half a game with eight games left. The Warriors still have a chance to reach the playoffs despite significant injuries.

Jimmy Butler (torn ACL) and Moses Moody (torn patella) are out for the season, Al Horford has been sidelined for two weeks with a calf injury and Steph Curry has missed 24 straight games with a troublesome knee and won’t play Sunday night.

Curry is close to returning, but Golden State is being cautious with its 38-year-old star.

“We’re not bringing him back (only) for the play-in game,” head coach Steve Kerr told ESPN. “He’d need to play some games. We need to give him a runway if this is going to work. And we are running out of games. That’s fair to say.”

Without Curry, the Warriors have relied on different players to pick up the scoring slack. In Friday night’s win over Washington, Kristaps Porzingis had 28 points, the fourth time in 10 games since coming from Atlanta in a trade that he has put up 20 or more points.

Porzingis is averaging 17.1 points between the Hawks and Golden State but has upped that to 17.7 in March.

The only player to appear in all 74 games for the Warriors is Brandin Podziemski, who is averaging 13.2 points.

Golden State has won two of the first three meetings with Denver and can take the season series Sunday night. The Nuggets (47-28) have won five in a row and eight of their last 10 to stay in the hunt for a top seed in the Western Conference.

Denver’s last two victories haven’t been easy despite playing teams fighting for a high draft pick. The Nuggets held off Dallas on Wednesday night behind huge games from Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic and then had to rally from down 13 to beat Utah on Friday night.

“I just think our energy from the beginning of the game has to be better. We’ve had a lot of slow starts as of late,” head coach David Adelman said. “Obviously, we’re very talented offensively, we can always make a run, get back in games, but we shouldn’t have to work our way into every game. You have to come with more purpose to start the game.”

Denver is in the midst of playing nine of its final 12 games at home and has taken advantage of the schedule. The Nuggets are fourth in the West, a game and a half ahead of Minnesota and a game and a half behind the Los Angeles Lakers for third.

The Warriors will have to slow down Jokic and Murray, who are playing well down the stretch. Jokic leads the team in scoring (27.9), rebounds (12.8) and assists (10.8) and is on the verge of averaging a triple-double for the second straight season.

Murray, who is averaging a career-high 25.5 points, has scored 31 and 53 in the last two games.

–Field Level Media

The NBA suspended Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Doncic for one game without pay on Saturday for receiving his 16th technical foul this season, and he will miss Monday’s game against the visiting Washington Wizards.

Doncic, the league’s leading scorer, was assessed a technical along with Brooklyn forward Ziaire Williams when they jostled each other with 5:12 remaining in the third quarter of the host Lakers’ 116-99 victory on Friday.

An offensive foul was called seconds earlier on Doncic, and a video review showed him pushing Williams, with the Nets player retaliating by swiping at Doncic’s face.

The 16th technical triggered an automatic suspension, which will cost Doncic 1/174th of his annual salary, about $264,000, per ESPN. League rules stipulate that following the 16th technical, for every two additional technicals, the player will be suspended another game without pay.

The Lakers had successfully appealed Doncic’s most-recent technical for a yelling match with Orlando Magic center Goga Bitadze on March 21. The league rescinded the technicals.

Doncic, 27, is averaging 33.7 points, 8.2 assists and 7.8 rebounds for the Lakers (48-26), who are in third place in the Western Conference with eight games remaining in the regular season.

A six-time All-Star guard, Doncic has been selected All-NBA first team five times and was the 2018-19 NBA Rookie of the Year.

–Field Level Media