Austin Dillon led only a single lap, but he played the fuel game correctly to lead the final lap and find himself in victory lane in the Golden State.
The driver of the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet took advantage of other’s misfortunes in the closing laps of the XFINITY Series race to win the TreatMyClot.com 300 at Auto Club Speedway. He was 10-seconds behind race leader Kyle Busch when he took the white flag.
“They said he (Kyle Busch) had a flat,” Dillon said. “I was worried about our fuel and stayed focused on that the whole time. He tried to screw me right there at the end, but it didn’t work out for him, did it? I’m proud of these Rheem guys. Man that was fun. I didn’t think we had a car to do that, and we didn’t, but we did what we needed to do, and that was to win the race.”
While the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota didn’t run out of gas, it suffered a right-front tire blowout just past the line and had to limp all the way back. Teammate Daniel Suárez passed him easily but ran out of gas on the backstretch and Busch took back the reigns of the field going into 3. The slow pace allowed Dillon to make up the deficit, scrape the wall in Turn 4, get tapped by Busch and score the victory.
Busch didn’t make himself available to the media post-race as the top-five finishers are required to do, so crew chief Chris Gayle spoke in his place.
“We had a really good NOS Energy Camry all day. I think Kyle and the team did a great job, led the most laps. It’s just really kind of sour right now to have that good of a car and not win the race. We obviously did everything right on fuel mileage, we made it past the checkered flag and we knew we would be close. Just unfortunate, I don’t know if we ran over something or if it was just wear with the left front tire. It would have been nice to get a caution on that last lap and to be able to come down and fix that, but kind of everyone’s strategy was played out and it was what it was. It happened after we crossed for the white flag on the apron just before we got into turn one.”
Suarez, who came up a half-lap short of the win, said, “In the whole run we were saving fuel. I knew that we were one to one-and-a-half laps short. I was saving fuel. I wasn’t worrying about the 20 or 18, I was just trying to finish the race because I knew that we were short. I knew that the 20 was a little bit shorter than us and eventually he ran out. When he ran out I started saving more because I knew that I had more fuel than him, but not a lot. I was just trying to save as much as I can. I passed the 18 when he blew the left front tire in (turns) one and two and on the exit of two I ran out of fuel and on the exit of four, the 2 and the 18 passed me back. Very unfortunate but it’s part of racing. I really think that our first victory is coming and hopefully we can get it very soon.”
Darrell Wallace Jr. tied his career best finish in the XFINITY Series with a third-place finish in his No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford.
We weren’t where we wanted to be in practice, but this was our better day of the two this week,” he said. “I messed up in qualifying and that put us behind a little bit, but I knew we had a decent EcoBoost Ford Mustang to work with. The grip level that felt like we were lacking in practice was there for qualifying so I knew we’d have a good race today. It didn’t fire off like it did in qualifying, but we never gave up. I just kept talking to myself and singing to myself – anything I could do to stay calm and not get into the wall. This is a great day for our Ford EcoBoost team.”
Suárez came home fourth in his No. 19 JGR Toyota. Elliott Sadler rounded out the top-five in his No. 5 JR Motorsports Chevrolet.
Kevin Harvick finished sixth in his No. 88 JRM Chevrolet followed by Brendan Gaughan in seventh in his No. 62 RCR Chevrolet. Kyle Larson finished eighth in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. Brandon Jones finished ninth in his No. 33 RCR Chevrolet and Justin Allgaier rounded out the top-10 in his No. 7 JRM Chevrolet.
Wallace’s car failed post-race inspection. Any penalties from that will be announced on Wednesday.
The race lasted two hours, five minutes and 52 seconds at an average speed of 143.008 mph. There were 12 lead changes among eight different drivers and four cautions for 16 laps.
Complete Finishing Order:
1. (6) Austin Dillon(i), Chevrolet, 150.
2. (3) Kyle Busch(i), Toyota, 150.
3. (13) Darrell Wallace Jr., Ford, 150.
4. (1) Daniel Suarez, Toyota, 150.
5. (5) Elliott Sadler, Chevrolet, 150.
6. (17) Kevin Harvick(i), Chevrolet, 150.
7. (15) Brendan Gaughan, Chevrolet, 150.
8. (4) Kyle Larson(i), Chevrolet, 150.
9. (14) Brandon Jones #, Chevrolet, 150.
10. (20) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 150.
11. (16) Aric Almirola(i), Ford, 150.
12. (8) Blake Koch, Chevrolet, 150.
13. (9) Brennan Poole, Chevrolet, 149.
14. (10) Ryan Reed, Ford, 149.
15. (2) Erik Jones #, Toyota, 149.
16. (7) Jeb Burton, Ford, 149.
17. (12) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 149.
18. (32) Corey LaJoie, Toyota, 149.
19. (19) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 149.
20. (11) Ryan Blaney(i), Ford, 148.
21. (18) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 148.
22. (21) Dakoda Armstrong, Toyota, 148.
23. (27) Garrett Smithley #, Chevrolet, 148.
24. (26) Spencer Gallagher(i), Chevrolet, 148.
25. (24) Ryan Preece #, Chevrolet, 148.
26. (35) Mario Gosselin, Chevrolet, 147.
27. (25) JJ Yeley, Toyota, 147.
28. (31) Joey Gase, Chevrolet, 145.
29. (23) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, 145.
30. (39) Todd Peck, Ford, 141.
31. (40) Cody Ware #, Chevrolet, 140.
32. (38) Mike Harmon, Dodge, 139.
33. (37) BJ McLeod #, Ford, Engine, 95.
34. (34) Derrike Cope, Chevrolet, Engine, 89.
35. (36) Harrison Rhodes, Chevrolet, Engine, 84.
36. (22) Dylan Lupton, Chevrolet, Accident, 56.
37. (33) Ray Black Jr. #, Chevrolet, Accident, 44.
38. (29) David Starr, Toyota, Engine, 30.
39. (28) Josh Wise(i), Toyota, Vibration, 18.
40. (30) Matt DiBenedetto(i), Toyota, Brakes, 2.
