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Category: RC XFINITY

Race Central NASCAR XFINITY Series news and information

  • Full Weekend Schedule for Texas Motor Speedway

    Full Weekend Schedule for Texas Motor Speedway

  • Joey Logano Goes for a California Cruise in the Roseanne 300

    Joey Logano Goes for a California Cruise in the Roseanne 300

    Joey Logano led 139 of 150 laps in a dominating win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in the Roseanne 300 at Auto Club Speedway. This is Logano’s 29th career victory in the Xfinity series, and third at Auto Club Speedway. He has never finished outside the top-10 and will start sixth for tomorrow’s NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series race.

    “Anytime you have new tires and everyone else doesn’t, it’s fun. It’s when you have the old tires and everyone else has got the new tires, that’s not fun,” Logano laughed when asked about the late race pit cycles.

    “I felt sure that we had a car quick enough. The worry more than anything was a crash happening in front of us.”

    Logano was only one of two Cup drivers starting this race, with Austin Dillon who finished fourth. It was asked during the press conference about carrying over any notes or on-track experience into tomorrow’s race.

    “You know there are some things that you can learn from this race, and you only come out here once a year. The cars are very different, Cup cars and Xfinity cars. There were a couple things to carry over, you know, running against the wall, which will help you for the first couple of laps. You have an advantage for the first five laps. You know where the track is a little better. The cars that were fast earlier in practice today are gonna be very fast tomorrow, and I don’t think the advantage you get from running this race is so large that you’re going to smoke everyone tomorrow because you had more laps, but it does allow you to feel more comfortable and feel the race track sooner.”

    JR Motorsports finish second and third with Justin Allgaier and Elliott Sadler, respectively. Elliott extends his point lead to four points over teammate Tyler Reddick.

    “We worked really hard today,” Allgaier joyfully stated after feeling a successful weekend. “Yesterday in practice, we had a really strong Hellman’s Chevrolet and unfortunately when the race started, not that it was bad by any means, but some of the balance things that we felt like we were good with practice, today with the conditions being a little different, we needed to work on it a little. Jason (Burdett) made a great call there to pit towards the end, put tires on and catch the 22 off sequence, which we were kinda hoping it would take a little longer to get up front to battle him.

    “The 22 was the class of the field today, I think they had everybody. Our west coast swing has been great, two seconds and a third. We’ve been chopping away at it. I wish we had a win, but all in all, whenever you get up to the front like that, it’s a good day.”

    Despite hitting the wall, Daniel Hemric fought throughout the day and finished in the fifth position.

    “I’m proud of our effort, not just today but over the past three or four weeks,” Hemric shared during a post-race conference session. “We kinda raced around the fifth to ninth place all day, and the racing to get by there is more intense. It seems like whenever you try to side draft somebody or someone side drafts you, here come three more with runs. Just proud to get to our best running position of the day there, and maintain and come home with the top five. And I hit the wall!”

    Most of the first stage was eventless until Matt Mills in the No. 15 spun in Turn 2. There weren’t enough laps to clean up the incident to go back green, so the end of the first stage finished under yellow.

    During the second stage, the No. 42 Chevrolet of John Hunter Nemechek blew his right front tire on the frontstretch in the closing laps. He didn’t collide with the wall, but the rubber caused substantial damage to the sheet metal. He would finish three laps down in the 29th position after starting in a hopeful third position.

    Christopher Bell, who started on the pole, took FOX’s Helmet Cam for a wild ride over the weekend, being involved in two separate incidents during the final stage. The first was a spin coming out of Turn 4 and sliding through the front stretch grass. Only a few laps later, Michael Annett pinched him coming out of Turn 4 as they ground against the outside wall along the front stretch.

    A few late-race cautions built some unique strategies into the closing laps of the race. Dylan Lupton, who went to a backup car after crashing in qualifying earlier in the day, lost a motor, which ended a long day for his No. 28 team. A few laps later, another caution was put out for debris found in Turn 2. At this time, Logano was one of only a few takers to come to pit road for fresh tires. He restarted in 16th, charged to the front, and took the lead within five laps. However, the final caution came out with around 10 laps remaining for more debris on the front stretch. At this time, almost everyone came to pit road, shuffling all the strategies, except for Ryan Sieg who inherited the lead for the final restart. Sieg was no competition against the fresh tires, as the field charged past him on the opening lap, allowing Logano to cruise to his third career win at the 2-mile oval.

    Positions 6-10 were Cole Custer, Tyler Reddick (highest finishing rookie), Matt Tifft, Ryan Preece and Ross Chastain. Kaz Grala crashed coming to the checkered flag and finished in the 14th position, but was checked and released from the infield care center shortly after the press conference was completed.

    Ironically, Logano is a big fan of the television show Roseanne.

    “I feel like I watched Roseanne a long time ago on like Nic at Nite,” Logano shared, as Brian Wilson, Logano’s crew chief, added, “He was watching the re-runs. I was watching the originals.”

    Joey continued talking about the trophy and winning the race.

    “You know, I was kinda hoping when we pulled in here and I saw the Roseanne 300 banner over the walkway, I was thinking of what the trophy was going to look like, so I hoped it would be a big picture of her face. It’s still cool.”

    Elliott Sadler leads the series points over teammates Tyler Reddick and Justin Allgaier. The NASCAR Xfinity Series races next in Texas on Saturday, April 7, and tickets can be purchased through the speedway website.

     

    [pdf-embedder url=”http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Xfinity-Auto-Club-Speedway-Unofficial-Results-3-17-18.pdf” title=”Xfinity Auto Club Speedway Unofficial Results 3-17-18″]

  • Christopher Bell Starts in Front for Roseanne 300

    Christopher Bell Starts in Front for Roseanne 300

    Although Joey Logano was fastest in the first round, Christopher Bell starts on pole for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Roseanne 300 at Auto Club Speedway. This is Bell’s third pole in the last four races.

    “Qualifying’s about speed, and this No. 20 team has had speed,” Bell said. “When we unloaded yesterday, we were really good. I was just little bit loose, and anytime we’d tighten it up and make it more comfortable for me to drive, we’d slow down. We learned something there, and I’m going to have to man up and drive this thing in the race.”

    Bell (181.059 mph) was the only driver in the 181 mph bracket. Joey Logano (180.923 mph) will start second, as the two drivers were the only ones to break into a 39 second lap time. John Hunter Nemechek, Cole Custer and Daniel Hemric round out the top five positions. Christopher Bell was fastest in first practice, but was only able to clock a 40.299 second lap time, roughly half a second slower than his qualifying time.

    Qualifying was split into two rounds. During the first round, all 40 teams made an attempt but Dylan Lupton spun and crashed into the wall right after he took the green flag for his lap. While drivers have been splitting the seam in the corners to gain maximum grip, Lupton couldn’t get into the right position entering the corner, which resulted in the car stepping out from underneath him. He spun in Turn 1 and crashed in Turn 2, settling into the infield grass. The team had to pull out a backup car and will only have three hours to prepare the backup car.

    Cole Custer held the top spot in the first round, but was also the last car to qualify with cloud cover. The remainder of the first round and all of the second round of qualifying had clear skies with sun all around the track.

    Justin Allgaier, Ryan Reed, Ryan Preece, Brandon Jones, Ryan Truex, Elliott Sadler and Kaz Grala finished out the qualifying results for positions 6-12 from the second round. All three manufacturers are represented across the top three starting positions (only one Dodge qualified, Timmy Hill, and will start in the 35th position). NASCAR’s top three touring series are also represented with the top three starters: Christopher Bell on pole running the NASCAR Xfinity Series primarily, Joey Logano starting second from the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series, and John Hunter Nemechek who runs primarily in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will start in the third position.

    The green flag for the Roseanne 300 will wave later today at 2:18 p.m. local time.

  • Full Weekend Schedule for Fontana

    Full Weekend Schedule for Fontana

  • Brad Keselowski Captures the Checkered Flag in the DC Solar 200 at ISM Raceway

    Brad Keselowski Captures the Checkered Flag in the DC Solar 200 at ISM Raceway

    PHOENIX – Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 22 car for Team Penske, overcame a stage two pit road speeding penalty and multiple weather delays to outlast the field in the DC Solar 200 NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) race at ISM Raceway. With Keselowski’s victory, Roger Penske, owner of Team Penske, became the winningest team owner in ISM Raceway history with 15 including six in NASCAR.

    “Brian Wilson (crew chief) made some great adjustments to the car and the weather kind of came to us with what we needed for how our car was handling,” said Keselowski. “It is good to see that work out for everyone at Team Penske with the Fitzgerald Glider Ford Mustang. It was a solid team effort. I wasn’t perfect today by any stretch of the imagination but the car was really strong. Really, really good for about 50-60 laps. The last 20 laps it would fall off pretty good but the guys made it count. I am really proud of them.”

    Keselowski had to endure two red flags for rain during the race. The first came on lap 47 at the end of Stage 1 and lasted for one hour and 34 minutes, and the second was at the end of Stage 2 for 25 minutes. In his second career NXS win at ISM Raceway, the Rochester Hills, Mich., native led 66 of 200 laps, including the final 22.

    “We wanted to make sure that the last lap was a quick one, so we didn’t want to put a wrench in the back window,” crew chief Brian Wilson said. “Listening to Brad’s feedback, he felt like on the green flag stop we didn’t need anything large. We only did air pressure and a little bit of fuel weight. Fortunately, the Fitzgerald Ford was able to pull away there and I think the balance was fairly decent at the end.”

    Justin Allgaier, the 2017 DC Solar 200 winner, earned the pole Saturday afternoon, and led a race-high 76 laps. The pit road strategy, due to four cautions and two red flags, led to 10 lead changes throughout the race. Allgaier finished second, and is now third in the NXS points standings through four races.

    Elliott Sadler had a hard-fought ninth place finish after starting the race from the back due to an engine change. With his top 10 finish, Sadler now leads the NXS points standings, one point ahead of teammate Tyler Reddick, who hit the wall during Saturday’s qualifying and had to go to a backup car.

    Only one other driver led more than eight laps, and that was Kyle Busch, who finished third. Busch took the lead shortly after the beginning of Stage 2 and stayed there for 38 laps. He finished one spot ahead of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, rookie Christopher Bell, who also led five laps. Rounding out the top five was Jamie McMurray, driver of the No. 42 car for Chip Ganassi Racing.

    The TicketGuardian 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race will begin on Sunday at 12:30 p.m., local time. Tickets for the TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway are available and can be purchased online at ismraceway.com, by phone at 1-866-408-RACE (7223) or in person at the ISM Raceway ticket office.

    About ISM Raceway

    Since 1964, ISM Raceway has been the premier motorsports venue in the Southwest. As part of a $178 million modernization project, the track officially became ISM Raceway in January 2018 as a result of a naming rights partnership with ISM Connect, a pioneer in smart venue technology bringing the digital fan engagement experience to Phoenix. Founded as an open-wheel racing mecca, ISM Raceway is proud to host the Phoenix Grand Prix Verizon IndyCar Series race under the lights in April. Phoenix is the only track in the West to feature an IndyCar Series race and two Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series weekends a year, beginning with the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series 500 race weekend on March 9-11. The schedule is anchored by the Can-Am 500 race weekend on Nov. 9-11, the semifinal race in NASCAR’s Playoffs after which the field is reduced to the final four championship contenders. For more information, visit www.ISMRaceway.com.

  • Full Weekend Schedule for Phoenix

    Full Weekend Schedule for Phoenix

  • Kyle Larson Dominates to Win Boyd Gaming 300

    Kyle Larson Dominates to Win Boyd Gaming 300

    Kyle Larson paced the field for 142 laps to earn his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the Boyd Gaming 300.

    The final restart resembled closely that of the first start, as Larson pulled away from pole-sitter Christopher Bell after a late race caution for the final seven laps with a margin of victory of 0.881 seconds. The victory was Larson’s first of the season, ninth of his career and first at the speedway.

    “It was an awesome day,” Larson mentioned during his Victory Lane interview. “This car was so fast. It was really fast last year, but you really never know, and this was my first time racing with this new (composite) body, and it performed well.”

    The driver of the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet overcame a pit road issue that dropped him to eighth for a restart on Lap 139, but it didn’t take long to find his way to the front, pushing the issue three-wide to fight his way through the field quickly.

    “Normally my guys are some of the best on pit road,” Larson said. “They said the left-rear (tire) just wouldn’t come out (of the wheel well). I had been fighting a tight issue all day and then finally we got our car to turn better.

    “It allowed me to get to the lead fairly easily, and then I was saving fuel in case the race stayed green.”

    Larson and Bell have found themselves in this position before. They frequently battle each other on dirt tracks. During the off-season, Bell was the driver in Victory Lane in last November’s Turkey Night Classic and January’s Chili Bowl, one of the biggest midget races of the season. Bell was excited to see the friendly face extend their close competition into the stock car series.

    “That was really cool, and there will be a lot more of that,” Bell hinted, who beat Larson earlier in the event at the end of Stage 1. “We were close, running second to Kyle – if I’m going to run second to anyone, I guess I would rather it be him.

    “Special day, we were able to win a stage and get a Playoff point. We need to keep racking those up and get some race wins here.”

    As Bell mentioned, he did win a playoff point and becomes only the second Xfinity driver to earn any playoff points. As for Larson, his feelings about the competition with Bell were mutual.

    “It’s always fun to get to race Bell,” Larson said. “He seems to beat me all the time in the dirt stuff, and he edged me out there in qualifying. That first stage kind of felt like we were dirt-track racing there, swapping lanes and stuff. I was trying to take the air off him, and he got by, and yeah, it was fun.”

    As for the rest of the field, JR Motorsports had a strong showing with three of their four drivers finishing in the top eight with Justin Allgaier (third), Elliott Sadler (fifth) and Daytona 500 winner, Tyler Reddick (eighth). Kyle Busch, yesterday’s Camping World Truck Series winner, struggled all day with an ill-handling race car and faced a pit road penalty on his final stop when his gasman grabbed a tire. This year, the new rule states that they are only allowed to ‘kick’ a tire and fuel the car, and no other service is allowed to be done on the car or in the pit box. His No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota finished in a disappointing 14th position.

    Ryan Blaney, who will start on the pole for tomorrow’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race, led 33 laps and finished in fourth. Cole Custer, who makes his Monster Energy Cup series debut tomorrow, finished in the ninth position. Daniel Hemric, Brandon Jones, and Spencer Gallagher also finished the weekend with top-10 results.

    Tyler Reddick and Elliott Sadler are tied at the top of the Xfinity Series points after three races. The Xfinity series will continue their west coast swing at ISM Raceway in Phoenix, Arizona next weekend on March 10. Tickets are still available for purchase on the track’s website at http://www.ismraceway.com/Buy-Tickets/NASCAR-Ticket-Prices.aspx.

  • Kyle Larson Hits the Jackpot and Wins the Xfinity Race at Las Vegas

    Kyle Larson Hits the Jackpot and Wins the Xfinity Race at Las Vegas

    Kyle Larson, driving his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Chevy, brought home the prize in the Xfinity Series Boyd Gaming 300 Saturday afternoon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He dominated the field and would lead the most laps, 142-of-200, before finally capturing the checkered flag.

    This is his first win at the track after his runner-up finish last year. It’s also his ninth career victory at eight different tracks.

    After the race, Larson commented, “It was an awesome day for DC Solar. I think this is their first win so I’m glad to get them their first win here in the Xfinity series.” Larson would go on to say, “This race car is so fast, it was really fast last year, but you never really know. This is my first time with this body and it performed well. I’m happy about that, it’s a great day.”

    Stage 1 would only have one caution caused by a spinning Dylan Lupton. The rest of the stage we saw a great battle from the drivers, especially between Larson and Christopher Bell. Bell and Larson would swap the lead so often they were putting on a great race for the fans. However, it would be Bell who would become the winner of Stage 1.

    Stage 2 would go caution free but there was still plenty of action. After a bad pit stop, Bell would fall back a little giving Ryan Blaney the chance to vie for the lead with Larson. Another great battle would ensue between the two but this time Larson would take the Stage 2 win.

    The final stage of the race saw Bell back up front once again battling with Larson for the lead. It started to look like it was going to be a fuel mileage race. This had teams scrambling to see if they could make it to the finish without pitting and it seemed that Larson was going to be a little short. You could almost hear the sigh of relief when a caution with 16 laps to go came out. Once the race got back underway Larson would get the lead and not look back until he took the checkers.

    Bell would bring his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota home in second place. He battled with Larson hard but it just wasn’t enough today.

    Bell who had given Larson a shove to the lead told reporters, “It would have been nice to get up to the lead but I knew if I could put Kyle out there we’d be able to race it out. It was a lot of fun racing and I hope it was a lot of fun watching.”

    Justin Allgaier finished his No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet in third place. He will be celebrating his 12-year Anniversary with wife Ashley, tomorrow.

    Allgaier commented, “At the end of the race we got ourselves good track position, led laps, and there I probably burnt up the right front a little bit too much on that long run and started fading. I was glad to see that caution at the end, but you’re never really sure how those are gonna go.”

    Ryan Blaney and Elliott Sadler would round out the top five. Daniel Hemric, Brandon Jones, Tyler Reddick, Cole Custer, and Spencer Gallagher finished sixth through 10th, respectively.

    Reddick leads the Xfinity Series standings with 123 points, by virtue of a win, over Sadler, who also has 123 points. Bell is in third, 23 points behind, with Allgaier in fourth and Gallagher rounding out the top five.

    The Xfinity Series heads next to ISM Raceway (formerly Phoenix International Raceway) on March 10.

     

    [pdf-embedder url=”http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Las-Vegas-Xfinity-Series-Unofficial-Results-3-3-18.pdf” title=”Las Vegas Xfinity Series Unofficial Results 3-3-18″]

  • Christopher Bell Edges Kyle Larson for Xfinity Pole

    Christopher Bell Edges Kyle Larson for Xfinity Pole

    Christopher Bell runs a speed of 183.686 mph at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to claim his second consecutive NASCAR Xfinity Series pole, the third of his career.

    The front row for the Boyd Gaming 300 will feature a veteran and a rookie. Bell edged Kyle Larson, Daniel Hemrick, Cole Custer and Kyle Busch, who rounded out the top 5 starting positions.

    “Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) is the best in the business, and I’m lucky to drive for him and the whole organization at Joe Gibbs Racing,” Bell shared after his qualifying round. “That was a lot of fun. The Rheem Camry got better and better with each run, and I got my confidence up.”

    While the No. 20 Toyota won the pole position, Chevrolet dominated the final round with eight cars in the top-12. Elliott Sadler and Tyler Reddick, JR Motorsports teammates, will start sixth and seventh, respectively. The last four positions of the top 12 were swept by Chevrolet teams with Matt Tifft, Austin Dillon, Spencer Gallagher and Justin Allgaier. Yesterday’s Camping World Truck Series winner, Kyle Busch, will roll off the grid from the fifth position. Ryan Blaney, who won the pole for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race, starts eighth.

    Some notables who missed the final round of qualifying include Austin Cindric, Ryan Truex and Brandon Jones, who will start 13th, 16th and 18th, respectively.

    Earlier, Bell was in the media center discussing the popular racing simulator, iRacing.

    “I’m a big believer in iRacing,” Bell said during the interview. “It doesn’t give you any feel obviously because it’s all visual. But whenever you go to places you haven’t been to in a while like Las Vegas – last time we were here was last year – you have the visuals of what Turn 1 looks like, what Turn 3 looks like, and you’re still getting put in race situations.”

    Fox Sports 1 will air the 200 lap Xfinity Series race at the 1.5-mile speedway beginning at 4:00 p.m. ET. Stages 1 and 2 will last 45 laps each, and the final stage will run for 110 laps. The green flag is set to drop at 4:16 pm ET.

     

  • Full Weekend Schedule for Las Vegas

    Full Weekend Schedule for Las Vegas