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Hemric earns first NASCAR Xfinity Series win and championship at Phoenix

In a racing career highlighted with numerous heartbreaks and “what-ifs” moments, Daniel Hemric defied the odds and silenced his doubters by capturing two firsts following the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday, November 6: first win and first championship.

Following an overtime finish for the ages, Hemric, a 30-year-old native from Kannapolis, North Carolina, dueled and rubbed fenders against the reigning series champion Austin Cindric on the final lap and final corner to come out on top by a fender and achieve both his first elusive NASCAR Xfinity Series race win and the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship.

The championship occurred in Hemric’s 208th NASCAR national touring series start (120th in the Xfinity Series) and following 10 runner-up results in the Xfinity circuit while competing for three different teams, including this season with Joe Gibbs Racing.

Qualifying occurred on Saturday, November 6, to determine the starting lineup and Austin Cindric, the reigning series champion, started on pole position after posting a pole-winning lap at 131.902 mph. John Hunter Nemechek, piloting the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Supra, qualified alongside Cindric on the front row.

With Cindric starting as the highest of four Xfinity competitors vying for this year’s title, Daniel Hemric started fourth, Noah Gragson qualified sixth and AJ Allmendinger lined up in 12th.

Prior to the event, Harrison Burton dropped to the rear of the field due to multiple inspection failures. JJ Yeley also started at the rear of the field in a backup car after spinning in practice along with David Starr, who dropped back due to unapproved adjustments to his car.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Cindric and Nemechek dueled for the lead through the dogleg, the frontstretch and for a full lap before Nemechek was able to power through and lead the first lap.

As the field fanned out and jostled early for positions, Cindric was in second behind Nemechek followed by Hemric, Justin Allgaier, Brandon Jones and Gragson. Allmendinger, meanwhile, was in the top 12.

Through the first 10 laps of the finale, Nemechek was leading by nearly four-tenths of a second over Cindric, who was the highest-running title contender on the track. Hemric settled in third followed by Allgaier, Gragson, Haley, Brandon Jones, Riley Herbst, Allmendinger and Michael Annett. Jeb Burton was in 11th, Sam Mayer was in 13th ahead of Myatt Snider and Ryan Sieg, Brandon Brown was in 16th and Harrison Burton was battling for a top-20 spot.

Ten laps later, Cindric made a strong move beneath Nemechek through the frontstretch and the dogleg to take the lead for the first time, though Nemechek kept Cindric’s No. 22 CarShop Ford Mustang within his sights. Hemric remained in third place on the track ahead of Allgaier, Gragson settled in fifth and Allmendinger was mired in 10th behind Annett.

Another 10 laps later, Cindric, who navigated his way through lapped traffic, continued to lead by more than seven-tenths of a second over Nemechek’s No. 54 Mobil 1 Toyota Supra. Hemric stabilized himself in third place, but his No. 18 Poppy Bank Toyota Supra trailed the two leaders by nearly two seconds as he also had Allgaier closing in for position. Gragson continued to run in fifth while Allmendinger was up in ninth.

When the first stage concluded on Lap 45, Cindric received the early upper hand in his bid to defend his series title as he captured his season-high 13th stage victory of the season. Behind, Hemric edged teammate Nemechek to settle in second followed by Allgaier, Gragson, Brandon Jones, Allmendinger, Annett, Herbst and Haley.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted for adjustments and Hemric emerged with the lead following a stellar work from his pit crew that enabled him to exit pit road with the top spot. Cindric exited in second followed by Jones, Gragson, Allgaier, Nemechek and Allmendinger.

The second stage started on Lap 52 as Hemric and Gragson occupied the front row followed by Jones, Cindric, Allmendinger and Allgaier. At the start, Hemric rocketed away with the lead as the field fanned out to multiple lanes through the frontstretch and the dogleg.

The following lap, Cindric muscled his way back to second as Allgaier challenged teammate Gragson for third along with Nemechek.

Nearing the Lap 60 mark, the caution flew due to an on-track incident and long spin for Jeffrey Earnhardt on the backstretch as the incident also involved Joe Graf Jr. and Kyle Weatherman. At the time of caution, Hemric was leading by nearly three-tenths of a second over Cindric. In addition, Allgaier and Nemechek, both of whom were battling for third place, had made on-track contact twice towards the frontstretch in front of Gragson while Allmendinger was in sixth ahead of teammate Justin Haley.

On Lap 65, the race restarted under green as Hemric and Allgaier occupied the front row. At the start, Hemric and Allgaier dueled for the lead as the field again fanned out through the frontstretch. Through the backstretch, however, Hemric was able to clear Allgaier to retain the top spot until Nemechek, who gained a strong run entering the frontstretch, muscled his way back to the top spot the following lap.

With Nemechek leading teammate Hemric, Allgaier retained third ahead of Cindric while Allmendinger and Gragson battled for fifth.

Through the first 75 laps of the event, Nemechek was leading by nearly a second over teammate Hemric and Cindric. Teammates Allgaier and Gragson were in the top five followed by Allmendinger, Haley, Jeb Burton, Annett and Harrison Burton, who methodically worked his way from the rear of the field.

Five laps later, Nemechek extended his advantage to more than a second while Hemric and Cindric challenged one another for the runner-up spot and for the championship lead.

With four laps remaining in the second stage, Hemric, who managed to cut his deficit to Nemechek amid lapped traffic, overtook teammate Nemechek entering the frontstretch to reassume the lead.

When the second stage concluded on Lap 90, Hemric echoed his challenge for his first NASCAR national touring series title against his fellow competitors by capturing his 10th stage victory of the season. Cindric managed to overtake Nemechek to move into second followed by Allgaier, Gragson, Allmendinger, Haley, Harrison Burton, Annett and Herbst.

Under the stage break, the leaders returned to pit road and Hemric retained the lead following another strong service from his crew followed by Cindric, Nemechek, Allgaier, Allmendinger and Harrison Burton while Gragson, who dodged an uncontrolled tire pit road penalty, dropped to 10th.

With 103 laps remaining, the final stage started under green. At the start, the field fanned out to multiple lanes through the frontstretch and through the first turn. Amid the start, Hemric retained the lead ahead of Cindric, Nemechek, Allmendinger, Harrison Burton and Allgaier.

The following lap, the caution returned due to a hard accident involving Joe Graf Jr. in Turn 1 after making contact with Sage Karam.

Under the final 93 laps of the finale, the field restarted under green. At the start and with the field again fanning out through the frontstretch, Hemric dueled and managed to fend off Nemechek to retain the lead ahead of a steaming pack of cars.

During the following lap, however, the caution returned when Sage Karam made contact with Matt Mills, which sent Mills into the Turn 1 outside wall and with right-side damage.

Under caution, Gragson pitted his No. 9 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro for a chassis adjustment while the rest led by Hemric remained on the track.

With 87 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Hemric retained the lead by a narrow margin over Cindric and Nemechek as Harrison Burton made his way up to fourth ahead of Allgaier.

Two laps later, Cindric made a bold move beneath Hemric entering the frontstretch and nearly slid in front of Hemric’s No. 18 Toyota to take the lead. Behind, Harrison Burton challenged Nemechek and Allgaier for third while Allmendinger was battling teammate Haley and Annett for sixth.

With approximately 75 laps remaining, the caution returned due to possible fluid on the track when the No. 99 Chevrolet Camaro driven by Stefan Parsons erupted in flames past the start/finish line as he parked his car on the dogleg in the frontstretch. At the time of the caution, Cindric was leading by a reasonable margin over Hemric, Nemechek, Allgaier and Harrison Burton.

Under caution, the leaders returned to pit road and Cindric retained the lead following a strong service from his pit crew ahead of Nemechek, Allgaier, Allmendinger and Hemric.

With 66 laps remaining, the race restarted under green as Cindric and Allgaier occupied the front row. At the start, Allgaier pulled ahead on the inside lane in front of Cindric and the field.

Not long after, the caution returned when Jade Buford spun in Turn 2. Then, Allgaier, the leader, was penalized for dropping below the apron and the yellow line prior to crossing the start/finish line during the previous restart. Allgaier’s penalty moved Cindric back to the lead ahead of Hemric. In the midst of the restart, Gragson, who restarted 13th, was up to seventh.

Down to the final 60 laps of the finale, the field restarted under green as Cindric and Nemechek occupied the front row. At the start, Cindric retained the lead while Hemric moved up to second after Allmendinger made contact with Nemechek entering the first turn. Behind, Gragson challenged Harrison Burton and Allmendinger for fourth as Jeb Burton joined the party.

Ten laps later, Cindric continued to lead by more than a second over Nemechek and Hemric, both of whom were battling for the runner-up spot before the former prevailed. Gragson was in fifth behind Harrison Burton while Allmendinger was in sixth.

With 40 laps remaining, Cindric stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Nemechek while third-place Hemric kept the two leaders within his sights as close as possible. Behind, Gragson was up in fourth ahead of Harrison Burton while Allmendinger was mired back in sixth, trailing the lead by more than five seconds.

Under the final 30 laps of the finale, Cindric increased his advantage to nearly two seconds over Nemechek. Hemric trailed by more than two seconds while Gragson and Allmendinger remained in fourth and sixth.

Down to the final 24 laps of the finale, Hemric’s charge for the championship began as he overtook teammate Nemechek for second place. By then, Cindric continued to lead amid lapped traffic, but was only approximately two seconds ahead.

Then with 19 laps remaining, the caution flew when Allmendinger, who was in sixth and trying to pit under green amid vibration issues, spun his No. 16 Hyperice Chevrolet Camaro below the Turn 2 apron and near the pit road entrance. The caution all but erased Cindric’s advantage over Hemric, Nemechek and the field.

Under caution, the leaders pitted and Cindric retained the lead following another stellar service from his pit crew. Hemric exited in second followed by Gragson, Harrison Burton, Nemechek and Haley.

Down to the final 13 laps of the finale, the field restarted under green. At the start and with the field fanning out through the dogleg, Cindric dueled against Hemric while Gragson challenged behind. Through the first two turns and the backstretch, Cindric, who had Gragson trailing behind him, managed to fend off Hemric on the outside lane to retain the lead back to the frontstretch and past the start/finish line. Just then, the caution flew when Jeb Burton, who was in a three-wide battle, spun following contact with Sheldon Creed in Turn 3, which drew the caution as Burton continued without sustaining any serious damage.

With eight laps remaining, the field restarted under green. At the start and with the field again fanning out through the dogleg, Hemric dueled against Cindric trough the first two turns followed by Gragson, but Cindric managed to clear Hemric through the backstretch.

The following lap, Gragson, who tried to narrow the gap between himself and his two title rivals, slid up and hit the Turn 1 outside wall. Though he continued to run under power, he was losing spots on the track and losing ground towards his championship bid. Meanwhile, Hemric started to launch an attack beneath Cindric for the lead through Turns 3 and 4.

Just then, the caution returned when Buford and Josh Williams wrecked in Turn 3. The wreck was enough to send the finale into overtime.

In overtime, Cindric and Hemric again dueled for the lead through the first two turns ahead of the field. Remaining side-by-side through the backstretch, Hemric wiggled slightly underneath Cindric entering Turn 3 and barely clipped Cindric, but both continued running straight approach the frontstretch.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Cindric was still leading by a narrow margin over Hemric as Harrison Burton tried to spoil the battle.

Entering the first turn, Cindric had Hemric cleared for the top spot. Hemric then tried to draw himself alongside Cindric entering the backstretch, but Cindric fought back on the outside lane and Hemric chose to settle behind Cindric through the straightaway. Then on the final corner, Hemric sent his No. 18 Toyota as hard as he could to the inside lane and managed to move Cindric up the track entering Turn 4. As both competitors dueled and rubbed fenders coming to the finish line, Hemric managed to pull ahead and beat Cindric by 0.030 seconds to win the race and the championship.

With his accomplishment, Hemric became the 31st different competitor to achieve an Xfinity Series championship, the third to do so while driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, the third to do so while driving a Toyota and the 170th different competitor to win an Xfinity race. In addition to becoming the sixth first-time Xfinity winner of 2021, Hemric became the first competitor to record a first career race win and series championship in the same event. The win and the championship occurred in Hemric’s final ride with Joe Gibbs Racing as he will be moving to Kaulig Racing and attempt to defend his series title in 2022.

The Xfinity championship was also the first for veteran crew chief Dave Rogers, who kept Hemric poised and composed to attack late for the win and the title.

Ironically, Hemric and his No. 18 JGR Toyota team rallied from an early scare to the weekend, where his primary hauler that was transporting his car broke down while commuting to Phoenix and had to be transported on an alternate hauler. The hauler was able to arrive with the car as Hemric was able to hit the track for the series’ lone Xfinity practice session on Friday, November 5.

Upon claiming his championship flag and performing a long victorious burnout, Hemric capped off his long-awaited first win in NASCAR by performing a victorious backflip in front of his crew and the Phoenix fans.

Photo by Ron Olds for SpeedwayMedia.com.

“[I] Lost my breath! Unbelievable!” Hemric said on NBCSN. “These guys right here, they’ve been asking me all year, ‘How bad do you want it?’ I gave [the win] away here [at Phoenix] in the spring. [I] Felt like we had to give one up last week to get here. We were not going to be denied. Thank you, Dave Rogers, Bill and Cindy Gallaher, everyone at Poppy Bank, Lou Gallaher, Jr., I’m talking to you. Man, they took a chance on me. 2015, some form or fashion. They stuck with me through times. They probably shouldn’t have, to be honest with you. How about those race fans? That backflip good enough for you? I’ve been waiting a long damn time to do that. Thank you Joe Gibbs, everyone at [Toyota Racing Development], Toyota…Everyone here that makes this program what it is. I know I’ve given up a lot. People doubted me. I’ll do it all over again for a night like this. I’m blacked out. Just knew I had to be the first one to the [finish] line…This is what it’s all about. Winning at the second-highest level in all of motorsports. What an honor. Unbelievable! I’ll do it all over again. I’ll take all the heartbreaks again to live this right here. That’s the greatest feeling in the world.”

While on the championship stage and hoisting the trophy, Hemric took a moment to evoke a powerful message about perseverance and emerging victorious amid the struggles in life.

“[This championship] ain’t for all those kids about racing trying to get to a level,” Hemric said. “It’s about people in life. It’s about coming from nothing and making yourself all that you work for. That’s what it’s all about. This is the American dream. I’m living a history of it, living proof of it. Un-be-lievable.”

Cindric, who was trying to become the eighth different competitor to achieve back-to-back Xfinity titles, settled in second place in a season highlighted with five victories and his last in the series as a full-time competitor, where he will be moving up to the NASCAR Cup Series to pilot the No. 2 Ford Mustang for Team Penske in 2022. Despite the result, Cindric, who managed to wrap up the sixth Xfinity Series owner’s title for team owner Roger Penske, kept his head high over the late battle for the driver’s title.

“If everyone in the stands enjoyed it, it’s good racing,” Cindric said. “I’m very appreciative of the opportunity to race on such a big stage, the opportunity to race for Roger Penske, to represent Ford Performance, our companies and all of our sponsors that have helped us this season. It would’ve been awesome to finish this out. I felt like we had a dominant race car. I felt like we did everything right. Come up a little short. Sometimes, it’s like that way. Unfortunately, at the end of both seasonal championships [regular and season] this year, I’m getting moved out of the way and doored, but that’s hard racing. That’s why everyone enjoys watching this series. It’s because there’s a lot on the line. Thankful for the opportunity and pissed to be second for like the third week in a row.”‘

Gragson, meanwhile, never recovered following his late contact into the wall and slipped back to 12th place in the final running order, which left him in a career-best third-place result in the final standings and in a season where he captured three victories. During his post-race interview, Gragson gave props to his crew chief Dave Elenz, who will be moving up to the NASCAR Cup Series in 2022, while the driver will be remaining as a full-time competitor for JR Motorsports for the upcoming season.

“Just disappointed,” Gragson said. “I’m not really sure what happened there on that second-to-last restart. I got just sideways off into [Turn] 1, like there’s oil down or something. I’m kind of mind-blown on what happened. [I] Hit the wall there running third. We rebounded really well, I thought, from pit road, mistake early on in the race. Everybody just dug deep, kept working hard. A lot of big adjustments. We didn’t have the car nearly where we wanted it to be all weekend, practice, qualifying. Those guys, they beat us tonight. Just not enough this weekend. We didn’t bring out best car. Just thankful, really thankful. We’ll go on next year.”

Like Gragson, Allmendinger, who struggled with pace throughout the finale, could not recover from his late spin and ended the season in 14th place on the track and with a career-best fourth-place result in the final standings. Despite the late misfortune during the finale, Allmendinger praised his team, Kaulig Racing, for the season-long performance that included five victories and the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series regular season championship. Like Hemric and Gragson, Allmendinger will be remaining in the Xfinity circuit with Kaulig in 2022.

“I just probably need to be a little better here [at Phoenix] as well to kind of lead us in a better direction,” Allmendinger said. “That’s part of growth here at Kaulig Racing. Of course, you’d like to have at least contended for [the championship]. Then I thought at worst, we’re gonna finish fifth or sixth. Then, the wheel was coming off on the right rear. I apologized to Austin [Cindric] because I think he had the race probably won. I don’t want to be a part of the storyline like that. I’d like to have been a better storyline, but part of the growth. Definitely not what we wanted today, tonight. We’ll come back strong. Thanks to all the men and women at Kaulig Racing, [owner] Matt Kaulig, [team president] Chris Rice for making this such a dream season. We kept making the Hyperice Chevy just a little bit better, but never really had the speed we needed to go run with [Cindric] or [Hemric]…We’ll come do this again next year.”

Harrison Burton, who made his final start with Joe Gibbs Racing before moving up to the Cup circuit to drive for the Wood Brothers Racing team, finished third on the track followed by Riley Herbst and Justin Haley. John Hunter Nemechek, Brandon Jones, Brett Moffitt, Justin Allgaier and Sheldon Creed completed the top 10 in the final running order.

Michael Annett finished 11th in his 436th and final NASCAR national touring series start before retiring from full-time competition.

Despite not competing in the Xfinity finale, Ty Gibbs earned the 2021 Xfinity Series Rookie-of-the-Year title in a season where he won his first four career races in 18 starts.

The 2021 Xfinity finale was the final race aired on NBCSN as USA Network will covering the majority of NASCAR Xfinity and Cup events during the second half of the 2022 season.

There were 16 lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured 10 cautions for 61 laps.

Results.

1. Daniel Hemric, 48 laps led, Stage 2 winner

2. Austin Cindric, 113 laps, Stage 1 winner

3. Harrison Burton

4. Riley Herbst

5. Justin Haley

6. John Hunter Nemechek, 39 laps led

7. Brandon Jones

8. Brett Moffitt

9. Justin Allgaier

10. Sheldon Creed

11. Michael Annett, one lap led

12. Noah Gragson, three laps led

13. Sam Mayer

14. AJ Allmendinger

15. Dylan Lupton

16. Blaine Perkins

17. Ryan Sieg

18. Jeremy Clements

19. Myatt Snider

20. Brandon Brown

21. David Starr

22. JJ Yeley

23. Jeb Burton

24. Tommy Joe Martins

25. Sage Karaam

26. Kyle Weatherman

27. Kyle Sieg

28. Ryan Vargas

29. Matt Mills

30. Alex Labbe, two laps down

31. Bayley Currey, four laps down

32. Josh Williams – OUT, Accident

33. Jade Buford – OUT, Accident

34. Stefan Parsons – OUT, Engine

35. Joe Graf Jr. – OUT, Accident

36. Jeffrey Earnhardt – OUT, Accident

Bold indicates championship finale contenders.

Final standings.

1. Daniel Hemric

2. Austin Cindric

3. Noah Gragson

4. AJ Allmendinger

5. Justin Allgaier

6. Justin Haley

7. Brandon Jones

8. Harrison Burton

9. Myatt Snider

10. Jeb Burton

11. Riley Herbst

12. Jeremy Clements

The NASCAR Xfinity Series’ teams and competitors enters its off-season period before returning to action at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, February 19, to commence the 2022 season. The event is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. ET on FS1.

November 7, 2021
Gragson delivers at Martinsville; Xfinity Championship 4 field set

Given two late opportunities to keep his championship hopes alive and vowing to win entering the weekend, Noah Gragson capitalized on both opportunities through two overtime attempts after beating Austin Cindric in a photo finish to win the Dead On Tools 250 at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday, October 30, and punch his ticket to the Championship 4 finale.

With the victory, Gragson, who was placed in a “must-win” situation following his wreck last weekend at Kansas Speedway, will be one of four competitors who will contend for the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship at Phoenix Raceway scheduled for next Saturday.

The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Xfinity event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Xfinity race. With that, Austin Cindric, the reigning Xfinity Series champion, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Ty Gibbs, the 2021 ARCA Menards Series champion and winner of last weekend’s Xfinity event at Kansas Speedway.

Prior to the event, Stephen Leicht and Joe Graf Jr. started at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments along with Mike Harmon, who fell back due to a driver change.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Cindric managed to pull ahead and clear Gibbs entering the backstretch to come back around and lead the first lap. Behind, AJ Allmendinger, sporting an orange Halloween scheme on his No. 16 Hyperice Chevrolet Camaro, was in third ahead of teammate Justin Haley, racing in a purple Halloween scheme on his No. 11 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet Camaro, and Justin Allgaier, featuring Hellmann’s on his No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro, while Daniel Hemric muscled his way into the top six.

Through the first five laps of the event, the battle for the lead intensified between Cindric and Gibbs, who attempted to take over the top spot over Cindric on the inside lane. Despite Gibbs’ effort, Cindric prevailed once again and cleared Gibbs’ No. 54 Smile Coin Toyota Supra to retain the lead.

By Lap 10, the front-runners settled in a long single-file line as Cindric continued to lead ahead of Gibbs, Allmendinger, Haley, Hemric, Allgaier, Brandon Jones, Harrison Burton, Noah Gragson and rookie Sam Mayer. Behind, Ryan Sieg was in 11th ahead of Jeb Burton, Michael Annett, Brandon Brown, Riley Herbst and Myatt Snider.

Five laps later, the first caution flew when Preston Pardus wheel-hopped and spun in Turn 4. At the time of caution, Allmendinger overtook Gibbs for the runner-up spot while Cindric was ahead by nearly a second. In addition, Hemric and Allgaier moved into the top five while Haley dropped to sixth. During the caution period, the competition caution that was planned on Lap 25 was pushed back to Lap 30.

Another five laps later, the race restarted under green. At the start, Cindric rocketed away in his No. 22 CARQUEST Ford Mustang with the lead followed by Allmendinger. Soon after, Hemric challenged teammate Gibbs for third followed by Allgaier while Haley and Mayer battled for sixth. After battling Gibbs for a full lap on the outside lane, Hemric’s No. 18 Poppy Bank Toyota Supra prevailed entering the backstretch.

By Lap 25, Cindric was ahead by two-tenths of a second over Allmendinger while third-place Hemric trailed by less than a second. Meanwhile, Gibbs and Allgaier battled for fourth.

When the competition caution flew on Lap 30, Cindric was still leading ahead of Allmendinger and Hemric. By then, seven of the eight remaining Playoff contenders were running in the top 10 as Haley was in 10th behind Gragson while Brandon Jones, the eighth postseason contender, was mired in 15th.

Under the competition caution, some like Stephen Leicht, JJ Yeley, David Starr, Colin Garrett, Natalie Decker, Bayley Currey and Spencer Boyd pitted while the rest led by Cindric remained on the track.

Five laps later, the race restarted under green. At the start, Cindric and Allmendinger engaged in a side-by-side battle for three corners until Cindric prevailed on the inside lane. Behind, Hemric challenged Allmendinger for a full lap behind clearing him on Lap 37 in Turn 1. Meanwhile, Haley, who was in 10th, was being shuffled back towards the top 20 in 19th.

Through the first 40 laps of the event, Cindric was ahead by approximately seven-tenths of a second over Hemric while Allmendinger, Allgaier and Gibbs were in the top five. Mayer was in sixth ahead of Sieg, Gragson, Josh Berry and Harrison Burton. Brandon Jones was in 15th behind Jeb Burton while Haley was mired in 20th behind Snider.

On Lap 48, the caution flew when Mayer cut a right-front tire, shredded the right-front fender of his No. 8 John 5 Sinner Chevrolet Camaro and ignited sparks after making contact with Gibbs the previous lap.

Under caution, some like Gibbs, Harrison Burton, Brandon Jones, Gragson and Haley pitted while the rest led by Cindric remained on the track.

With seven laps remaining in the first stage, the race restarted under green. At the start, Cindric retained the lead following another strong start. In addition, Hemric muscled his way back to second followed by Allgaier, Allmendinger, Berry and Sieg as the field scrambled for positions towards the front.

When the first stage concluded on Lap 60, Cindric claimed his 12th stage victory of the season. Hemric settled in second followed by Allgaier, Allmendinger, Berry, Sieg and Gragson, who charged his way towards the front on fresh tires. Annett, Yeley and Moffitt completed the top-10 stage positions while Harrison Burton, Haley and Brandon Jones finished outside of the top 15 and with no early stage points in their quest to remain in the championship battle.

Under the stage break, the leaders led by Cindric pitted while the rest led by Gragson and Gibbs, both of whom pitted prior to the conclusion of the first stage, remained on the track.

When the second stage concluded on Lap 68, Gragson pulled his No. 9 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro ahead of Gibbs through the backstretch to retain the lead as Jeb Burton was in third. Behind, cousin Harrison Burton was in fifth behind Jeremy Clements as Haley moved up to sixth.

By Lap 75, Gragson was out in front by three-tenths of a second over Gibbs while Jeb Burton, Clements and Harrison Burton were in the top five. Meanwhile, Haley retained sixth ahead of Snider, Brandon Jones was in 10th behind Riley Herbst, Hemric was in 13th, Cindric and Allmendinger were in 15th and 16th and Allgaier was in 18th.

Fifteen laps later, Gragson, who was mired in lapped traffic, continued to lead by a narrow margin over Gibbs as Harrison Burton started to close in for the lead. Behind, Haley started to challenged Clements for fifth while Hemric and Cindric were back in the top 10 in ninth and 10th.

Through the first 100 laps of the event, Gragson was leading by three-tenths of a second over Harrison Burton, who moved into the runner-up spot a few laps earlier when Gibbs went up the track in Turn 3. With Gibbs back in third, Jeb Burton and Clements remained in the top five ahead of Haley, Snider, Herbst, Hemric and Cindric. Allmendinger, meanwhile, was in 11th while Brandon Jones and Allgaier were in the top 15.

By Lap 110, Gragson and Harrison Burton, both of whom were placed in a “must-win” situation to advance to the championship finale, were running nose to tail amid lapped traffic as Burton challenged Gragson for the top spot.

When the second stage concluded on Lap 120, Gragson, who was mired behind more lapped traffic and nearly lost the top spot entering Turn 4 as Harrison Burton shoved his No. 20 Dex Imaging Toyota Supra beneath Gragson, edged Harrison Burton to claim his fourth stage victory of the season. Gibbs settled in third followed by Jeb Burton, Cindric, Hemric, Allmendinger, Herbst, Clements and Snider.

By virtue of their top-10 results in the second stage and the overall stage points accumulated, Austin Cindric and AJ Allmendinger secured their spots to the Championship 4 finale at Phoenix Raceway, with Cindric receiving an opportunity to defend his title and Allmendinger receiving his first opportunity to win his first NASCAR national touring series title.

Meanwhile, Haley, Gragson, Brandon Jones and Harrison Burton were scored outside of the top-four cutline to the finale while Hemric and Allgaier were currently scored inside the cutline.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted as Gragson retained the lead ahead of Harrison Burton, Gibbs and the field. Meanwhile, Haley came to pit road with the left-rear brake caliber and tire of his car on fire. Following several trips to pit road, where several douses from a fire extinguisher and multiple water bottles were made to his car, Haley, ultimately, took his car to the garage to have the right rear inspected. The issue, however, was enough to end his title hopes.

With 120 laps remaining, the final stage started. At the start, Gragson and Harrison Burton engaged in a heated battle for the lead for two laps until Gragson cleared Burton entering the frontstretch.

Not long after, Harrison Burton reignited his challenge for the lead beneath Gragson. Gragson, however, retained the lead as the field settled in a long single-file line.

Nearing the final 100 laps of the event, the caution flew when Bayley Currey cut a right-front tire entering Turn 2. The incident occurred just in front of the leaders. At the time of caution, Gragson was ahead of a hard-challenging Harrison Burton while Gibbs, Jeb Burton and Cindric were in the top five. Herbst was in sixth while Allmendinger, Brandon Jones, Allgiaer and Hemric were in the top 10.

Under caution, some like Brandon Jones pitted while the rest led by Gragson remained on the track.

With 95 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Gragson cleared Gibbs entering the backstretch to retain the lead as Harrison Burton challenged his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate for the runner-up spot.

Five laps later, Gragson extended his advantage to more than half a second over Gibbs, who prevailed in a long side-by-side battle against Harrison Burton. Behind, Cindric was up in fourth in front of Jeb Burton while Hemric and Allmendinger dueled for sixth.

Down to the final 75 laps of the event, Gragson remained as the leader by eight-tenths of a second over Gibbs, who had teammate Harrison Burton and Cindric pressuring him for the runner-up spot. Hemric was up in fifth followed by Allmendinger, Allgaier, Annett, Berry and Jeb Burton. By then, Hemric was holding sole possession of the fourth and final transfer spot to the finale ahead of Allgaier.

Shortly after, the caution returned when Ryan Ellis spun in Turn 2.

Under caution, the leaders pitted and Gibbs emerged with the lead after exiting pit road first followed by teammate Harrison Burton, Gragson, Hemric and Brandon Jones. Following the pit stops, however, Spencer Boyd emerged as the leader after he opted to remain on the track.

With 66 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Gragson made a bold three-wide move to the inside lane and beneath Boyd and Harrison Burton while Gibbs took over the lead. Through the first two turns, Harrison Burton was forced wide while trying to overtake Boyd and he lost his momentum through the backstretch as he fell back into the top 10.

With the field jostling for positions and Harrison Burton mired in the pack, Gibbs was leading ahead of Gragson, Cindric, Hemric and Allgaier.

A few laps later, the caution flew when Snider spun in Turn 2 after being bumped by Sieg. Under the caution laps, Harrison Burton pulled his car alongside Boyd’s to express his displeasure for losing his momentum.

Down to the final 58 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Gibbs and Gragson dueled for the lead through the backstretch. Just then, the caution returned for a multi-car wreck in Turn 2 when Jeb Burton, who was trying to force his way through Boyd entering the backstretch, came back down and ignited calamity with Annett making hard contact into the outside wall while Herbst, Boyd and Moffitt were also involved. The incident was enough to red-flag the event for nearly 11 minutes with fluid leaking out of Annett’s destroyed car.

When the red flag lifted and the race restarted under green with 50 laps remaining, Gibbs and Gragson dueled for the lead until Gibbs cleared the field entering the backstretch. Then in Turn 3, Gragson ran into the rear of Gibbs, which sent Gibbs sideways in front of the field. While most of the field scrambled to avoid Gibbs, Harrison Burton, unfortunately, made contact into his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, damaging the front nose of his Dex Imaging Toyota Supra. In the midst of the incident, Gragson returned to the lead ahead of Cindric, Allgaier, Hemric and Allmendinger.

Under caution, both Harrison Burton and Gibbs pitted, with Gibbs losing a lap in the process while Burton proceeded with a patched nose.

With 43 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Gragson retained the lead while Cindric spun the tires. Cindric’s misfortune allowed Allgaier to moved into second followed by Hemric. Not long after, Brandon Jones made the slightest of contact with Cindric in Turn 3, but Jones and Cindric remained in fourth and fifth while Allmendinger, who tried to move inside the top five, remained in sixth.

Eight laps later, Gragson was leading by nearly six-tenths of a second over Hemric while Allgaier, Brandon Jones and Cindric were in the top five.

Another three laps later, the caution returned due to debris reported in the backstretch and coming off of Harrison Burton’s No. 20 Toyota.

Prior to the restart, a jack coming off of Harrison Burton’s car came to rest on the backstretch, which resulted with Burton being penalized for removing equipment out of his pit box.

Down to the final 26 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Gragson received another strong start to retain the lead and slowly pull away through the backstretch. Meanwhile, teammate Allgaier was overtaken by Hemric as Cindric joined the battle.

Six laps later, Gragson was ahead by two-tenths of a second over Hemric, who started to close in on Gragson for the lead. Cindric trailed the two leaders by more than a second followed by Allgaier, Brandon Jones, Allmendinger, Mayer, Berry, Herbst and Clements.

Two laps later, Hemric, who gained a run through the backstretch, emerged with the lead. Hemric’s move dropped Gragson, who is in a “must-win” situation, below the top-four cutline while Allgaier moved back into the cutline.

Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Hemric was leading by seven-tenths of a second over Gragson while Cindric, Allgaier, Mayer and Allmendinger were in the top six.

Four laps later, the caution returned when Haley, who was 23 laps behind the leaders, spun in Turn 4, which evaporated Hemric’s stable advantage over Gragson and Cindric. Following his spin, Haley called it a night as he parked his car in the garage and retired, which officially ended his hopes of advancing to the championship finale.

With the race sent into overtime, Hemric and Gragson occupied the front row ahead of Cindric, Allgaier, Mayer and Allmendinger. At the start, Gragson challenged Hemric for the lead on the outside lane. Through the backstretch, Gragson used the outside lane to his advantage as he fought back and cleared Hemric for the top spot entering the frontstretch. Behind, Josh Berry spun and the caution flew just before Gragson could start the final lap of the event, which sent the event into another overtime attempt.

With the race restarting in another overtime attempt, Gragson and Cindric occupied the front row while Hemric elected to restart behind Gragson on the inside lane. At the start, Gragson cleared Cindric entering the backstretch and continued to lead for a full lap.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Gragson was still leading by a mere margin over Cindric while Hemric was being challenged by Mayer and others for third. Through the backstretch, Gragson continued to keep Cindric at bay. Then, Cindric made his move beneath Gragson in an attempt to snatch the win entering Turns 3 and 4. Despite Cindric’s late effort, Gragson fought back on the outside lane and edged Cindric’s No. 22 Ford by 0.064 seconds to win and punch his ticket to the finale.

In addition to locking himself and his No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet team into the finale to battle for the championsip, Gragson captured his fifth NASCAR Xfinity Series career victory, third of 2021 and first at Martinsville in the series. He also clinched the manufacturer’s title for Chevrolet.

The margin of victory between Gragson and Cindric (0.064 seconds) marked the closest finish ever at Martinsville.

“Man, I wanna cry right now,” Gragson said on NBCSN. “It’s been a rough season. We got a couple of wins there at Darlington and Richmond [in September]. I know it wasn’t looking good after last weekend. I was pretty fired up. I told my guys that we got an opportunity and we’re still in it. I’m so thankful. It’s just such an awesome opportunity. This team’s unbelievable. Overall, just an awesome day. I was telling all the guys in the pre-race deal, I said that snow plow’s engaged. We’re gonna be digging, get out of the way. Man, I’m emotional right now. Dude, this is Martinsville, baby! We’re going to the final four, baby! Yeah!”

Cindric, who will attempt to defend his series title next weekend, settled in second place followed by Hemric, who captured the fourth and final spot to the Championship 4 finale. This marks the third season where Hemric will contend for a NASCAR national touring series title while he continues to pursue his first race victory.

“Yeah, there was a lot that went into it,” Cindric said. “I felt like I had a shot as the third-place car. [I] Kept it in third gear, got the momentum, got cleared for second place. I put front bias into it, drove it in as hard as I could into [Turn] 3, but I wasn’t gonna use up Noah. I intend on racing for a championship a certain way. I said it after Bristol. [Gragson] earned that win. Just needed a couple inches, maybe needed above the track a little bit more. Overall, really proud of this season. I’ve been saying it since last season and this year, I feel the same way. I’m not talking about going back to back [in championships]. It’s about making it into the Championship 4. I feel like that’s the hardest thing you can do in a national series is to make it there. What you do with a bonus, you get to go have a great day and try to make the most of the opportunity.”

“I can tell you, I’m just pretty disappointed,” Hemric said. “I had to make a decision there. First caution comes out when you’re checked out, I felt like, first off, what a great Poppy Bank Toyota Supra. Just checked out, biding time, counting the laps down. The caution came out, I knew it wouldn’t be that easy and that’s fine. [Cindric] got into me into [Turns] 1 and 2. He’s also trying to win the race, same as I am, and he got me in a bad angle, let [Gragson] take the lead, the caution comes out again. I wanted to choose the top, race [Gragson]. It’s kind of risk versus reward, right? You start the season off with one goal and that’s to try to do what we officially have a shot to do next week and that’s run for a championship. That is the ultimate goal, but I don’t know. A win would’ve been nice. At least I’d be on the front row and have a shot. Right decision, I don’t know. Right, though, for next week? Of course.”

Mayer rallied from his early on-track issues to finish in fourth place for his first career top-five result in the Xfinity circuit followed by teammate Justin Allgaier, who was the first Xfinity Playoff competitor to miss the top-four cutline to the finale. This marks the second time in four seasons where Allgaier will not advance to the Championship 4 finale.

“It just wasn’t enough,” Allgaier said. “We played the safe strategy. We talked about it before the race and felt like that was the smart strategy. Just gave up too many points. Daniel [Hemric] was, obviously, a lot better that we were tonight and put himself in good position to get the points. Hats off to [Gragson]. At least we got one [JR Motorsports] car going to the Playoffs. It’s super disappointing. Everybody at JR Motorsports works so hard on this No. 7 team. A lot of averages says we’ve been in it the last so many years. At some point, you’re gonna have to have a bad year – by bad, fifth going into the final round – but still just disappointing.”

Brandon Jones, who came into Martinsville in a “must-win” situation, ended his night in sixth place as he also failed to transfer past the Round of 8 for a second consecutive season. He will remain at Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity circuit for the 2022 season.

“I just don’t think that we quite had the balance we did here in the spring,” Jones said. “Similar conditions, so I was expecting to be fairly fast here today. Then there at the end, just kind of fell back away from it. We got to go dissect this a little bit, figure out where we can continue to be better. We can still go to Phoenix and win that race. I truly believe we can do that. That’s still on my mind. It’s still my goal to go win one of these races before the start of next year, to get some momentum built back up here. We kept fighting. Hate that we missed [the Championship 4 round] again. We’ll keep going, man. We’re gonna keep trying to figure out how to do this.”

Allmendinger, who will contend for his first NASCAR national touring series championship, finished seventh followed by Alex Labbe, Clements and Herbst.

“It’s been an amazing year here at Kaulig Racing,” Allmendinger said. “To win five times, win a Cup race. At the end of the day, you just want a chance at Phoenix. We know it’s gonna come down to four really strong cars. We’ve got some work to do. We definitely, I think, lost a little bit of speed over the last couple of months, taking out the Roval. We’ll go to work hard this week. We’ve been planning for this, all the men and women at Kaulig Racing. We’ve been getting our Phoenix car ready for the last five weeks, planning that we’re gonna be there…We did what we had to do. Got a seventh-place finish there. At the end of the day, we’re going for a championship.”

AJ Allmendinger, Austin Cindric, Noah Gragson and Daniel Hemric have made the Championship 4 round and will contend for the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship. Justin Allgaier, Brandon Jones, Harrison Burton and Justin Haley have been eliminated from title contention.

“That sucks, right?” Burton said. “Obviously, we put ourselves in this position and we needed to perform better throughout the year, to not be in this position. The last two weeks, I felt like [I] could’ve won the race. I don’t know. It’s a tough system to win. That’s what makes it fun for the fans, makes it fun for us. We just need to perform better. It’s that simple. We had a winning car today. Just so many things have to go right in racing to win and it makes it challenging to do it at the drop of a dime. We just had a couple things go wrong. Just a bummer deal that we didn’t get to show our speed at the end. Wish we could’ve won this thing. I felt like we were capable of it. I had times better than [Gragson] and really everybody. Just needed to show it.”

“We weren’t very good anyway,” Haley said. “It was inevitable. The brakes just went to the floor. I was either gonna wreck or spin out. That’ll happen. We’ll move on. I’m glad that AJ’s in the final four for Phoenix and go get [team owner] Matt Kaulig that championship trophy.”

To go along with the driver’s championship battle, the following teams will contend for the 2021 Xfinity Series owner’s title: Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 54 Toyota Supra piloted by John Hunter Nemechek, JR Motorsports’ No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro piloted by Gragson, Kaulig Racing’s No. 16 Chevrolet Camaro piloted by Allmendinger and Team Penske’s No. 22 Ford Mustang piloted by Cindric.

There were 13 lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured 13 cautions for 75 laps.

Results.

1. Noah Gragson, 153 laps led, Stage 2 winner

2. Austin Cindric, 64 laps led, Stage 1 winner

3. Daniel Hemric, 18 laps led

4. Sam Mayer

5. Justin Allgaier

6. Brandon Jones

7. AJ Allmendinger

8. Alex Labbe

9. Jeremy Clements

10. Riley Herbst

11. Josh Williams

12. Landon Cassill

13. Myatt Snider

14. Colin Garrett

15. Joe Graf Jr.

16. JJ Yeley

17. Jade Buford

18. Preston Pardus

19. Brett Moffitt

20. Harrison Burton, two laps led

21. Stephen Leicht

22. Jeffrey Earnhardt

23. Ryan Ellis

24. David Starr

25. Natalie Decker

26. Akinori Ogata

27. Ty Gibbs, 16 laps led

28. Josh Berry, one lap down

29. Matt Mills, two laps down

30. Spencer Boyd, three laps down

31. Ryan Sieg, four laps down

32. Ryan Vargas, eight laps down

33. Justin Haley – OUT, Brakes

34. Kyle Weatherman, 36 laps down

35. Bayley Currey, 45 laps down

36. Brandon Brown – OUT, Accident

37. Jeb Burton – OUT, Accident

38. Michael Annett – OUT, Accident

39. Mike Harmon – OUT, Overheating

40. Tommy Joe Martins – OUT, Rear gear

Bold indicates Playoff contenders.

Playoff standings.

1. Noah Gragson – Advanced

2. Austin Cindric – Advanced

3. Daniel Hemric – Advanced

4. AJ Allmendinger – Advanced

5. Justin Allgaier – Eliminated

6. Justin Haley – Eliminated

7. Brandon Jones – Eliminated

8. Harrison Burton – Eliminated

With the championship field set, the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series is set to conclude at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday, November 6, at 8:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, where a champion will be crowned.

October 31, 2021
Nemechek dominates for second Xfinity win at Texas

With a championship spot on the line for eight Playoff contenders, including runner-up Daniel Hemric, John Hunter Nemechek, a part-time Xfinity Series competitor, had other plans and stole the spotlight after rallying from a late pit road penalty to win the Andy’s Frozen Custard 335 at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday, October 16, while on two fresh tires.

Nemechek, who currently competes as a full-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship competitor for Kyle Busch Motorsports, led three times for a race-high 92 of 200 laps as he fended off Hemric by more than a second to deny Hemric and seven other Playoff contenders an early automatic spot to the Championship Round at Phoenix Raceway scheduled in early November.

The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Xfinity event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Xfinity race. With that, AJ Allmendinger, winner of last weekend’s Playoff event at the Charlotte Roval, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Austin Cindric.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Allmendinger got off to a strong start as he cleared his No. 16 Andy’s Frozen Custard Chevrolet Camaro through the field through the first turn and led the first lap ahead of Cindric and Daniel Hemric. Behind, Noah Gragson was in fourth ahead of Justin Haley and Brandon Jones.

The following lap, Hemric, who was running on the outside lane, slipped from second to fifth as Cindric, Gragson and Haley muscled their way to the front on the inside lane.

By the fifth lap, Allmendinger was leading by nearly a second over Cindric while the field continued to jostle for positions towards the front.

Through the first 13 laps, Allmendinger continued to lead the field. Then, Cindric emerged with the top spot in his No. 22 Snap-On Ford Mustang on Lap 14.

When the competition caution flew on Lap 20, Cindric remained out in front. During the competition caution, the front-runners led by Cindric elected to remain on the track.

When the race restarted on Lap 25, Cindric and Allmendinger engaged in a tight side-by-side battle through Turn 1 and ahead of the field until Cindric squeaked ahead entering the backstretch. Then, the caution returned when Landon Cassill stalled his car in Turn 4.

Under caution, Jeb Burton and rookie Sam Mayer, both of whom made contact on the track, pitted for repairs.

Six laps later, the race restarted under green. At the start, Cindric received a strong start on the inside lane after receiving a push from Hemric, which allowed him to clear Allmendinger entering Turn 1 as Hemric also moved up to second place.

On Lap 33, Gragson made the slightest on contact to the rear bumper of Allmendinger’s car, which sent Allmendinger up the track and down from fourth to sixth while Gragson and Brandon Jones moved up. By then, Cindric continued to lead by a decent margin over Hemric.

In the closing laps of the first stage, the third caution of the event flew when JJ Yeley stalled in Turn 4. Under caution, some like John Hunter Nemechek, Myatt Snider, Ryan Sieg, Daniel Hemric, Brandon Jones, rookie Sam Mayer, and Riley Herbst pitted while the rest led by Cindric remained on the track.

Following a one-lap shootout to conclude the first stage on Lap 45, Cindric, who retained the lead, claimed his 10th stage victory of the season. Gragson settled in second followed by Allmendinger, Justin Allgaier, Michael Annett, Haley, Harrison Burton, Jeremy Clements, Brett Moffitt and Brandon Brown.

Under the stage break, some led by Cindric pitted while the rest led by Hemric, who pitted under the previous caution, remained on the track.

The second stage started on Lap 51. At the start, Hemric pulled his No. 18 Craftsman Toyota Supra away from teammate Nemechek following a strong start on the inside lane while Mayer and Brandon Jones battled for third. In addition, Riley Herbst and Austin Hill overtook Myatt Snider through three lanes to move up to fifth and sixth.

Three laps later, the caution returned due to debris reported on the track. In the midst of the battles occurring towards the front and around the track, Hemric was out in front by a narrow margin over Nemechek.

When the race restarted on Lap 61, Hemric and Nemechek were locked in a heated, side-by-side lead for a full lap before Hemric cleared Nemechek entering Turn 2. By then, Nemechek slipped entering the backstretch, which allowed Sam Mayer to move into the runner-up spot.

Shortly after, the sixth caution flew when Ryan Sieg spun his No. 39 CMR Chevrolet Camaro in Turn 2.

When the race restarted on Lap 68, Hemric retained the lead on the inside lane while Mayer slipped after having brief issues getting going on the outside lane, which allowed Nemechek to reassume the runner-up spot.

Four laps later, Nemechek, making his second Xfinity Series start in Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 54 Romco Toyota Supra, peaked ahead of Hemric to lead for the first time, but Hemric fought back through the backstretch. Then in Turn 3, Hemric slipped up the track and nearly wrecked with Nemechek, but both Joe Gibbs Racing competitors kept their cars straight as they continued to battle for the lead through the frontstretch. By the time the leaders entered the backstretch, Nemechek cleared Hemric to retain the lead.

By Lap 75, Nemechek was leading by half a second over Hemric while Mayer, Jeb Burton and Riley Herbst were in the top 10. Haley was in sixth ahead of Michael Annett, Justin Allgaier, Brandon Jones and Cindric. Allmendinger, meanwhile, was in 11th ahead of Gragson and Harrison Burton.

With less than 10 laps remaining in the second stage, Nemechek extended his advantage to a full second over teammate Hemric while third-place Mayer trailed by more than six seconds. By then, Cindric slipped back to 12th behind Allmendinger while Gragson moved up to ninth. In addition, Haley overtook Herbst to move in the top five behind teammate Jeb Burton.

Having no competition lingering or closing towards him, Nemechek, who made his way through lapped traffic, came back around to claim the second stage victory on Lap 90, which marked his second stage victory of the season. Hemric settled in second, trailing by a second, followed by Mayer, Jeb Burton, Haley, Herbst, Annett, Allgaier, Gragson and Allmendinger.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Nemechek retained the lead ahead of Hemric, Mayer, Jeb Burton and Haley. During the pit stops, Allmendinger nearly left his pit stall without a left-front tire after his jackman dropped the jack early while the crew members were changing the tires on the left side. In addition, Allmendinger’s service was slow for repairs due to hitting a tire being held by Gragson’s crew member during Gragson’s service. Both returned to pit road to have the lug nuts on their respective machines secured. Soon after, Haley dropped to the rear of the field due to an uncontrolled tire violation.

With 103 laps remaining, the final stage started. At the start, Nemechek jumped ahead following a strong start while Mayer issued a challenge on Hemric for the runner-up spot. Behind, Jeb Burton and Allgaier battled for fourth in front of Cindric.

Just shy of the halfway mark scheduled on Lap 100, the eighth caution flew for a heavy multi-car wreck involving Dylan Lupton, Tanner Berryhill and Jade Buford, who slammed into Lupton after nearly having the incident dodged.

Down to the final 92 laps, the race restarted under green. At the start, Nemechek launched ahead following another strong start while Hemric and Mayer battled again side-by-side for second. Then through the backstretch, Allgaier made a bold three-wide move to take over the runner-up spot entering Turn 3. Hemric, however, fought back and took over second place through the frontstretch as the field behind fanned out to multiple lanes while jostling for positions.

At the front, Nemechek extended his advantage to more than a second over Hemric and Allgaier while Mayer settled in fourth ahead of Jeb Burton and Cindric. Brandon Jones was in eighth, Harrison Burton was in 10th and Allmendinger was mired in 12th behind Herbst while ahead of Gragson and Haley. Meanwhile, Kyle Weatherman was penalized for a restart violation.

With 80 laps remaining, Nemechek stabilized his advantage to nearly two seconds over teammate Hemric while Allgaier remained in third ahead of Cindric and Jeb Burton. Annett was in sixth ahead of Brandon Jones, Gragson, Brandon Brown and Allmendinger. By then, Mayer had fallen back to 12th behind Haley, Harrison Burton was mired in the top 15.

Ten laps later, Nemechek remained as the leader by less than two seconds over Hemric while third-place Allgaier trailed by more than three seconds. Cindric remained in fourth ahead of Annett, Jeb Burton and Gragson, who recovered from his pit road issue following the second stage but was now under surveillance by NASCAR for possibly leaking fluid on the track.

Another 10 laps later, Nemechek, who was making his way through lapped traffic, continued to lead by two seconds over teammate Hemric as Allgaier, Cindric and Annett remained in the top five. Gragson also remained in sixth ahead of Allmendinger, Brandon Jones, Haley and Jeb Burton. Harrison Burton, meanwhile, remained as the lowest-running Playoff contender in 12th.

Two laps later, the ninth caution of the event flew when CJ McLaughlin spun in Turn 4. Under caution, the leaders returned to pit road and Nemechek exited the pits with the lead ahead of Hemric, Allgaier, Cindric, Annett and Gragson. During the pit stops, Nemechek dropped out of the lead after being penalized for having too many crew members over the wall. In addition, Brandon Brown was penalized for speeding on pit road.

Down to the final 51 laps of the event, the race restarted as Hemric and Allgaier occupied the front row. At the start, Cindric shoved Hemric clear of Allgaier through the first turn as he challenged Allgaier for second place. Meanwhile, Hemric was clear out in front while Annett overtook teammate Gragson for fourth. Behind, Allmendinger battled Brandon Jones for sixth.

With 40 laps remaining, Hemric was out in front by more than a second over Allgaier while third-place Cindric trailed by more than two seconds. Gragson and Allmendinger were in fourth and fifth while Annett, Haley, Jeb Burton, Brandon Jones and Herbst were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Nemechek was in 12th before he made a bold move through the backstretch to overtake Jones, Harrison Burton and Herbst for eighth place.

Down to the final 30 laps of the event, Hemric stretched his advantage to more than two seconds over Allgaier while third-place Gragson trailed by nearly four seconds. Allmendinger and Cindric were in the top five ahead of Annett and Nemechek, who continued to methodically make his way to the front with a fast car. Haley, Harrison Burton and Brandon Jones were in the top 10.

Just then, the 10th caution flew when Brandon Brown, winner at Talladega Superspeedway earlier this month, wrecked in the backstretch and retired due to heavy damage on his No. 68 Brandonbilt Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro.

Under caution, the leaders pitted and Nemechek leap-frogged back to the lead following a two-tire stop ahead of Hemric, Allgaier, Gragson, Annett and Allmendinger. Meanwhile, Harrison Burton remained on the track to inherit the lead.

Down to the final 21 laps of the event, the race restarted. At the start, teammates Harrison Burton and Nemechek battled dead even for a full lap until Burton cleared Nemechek returning to the frontstretch.

The following lap, however, Nemechek returned to the lead for the first time since Lap 144 as Hemric joined the battle involving his two JGR teammates. Allgaier and Gragson were in the top five ahead of Allmendinger, Cindric, Haley, Annett and Brandon Jones.

With 15 laps remaining, Nemechek, racing on two fresh tires, was leading by less than seven-tenths of a second over teammate Hemric, who was trying to close in on four fresh tires, while third-place Harrison Burton, racing on four worn tires in his No. 20 Dex Imaging Toyota Supra, trailed by a second.

Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Nemechek stabilized his advantage to more than a second over teammate Hemric while Gragson was up in third, trailing in his No. 9 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro by less than three seconds. Behind, Allgaier and Allmendinger were up in fourth and fifth followed by Cindric and Harrison Burton, who continued to hold strong on worn tires. Haley, Annett and Jones were in the top 10.

With five laps remaining, Nemechek, who started to make his way through lapped traffic, had his advantage decreased to less than a second as Hemric tried to close in for his first win and a championship finale spot.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Nemechek remained as the leader by more than a second over teammate Hemric. With a clear race track in front of him and his teammate unable to narrow the deficit, Nemechek, whose late strategy for only two fresh tires paid off, was able to come back around and claim his first checkered flag in this year’s Xfinity season.

With the victory, Nemechek collected his second Xfinity Series career win in his 55th series start, fourth of the season, and since winning his first at Kansas Speedway in October 2018. The victory was also the 10th of the season for Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 54 Toyota Supra led by crew chief Chris Gayle. Nemechek’s win also comes two days after announcing that he will be remaining with Kyle Busch Motorsports for the 2022 Truck Series season.

This also marked the third time through the first four Playoff races where the events were won by non-Playoff Xfinity Series competitors.

“[Spotter] Stevie Reeves and Chris Gayle kept me calm [after the pit road penalty],” Nemechek said on NBC. “I think this year, I’ve grown a lot as a driver. I’ve been put in positions like that in the Truck Series as well. Man, I can’t say enough about this whole team. The No. 54 [car] has been fast every single week. My goal coming in was to win. I had to win to prove to myself that I can do this and it’s just like taking a step back to the Truck Series. I wanted to get back to Victory Lane. Thank you to all the fans that are out here. It’s an amazing accomplishment to get this one done, beating my teammate as well. We’re racing for an owner’s championship, so I’m back in the No. 54 [car] at Phoenix. Going for double championships there when we go.”

Behind Nemechek was Daniel Hemric, who led 54 laps but finished in second place for the 10th time in his career as he continues to pursue his first win across NASCAR’s top three national touring series. Ironically, Hemric also finished second to Nemechek during Nemechek’s first Xfinity career win in 2018.

“[Nemechek] just made a really good call to take two [tires] there,” Hemric, who was left dejected, said. “Obviously, clean air was so big. When we had clean air with our Craftsman Toyota Supra there at one point, it was really good. We were on the tighter side all day. Even earlier when [Nemechek] was better than us, he was just a little freer. I just couldn’t quite carry the same mid-quarter exit speed. [Crew chief] Dave Rogers made good adjustments all day, getting it better. Once we got that clean air, we were pretty well checked out. The caution came out and [Nemechek] just made a good call there to take two [tires]. It’s ‘Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.’ It just didn’t work out. I was just too tight there. It never got far into the run where our tires could make a difference. With 20 laps to go, you’re not going to overcome the gap I needed to make up. Too tight. I was whipping it for all I had. [I] About pounded the fence there three or four times trying to catch [Nemechek]. Great job to those guys, congrats to those guys. Really fast JGR Supras. Just not quite good enough.”

Gragson rallied from his early pit road issue and damage to finish in third place followed by teammate Allgaier and Cindric.

Meanwhile, Allmendinger ended up in sixth place followed by teammate Haley, Harrison Burton, Annett and Brandon Jones, with the remaining eight Xfinity Playoff contenders finishing in the top 10.

There were eight lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured 10 cautions for 54 laps.

Results.

1. John Hunter Nemechek, 92 laps led, Stage 2 winner

2. Daniel Hemric, 55 laps led

3. Noah Gragson

4. Justin Allgaier

5. Austin Cindric, 34 laps led

6. AJ Allmendinger, 13 laps led, Stage 1 winner

7. Justin Haley

8. Harrison Burton, six laps led

9. Michael Annett

10. Brandon Jones

11. Jeb Burton

12. Riley Herbst

13. Sam Mayer

14. Ryan Sieg

15. Kaz Grala

16. Brett Moffitt

17. Bayley Currey

18. Tommy Joe Martins

19. Josh Williams

20. Austin Hill, one lap down

21. Myatt Snider, one lap down

22. Ryan Vargas, one lap down

23. Jeffrey Earnhardt, one lap down

24. Alex Labbe, one lap down

25. Kyle Weatherman, one lap down

26. Joe Graf Jr., two laps down

27. Mason Massey, four laps down

28. Spencer Boyd, four laps down

29. Jeremy Clements, four laps down

30. Joey Gase, five laps down

31. Jesse Little, five laps down

32. Matt Mills, seven laps down

33. Brandon Brown – OUT, Accident

34. David Starr – OUT, Engine

35. CJ McLaughlin – OUT, Suspension

36. Landon Cassill – OUT, Electrical

37. Tanner Berryhill – OUT, Accident

38. Dylan Lupton – OUT, Accident

39. Jade Buford – OUT, Accident

40. JJ Yeley – OUT, Engine

Bold indicates Playoff contenders.

Playoff standings.

1. AJ Allmendinger, +30

2. Austin Cindric, +26

3. Justin Allgaier, +4

4. Noah Gragson, +2

5. Daniel Hemric, -2

6. Justin Haley, -6

7. Harrison Burton, -21

8. Brandon Jones, -32

The 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs will continue next weekend at Kansas Speedway on Saturday, October 23, with the race scheduled to start at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.

October 16, 2021
Larson rallies to win at the Charlotte Roval; Playoff’s Round of 8 set

Not even an early electrical issue could prevent Kyle Larson from continuing his quest for his first NASCAR Cup Series championship after the Elk Grove, California, native rallied to lead the final eight laps and win the Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course on Sunday, October 10.

The victory gave Larson an automatic pass to the Round of 8 in the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs as the penultimate round in the Playoffs was determined and left some big names out of the championship battle.

The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Cup event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Cup race. With that, Playoff contender Denny Hamlin started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Brad Keselowski.

Prior to the event, Garrett Smithley dropped to the rear of the field due to his car failing pre-race inspection twice.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Hamlin and Keselowski dueled for the lead through the first four turns until Hamlin was able to break free and clear Keselowski. Exiting the infield turns, Hamlin continued to lead through the backstretch oval turns, the backstretch chicane and the frontstretch chicane as he led the first lap.

Behind Hamlin, Joey Logano started to challenge teammate Kesleowski for second while Ryan Blaney and Christopher Bell battled for fourth ahead of Martin Truex Jr., Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson.

The following lap, Hamlin continued to lead by more than two seconds while Logano muscled his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang into the runner-up spot over Keselowski’s No. 2 Wurth Ford Mustang. While Blaney settled in fourth, Elliott moved his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE into fifth over Bell entering Turns 5 and 6.

By the fifth lap, Hamlin was leading by more than two seconds over Logano while Blaney, Keselowski and Elliott were in the top five. Bell was in sixth followed by Larson, William Byron, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch while Martin Truex Jr. and Alex Bowman were in 11th and 12th, all of whom were in the Playoffs. Behind, Aric Almirola spun in the backstretch chicane following contact from Chris Buescher but continued under green.

Three laps later, Hamlin stabilized his advantage to more than two seconds over Logano as Blaney, Keselowski and Elliott remained in the top five. By then, Truex, who started fifth but was struggling with early pace, slipped back to 13th behind Kurt Busch. Meanwhile, Austin Dillon was in 14th ahead of teammate Tyler Reddick and Erik Jones, Bubba Wallace was in 18th behind rookie Chase Briscoe, Matt DiBenedetto was in 20th in between Buescher and Michael McDowell, AJ Allmendinger was in 24th behind Corey LaJoie, Ryan Newman was in 25th ahead of Ross Chastain, Daniel Suarez and Cole Custer, and rookie Anthony Alfredo was in 31st ahead of Justin Haley.

A lap prior to the competition caution scheduled on Lap 10, the strategic game began as names like Harvick, Bell, Truex, Bell, Kyle Busch, Suarez, Corey LaJoie, Erik Jones, Briscoe, Buescher, Cole Custer, DiBenedetto and Almirola pitted under green. During the pit stops, Bell was penalized for speeding on pit road.

Just as Hamlin was returning to the frontstretch to complete the 10th lap, he directed his No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry to pit road along with Byron, Kurt Busch, Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain. Hamlin’s move allowed Logano to inherit the lead as the competition caution flew.

Under the competition caution, some led by Bubba Wallace pitted while others led by Logano remained on the track.

When the race resumed on Lap 13, teammates Logano and Blaney dueled for the lead through the first three turns until Blaney emerged as the new leader exiting the infield turns and entering the oval turns.

In the backstretch chicane, Keselowski spun off the front bumper of Bowman, which moved Larson and Hamlin to fourth and fifth behind Elliott while Bowman fell back to 11th behind Harvick. Keselowski, meanwhile, was in 38th.

By Lap 15, Blaney was leading by nearly eight-tenths of a second over teammate Logano while Elliott, Larson and Hamlin, the first competitor on fresh tires, were in the top five. Allmendinger was in sixth ahead of Kyle Busch, Byron, Kurt Busch and Harvick while Truex, Bowman and Bell were in 12th, 15th and 16th.

Five laps later, the second caution of the event flew when Ryan Newman, who spun a lap earlier in the infield turns, lost a right-rear tire, spun again and wrecked in Turn 14, narrowly avoiding Keselowski.

Under caution, some led by Larson and Hamlin pitted while the rest led by Blaney remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Hamlin was assessed a speeding penalty.

With three laps remaining in the second stage, the race restarted under green. At the start, Blaney jumped ahead on the outside lane before Allmendinger crossed over beneath Blaney and challenged him for the top spot through the first three turns. Shortly after, Allmendinger, winner of Saturday’s Xfinity event at the Roval, assumed command while Elliott challenged Blaney for the runner-up spot, which he succeeded exiting Turn 8.

The following lap, Allmendinger was ahead of nearly four-tenths of a second over Elliott while Blaney, Truex and Logano were in the top five. Behind, Matt DiBenedetto missed the backstretch chicane and was forced to come to a stop before continuing to serve his penalty. In addition, Ryan Preece got turned exiting the front stretch chicane following contact with Logano, but the race continued under green.

On the final lap of the first stage, Elliott issued a challenge on Allmendinger for the top spot exiting the infield turns. Behind, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. made contact with Kyle Busch exiting the backstretch chicane, but Busch prevailed ninth.

Following a brief fight against Allmendinger exiting the infield turns and returning to the oval turns, Elliott prevailed through the backstretch chicane. Elliott’s late perseverance and charge allowed him to come back around through the frontstretch chicane and win the first stage on Lap 25, which marked his fourth stage victory of the season. Allmendinger settled in second followed by Blaney, Truex, Logano, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Byron, McDowell and Harvick. By then, Larson was in 11th, Bowman was in 14th, Hamlin was mired in 21st and Bell was back in 26th.

Under the stage break, some led by Elliott pitted while the rest led by Allmendinger remained on the track.

The second stage started on Lap 29 as Allmendinger and Kyle Busch occupied the front row ahead of Byron, McDowell, Harvick and Larson. At the start, Kyle Busch muscled his No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry into the lead following a battle with Allmendinger from the second turn through Turn 5. Shortly after, Byron moved his No. 24 Valvoline Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE to second place. Behind, Harvick and Larson battled for fourth.

Through the first 30 laps of the event, Kyle Busch was leading by half a second over Byron while Allmendinger, Larson, Harvick, Austin Dillon, McDowell, Bowman, Custer and Suarez were in the top 10. Hamlin was in 13th, Keselowski and Bell were in 15th and 16th, Elliott was in 19th and Blaney was in 24th ahead of Truex and Logano.

Three laps later, the fourth caution of the event flew when Stenhouse made contact and turned Chase Briscoe in a cloud of smoke across the frontstretch.

Under caution, some led by Larson and Allmendinger pitted while the rest led by Kyle Busch remained on the track. During the pit stops, Larson’s crew popped the hood of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE open to change the battery. Teammate Bowman’s crew also popped the hood open on the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE to replace an alternator belt with plans on replacing the battery following the second stage.

When the race restarted on Lap 35, Kyle Busch launched ahead with the top spot entering the first turn while Harvick moved into second place ahead of Byron, Austin Dillon, McDowell and Suarez.

Two laps later, Kyle Busch was leading by one-and-a-half seconds over Harvick and Byron, both of whom were currently scored below the top-eight cutline to the Playoff’s Round of 8. Behind, Elliott was up in sixth behind McDowell, Hamlin was in eighth, teammate Bell was in 11th, Blaney was in 16th, Keselowski was in 20th behind Allmendinger, Logano was in 21st, Truex was in 23rd, Bowman was in 29th and Larson was in 30th.

Through the first 40 laps of the event, Kyle Busch continued to lead by a second over Harvick while Byron, Austin Dillon and Elliott were in the top five. Behind, LaJoie came to a full stop after missing the frontstretch chicane. In addition, Bell drove through the grass in Turns 5 and 6. Earlier, Wallace came to a stop after missing the frontstretch chicane.

By Lap 45, Custer spun entering the first turn, but the race proceeded under green. By then, Kyle Busch was out in front by more than a second over Harvick while Elliott was up in third ahead of Byron and Austin Dillon. By then, Larson was in 18th behind Logano, Keselowski and Truex while Bowman was in 22nd behind Bell.

A few laps later, Chastain, Wallace and LaJoie pitted under green. Not long after, Byron, Austin Dillon, Allmendinger, Hamlin, Almirola, Briscoe, Suarez, DiBenedetto, Bell, Buescher, Kurt Busch, Custer Tyler Reddick, McDowell and Alfredo pitted.

Back on course, Kyle Busch continued to lead ahead of Harvick, who had rival Elliott charging for the runner-up spot. Following a smooth lap around the 17-course turn, Kyle Busch was able to claim his sixth stage victory of the season with the second stage concluded on Lap 50. Elliott overtook Harvick to settle in second followed by Blaney, Logano, Larson, Keselowski, Truex, Bowman and Byron.

Under the stage break, Bowman pitted while pit road was closed to have a voltage regulator on his car changed, which resulted in a penalty for Bowman to start at the rear of the field. Once pit road opened for the field, a majority of the field led by Kyle Busch pitted while others led by Byron and Austin Dillon remained on the track. Meanwhile, Larson’s crew went to work to change the alternator belt while giving Larson four fresh tires and fuel to last to the end. As the field began to stack up for a restart, Larson’s crew was able to repair the mechanical issue and get the driver back out on the lead lap while behind the field.

With 56 laps remaining, the final stage commenced. At the start, Byron was able to retain the lead over Austin Dillon entering the first turn and the infield turns as the field fanned out and jostled for positions.

At the halfway mark between Laps 54 and 55, Byron was leading by a mere margin over Austin Dillon while Hamlin, Suarez and Allmendinger were in the top five. Just then, the caution returned when Elliott, winner of the previous two Cup Roval events, got hit by Harvick and sent into the wall in between Turns 7 and 8, which damaged the rear end and deck lid of Elliott’s car. As Elliott tried to continue through Turn 8, he made contact with Custer and spun below the apron. Despite the damage and a reported broken track bar, Elliott managed to continue as he was slated in 37th. The incident, however, reignited Harvick and Elliott’s rivalry following their confrontation at Bristol Motor Speedway in September, where Elliott cost Harvick an opportunity to win.

With 52 laps remaining, the field restarted under green. At the start, Byron retained the lead while Hamlin battled Austin Dillon for the runner-up spot ahead of Suarez. Shortly after, Allmendinger, who was in fifth, fell off the pace due to an engine issue entering the backstretch chicane, which forced the field to scatter to avoid Allmendinger’s Kaulig Racing machine as the Californian took his car to the garage.

Down to the final 50 laps of the event, Byron, coming into the Roval in a “must-win” situation, was leading by more than a second over Austin Dillon while Hamlin, Reddick and Suarez were in the top five. By then, Harvick was in 13th in front of Blaney, Kyle Busch was in 20th in between Keselowski and Truex, Larson was in 23rd behind Wallace, Bowman was in 26th and Elliott was mired in 36th, the last car on the lead lap. By then, Larson and Kyle Busch were barely above the top-eight cutline while Harvick, Elliott, Bell and Bowman were the four competitors scored below the cutline.

Ten laps later, Hamlin missed the backstretch chicane while trying to overtake Austin Dillon for the runner-up spot and served his penalty by coming to a full stop on the frontstretch chicane.

When the field returned to the front stretch, Byron remained in the lead by over Austin Dillon while Reddick, Kurt Busch and Buescher were in the top five. Hamlin fell back to sixth ahead of Suarez, DiBenedetto, Blaney and Chastain. Harvick was in 11th ahead of Erik Jones, Bell was in 14th in front of Logano, Larson moved up to 16th ahead of Keselowski and Kyle Busch was back in 18th ahead of teammate Truex and Bowman. Elliott, meanwhile, was mired in 34th and gaining no ground on the leaders.

A few laps later, Reddick, who was one of the fastest cars on the circuit, overtook teammate Austin Dillon for second as he trailed Byron by less than three seconds.

With 35 laps remaining, Larson, who was in the top 15, ignited green flag pit stops as he pitted followed by Bell. A lap later, Harvick and Logano pitted along with Kyle Busch, Truex, LaJoie and Briscoe. Another lap later, Byron surrendered the lead to pit along with Reddick, teammate Austin Dillon, Keselowski, Blaney, Suarez and Erik Jones.

Soon after, Kurt Busch, who led a lap, pitted his No. 1 Monster Energy Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, giving the lead to Buescher and Hamlin. By then, Wallace, Preece, Custer and Joey Hand also pitted.

With 30 laps remaining, Hamlin, who has yet to pit, was leading followed by DiBenedetto and Byron, who was trailing by more than 14 seconds.

Two laps later, Hamlin pitted and gave the lead back to Byron, who had Tyler Reddick closing in on him for the lead. By then, Elliott, whose rear bumper cover was loose, was 86 seconds behind and on the verge of being lapped by his Hendrick Motorsports’ teammate.

With 23 laps remaining, the caution flew when the rear bumper cover from Elliott’s car came off on the backstretch. Under caution, a majority of the field led by Byron pitted while the rest led by Hamlin and DiBenedetto remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Bowman was busted for speeding on pit road, which sent him to the rear of the field and negatively affect his hopes of advancing to the Round of 8.

Down to the final 20 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Hamlin retained the lead as the field fanned out and jostled for positions entering the first turn. Behind, Reddick moved up to second while Byron battled for third against DiBenedetto. Behind, Kurt Busch and Larson battled for fifth with the latter prevailing.

Through the backstretch chicane, Keselowski spun again and caused a stack up to the competitors running towards the back. With the race remaining under green, Byron ignited a battle on Reddick for second as Hamlin continued to lead by a narrow margin.

Just then, Byron missed the backstretch chicane after getting hit by Reddick while running in front of Reddick and Larson in second. Despite stopping on the backstretch, the penalty was costly for Byron, who needed to win to keep his title hopes alive.

Back at the front, Hamlin was leading by more than a second over Larson, Reddick, DiBenedetto and Kurt Busch. Logano was in seventh, Blaney was in ninth ahead of Kyle Busch, Byron was back in 12th ahead of Harvick and Truex. Bell was in 17th while Elliott was in 21st behind LaJoie. Bowman was mired back in 29th.

Shortly after, the eighth caution of the event flew when LaJoie smacked the Turn 2 wall following contact with Custer as Joey Hand also collided into the wall.

Under caution, some including Stenhouse, Alfredo, Preece, Keselowski, Almirola, Bowman, LaJoie and Hand pitted while the rest led by Hamlin remained on the track.

With 14 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Hamlin launched ahead with another strong start while Reddick battled Larson for second as the field fanned out entering the first turn. Shortly after, Larson issued a challenge for the lead over Hamlin. Through the infield turns, Larson squeaked ahead with the top spot, but Hamlin fought back through the backstretch chicane as Reddick also challenged Larson for the runner-up spot through Turn 13. Behind, Kurt Busch missed the frontstretch chicane after slipping.

Back at the front, Hamlin was leading by a narrow margin over Reddick, who prevailed over his late battle and contact with Larson as Buescher was in fourth. Behind Logano moved up to fifth over DiBenedetto while Harvick, Byron and Kyle Busch were in the top 10. Elliott, meanwhile, was in 17th while Keselowski was in 24th.

Then with 11 laps remaining, Kevin Harvick’s title hopes for 2021 evaporated after he locked up the front tires of his No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang and pounded against the barriers in Turn 1 while running in the top 15, thus damaging the front nose of his car. At the time of the incident, Elliott had caught Harvick, but Harvick’s incident involved no contact with Elliott.

“I just pushed [the car] in there too hard,” Harvick, who was released from the care center and deflected any comments over his incident with Elliott, said. “I got the tire locked up and I couldn’t stop it once I felt like I needed to go, to get a couple spots back that I’d lost and I got the left front locked up, but I couldn’t get it to turn. Sometime, real life teaches you good lessons.”

Under caution, some including Elliott, Truex and Keselowski pitted while the rest led by Hamlin remained on the track.

Down to the final eight laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Hamlin pulled ahead through the first turn, but Larson made his move and took over the lead exiting Turn 4. Behind, Reddick moved up to second while Byron battled Buescher for fourth.

Through the backstretch chicane, Byron muscled his way up to third, but he now had seven laps to return to the front and maintain his title hopes.

The following lap, Larson was ahead by nearly a second over runner-up Reddick and less than two seconds teammate Byron. Behind, Buescher maintained fourth while Hamlin was back in sixth behind teammate Kyle Busch. Meanwhile, Bell was in ninth, Bowman was in 14th, Elliott was in 20th and Keselowski was in 28th behind Truex.

With five laps remaining, Larson continued to lead by less than a second over Reddick, who had Byron trying to pressure him for the runner-up spot.

Down to the final two laps, Larson stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Reddick and Byron. Just then, Byron’s title hopes dwindled as he spun and damaged his No. 24 car in Turn 5. Despite the incident, Byron continued as the race remained under green. Earlier, Truex spun on the backstretch following contact with Joey Hand.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Larson remained in the lead by more than a second over Reddick. Behind, Buescher moved up to third followed by Kyle Busch and Hamlin. Byron, meanwhile, continued in 11th ahead of teammate Elliott.

Navigating his way through the 17-turn course smoothly, Larson, who was scored outside the cutline early, came back around and claimed the checkered flag for the first time on the Roval and for the seventh time in 2021.

With the victory, Larson became the third different winner at the Charlotte Roval as he achieved his third road course victory of 2021. In addition, he notched his 13th career win in the Cup Series and swept both Cup Charlotte events of the season.

“I wouldn’t have believed it, that’s for sure,” Larson said on NBC. “I don’t know. I didn’t even really feel that good early, started changing some things up. [The crew] were doing a good job, letting me know what to do inside the cockpit to get better. About that time, I noticed my battery was going low, so I was gonna stress out. I’m like, ‘Man, I’m not gonna get knocked out of the Playoffs like this.’ It wasn’t looking too good. Thankfully, everybody on our No. 5 car did a great job of staying calm. [Crew chief] Cliff [Daniels], as always, did a great job communicating with me with what was going on, getting the battery changed, alternator, whatever it takes to get our battery staying running. Just an awesome day for Hendrick Motorsports and glad to get another win. Looking forward to the next round a lot.”

Reddick settled in second place for the third time in his Cup career while Buescher, Kyle Busch and Hamlin finished in the top five. DiBenedetto, Logano, Bell, Blaney and Bowman ended up in the top 10 on the track.

After settling in 12th place and earning enough points to advance to the Round of 8, Elliott maintained his composure when expressing his side of the incident with Harvick.

“[I’m] Really proud of our team,” Elliott said. “Our NAPA team did a really, really good job of fixing this [car]. It is destroyed and I think we finished 12th. Our team has a lot of fight and I’m just super proud of that. As far as Kevin goes, just wanna wish them Merry Offseason and a happy Christmas. It’s all good. Just glad we’re moving on. Proud of our team. We’re just eyes forward and just excited to be moving on. That’s the big picture. That’s really all that matters to me and our group, so we’ll keep fighting and see where we end up.”

Photo by Ted Seminara for SpeedwayMedia.com.

Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Martin Truex Jr. and Brad Keselowski have transferred into the Round of 8 in the Playoffs. Kevin Harvick, William Byron, Christopher Bell and Alex Bowman have been eliminated from title contention.

“Glad to finally be able to finish one today,” Kyle Busch said. “Thanks to M&M’s, all the guys on the team. [They] Did a good job, brought a good car, got the most out of it. We won that [second] stage. That helped a little bit for the reset going into next week and gave us one more point. Overall, we got everything we could out of it today. I wished there was more, but it kind of seemed like once everybody got strung out, that was about it. There wasn’t a whole lot of comers and goers throughout the runs, so overall, that’s kind of where we stacked out.”

“We got the good out of [the car],” Logano said. “So much for keeping it clean. That was the plan. Just ended up having a rough day, but ended up finishing seventh or even a shot at a top-five or top three even towards the end of the race there. Proud of our Shell/Pennzoil team. I got into [Ryan] Preece and dumped him early in the race. That was just my mistake. Overall, hey, we’re moving on to the Round of 8. It’s a great accomplishment, we’re proud of that. On to the next three [races] and try to score a bunch of points, maybe, or get a win. That might be the easiest way doing it, but we’ll maximize our races and get every point we can.”

“I was behind two guys side-by-side getting into the bus stop, so we’re all checked up, just trying to not get run over when we get run over,” Truex said. “I don’t know what the hell [Hand] was thinking. Riding around the back all day and he drives through a Playoff car for no reason. Luckily, we were able to come through, make it, pulled out some stage points. Really, that was the difference. Good strategy, terrible race car. We sucked. It was awful…It was just absolute garbage. Glad we made it. That’s all I can say, I guess. Thanks to everybody for all the support this year. Go on to the next round, see what we can do. It’s all reset.”

“Just not a good day,” Keselowski said. “[I] Had some decent speed. I think we could’ve run about 10th all day. Had a couple of restarts where we just kind of got ran over. We fought back from that best we could with the Wurth Ford Mustang. Salvaged what we could with a 20th-place day, but nowhere near what we were hoping for. Enough to get on and go to Texas.”

“Ultimately, we just weren’t good enough,” Bell said. “Made a lot of mistakes out there. We just weren’t fast enough. Bummer, but we’ll have to move on and I think we’ve got opportunities to win races every time we go to the race tracks. Building a notebook between me and [crew chief] Adam [Stevens]. Really proud to be in this No. 20 group, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing. Got good race tracks coming up and we’re gonna go out there and give it our all, and end the season on a high note.”

“Unfortunate,” Bowman said. “It’s tough to make a car live long here without any brake fans and tire cooling. [Crew chief] Greg [Ives] and all the guys on this Ally No. 48 team did such a good job, I guess, letting me know what I needed to do, to get it to the finish line and what I could and couldn’t do with fans. We put a battery in it at one point and kind of went from there. I’m exhausted. I’m just mentally drained after the roller coaster that was, but good to get a top 10. Wished we had more. Congrats to [Larson]. The kid’s superhuman. Bummed we’re not in the next round.”

Following the event, Byron, who ended up in 11th, had a post-race conversation with Reddick to express his displeasure over being hit by Reddick late in the event while battling towards the front and caused Byron to miss the backstretch chicane.

“I just passed [Reddick] off of Turn 8 and I guess he had [Larson] inside of him,” Byron said. “Just lack of awareness, like hit me in the back bumper right as I was downshifting to first gear, so there was no way I was going to make the chicane. It’s the lightest the car can be right there, so I don’t get it. He and I and [Larson] racing for the win and [Hamlin] had old tires, and we were in a good position. Just stinks, but just not the round we wanted. Definitely tough finishes, tough results, but we had speed in two of the three races to definitely advance. Thanks to Valvoline and Chevrolet…It was definitely looking like it was gonna be a really good day, even after the caution, looking like we were gonna have a shot to win. I was just too bad at the end there. Made a mistake and could’ve finished third, but finished 11th. Just stinks.”

“Unfortunately pretty straightforward,” Reddick said. “Just made a mistake, one that meant a lot. Slight bump, maybe a press like this is all it really took to cause wheel-hop, for [Byron’s] car to go sliding off. I hate that, wasn’t in any way what I was trying to do. If I was trying to do that, I would’ve hit him a lot harder. I hate that it happened. I hate that it did what it did. He was racing for everything just like I was. Obviously, his stakes were higher, but just unfortunate.”

There were 15 lead changes for 10 different leaders. The race featured nine cautions for 18 laps. Thirty-one of the 39 starters finished on the lead lap.

Results.

1. Kyle Larson, eight laps led

2. Tyler Reddick

3. Chris Buescher, one lap led

4. Kyle Busch, 22 laps led, Stage 2 winner

5. Denny Hamlin, 25 laps led

6. Matt DiBenedetto

7. Joey Logano, four laps led

8. Christopher Bell

9. Ryan Blaney, 10 laps led

10. Alex Bowman

11. William Byron, 30 laps led

12. Chase Elliott, two laps led, Stage 1 winner

13. Daniel Suarez

14. Bubba Wallace

15. Austin Dillon

16. Michael McDowell

17. Erik Jones

18. Cole Custer

19. Ryan Preece

20. Brad Keselowski

21. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

22. Chase Briscoe

23. Ross Chastain

24. Aric Almirola

25. Kurt Busch, two laps led

26. Anthony Alfredo

27. Joey Hand

28. Josh Bilicki

29. Martin Truex Jr.

30. Quin Houff

31. Scott Heckert

32. Timmy Hill, one lap down

33. Kevin Harvick – OUT, Accident

34. Garrett Smithley, 13 laps down

35. Corey LaJoie – OUT, Accident

36. Cody Ware – OUT, Accident

37. Justin Haley – OUT, Engine

38. AJ Allmendinger – OUT, Engine, five laps led

39. Ryan Newman – OUT, Accident

Bold indicates Playoff contenders.

Playoff standings.

1. Kyle Larson – Advanced

2. Denny Hamlin – Advanced

3. Martin Truex Jr. – Advanced

4. Ryan Blaney – Advanced

5. Kyle Busch – Advanced

6. Chase Elliott – Advanced

7. Joey Logano – Advanced

8. Brad Keselowski – Advanced

9. Kevin Harvick – Eliminated

10. Christopher Bell – Eliminated

11. William Byron – Eliminated

12. Alex Bowman – Eliminated

The Round of 8 in the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs will commence next weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. The event will occur on Sunday, October 17, at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.

October 10, 2021
Allmendinger three-peats at the Charlotte Roval, Playoff’s Round of 8 set

A week after being eliminated in an early accident at Talladega Superspeedway, AJ Allmendinger raced his way into the Round of 8 in the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs after leading the final 21 laps and winning the Drive for the Cure 250 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course for a third consecutive season on Saturday, October 9.

The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Xfinity event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Xfinity race. With that, Playoff contender Austin Cindric started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Justin Allgaier.

Prior to the event, Michael Annett, who returned as driver of the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro for the first time since Richmond Raceway in September, started at the rear of the field due to replacing Josh Berry, who was originally on the entry list.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Cindric and Allgaier battled dead even for the lead entering the first turn while Jeb Burton and Noah Gragson made a four-wide move on Harrison Burton and Justin Haley to move up towards the top five.

From Turn 1, the six additional infield turns of the Roval and entering Turn 8, Cindric managed to remain with the lead ahead of Allgaier, Daniel Hemric and the field. Behind, Tommy Joe Martins spun entering Turn 8, but the race remained under green as the field scattered to avoid Martins. Shortly after, Kris Wright, who sustained a flat tire, spun entering the backstretch chicane.

When the field returned to the start/finish line, Cindric was able to lead the first lap ahead of Allgaier, Hemric, Brandon Jones and Gragson, who was being challenged by Haley.

As the field made their way out of the infield turns in Turn 8, the first caution flew when Sage Karam spun in Turn 6 following on-track contact. At the same time, Jade Buford, who was trying to dodge Karam, pinned his car against Brett Moffitt and the wall as the field behind was forced to scatter.

By the fifth lap, the race restarted on the frontstretch. At the start, Allgaier challenged Cindric side-by-side through the infield turns before Cindric prevailed entering Turn 7. While battling Hemric for the runner-up spot, Allgaier locked up his tires entering the backstretch chicane, but managed to keep his No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro straight and through the chicane clean, though he lost the spot to Hemric.

Three laps later, Allgaier slipped and made contact with the wall in Turn 2, damaging the right side of his Camaro. The incident forced Allgaier to pit under green and fall below the running order. At the same time, Cindric, who was leading, missed the backstretch chicane and served his penalty by stopping on the frontsretch chicane, thus surrendering the lead to Daniel Hemric.

Another three laps later, the second caution of the event flew due to Gray Gaulding stalling in the backstretch. Under caution, some like Michael Annett, Brandon Brown and Allgaier pitted while the rest led by Hemric remained on the track.

When the race restarted on Lap 14, Hemric retained the lead over Cindric entering the infield turns as the field fanned out to multiple lanes and jostled for positions. Through the infield turns, the oval turns and the chicanes in the backstretch and frontstretch, Hemric was able to remain ahead of Cindric, Gragson, AJ Allmendinger, Brandon Jones and Justin Haley while the field battled in a single-file line.

With five laps remaining in the first stage, Hemric was leading by nearly a second over Cindric while Allmendinger, Gragson and Haley were in the top five. Brandon Jones was in sixth ahead of Gibbs, Herbst, Harrison Burton and Jeb Burton. Meanwhile, Josh Williams spun in the backstretch chicane, but the race remained under green.

Just as the pit road closed with two laps remaining in the second stage, Cindric peeled his No. 22 Richmond/Menards Ford Mustang to pit road for service and in preparation for the second stage. Meanwhile, Hemric continued to lead by more than three seconds over runner-up Allmendinger and nearly second seconds over third-place Gragson. By then, Gibbs overtook Haley to move into fourth place.

On the final lap of the first stage, the third caution of the event flew due to possible fluid on the course and when No. 15 Toyota driven by Kris Wright, who was smoking through the backstretch, came to a stop in Turn 12 due to a broken track bar. The caution was enough for the first stage scheduled on Lap 20 to conclude under a cautious pace as Hemric claimed his eighth stage victory of the season. AJ Allmendinger settled in second followed by Gragson, rookie Ty Gibbs, Haley, Brandon Jones, Riley Herbst, Harrison Burton, Jeb Burton and Jeremy Clements.

Under the stage break, nearly the entire field led by Hemric pitted while few led by Cindric, who pitted prior to the first stage’s conclusion, remained on the track.

The second stage started on Lap 22 as Cindric and rookie Sam Mayer filled the front row. At the start, Cindric retained the lead over Mayer entering the first turn while the field fanned out to three and four lanes. Behind, Hemric muscled his pink No. 18 Poppy Bank Toyota Supra to third followed by Gragson, who made a four-wide move prior to the first turn to move up into the top five.

When the field returned to the start/finish line, Cindric was the leader of a four-car breakaway stretched out by less than a second. Meanwhile, Allmendinger was in fifth, trailing by three seconds, while Austin Hill, Haley, Preston Pardus, Brandon Jones and Gibbs were in the top 10.

By Lap 25, Cindric continued to lead by seven-tenths of a second over Mayer while Hemric, Gragson and Allmendinger remained in the top five. Meanwhile, Allgaier was mired in 29th in between Loris Hezemans and Stefan Parsons.

Three laps later, the fourth caution of the event flew when Josh Bilicki ran over the curbs through the backstretch chicane and destroyed the front spitter of his car, where the front of his car went airborne before he limped to pit road in a cloud of smoke and ended up in the garage. The debris and damage towards the backstretch was enough for the event to be red-flagged for approximately five minutes.

When the red flag was lifted following the cleanup and repairs to the chicane, names like Herbst pitted under caution while the rest led by Cindric remained on the track.

Down to the final laps of the second stage, the race restarted under green. At the start, Cindric powered ahead on the inside lane while Mayer struggled to launch on the outside lane. Through the infield turns and the circuit turns while the field jostled for positions, Cindric was leading ahead of Hemric, Haley, Gibbs and Mayer.

A lap later, Jeb Burton made contact with the wall entering Turn 2, but he proceeded under green and just outside of the top 15.

When the field surpassed the halfway mark on Lap 35, Cindric stabilized his advantage to eight-tenths of a second over Hemric. Meanwhile, Gibbs moved his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Supra up to third place while Haley and Mayer remained in the top five.

Just then, the caution returned due to debris reported on the frontstretch. Under caution, some led by Cindric pitted while the rest led by Hemric remained on the track.

With three laps remaining in the second stage, the race resumed under green. At the start, Hemric fended off Haley to maintain the lead entering and exiting the infield turns. He also continued to stabilize his lead through the backstretch chicane, the oval turns and the frontstretch chicane.

On the final lap of the second stage, Haley started to close in and challenge Hemric for the top spot. Despite getting close to Hemric’s rear bumper through the infield, Hemric continued to lead over Haley. Haley issued a final challenge on Hemric entering the frontstretch chicane, but the latter managed to hold him off to win the second stage on Lap 40 and record his ninth stage victory of the season. Haley settled in second followed by Myatt Snider, Gragson, Clements, Brandon Jones, Harrison Burton, Gibbs, Jeb Burton and Mayer. By then, Hemric and Allgaier secured their spots for the Round of 8 in the 2021 Xfinity Series Playoffs based on points.

Under the stage break, some led by Hemric pitted while the rest led by Gibbs and Mayer remained on the track.

With 25 laps remaining, the final stage commenced. At the start, Gibbs jumped ahead from the field following a strong start while the rest of the field jostled for positions through multiple lanes.

The following lap, Gibbs was out in front by one-and-a-half seconds over Mayer, who had Allmendinger and Cindric challenging behind. Herbst, who was now placed in a “must win” situation to keep his title hopes alive, was in fifth ahead of Sage Karam, Allgaier, Ty Dillon, Alex Labbe and Haley while Hemric was mired in 13th. Meanwhile, cousins Harrison and Jeb Burton, both of whom were battling one another for a Playoff spot, were in 16th and 18th.

Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Gibbs continued to lead by eight-tenths of a second over Allmendinger, who was methodically closing in for the lead. Behind, Cindric moved up to third while Mayer fell back to fourth. Karam was in fifth ahead of Haley, Allgaier, Hemric, Herbst and Labbe. By then, cousins Harrison and Jeb Burton were in 15th and 16th.

Just then, Gibbs, who was battling brake issues, missed the backstretch chicane and was forced to come to a complete stop on the backstretch before proceeding. Gibbs’ misfortune allowed Allmendinger to take the lead as Cindric and Mayer moved up to second and third, thus dropping Gibbs to fourth ahead of Karam.

Five laps later, Allmendinger was leading by nearly four seconds over Cindric while Mayer, Haley and Hemric were in the top five. Karam was in sixth ahead of Gibbs while Allgaier and Herbst battled for eighth in front of Labbe. Harrison Burton was mired in 15th ahead of teammate Brandon Jones, Jeb Burton, Clements and Gragson while Michael Annett was in 21st.

Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Allmendinger stabilized his advantage to more than four seconds over Cindric and Mayer. Haley, who was in fourth, trailed by nearly nine seconds while Hemric, who was mired in fifth, trailed by more than 13 seconds.

Not long after, Cindric got loose approaching Turn 7, which allowed Mayer to briefly move into second before Cindric fought back through the oval turns. While both Cindric and Mayer battled, Allmendinger extended his advantage to more than six seconds. In addition, Haley started to close in on Cindric and Mayer for the runner-up spot.

With five laps remaining, Allmendinger remained as the leader by nearly nine seconds over Cindric, who was under fire by Mayer, Haley, Hemric and Gibbs for the runner-up spot. By then, Herbst took his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang to the garage due to a rear end issue. The late misfortune ended Herbst’s hopes of advancing to the Round of 8.

A lap later, the caution flew due to an incident involving Tommy Joe Martins in Turn 14. The caution all but evaporated Allmendinger’s advantage of nearly nine seconds.

Under caution, names like Hemric, Labbe, Allgaier, Gragson, Snider, Michael Annett and Ryan Sieg pitted while the rest led by Allmendinger remained on the track.

With two laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Allmendinger launched ahead on the inside lane while Cindric spun the tires on the outside lane. Through the infield turns and the chicanes while the field battled for late positions, Allmendinger maintained the lead ahead of Mayer while Gibbs and Cindric battled for third.

When the final lap started, Allmendinger continued to lead by nearly two seconds over Gibbs and Mayer, both of whom battled for second ahead of Cindric and Hemric. Then entering Turn 5, Mayer sent Gibbs in a spin, dropping Gibbs back to sixth as Cindric, Mayer, Haley and Hemric moved up the leaderboard. Soon after, Mayer missed the backstretch chicane and came to a stop before proceeding. By then, Mayer dropped out of the top 10.

In the midst of the late spins and battles, Allmendinger was long gone as he made his way through the frontstretch chicane and cruised his No. 16 Hyperice Chevrolet Camaro across the finish line for the win.

With the victory, Allmendinger captured his sixth road course win, which was the most all-time for an Xfinity competitor. In addition, he captured his fifth victory of the season and his 10th triumph in the Xfinity circuit as he took another step closer in capturing his first NASCAR national touring series championship.

“I knew [the final caution] was coming out,” Allmendinger said on NBC. “It wasn’t gonna go simple like that. That was a fight today. We had to be kind of on defense early, worried about the points. This place was tough to pass. The track was really slick to begin with, obviously with all the rain. [I] Can’t thank all the men and women at Kaulig Racing enough, [team owner] Matt Kaulig, [team president] Chris Rice. This Hyperice Chevy, once it got into the lead, it was stupid fast. The big picture’s the championship, but getting another win, three in a row here at the Roval, that means the world to me…What an awesome day.”

As the cars were approaching the finish line, a multi-car melee struck that involved Gibbs, Josh Williams, Brandon Brown and Ty Dillon.

Cindric, who secured his spot for the Playoffs based on points a week ago at Talladega Superspeedway, finished in second place after leading a race-high 22 laps while Hemric, who won both stages and led 17 laps, made his way up to third place on fresh tires.

“Pretty solid round,” Cindric said. “I feel like today’s a bit of a missed opportunity. I feel like I was able to drive as hard as I wanted to today. I made some mistakes because of it, but learned some things. [I] Thought we were gonna be a bit better today, but it should set us up for Texas. I know we put in a fast lap early. Finishing second and good in points. I had fun today.”

Haley, Brandon Jones and Gragson secured their spots for the Round of 8 after finishing fourth, fifth and sixth while Preston Pardus, Snider, Allgaier and Mayer ended up in the top 10 on the track.

“I think me and AJ probably had the best cars there,” Haley said. “His points gap coming into today just allowed him to short-pit and get the lead, and I had to go through traffic through that second stage. I think we had a pretty good LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet. A second-place car. I don’t know. We never really got towards AJ, but awesome day. Locked into the Round of 8.”

“Pretty much, all the road courses this year haven’t been too bad to us,” Jones said. “Lot of time, lot of effort into trying to make something of this. There’s been a lot of additions at road courses, so it’s a big part of our schedule now. Today paid off for us, I think, having a lot of preparation to come into this weekend and have a run like we did. [I] Did exactly what I really needed to do. I know when when we step into a race track, we wanna win. That’s our main goal, but we sat down as a team and said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna make it to the next round.’ It’s all about being smart…All that went perfect.”

“[Today] was alright,” Gragson said. “I didn’t really feel like we had the speed we did here in the rain or the dry in the past. [I] Salvaged a fourth- or fifth-place car. To come home sixth from starting at the back there at the end, we’re just focused on points the whole time. Pretty much, just race the race at 80 percent, 85 percent. There’s a lot at risk, but there’s a lot of reward here at this race track for speed and it’s a big penalty when you go off…Came back, did our job, collected points in all three stages and came home a sixth-place finish. We’ll keep on pushing. On to the next round in the Playoffs.”

In the midst of the late chaos and battles, Harrison Burton coasted his No. 20 Dex Imaging Toyota Supra across the finish line in 15th and secured the eighth and final transfer spot to the Round of 8 over his cousin Jeb Burton, who had his title hopes come to an end.

“Yeah, it was a boring race for us ’cause it was just pins and needles,” Harrison Burton said. “We had two decent first stages where we ran about seventh or eighth or wherever. Then we come into this race, the last stage, and it’s like, ‘OK, just stay wherever [Jeb] is.’ It wasn’t the most fun. I wasn’t able to be aggressive, be like myself, just kind of cruising, so that was boring. Glad it worked out. Now we can go and we’ll go win and get into Phoenix. That’s all that matters is getting to Phoenix with a chance. These next three races, [we] might have to win one. These are all great tracks for us, so I’m excited to go try.”

“I made a couple of mistakes,” Jeb Burton said. “I got in the wall and I was side by side with Harrison. Luckily, it didn’t end our day, but I just need some more laps here. I hadn’t raced here before. I was getting better and better. [I] Appreciate Kaulig [Racing] and everything they’re doing for me. Congrats to AJ. He helped me a lot. Just needed a little bit more.”

AJ Allmendinger, Austin Cindric, Daniel Hemric, Justin Allgaier, Noah Gragson, Justin Haley, Brandon Jones and Harrison Burton have transferred into the Round of 8 in the Playoffs. Jeb Burton, Myatt Snider, Riley Herbst and Jeremy Clements have been eliminated from title contention.

“I made a rookie mistake there,” Snider said. “I pulled out too soon on the restart, knowing there were a couple of slow cars in front of me. I was just trying to get all I could and misunderstood the rule that I follow. That’s on me. [Crew chief] Andy Street made a great call to get us tires there at the end, help us get back up there to eighth and get ourselves a fight for it, but finished eighth and we’re still 15 points out, we’re gonna need a lot more than that. Really proud of everybody on the TaxSlayer crew for slaying it. That’s what I gotta learn for next year’s ride. It’s just to not make those rookie mistakes…Something to build on.”

“We just got in a wreck the first [Playoff] race we couldn’t avoid, broke a rocker arm at Talladega, lost a cylinder and rode around, and battled hard here today with our pink All South Electric Chevrolet,” Clements said. “We weren’t as fast as Xfinity internet this round, but we’re gonna keep digging deep and give it all we got. We got four more races to learn and try to get better for next year. I’m proud of our effort. This is how we should’ve ran the last two races, so it is what it is. We were dealt the cards we had and we were in a big whole, but just proud of our group. I’m proud we made the Playoffs and we’re gonna keep trying to get faster.”

There were six lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 13 laps.

Results.

1. AJ Allmendinger, 21 laps led

2. Austin Cindric, 22 laps led

3. Daniel Hemric, 17 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

4. Justin Haley

5. Brandon Jones

6. Noah Gragson, one lap led

7. Preston Pardus

8. Myatt Snider

9. Justin Allgaier

10. Sam Mayer

11. Josh Williams

12. Jeremy Clements

13. Jeb Burton

14. Alex Labbe

15. Harrison Burton

16. Jade Buford

17. Landon Cassill

18. Austin Hill

19. JJ Yeley

20. Jeffrey Earnhardt

21. Ty Gibbs, seven laps led

22. Brandon Brown

23. Kyle Weatherman

24. Stefan Parsons

25. Sage Karam

26. Ty Dillon

27. Michael Annett

28. Joe Graf Jr., one lap down

29. Will Rodgers, one lap down

30. Matt Mills, one lap down

31. Spencer Boyd, one lap down

32. Ryan Sieg, two laps down

33. Tommy Joe Martins – OUT, Accident

34. Riley Herbst – OUT, Suspension

35. Loris Hezemans – OUT, Electrical

36. Ryan Vargas – OUT, Axle

37. Brett Moffitt – OUT, Accident

38. Josh Bilicki – OUT, Accident

39. Kris Wright – OUT, Suspension

40. Gray Gaulding – OUT, Rear gear

Bold indicates Playoff contenders.

Playoff standings.

1. AJ Allmendinger – Advanced

2. Austin Cindric – Advanced

3. Justin Allgaier – Advanced

4. Noah Gragson – Advanced

5. Daniel Hemric – Advanced

6. Justin Haley – Advanced

7. Harrison Burton – Advanced

8. Brandon Jones – Advanced

9. Jeb Burton – Eliminated

10. Myatt Snider – Eliminated

11. Riley Herbst – Eliminated

12. Jeremy Clements – Eliminated

The Round of 8 in the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs will commence next weekend at Texas Motor Speedway for a 300-mile feature. The event will occur on Saturday, October 16, at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.

October 9, 2021
Brandon Brown achieves first NASCAR Xfinity career win at Talladega
An ultimate underdog story was made on a dark afternoon in Talladega, Alabama, after Brandon Brown dodged two late multi-car wrecks and emerged out in front of the field to win the weather-shortened Sparks 300 at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday, October 2, and score his first NASCAR Xfinity Series career win.

Brown, who achieved his first Xfinity win in his 114th career start, had managed to remain as the leader ahead of Playoff contenders Brandon Jones and Justin Allgaier when the caution flew for a late multi-car wreck involving Harrison Burton. During the cleanup session, the track was beginning to darken and NASCAR eventually made the call for the race to be deemed official six laps shy of the scheduled distance and under caution, thus handing a first career win for the Woodbridge, Virginia, native and his family operated team.

The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Xfinity event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Xfinity race. With that, Playoff contender Justin Allgaier started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Austin Cindric.

Prior to the event, Justin Haley, winner of both Xfinity events at Talladega in 2020, started at the rear of the field due to illegally applied decals that were found on the rear roof of his car during pre-race inspection. In addition, he was forced to serve a pass-through penalty at the start of the race.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Allgaier jumped ahead with an early advantage through the first turn until Cindric fought back on the inside lane entering the backstretch.

With the field fanning out to double lanes and running in a tight pack for a full turn, Cindric, who moved in front of Allgaier through the backstretch, led the first lap by a nose over Allgaier. Cindric was the lead car on the inside lane followed by Josh Berry while Allgaier led the outside lane, where he received drafting help from teammate Noah Gragson.

Two laps later, Berry, winner of last weekend’s Xfinity event at Las Vegas, gained a draft on Cindric through the frontstretch and pulled a slingshot move to lead a lap for himself.

Through the first six laps of the event, Cindric, who reassumed the lead two laps earlier, was leading followed by Berry, Allgaier, AJ Allmendinger and Gragson while Brandon Jones, Daniel Hemric, Harrison Burton, Myatt Snider and John Hunter Nemechek were in the top 10 as Jeb Burton, winner of the spring Talladega event, was in 11th.

By Lap 10, Allmendinger was leading ahead of Brandon Jones, Cindric and a steaming pack of cars competing in close quarters and double lanes. By then, three different competitors (Allmendinger, Cindric and Berry) had led a lap, comprising of six lead changes.

Five laps later and as the field fanned out to three and four lanes, Brandon Jones, who took over the lead on Lap 13, was leading followed by his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Harrison Burton, Nemechek and Hemric while Allmendinger settled in fifth ahead of teammate Jeb Burton and Myatt Snider.

A lap later, Harrison Burton took the lead after Jones got stalled by Justin Haley in Turn 1, who was trying to remain on the lead lap following his opening lap penalty. Behind, Allgaier and Jeb Burton made contact and nearly wrecked in the middle of the field.

The following lap, Jones shoved Haley out of the draft with the pack, placing him a lap behind the leaders as Harrison Burton continued to lead ahead of the field.

Then through the frontstretch, Harrison Burton was placed in a three-wide battle with teammates Jones and Nemechek before he got shuffled out, which allowed Nemechek to take the lead on Lap 20. By then, the field started to get dicey with multiple competitors fanning out as high as four lanes and trying to formulate a run to the front.

Then on the final lap of the first stage, the caution flew when rookie Sam Mayer got turned out of a four-wide battle with Allmendinger, Brandon Brown and Brett Moffitt before he made hard contact into the outside wall in Turn 3, collecting Allmendinger as both competitors were taken out with demolished race cars.

“I just got hung up there and once you get back [to the field] with the people that you’re racing, there’s a chance of [a wreck] happening,” Allmendinger, who was released from the infield care center, said. “At the end of the day, it’s disappointing, but that’s why you work hard in the regular season, to gain all those bonus points. [It] Doesn’t completely put you in a hole. We’re going to a pretty good race track for us [next weekend]…It is what it is.”

The wreck involving Allmendinger and Mayer ended the first stage scheduled on Lap 25 under caution as Nemechek, who zigged and zagged through the inside and outside lanes to maintain the lead, claimed the stage victory. Jeb Burton settled in second followed by Riley Herbst, Cindric, Harrison Burton, Snider, Allgaier, Brandon Jones, Blaine Perkins and Daniel Hemric. By then, six different competitors led at least one lap.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Herbst, who opted for a two-tire service, left his pit stall with the lead followed by Nemechek, Snider, Cindric and Harrison Burton. Jeb Burton, who was second, got boxed behind Tommy Joe Martins while exiting his stall and came out in 10th.

Not long after, the race was red-flagged for five minutes due to repairs being made on the SAFER barriers in Turn 3 where Mayer and Allmendinger wrecked.

When the red flag lifted and the second stage started on Lap 30, Herbst gained a brief advantage through the first turn until Nemechek fought back on the inside lane. With the field running in close quarters and double lanes through the backstretch and entering the frontstretch, Herbst managed to maintain a brief advantage ahead of Nemechek and Cindric.

By Lap 35, Herbst was leading ahead of Cindric, Hemric, Blaine Perkins and Gragson while Nemechek, Brandon Brown, Brett Moffitt, Jeb Burton and Snider were in the top 10. By then, Haley, who received the free pass under the first stage, was up in 12th behind Allgaier.

Five laps later and with the field running in a long, single file line, Herbst continued to lead followed by Cindric, Hemric, Perkins, Brown and Jeb Burton.

In the closing laps of the second stage, the field started to fan out to multiple lanes and charge to the front as Herbst continued to lead by a narrow margin.

Then on the final lap of the second stage, Blaine Perkins challenged Herbst for the top spot through the backstretch. Despite the field gaining a run on him through the frontstretch, Perkins managed to claim the stage 2 victory on Lap 50. Moffitt settled in second followed by Nemechek, Herbst, Allgaier, Jeb Burton, Harrison Burton, Haley, Cindric and Gragson. By then, the race featured nine different leaders for 14 lead changes.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Herbst reassumed the lead followed by Haley. During the pit stops, names like Joe Graf Jr., Bayley Currey, Ryan Vargas and Mason Massey remained on the track, though all pitted prior to the restart.

With 59 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Herbst and Haley started on the front row. At the start, Herbst jumped ahead of Haley followed by Allgaier before Allgaier moved to the lead the following lap. With Allgaier leading, he was followed by Cindric and Harrison Burton.

The following lap, Cindric moved to the front followed by Herbst, Allgaier, Harrison Burton and the field.

Down to the final 50 laps of the event, Allgaier was leading ahead of Moffitt, Gragson, Jeb Burton and Berry while Hemric, Haley, Perkins, Cindric and Herbst were in the top 10. Harrison Burton was in 11th while teammate John Hunter Nemechek was in 13th.

A lap later, Moffitt moved into the lead. Another two laps later, Jeb Burton led a lap for himself before Cindric re-took the top spot.

Shortly after, Moffitt joined Berry, Allgaier and Gragson in pitting under green. A few laps later, names like Cindric, Harrison Burton, Herbst, Hemric and Nemechek pitted under green. While most of the Toyota competitors pitted, Brandon Jones failed to dive on to pit road with his teammates.

Soon after, names like Jeb Burton, Haley, Jones, Jade Buford, Snider, Jordan Anderson and others pitted under green.

With 40 laps remaining, names like Mason Massey, Kyle Weatherman, CJ McLaughlin and Jason White had yet to pit while the first 10 competitors, running in a single file line on fresh tires and full fuel led by Herbst, were trailing by 20 seconds.

Just then, the caution flew when Bayley Currey stalled his car on pit road. Under caution, names like Massey, Weatherman, McLaughlin, White and Moffitt pitted while the rest led by Herbst and Cindric remained on the track. Playoff contender Jeremy Clements also pitted due to experiencing cylinder issues in his car.

With 34 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Herbst received a push from Allgaier to jump ahead with the lead and in front of Cindric. Then through the backstretch, Herbst and Cindric moved up to the outside lane as Gragson challenged for the lead on the inside lane.

As Gragson took the lead, Herbst challenged on the outside lane followed by Cindric and Allgaier while Josh Berry closed in on teammate Gragson’s rear bumper.

Down to the final 30 laps of the event and with the field fanning out to multiple lanes in a pack, Gragson was leading ahead of teammate Berry, Moffitt, Jeb Burton, Snider, Brandon Jones, Cindric, Jordan Anderson, Haley and Herbst. Allgaier was in 12th, Henric was in 14th and Harrison Burton was in 17th in front of teammate John Hunter Nemechek.

Five laps later, Moffitt and Gragson challenged in a side-by-side battle for the lead. Then, the caution flew for a vicious crash that started when Jeb Burton and Moffitt made contact in Turn 3, which sent Moffitt turning into Gragson as Gragson pounded into the outside wall and was hit by Myatt Snider. As more cars wrecked behind, Gragson received another vicious hit by McLaughlin and Caesar Bacarella before his battered No. 9 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro came to a rest below the apron. Among those involved included Jeb Burton, Moffitt, Berry, Brandon Jones, Bacarella, Vargas, Garrett Smithley, McLaughlin, Santino Ferrucci, Ryan Sieg and Mason Massey. The wreck was enough to pause the race for more than 15 minutes as all competitors, including Gragson, were okay.

Following an extensive cleanup period and with the skies darkening as rain was being reported near the superspeedway, the race restarted with 20 laps remaining as Jeb Burton and Brandon Jones occupied the front row.

At the start, Brandon Jones jumped to the lead followed by Allgaier, Hemric and Haley while Jeb Burton was falling behind on the outside lane.

The following lap, Jeffrey Earnhardt made contact with the outside wall near the pit entrance and spun, but he was able to nurse his car to pit road as the race remained running in green.

Back on the track, Jones continued to lead followed by Allgaier, Hemric, Haley, Brown, Jade Buford, Jeb Burton, Harrison Burton, Jordan Anderson and Austin Cindric.

With 15 laps remaining, Brandon Jones was leading a long single-file line ahead of Allgaier, Hemric, Haley and Brown as Jeb Burton led a charge on the outside lane. Burton’s momentum, though, stalled was the leaders moved up the outside lane.

A few laps later, the field fanned out to multiple lanes and in a tight pack as Brandon Brown and Jordan Anderson challenged for the lead alongside Brandon Jones.

Then with 11 laps remaining, the caution returned when Harrison Burton got sideways entering Turn 3 and turned back across the track and into the Turn 3 outside wall, where he collected Nemechek, Moffitt, Herbst, Josh Williams, Alex Labbe, Jason White and Jeb Burton, who bumper cover got clipped off. At the time of caution, NASCAR ruled that Brown was the leader ahead of Brandon Jones and Allgaier.

Following the cleanup, the field continued to run behind the pace car and under caution as darkness began to overshadow the track. With darkness looming and beginning to cover the superspeedway, NASCAR then decided to declare the race official six laps shy of the finish. The decision handed the victory to Brandon Brown, who crossed the finish line under cautious pace with the lead.

With his victory, Brown became the 169th different competitor to win in the Xfinity Series. He also became the fifth first-time Xfinity winner of 2021 and the sixth to do so at Talladega.

While celebrating on the frontstretch amid a chorus of cheers from the crowd, Brown dedicated the win to his family operated organization, Brandonbilt Motorsports.

“Oh my God!” Brown, who celebrated on the frontstretch, exclaimed. “This is a dream come true! Wow, Talladega, winner in NASCAR! Oh my God! Dad, we did it! Let’s go! This is everything we hoped and dreamed for. Everything I’ve wanted to do was to take the trophy home for mom and dad. Oh my God. Thank you so much. Thank you to all our partners. It’s just such an unbelievable moment. We saw our moment and we seized it. I’m just so proud of Brandonbilt Motorsports, so proud of everybody on our team, here and at home. Everybody that’s worked on our team since the beginning. We did it, we did it, we did it.”

Brandon Jones was the highest-finishing Playoff competitor in second place while Justin Allgaier ended up in third place.

“First off, let me just say how grateful I am to have Menards on our Supra,” Jones said. “It’s a big day for us. You look at the whole day and all the scenarios that happened. I think that’s probably the best option without us winning, to have [Brown] win. Good for him. Also, I think that it obviously doesn’t affect the point too bad for us. [I] Had some solid moments there. Don’t know how we missed the Big One there in [Turns] 3 and 4 early on in the day. Lot of positives, but we’re close. It’s tough to swallow.”

“It’s disappointing to get that close and not being able to race for [the win],” Allgaier said. “Congrats to Brandon. Those guys worked really, really hard. It’s cool to see a first-time winner. Obviously, they did what they needed to do there at the end. Really proud of my team. The BRANDT Professional Agricultural Camaro was really good. We did what we needed to do. We come out of here with a good points gap. We didn’t lock our way into the next round, but we can go to the [Charlotte] Roval next week, have some fun and hopefully, go for it. “

Daniel Hemric ended up in fourth for his 11th top-five result of the season while Jordan Anderson emerged with his first top-five result in the Xfinity Series by finishing fifth.

Haley, teammate Jeb Burton, Cindric, Berry and Joe Graf Jr. completed the top 10 on the track.

Cindric’s eighth-place result was enough for him to clinch his spot in the Playoff’s Round of 8 based on points as he continues his pursuit to defend his series title. Meanwhile, names like Jeb Burton, Myatt Snider, Riley Herbst and Jeremy Clements are below the top-eight cutline entering next weekend’s Playoff elimination event at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course.

There were 33 lead changes for 17 different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 21 laps.

Results.

1. Brandon Brown, eight laps led

2. Brandon Jones, 12 laps led

3. Justin Allgaier, seven laps led

4. Daniel Hemric

5. Jordan Anderson

6. Justin Haley

7. Jeb Burton, seven laps led

8. Austin Cindric, 10 laps led

9. Josh Berry, three laps led

10. Joe Graf Jr., one lap led

11. Ryan Sieg

12. Jade Buford

13. Blaine Perkins, two laps led, Stage 2 winner

14. Josh Williams

15. Joey Gase

16. JJ Yeley

17. Santino Ferrucci

18. Tommy Joe Martins

19. Garrett Smithley

20. Kyle Weatherman

21. Alex Labbe

22. John Hunter Nemechek, eight laps led, Stage 1 winner

23. Matt Mills, one lap down

24. Jeremy Clements, three laps down

25. Harrison Burton -OUT, Accident, two laps led

26. Brett Moffitt – OUT, Accident, three laps led

27. Riley Herbst – OUT, Accident, 26 laps led

28. Jason White – OUT, Accident

29. Jeffrey Earnhardt – OUT, Accident

30. Noah Gragson – OUT, Accident, eight laps led

31. Myatt Snider – OUT, Accident

32. Caesar Bacarella – OUT, Accident

33. Ryan Vargas – OUT, Accident

34. CJ McLaaughlin – OUT, Accident

35. Mason Massey – OUT, Accident, four laps led

36. Bayley Currey – OUT, Drifeshaft, two laps led

37. Landon Cassill – OUT, Engine

38. Sam Mayer – OUT, Accident

39. AJ Allmendinger – OUT, Accident, three laps led

40. David Starr – OUT, Engine

Bold indicates Playoff contenders.

Playoff standings.
1. Austin Cindric – Advanced
2. Justin Allgaier, +55
3. Daniel Hemric, +41
4. AJ Allmendinger, +33
5. Justin Haley, +24
6. Brandon Jones, +21
7. Noah Gragson, +18
8. Harrison Burton, +8
9. Jeb Burton, -8
10. Myatt Snider, -24
11. Riley Herbst, -32
12. Jeremy Clements, -48
The 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs will continue next weekend at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course venue, where the Round of 8 field will also be determined. The event is scheduled to occur on Saturday, October 9, at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.
October 2, 2021
Berry wins Xfinity Playoff opener at Las Vegas

On a night where the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs commenced, a non-title contender stole the show as Josh Berry outran teammate Justin Allgaier to win the Alsco Uniforms 302 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday, September 25.

The victory was Berry’s second of his Xfinity Series career and in his 20th start of this season. The victory also occurred as Berry filled in the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro as a relief competitor for veteran Michael Annett.

The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Xfinity event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Xfinity race. With that, Austin Cindric and AJ Allmendinger, both of whom wrecked and battled for the win last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, started on the front row.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Cindric had Justin Haley pushing him on the outside lane while Allmendinger had Justin Allgaier pushing him on the inside lane through Turn 1. Through Turns 1 and 2, Cindric and Allmendinger battled dead even for the top spot until Cindric was able to clear Allmendinger in Turn 3 and lead the first lap.

Entering the second lap, Cindric was leading by two-tenths of a second over Allmendinger as the field fanned out to two lanes while battling for positions.

Through the first five laps of the event, Cindric continued to lead by four-tenths of a second over Allmendinger while Justin Haley, Justin Allgaier and rookie Ty Gibbs were in the top five. Harrison Burton was in sixth followed by Daniel Hemric, Brandon Jones, Noah Gragson and Myatt Snider.

Five laps later, Cindric stabilized his advantage to over Allmendinger. Behind, Allgaier overtook Haley for third while Gibbs, Harrison Burton, Hemric, Gragson, Brandon Jones and Riley Herbst were scored in the top 10.

Another 10 laps later, Cindric stretched his advantage to nearly a second over Allmendinger. Teammates Gibbs and Hemric were up in third and fourth while Allgaier fell back to fifth.

When the competition caution flew on Lap 25, Cindric remained as the leader of the field. Under the competition caution, some led by Allgaier, who had concerns of oil leaking from his car, pitted while the rest led by Cindric remained on the track.

When the race restarted on Lap 30, Cindric and Allmendinger battled for the lead as the field fanned out to multiple lanes approaching the first turn. Just then, the caution returned for a multi-car wreck in Turn 1 that involved Joe Graaf Jr., Ty Dillon, Alex Labbe, Dylan Lupton, BJ McLeod, JJ Yeley, Brandon Brown, Bayley Currey and rookie Sam Mayer. Also involved were Playoff contenders Jeb Burton, Jeremy Clements and Riley Herbst, all of whom were eliminated from the race. At the time of caution, Allmendinger had managed to take the lead.

Following an extensive cleanup period, the race restarted under green on Lap 40 as Allmendinger and Cindric started on the front row. At the start, Allmendinger received a strong start on the outside lane to retain the lead while Cindric moved up to second. Through the backstretch, Hemric challenged teammate Gibbs for third while Harrison Burton and Gragson battled for fifth. Behind, Brett Moffitt moved up to seventh ahead of Ryan Sieg and Brandon Jones.

When the first stage concluded on Lap 45, Allmendinger earned his 10th stage victory of the season. Hemric made his way up to second followed by Cindric, Gibbs, Gragson, Harrison Burton, Sieg, Brandon Jones, Josh Berry and Moffitt. Meanwhile, Snider, Haley and Allgaier were in 11th, 12th and 14th.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Hemric emerged with the lead after beating Allmendinger off of pit road by a narrow margin. Back on the track, however, Ty Dillon and Brandon Brown moved up to first and second after both elected to remain on the track. During the pit stops, Gragson was sent to the rear for driving through multiple pit boxes while trying to enter his along with Sieg, who was penalized for an equipment interference

The second stage started on Lap 51. At the start, Ty Dillon jumped ahead with the lead followed by Hemric as the field fanned out to multiple lanes again through the first turn. Through the backstretch, Brandon Jones muscled his way to third place followed by teammate Harrison Burton and Allgaier, all of whom overtook Brown on fresh tires.

Three laps later, the caution flew when Sieg spun in Turn 2 as he collected Jade Buford. Under caution, Brandon Jones surrendered third place to pit due to a vibration on the right rear of his No. 19 Menards Toyota Supra.

On Lap 59, the race restarted under green. At the start, Ty Dillon retained the lead followed by Allgaier and Harrison Burton while Hemric fell back to fifth in front of Cindric, Gibbs and Berry.

On Lap 65, the battle for the lead intensified was Allgaier closed in on Ty Dillon’s No. 31 South Point Chevrolet Camaro for the top spot. Behind, Harrison Burton was in third followed by Cindric, Gibbs and Hemric. Meanwhile, Gragson worked his way up to ninth ahead of Allmendinger, Haley, Brandon Jones and Myatt Snider.

A lap later, Allgaier motored his No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro to the lead.

By Lap 75, Allgaier continued to lead by more than a second over Ty Dillon while Cindric, Gibbs and Hemric were in the top five. Gragson was in sixth followed by Moffitt, Berry, Harrison Burton and Allmendinger while Haley, Brandon Jones and Snider were in 11th, 12th and 13th.

When the second stage concluded on Lap 90, Allgaier claimed his third stage victory of the season. Behind, Ty Dillon fended off Cindric to settle in second followed by Gragson, Hemric, Berry, Gibbs, Moffitt, Allmendinger and Haley.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Allgaier retained the lead followed by Cindric, Hemric, Gragson and Gibbs. Following the pit stops, Gragson was penalized again, this time for speeding on pit road.

With 105 laps remaining, the final stage commenced. At the start, Allgaier retained the lead ahead of Hemric, Cindric and the field as the track fell into night conditions. The following lap, Cindric and Allmendinger overtook Hemric’s No. 18 Poppy Bank Toyota Supra for spots in the top three

Down to the final 100 laps of the event, Allgaier was leading by half a second over Cindric while Allmendinger was in third. Hemric and Gibbs were in the top five followed by Berry, Haley, Snider, Moffitt and Brandon Jones.

Ten laps later, Allgaier continued to lead by more than a second over Cindric and by more than two seconds over Allmendinger. Behind, Gibbs and Berry moved up to fourth and fifth while Hemric settled in sixth ahead of Gragson.

Another 10 laps later, the caution flew when a bump from Moffitt sent Haley and his No. 11 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet Camaro spinning in Turn 3. Under caution, the leaders returned to pit road and Allgaier retained the lead followed by Cindric, Gibbs, Allmendinger and Gragson.

With 76 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Allgaier retained the lead on the outside lane despite being challenged by Gibbs and Cindric. Behind, Cindric bolted his way to second while Gibbs retained third ahead of Allmendinger and Gragson.

Six laps later, Allgaier stabilized his advantage to two-tenths of a second over Cindric. Meanwhile, Berry, Gibbs and Allmendinger battled for fifth ahead of Gragson.

Another three laps later, Cindric powered his No. 22 Odyssey Battery Ford Mustang to the lead over Allgaier. By then, Allmendinger worked his way up to third.

With 63 laps remaining, Allgaier reassumed the lead. Not long after, a battle for the runner-up spot between Cindric and Josh Berry occurred as Berry prevailed. During this battle, Gragson closed in on the top-three leaders followed by Allmendinger and Gibbs.

Down to the final 50 laps of the event, Allgaier was leading by nearly a second over teammate Berry while Cindric, Gragson and Gibbs were in the top five. Allmendinger was in sixth followed by Hemric, Brandon Jones, Haley and Ty Dillon. Meanwhile, Harrison Burton was in 12th while Myatt Snider was back in 15th.

Nine laps later, Berry, who filled in as an interim competitor in JR Motorsports’ No. 1 Pilot Flying J Chevrolet Camaro for veteran Michael Annett, made his way into the lead over teammate Allgaier.

With less than 30 laps remaining, Brandon Jones pitted under green. Soon after, Allgaier pitted along with Hemric, Gibbs, Ty Dillon, Moffitt, Gragson, Allmendinger. Berry, the leader, also pitted during this sequence. During the green flag pit stops, Gibbs was penalized for speeding his No. 54 Interstate Batteries Toyota Supra on pit road.

Under the final 20 laps, Haley, who had yet to pit, was leading followed by Snider, Allgaier, Berry and Gragson. Once Haley pitted, Allgaier, who overtook teammate Berry on the track, made his way back to the lead. Another two laps later, however, Berry reassumed the lead.

Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Berry was leading by more than three seconds over teammate Allgaier while teammate Gragson was in third, trailing by nearly nine seconds in his No. 9 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro. Cindric was up in fourth followed by Hemric and Brandon Jones while Allmendinger, Ty Dillon, Haley and Harrison Burton were in the top 10.

With five laps remaining, Berry stabilized his advantage to four seconds over teammate Allgaier while teammate Gragson trailed by nine seconds in third place.

When the white flag waved and the final laps started, Berry continued to lead by more than four seconds over teammate Allgaier. Following a smooth navigation around the circuit for a final time, Berry came back around and claimed the checkered flag for his first series win since Martinsville Speedway in April.

In addition to securing his second Xfinity Series career victory, Berry became the first non-Playoff contender to win the Playoff opening race since Tyler Reddick made the last accomplishment at Kentucky Speedway in September 2017. Berry also recorded the 57th Xfinity career victory for JR Motorsports and the first win for JRM’s No. 1 team since Daytona International Speedway in February 2019.

“Oh my gosh,” Berry, who led 38 laps, said on NBCSN. “This [car] was fast. It just took me a while to figure it out. I knew the race would go down to the bottom at the end, I felt like. I just wanted to really work hard, make sure my car ran good on the bottom [lane] and I just had to stay disciplined and keep working on it. [The No. 1 crew] made the right adjustments. I knew it was fast. Just finally got a long run, put everything together and I was able to do it.”

“Me and Justin [Allgaier] have raced together a lot this year,” Berry added. “Most of them, he’s got the better of me. Today, we were able to get one. This is cool. This moves the No. 1 car to the next round in the owner’s points. That was really important for this group. They’ve worked so hard, they’ve been through so much and they deserve this. I wanna say hey to Michael [Annett] at home and thank him and his group for trusting me in driving this race car…One, two three finish [for JR Motorsports], that’s pretty cool.”

With teammates Allgaier and Gragson finished second and third, JR Motorsports achieved its first 1-2-3 finish in NASCAR history.

Allgaier was the highest-finishing Xfinity drivers’ title contender in second place on the track while teammate Gragson rallied from his pair of pit road penalties to settle in third place at his home track. With the results, Allgaier is ranked in third place in the Playoff standings, 38 points above the top-eight cutline, while Gragson is in fourth place in the standings, 37 points above the cutline.

“It’s super tough,” Allgaier, who led a race-high 90 laps, said. “First of off, hats off to Josh and the No. 1 team. They, obviously, had a lot of adversity this year, so for them to come home with a victory was really cool. Just proud of our guys, everybody on this No. 7 team. I was disappointed in the middle of the race there. We felt like we were really good and then as the sun went down, we just needed a little bit more right-rear grip. That’s where I feel like [Berry] had us beat. We’ll rebound, we’ll go next week to Talladega. [We] Should’ve gotten some decent points tonight and hopefully, have a good week next week.”

“I’m really frustrated, but I think the Bass Pro Shops No. 9 team and everybody at JR Motorsports should be really frustrated with me,” Gragson said. “Just ’cause it’s two weeks in a row and I need to get better. [The crew] brought an unbelievable race car to the track. I’m happy, happy for Josh, happy for Justin, happy everybody at JR Motorsports. Wish we could’ve beaten the guy…We’ll go on to Talladega, hopefully don’t get in a wreck, knock on wood and can transfer to the next stage.”

Austin Cindric, the pole-sitter who led 33 laps, finished fourth and he leads the Xfinity Playoffs by four points over AJ Allmendinger, the 2021 Xfinity Series regular season champion, while Hemric, who was announced as a Kaulig Racing competitor for the 2022 Xfinity Series season, finished fifth and is in fifth place in the Playoff standings, 34 points above the cutline.

Brandon Jones, AJ Allmendinger, Ty Dillon, Justin Haley and Harrison Burton finished in the top 10 on the track.

There were 13 lead changes for seven different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 32 laps.

Results.

1. Josh Berry, 38 laps led

2. Justin Allgaier, 90 laps led, Stage 2 winner

3. Noah Gragson, one lap led

4. Austin Cindric, 33 laps led

5. Daniel Hemric

6. Brandon Jones

7. AJ Allmendinger, 20 laps led, Stage 1 winner

8. Ty Dillon, 17 laps led

9. Justin Haley, two laps led

10. Harrison Burton

11. Ty Gibbs, one lap down

12. Brett Moffitt, one lap down

13. Bayley Currey, one lap down

14. Tommy Joe Martins, one lap down

15. Myatt Snider, one lap down

16. Landon Cassill, one lap down

17. Ryan Sieg, two laps down

18. Kyle Weatherman, two laps down

19. Ryan Vargas, two laps down

20. Blaine Perkins, three laps down

21. David Starr, four laps down

22. Brandon Brown, four laps down

23. Mason Massey, four laps down

24. Josh Williams, five laps down

25. Spencer Boyd, five laps down

26. Jade Buford, six laps down

27. Matt Jaskol, six laps down

28. Matt Mills, seven laps down

29. Jeffrey Earnhardt, seven laps down

30. BJ McLeod, eight laps down

31. Carson Ware – OUT, Electrical

32. CJ McLaughlin – OUT, Overheating

33. Riley Herbst – OUT, Accident

34. Sam Mayer – OUT, Accident

35. Dylan Lupton – OUT, Accident

36. Jeb Burton – OUT, AAccident

37. JJ Yeley – OUT, Accident

38. Alex Labbe – OUT, Accident

39. Jeremy Clements – OUT, Accident

40. Joe Graf Jr. – OUT, Accident

Bold indicates Playoff contenders.

Playoff standings.

1. Austin Cindric, +66

2. AJ Allmendinger, +59

3. Justin Allgaier, +38

4. Noah Gragson, +37

5. Daniel Hemric, +34

6. Justin Haley, +17

7. Harrison Burton, +13

8. Brandon Jones, +10

9. Myatt Snider, -10

10. Jeb Burton, -27

11. Riley Herbst, -32

12. Jeremy Clements, -36

With the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs underway, the series will next travel to Talladega Superspeedway for the second Round of 12 event of the season. The event is scheduled to occur on Saturday, October 2, at 4:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

September 26, 2021
Allmendinger spins and wins a wild finish at Bristol; locks up Xfinity regular season championship

The conclusion of the Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday, September 17, left a bevy of race cars wrecked and tempers flaring amongst a number of competitors, including the top-two finishers fighting for both the win and the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series regular season championship.

In a late overtime shootout between two potential championship favorites, AJ Allmendinger bumped and rubbed Austin Cindric for the lead before overtaking him on the final lap and just had enough to stay ahead of Cindric, who sent both competitors spinning and wrecking across the finish line, to win both the race and claim the regular season title. The finish of the event also provided a possible preview of this year’s Xfinity Series championship battle between two dominating competitors throughout this year’s Xfinity regular-season stretch.

The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Xfinity event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Xfinity race. With that, Noah Gragson, winner of last weekend’s event at Richmond Raceway, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with teammate Justin Allgaier.

Prior to the event, Josh Berry dropped to the rear of the field for filling in for veteran Michael Annett, who re-injured his right leg while working out. The move eliminated Annett in making the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs for the first time since 2018.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Gragson powered ahead with the lead on the outside lane followed by Daniel Hemric and the field. As Gragson led the first lap, Hemric retained second while Allgaier was trying to fend off Harrison Burton, rookie Ty Gibbs and Justin Haley in third.

On the fifth lap and while the field battled competitively early, Hemric emerged with the lead after passing Gragson, who led the first four laps, on the inside lane through Turns 4 and 1. Behind, Gibbs muscled his way into fourth behind Allgaier while Harrison Burton was left battling with Kaulig Racing’s Haley and Jeb Burton near the top five.

On the ninth lap, the first caution of the race flew when Brett Moffitt made contact with the outside wall in Turn 2, an incident that ended his hopes to make the Playoffs. By then, Harrison Burton fell back to eighth behind Austin Cindric while Josh Berry was up in 27th behind Spencer Boyd.

Seven laps later, the race restarted under green. At the start, Hemric retained the lead while Allgaier overtook teammate Gragson to move into second. Behind, Gibbs and Haley battled for fourth while Cindric and Jeb Burton battled for sixth.

By Lap 20, Hemric was leading by seven-tenths of a second over Allgaier while Gragson, Haley and Jeb Burton were in the top five. Cindric, Harrison Burton, Gibbs, Jeremy Clements and Brandon Jones were in the top 10 while AJ Allmendinger was in 12th behind Ryan Sieg.

Ten laps later, Hemric, who was approaching lapped traffic, continued to lead by a narrow margin over Allgaier while Haley was in third. Meanwhile, Cindric was up in fourth followed by Gragson. Behind, Gibbs was up in sixth followed by cousins Jeb and Harrison Burton. In addition, Allmendinger cracked the top 10.

On Lap 36, Allgaier made a move on Hemric, who was trapped behind the lapped car of Jade Buford, to move into the lead. Shortly after, Haley moved into second while Hemric got shuffled back to third.

When the competition caution flew on Lap 40, Allgaier was leading by three-tenths of a second over Haley while Hemric, Cindric and Gragson were in the top five. Gibbs, Jeb Burton, Harrison Burton, Allmendinger and Brandon Jones were in the top 10. By then, Ryan Sieg, Riley Herbst and Brandon Brown, all of whom were battling for spots in the Xfinity Series Playoffs, were in 11th, 12th and 13th, Myatt Snider was in 15th and Berry was in 19th.

Under the competition caution, some like Sieg and Jeremy Clements pitted while the rest led by Allgaier remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Spencer Boyd, who also pitted, dragged a gas can out of his pit box and on the track. When the gas can came off of Boyd’s machine, fuel spilled out on the racing surface, which required safety crews to remove the can.

When the race restarted on Lap 51, Allgaier continued to lead over the field.

By Lap 60, Allgaier was ahead by four-tenths of a second over Hemric and nearly seven-tenths of a second over teammate Gragson. Mayer was in fourth followed by Allmendinger, Cindric, Brandon Jones, Jeb Burton and Harrison Burton. Meanwhile, Gibbs was back in 11th, but locked in a battle with teammate Harrison Burton and Riley Herbst.

Fifteen laps later, Allgaier remained in the lead by nearly half a second over Hemric while third-place Gragson trailed by nearly a second. Meanwhile, light smoke and possible fluid was billowing out of the No. 1 Pilot Flying J Chevrolet Camaro driven by Berry.

When the first stage concluded on Lap 85, Allgaier, who led 50 laps, was able to capture his second stage victory of the season. Hemric settled in second followed by Gragson, Haley, Mayer, Allmendinger, Cindric, Brandon Jones, Gibbs and Harrison Burton. By then, Berry, who pitted for fresh tires and to have the smoke assessed, took his car behind the wall.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Allgaier retained the lead ahead of the field following his pit service. Meanwhile, Jeremy Clements moved up to third after opting for no fresh tires during his pit service.

The second stage started on Lap 93 as teammates Allgaier and Gragson occupied the front row. At the start, Allgaier muscled into the lead on the outside lane while Hemric overtook Gragson for the runner-up spot. Behind, a pair of side-by-side battles occurred between Clements, Haley, Allmendinger and Cindric.

Two laps later, Haley, who was in fourth, slipped in Turn 1, which nearly placed him in a four-wide battle with teammate Allmendinger, Cindric and Clements entering Turn 2. With the field jumbled up, Allgaier continued to lead.

At the Lap 100 mark, Allgaier was leading by two-tenths of a second over Hemric followed by Gragson, Haley and Allmendinger. Cindric was in sixth ahead of Ty Gibbs while Jeb Burton, Mayer and Brandon Jones were in the top 10.

Three laps later, the caution flew when BJ McLeod bumped and turned Tommy Joe Martins in the backstretch.

Another five laps later, the race restarted under green. At the start, Allgaier jumped ahead with a slight advantage over Hemric, who fought back on the inside lane. A lap later, Hemric muscled his way back into the lead. Not long after, the caution returned when Matt Mills wrecked on the frontstretch following contact from Boyd. After exiting his car, Mills expressed his displease to Boyd with an obscene gesture.

On Lap 116, the race restarted under green. At the start, Hemric retained the lead following another strong start while JR Motorsports’ teammates Gragson and Allgaier battled for second. Behind, Cindric was in fourth followed by Haley and Allmendinger.

By Lap 125, Hemric was out in front by six-tenths for a second over Allgaier while Gragson, Cindric and Haley remained in the top five ahead of Allmendinger, Gibbs and the field.

On Lap 136, Allgaier seized an opportunity to retake the lead after Hemric was mired behind lapped traffic.

At the halfway mark on Lap 150, Allgaier continued to lead by eight-tenths of a second over Hemric while Gragson, Cindric and Haley remained in the top five. Behind, Brandon Jones and Allmendinger battled for sixth while Gibbs, Maayer and Jeb Burton were in the top 10. Harrison Burton was in 12th behind Myatt Snider, Sieg was in 13th ahead of Herbst and Brandon Brown was in 17th area of Jeremy Clements and Sage Karam.

A few laps later, the caution flew when Allgaier, the leader who was trying to navigate his way through lapped traffic, made contact with the lapped car of Joe Graf Jr., wiggled and got sideways in Turn 1. Despite sliding sideways in the first turn, Allgaier managed to straighten his car and continue without sustaining any damage.

Under caution, some led by Mayer pitted while the rest led by Hemric remained on the track. Under caution, Snider was busted for speeding on pit road.

With nine laps remaining in the second stage, the race resumed under green. At the start, Hemric fended off Allgaier on the outside lane to retain the lead while Gragson, Cindric and Haley battled in the top five.

When the second stage concluded on Lap 170, Hemric secured his seventh stage victory of the season. Allgaier settled in second followed by Gragson, Haley, Cindric, Allmendinger, Gibbs, Brandon Jones, Sieg and Jeb Burton.

Under the stage break, some led by Allgaier pitted while others led by Jeb Burton, including those who pitted under the previous caution prior to the second stage’s conclusion, remained on the track. Following the pit stops, teammates Allgaier and Gragson were penalized for speeding on pit road.

With 121 laps remaining, the final stage commenced. At the start, Jeb Burton moved and cleared Herbst for the lead in Turn 2. A lap later, though, Mayer used the outside lane to overtake Burton and move into the lead.

Eleven laps later, Mayer was leading by a second over Jeb Burton while Herbst, Hemric and Cindric were in the top five.

Nearing the final 100 laps of the event, the caution flew when Carson Ware cut a left-front tire in Turn 1 and went up the racetrack, though he managed to keep the car off the wall.

With 96 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Mayer retained the lead on the outside lane while Jeb Burton and Hemric battled for second. Soon after, Hemric and Cindric overtook Jeb Burton for second and third before Cindric muscled into the runner-up spot.

Down to the final 90 laps of the event, Mayer was leading by nearly four-tenths of a second over Cindric while Hemric, Herbst and Allmendinger were in the top five. Jeb Burton was back in sixth ahead of Brandon Jones, Haley, Gibbs and Snider.

With 75 laps remaining, Mayer continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over Cindric while third-place Hemric trailed by more than two seconds. Herbst and Allmendinger remained in the top five followed by Jeb Burton, Brandon Jones and Allgaier, who rallied from his late pit road penalty. Gibbs and Snider were in the top 10 while Haley slipped back to 11th ahead of Sieg, Brandon Brown, Harrison Burton, Gragson and Jeremy Clements.

Four laps later, Cindric took advantage of Mayer getting stuck behind the lapped car of Tommy Joe Martins to challenge Mayer for the lead. After drawing himself alongside Mayer for a full lap, Cindric then made contact with Mayer and the outside wall in Turn 4 while trying to clear himself for the lead. Despite the contact, Cindric and Mayer continued to run in first and second

With 62 laps remaining, the caution flew for a two-car spin involving David Starr and Tommy Joe Martins on the frontstretch.

Under caution, the leaders pitted and Cindric remained as the leader ahead of Mayer and the field following his pit service.

With 53 laps remaining, the race restarted. At the start, Cindric jumped ahead with a strong start while Allgaier challenged teammate Mayer for the runner-up spot. Behind, Brandon Jones moved up to fourth ahead of Herbst and Allmendinger.

With less than 50 laps remaining, Cindric was out in front by more than a second over Mayer while Allgaier, Brandon Jones and Allmendinger battled for third. Herbst was back in sixth ahead of Hemric, who had a slow pit stop under the previous caution.

Soon after, Jeb Burton made contact with the wall after racing hard with Snider, which dropped him off the pace and eventually livid with Snider. After spending a lap below the apron, Burton then pitted under green to have the damaged right side of his car addressed.

Down to the final 30 laps of the event, Cindric, who was mired behind lapped traffic, was leading by three-tenths of a second over Mayer while Allgaier kept the two leaders in his sight. Allmendinger was in fourth while Hemric moved back up to fifth.

Seven laps later, Mayer drew himself towards Cindric, who was mired in lapped traffic, and attempted to take the lead, but Cindric fought back on the outside lane. By the time Cindric retained the lead to a reasonable margin, Mayer was left to battle with teammate Allgaier for the runner-up spot.

With 15 laps remaining, Cindric extended his advantage to more than a second over Mayer and Allgaier while fourth-place Allmendinger trailed by more than three seconds and fifth-place Hemric trailed by four seconds.

Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Cindric continued to lead by a second over Mayer, who was able to place a half-a-second gap over teammate Allgaier.

With five laps remaining, Cindric, who continued to deal with lapped traffic, retained the lead by nearly a second over Mayer, who had teammate Allgaier reeling back in.

Just then, the caution flew coming to the final four laps when Allgaier, who was trying to navigate his way to the front through lapped traffic, made contact with teammate Mayer and sent him spinning along with Josh Williams entering Turn 2. The contact and the incident between the two JR Motorsports competitors erased a comfortable advantage for Cindric and sent the race into overtime.

When the race restarted in overtime, Cindric held a narrow lead over Allmendinger, who fought back on the inside lane through the first two turns. Then in Turn 3, Allmendinger bolted his way alongside Cindric and rubbed Cindric’s No. 22 Menards Ford Mustang through Turn 4. As both competitors got sideways, Allgaier drew his No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro beneath both as the final lap started.

Just as Cindric and Allgaier were locked in a dead heat for the win, Allgaier made contact with Cindric in Turn 1, which opened the door for Allmendinger to overtake both competitors in a bold three-wide move entering Turn 2. As Cindric pursued Allmendinger for the win, Allgaier rubbed with Riley Herbt for third.

Then, entering the final turn, Cindric, knowing he was battling Allmendinger for the regular season title, made his way beneath Allmendinger and made contact with the Californian as both competitors veered sideways and headed for the inside wall. In the process, Allmendinger managed to edge Cindric by 0.082 seconds to claim the win. Moments after both slid across the finish line, though, Allmendinger and Cindric then made contact into the inside wall as Allmendinger veered back across the racetrack and was hit by teammate Haley and Snider.

Despite the accident, Allmendinger managed to claim his ninth career win in the Xfinity Series, fourth of the season and first at Bristol. In addition, he became the fifth different competitor to claim the Xfinity Series regular season title.

Moments after climbing out of his wrecked race car, Allmendinger, who was livid towards Cindric over being wrecked, saluted the fans before hopping into the ambulance and making the trip to the infield care center while Cindric was welcomed with mixed reaction from the crowd. While both competitors expressed no ill feelings towards one another, their on-track battle left both setting their sights for the series’ title.

“That was crazy at the end,” Allmendinger, who was released from the infield care center, said on NBCSN. “We had about a fourth-place car. My team did a great job. We just kept trying to work on it. You got a chance on the bottom [lane] and got in there. I slid into Austin trying to throttle up and stay on the bottom. Then into [Turn] 1, Allgaier had a run and there was contact there. [I] Went down into the last corner, I expected to get run into. It happened in the previous corner. It’s frustrating to get hit that hard coming to the checkered, but we’re battling for the win. It’s Bristol, baby. It’s what it’s all about. I haven’t had a lot of chances to ever in my life win at Bristol, so you know what, you get a chance to go do it, you got to do it. If I don’t take that chance, I don’t belong in a race car because my team deserves to win. Not the way you want to finish the race like that, destroying a lot of race cars. It’s a dream come true for this year. Thank you so much. Whether you love me or hate me for that, you know what, just keep being you guys [fans] because this is what makes this sport bad ass.”

“I thought we had a really great battle all season long up to this point,” Cindric said. “Congratulations to Kaulig [Racing] and AJ. Those guys didn’t want us to win really bad and I hate it completely destroyed our Menards/Richmond Ford Mustang. That’s all I got, man. I know what happened. I got drove into the door…AJ just drove straight through us. You’ll have that green-white-checkered racing. Man, what a hell of a race. I tried. That’s a big bummer. Sorry to everybody else that got involved in that wreck as well. That was really unfortunate…I just got booed and just got cheered. I don’t know what’s going on. Welcome to Bristol.”

Meanwhile, Riley Herbst came home in third place and secured his spot in the Playoffs along with fifth-place finisher Brandon Jones and 13th-place finisher Jeremy Clements. Names like Brandon Brown, Ryan Sieg and Josh Williams failed to qualify for the postseason battle for the title.

Allgaier and Jones finished in the top five on the track followed by Haley, Harrison Burton, Snider, Mayer and Hemric.

AJ Allmendinger, Austin Cindric, Justin Allgaier, Noah Gragson, Justin Haley, Daniel Hemric, Jeb Burton, Harrison Burton, Myatt Snider, Brandon Jones, Riley Herbst and Jeremy Clements have made the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs, and will compete for this year’s series title.

There were 11 lead changes for seven different leaders. The race featured 10 cautions for 72 laps. Only 14 of 40 starters finished on the lead lap.

Results.

1. AJ Allmendinger, one lap led

2. Austin Cindric, 75 laps led

3. Riley Herbst

4. Justin Allgaier, 92 laps led, Stage 1 winner

5. Brandon Jones

6. Justin Haley

7. Harrison Burton

8. Myatt Snider

9. Sam Mayer, 49 laps led

10. Daniel Hemric, 78 laps led, Stage 2 winner

11. Ty Gibbs

12. Noah Gragson, four laps led

13. Jeremy Clements

14. Brandon Brown

15. Ty Dillon, one lap down

16. Sage Karam, one lap down

17. Joe Graf Jr., one lap down

18. Gray Gaulding, one lap down

19. Alex Labbe, one lap down

20. Josh Williams, one lap down

21. Brandon Gdovic, one lap down

22. Stefan Parsons, two laps down

23. Tommy Joe Maartins, two laps down

24. Jeb Burton, three laps down

25. Jeffrey Earnhardt, three laps down

26. BJ McLeod, three laps down

27. Jade Buford, four laps down

28. Jesse Little, four laps down

29. Kyle Weatherman, five laps down

30. David Starr, six laps down

31. Spencer Boyd, eight laps down

32. Carson Ware, nine laps down

33. Chad Finchum, 24 laps down

34. Ryan Sieg – OUT, Fuel pump

35. Josh Berry, 91 laps down

36. Matt Mills – OUT, Accident

37. Ryan Vargas – OUT, Brakes

38. Bayley Currey – OUT, Brakes

39. Landon Cassill – OUT, Electrical

40. Brett Moffitt – OUT, Accident

The 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs is set to commence next Saturday, September 25, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, with the event scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

September 18, 2021
Gragson goes back-to-back with a win at Richmond

One week after snapping a 49-race winless drought at Darlington Raceway, Noah Gragson benefitted through a handful of late-race restarts and four fresh tires to lead the final 14 laps and win the Go Bowling 250 at Richmond Raceway on Saturday, September 11.

The victory made Gragson the fourth multi-winner of this year’s Xfinity Series season as he claimed his fourth career win in the Xfinity circuit. This also marked the first time in Gragson’s racing career where he claimed back-to-back victories across NASCAR’s top three national touring series.

The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Xfinity event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Xfinity race. With that, Austin Cindric started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Harrison Burton. Prior to the event, Ty Dillon and Bayley Currey started at the rear of the field due to driver change of their respective machines. Akinori Ogata also dropped to the rear for missing driver introductions.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Cindric jumped ahead with an early advantage over Harrison Burton to lead the first lap. Behind, Justin Haley boosted his way to third place followed by teammate Jeb Burton and Noah Gragson.

Through the first five laps of the event, Cindric was leading by a narrow margin over Harrison Burton. Jeb Burton was up in third followed by Gragson and Justin Allgaier while Haley fell back to sixth. AJ Allmendinger, Jeremy Clements, Ryan Sieg and Daniel Hemric were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was making his lone Xfinity scheduled start of the season, was up in 24th after starting.

By Lap 10, Cindric continued to lead by nearly half a second over Harrison Burton. By then, NASCAR crew members and fans paused for a moment of silence through Laps 9 to 11 and saluted with American fans in remembrance of the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Through Lap 20 and when the competition caution flew on Lap 35, Cindric was still out in front of the field. Under the competition caution, the leaders remained on the track. During this time, Jeb Burton’s car was pushed to pit road due to a battery issue.

When the race restarted on Lap 43, Allmendinger and Harrison Burton challenged Cindric for the top spot, but Cindric maintained his ground and continued to lead. Two laps later, however, Allmendinger made his move beneath Cindric to take the lead. Shortly after, Allgaier and Harrison Burton moved up to second and third while Cindric slipped to fourth in front of Ty Gibbs.

By Lap 70, Tommy Joe Martins, who pitted for fresh tires under the competition caution, emerged with the lead over Allmendinger.

When the final lap of the first stage occurred, Martins was still leading by a narrow margin over Allmendinger. Then in Turn 3, Martins got briefly stalled behind the lapped car of David Starr. While Martins went high, Allmendinger went low and was able to edge Martins at the start/finish line to win the first stage on Lap 75 and claim his ninth stage victory of the season. Cindric rallied for third followed by Gibbs, JJ Yeley, Harrison Burton, Daniel Hemric, Gragson, Spencer Boyd and Patrick Emerling settled in the top 10.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted for service. During the pit stops, Allmendinger got boxed into his pit stall while Allgaier encountered steering issues.

The second stage started on Lap 84 as Cindric and Hemric filled out the front row. At the start, Hemric battled dead even with Cindric for a full lap before the former prevailed the following lap. Then the following lap, the caution flew when Tommy Joe Martins, who had a strong run in the first stage, spun following contact from Spencer Boyd.

Five laps later, the race restarted and Hemric retained the top spot. By Lap 98, Ty Gibbs made his way to the lead.

With four laps remaining in the second stage, the caution flew when CJ McLaughlin spun and wrecked off the front nose of Jade Buford in Turn 3. The wreck was enough for the second stage scheduled on Lap 150 to conclude under caution as Gibbs claimed his third stage victory of the season. Allmendinger ended up in second followed by Harrison Burton, Gragson, Hemric, Cindric, Sam Mayer, Riley Herbst, Ryan Sieg and John Hunter Nemechek.

Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Hemric emerged with the lead followed by Gragson, Gibbs, Harrison Burton and Allmendinger.

With 92 laps remaining, the final stage commenced. At the start, Gragson managed to peak ahead of Hemric and Gibbs on the inside lane to take the lead for the first time.

Five laps later, Gragson was leading by seven-tenths of a second over Hemric, who was pursued by his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Gibbs and Harrison Burton. Behind, Sam Mayer was in fifth followed by Allmendinger, Cindric, Allgaier, Earnhardt Jr. and John Hunter Nemechek.

Another three laps later, Gibbs made a move to the outside of Gragson to reassume the lead. While Harrison Burton challenged Gragson for the runner-up spot, Hemric, meanwhile, fell back to 10th.

Nearing the final 80 laps of the event, the caution flew for a spin involving Bayley Currey. Under caution, Ryan Sieg pitted while the rest led by Gibbs remained on the track.

With 74 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Harrison Burton overtook teammate Gibbs to lead for the first time. While Mayer was up in third, Allgaier charged his way up to fourth after overtaking teammate Gragson.

Six laps later, the caution returned due to Landon Cassill coming to a stop at the pit road entrance. Under caution, some led by Harrison Burton and Gibbs pitted while the rest led by Mayer, Haley and Earnhardt Jr. remained on the track.

Under the final 63 laps, the race restarted under green. At the start, Mayer took off with the lead while the field bumped and fanned out to multiple lanes for a full lap between competitors on old or fresh tires. Meanwhile, Harrison Burton bolted his way up to third place on fresh tires after overtaking a multitude of competitors, including Earnhardt Jr.

With 58 laps remaining, Harrison Burton reassumed the lead. A few laps later, Ty Gibbs took over the runner-up spot while Allmendinger challenged Mayer for third. Joining the battle were John Hunter Nemechek, Haley and Cindric.

Down to the final 50 laps of the event, Harrison Burton was leading by a second over teammate Gibbs, with Allmendinger, Nemechek and Cindric in the top five. Allgaier was in sixth followed by teammate Gragson, Alex Labbe, Hemric and Sieg. Meanwhile, Haley was in 12th ahead of Michael Annett, Mayer and Riley Herbst while Myatt Snider was in 16th, Brandon Jones was in 18th and Earnhardt Jr. was in 21st behind Jeb Burton.

Ten laps later, Harrison Burton continued to lead by more than a second over teammate Gibbs. Meanwhile, Allmendinger continued to run in third followed by Nemechek, Cindric, Allgaier and Gragson. Behind the front-runners, Mayer and Earnhardt Jr. were in 20th and 21st.

With 27 laps remaining, the caution flew due to Josh Williams spinning and backing his car into the Turn 2 outside wall following contact with Akinori Ogata. Under caution, the leaders led by Harrison Burton pitted while Allmendinger, Cindric and Brandon Jones remained on the track. During the pit stops, Earnhardt Jr. was penalized for speeding while Jeb Burton was also penalized for an uncontrolled tire.

Down to the final 21 laps of the event, the rare restarted under green. At the start, Allmendinger peaked ahead with the lead and Cindric spun the tires on the outside lane while the field fanned out to multiple lanes entering the first turn and through the backstretch. Then, the caution returned for Martins wrecking in Turn 1.

With 14 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Allmendinger jumped ahead of Brandon Jones, who spun the tires, as the field fanned out to multiple lanes again through the first turn and the backstretch.

A lap later, the caution flew due to Clements spinning on the frontstretch after getting turned by Myatt Snider. During the incident, Earnhardt Jr. made contact with the frontstretch outside wall while battling Kyle Weatherman. By then, Gragson emerged with the lead followed by Nemechek while Allmendinger slipped back to third. Under caution, Cindric pitted for tires.

Down to the final seven laps of the event, the race restarted. At the start, Gragson retained the lead following a strong start followed by Nemechek and Allgaier while Allmendinger fell back to fourth ahead of Gibbs.

With five laps remaining and the field fanning out across the track, Gragson continued to lead by half a second over Nemechek as Allgaier challenged Nemechek for more.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Gragson was ahead by half a second. Behind, Haley made his way to second followed by Nemechek, Allgaier and others. While Haley had a late charge established, Gragson was able to retain the lead and come back around to claim his second consecutive checkered flag of this season and his first at Richmond.

After celebrating with his burnout, Gragson, who saluted the fans with an American flag, took a moment to pay tribute to the victims and those affected by the September 11 attacks 20 years ago today.

“I knew [Haley] had tires, but the thing that really kept us alive were those two cautions at the end,” Gragson said on NBCSN. “Today’s not about this team or this win. It’s about everybody who lost their life 20 years ago. You got a lot of heavy hearts. At least in America, we can come together on this day. [I] Appreciate all you race fans for coming out. Man, it’s an emotional day. It’s a special day, but it’s not about us today.”

“It’s really special to be able to come here to Richmond, to beat Dale [Earnhardt] Jr., which is pretty cool,” Gragson added. “I never thought I’d say that. We’re starting to get momentum at the right time. Appreciate everything, for sure. Very emotional.”

Haley, winner at Daytona International Speedway in late August, finished in second place at Richmond for a second consecutive season while Nemechek, making his second Xfinity start of the season in the No. 26 Sam Hunt Racing Toyota Supra, finished third.

“I was fully prepared to do anything it took to win,” Haley said. “We had better tires. We were so fast. We showed a championship-caliber team there coming back through the field, taking a bad day and making it okay. That one’s definitely tough. It hurts, it stinks.”

Allgaier placed fourth followed by Riley Herbst. Hemric, Gibbs, Brandon Brown, Harrison Burton and Jeb Burton finished in the top 10.

Mayer finished 12th while Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 14th in his lone NASCAR start of the season.

Cindric and Allmendinger shuffled back to 16th and 18th while Brandon Jones, Annett, Josh Berry, Snider and Clements finished 20th, 22nd, 24th, 25th and 26th.

There were 15 lead changes for eight different leaders. The race featured nine cautions for 58 laps.

AJ Allmendinger continues to lead the regular-season standings by five points over Austin Cindric. With their top-20 runs, Jeremy Clements, Brandon Jones and Riley Herbst occupy the final three open spots to the 2021 Xfinity Series Playoffs with one regular-season event remaining. Herbst, the 12th-place competitor in the standings, is ahead by 66 points over Michael Annett, 93 over Ryan Sieg, 109 over Brandon Brown and 198 over Josh Williams.

Results.

1. Noah Gragson, 22 laps led

2. Justin Haley

3. John Hunter Nemechek

4. Justin Allgaier

5. Riley Herbst

6. Daniel Hemric, 17 laps led

7. Ty Gibbs, 67 laps led, Stage 2 winner

8. Brandon Brown

9. Harrison Burton, 43 laps led

10. Jeb Burton

11. Ty Dillon

12. Sam Mayer, seven laps led

13. Ryan Sieg

14. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

15. Kyle Weatherman

16. Austin Cindric, 50 laps led

17. Mason Massey

18. AJ Allmendinger, 39 laps led, Stage 1 winner

19. Alex Labbe

20. Brandon Jones

21. Matt Mills

22. Michael Annett

23. Josh Williams

24. Josh Berry

25. Myatt Snider

26. Jeremy Clements

27. Bayley Currey

28. David Starr, one lap down

29. JJ Yeley, two laps down

30. Jeffrey Earnhardt, two laps down

31. Joe Graf Jr., two laps down

32. Patrick Emerling, two laps down

33. Spencer Boyd, two laps down

34. Akinori Ogata, three laps down

35. Ryan Vargas, four laps down

36. Jade Buford, four laps down

37. Tommy Joe Martins – OUT, Accident, five laps led

38. Stephen Leicht, 30 laps down

39. Landon Cassill – OUT, Ignition

40. CJ McLaughlin – OUT, Accident

Next on the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is Bristol Motor Speedway, the final regular-season event of the season and where this year’s Xfinity 12-car Playoff field will be determined. The event is scheduled to occur on Friday, September 17, at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

September 11, 2021
Haley wins a thrilling three-wide photo finish at Daytona

Saving their absolute best for the last, Kaulig Racing utilized teamwork to storm to another victory at Daytona International Speedway. On this occasion, Justin Haley edged teammate AJ Allmendinger by a nose and in a three-wide photo finish including their other teammate, Jeb Burton, to win the rain-postponed Wawa 250 at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, August 28.

The victory was Haley’s first of the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series season.

The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Xfinity event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Xfinity race. With that, AJ Allmendinger, winner of last weekend’s Xfinity event at Michigan International Speedway, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Noah Gragson.

The race started on Friday evening, August 27, and Allmendinger received a push from Justin Allgaier on the outside lane to jump to an early lead and lead the first lap ahead of Noah Gragson and a steaming pack of cars. He went on to lead the following two laps before Gragson peaked ahead during the fourth lap. Allmendinger, however, quickly snatched the lead back the following lap.

By the ninth lap, Brandon Jones, who was the lead car on the inside lane, encountered early issues when he made an unscheduled pit stop under green due to overheating issues as a result of a piece of debris.

When the competition caution flew on Lap 15, Gragson, who reassumed the lead on Lap 14, was scored the leader ahead of Allmendinger and the field. Under the competition caution, some led by Gragson pitted while the rest led by Allmendinger remained on the track. By then, Jones retired due to his mechanical issue.

Just as the field was set to restart, rain fell on the track and the field was brought to pit road as the race was red-flagged for a weather delay on Lap 19. Over an hour later, NASCAR declared that the race would be postponed to Saturday afternoon and run prior to the Cup event due to inclement weather continuing throughout Friday evening. At the time of, Allmendinger was leading ahead of Christopher Bell, Myatt Snider, Austin Cindric, Brett Moffitt, Justin Haley, Jeb Burton, Daniel Hemric, Jeremy Clements and Caesar Bacarella.

When the race resumed under green on Lap 21 and on Saturday afternoon, Allmendinger jumped ahead with another strong start on the outside lane followed by Cindric, Haley and Bell while Snider mounted a charge on the inside lane.

By Lap 25, Allmendinger continued to lead followed by teammate Haley while Cindric challenged as the lead car on the outside lane. Snider and Jeb Burton were in the top five followed by Bell, Michael Annett, Hemric, Allgaier and Moffitt.

A lap later, the caution flew when a bump from Snider sent Cindric making hard contact into the outside wall in the frontstretch. The incident ignited a chain reaction wreck that involved Snider, rookie Sam Mayer, Hemric and Annett. The wreck was enough to knock Cindric, who won the Xfinity opener at Daytona in February, out of contention.

With the caution period and cleanup surpassing the first stage’s conclusion on Lap 30, the first stage concluded under caution as Haley, who overtook teammate Allmendinger at the moment of caution, claimed his fifth stage victory of the season. Teammates Allmendinger and Jeb Burton settled in second and third followed by Bell and Allgaier. Scored in the top 10 were Moffitt, Gragson, Bacarella, Brandon Brown and Harrison Burton.

Under the stage break, everyone pitted except for Brandon Brown, Herbst, Chase Briscoe, Ryan Sieg and Jason White.

The second stage started on Lap 33 and Herbst jumped ahead with the lead on the outside lane followed by Briscoe as the field fanned out to three lanes through the backstraightaway.

When the field returned to the start/finish line, Brown mounted a challenge on the inside lane against Herbst for the lead. As the field continued to battle through Turns 2 and 3, the caution returned due to debris from Michael Annett’s car coming out in Turn 2.

When the race restarted on Lap 39, Herbst jumped ahead with the lead on the inside lane before he moved up to the outside lane in front of Briscoe and a bevy of cars.

Two laps later, the inside lane led by Brown mounted a charge for the lead through the tri-oval and entering the first turn. Herbst, however, was able to fight back through the backstraightaway and when the field returned to the start/finish line.

By Lap 45, Brown took the lead followed by Allmendinger, Allgaier, Gragson, Jeb Burton and Sam Mayer while Herbst fell back to eighth alongside Harrison Burton. A lap later, though, Allmendinger muscled his way back into the lead followed by Allgaier, Gragson and Mayer while Brown got shuffled back to fifth.

Three laps later, the caution returned due to debris coming off of Caesar Bacarella’s car in the frontstretch following contact from Blaine Perkins. Under caution, some including Allmendinger, Allgaier, Gragson, Mayer, Harrison Burton, Jeb Burton, Haley, Sieg and Bell pitted while the rest led by Brown and Herbst remained on the track.

With eight laps remaining in the second stage, the race restarted. At the start, Brown rocketed with the lead followed by Herbst. Through the backstraightaway, though, the field fanned out to multiple lanes and caught Brown through Turns 3 and 4 as Sam Mayer made his way into the lead with drafting help from teammate Gragson.

By Lap 54, all three Kaulig Racing competitors lined up on the inside lane resulted with Jeb Burton taking the lead ahead of teammates Allmendinger and Haley. They were then quickly pursued by three JR Motorsports competitors featuring Mayer, Gragson and Allgaier, respectively.

In the closing laps of the second stage, the battle for the lead intensified as Jeb Burton continued to lead by a narrow margin over his Kaulig Racing teammates, a trio of JR Motorsports competitors and the field. By then, Brown pitted as the hood of his car went up.

When the second stage concluded on Lap 60, Jeb Burton, who was blocking all comers through both lanes, managed to claim his first stage victory of the season. Teammates Allmendinger and Haley settled in second and third followed by Herbst and Bell. Gragson, Hemric, Allgaier, Briscoe and Mayer settled in the top 10.

Under the stage break, some led by Jeb Burton pitted while the rest led by Bell and Gragson remained on the track.

With 36 laps remaining, the final stage commenced. At the start, Bell and Gragson battled dead even for the lead as the field fanned out to double lanes and in a pack behind the two leaders.

Down to the final 30 laps of the event, the field settled in a long single-file lane as Gragson was leading followed by Bell, Harrison Burton, Jeb Burton, Snider, Allgaier, Mayer, Herbst, Briscoe and Moffitt while Allmendinger and Haley were in 11th and 15th. By then, Hemric was back in 14th.

Shortly after, the caution flew when Colin Garrett spun and wrecked in Turn 4 as he ended up getting his car stuck in the tri-oval muddy grass. Colby Howard also spun to avoid Garrett.

With 23 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Bell and Gragson battled dead even for the lead through the backstraightaway as the field fanned out to three lanes.

Back to the start/finish line, Bell was leading followed by Jeb Burton while Gragson fell back to fourth while battling Snider.

Down to the final 20 laps of the event, the majority of the field settled in a single-file line as Bell was leading followed by Jeb Burton, Gragson, Allgaier, Herbst, Allmendinger, Snider, Harrison Burton, Hemric, Haley and Mayer while Chase Briscoe was in 13th.

A few laps later, the caution flew when Caesar Bacarella made contact with Jordan Anderson and hit the outside wall in the backstretch. While trying to straighten his car, Jade Buford and Matt Mills also wrecked to avoid Bacarella.

Under caution, some including Briscoe pitted while the rest led by Bell remained on the track.

With 14 laps remaining, the race restarted. At the start, Jeb Burton had drafting help from Gragson to take a narrow lead before Bell fought back on the outside lane.

The following lap, Bell cleared the field with the lead followed by Allgaier and Allmendinger while the Burton cousins battled for fourth.

Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Bell continued to lead followed by Allgaier, Allmendinger, Harrison Burton, Jeb Burton, Haley, Hemric, Snider, JJ Yeley, Jason White and the field, all running in a single-file line. By then, Joe Graf Jr.’s car was smoking through the frontstretch, but the field continued to run under green as Graf took his car below the apron and out of the racing groove.

With five laps remaining, Bell continued to lead, but a bevy of cars behind started to fan out to multiple lanes while challenging Bell for the lead. A lap later, Allmendinger stormed to the lead followed by teammates Jeb Burton and Haley while Allgaier also moved up, dropping Bell to fifth.

A few laps later, all three Kaulig Racing competitors led by Jeb Burton were at the front followed by Bell, Harrison Burton, Allgaier and the field.

When the final lap started, Allmendinger was leading by a narrow margin over teammate Jeb Burton, Bell and the field. Through the backstretch, Jeb Burton peeked to the inside of teammate Allmendinger, who tried to block Burton, for the lead while Bell got shuffled out on the inside lane with no drafting help. In addition, Haley made his move to the outside of Allmendinger, thus placing all three Kaulig Racing competitors in a dead three-wide heat for the win in Turns 3 and 4.

Entering the tri-oval and with the field fanning out to three lanes, Allmendinger peaked ahead with a push from Allgaier, but Haley started to gain a run on the outside lane as he had Hemric behind him. At the finish line, Haley managed to edge teammate Allmendinger by 0.023 seconds to grab the checkered flag and the win.

Photo by Andrew Boyd for SpeedwayMedia.com.

The victory guaranteed Haley a spot in the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs as he also captured his fourth career victory in the series. All four of Haley’s Xfinity victory have occurred on superspeedway venues (Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway). In addition, Kaulig Racing captured its third win at Daytona.

“It’s just not been the best season,” Haley said on NBCSN. “It’s been really, really hard on this No. 11 LeafFilter Gutter Protection team all year. We’ve had a lot of bad luck. I was trying to formulate the plan there and obviously, team orders, saw it out of there, they were so good. Hats off to Kaulig Racing. I think we got the teammate thing down. It’s just so special to win here at Daytona. It’s absolutely incredible. That was a close one and getting it to just beat out AJ. It always means a lot, too.”

Allmendinger settled in second place while Allgaier, Jeb Burton and Hemric finished in the top five.

“I mean, that was like the perfect photo shoot right there coming across the [finish] line for all the Kaulig Racing Chevys,” Allmendinger said. “Proud of my son, Justin Haley. He might be one of the best we’ve ever seen on superspeedway. Jeb [Burton] did a fantastic job. I was hanging on in the middle [lane] there. I thought we might get it, but proud of everybody at Kaulig Racing, all the men and women. The Hyper Ice Chevy was good. I think we led the most laps as well. Finished second, all day, it seemed like, but just proud. It was fantastic.”

“We led some [laps] today and going down the back, I think I led for a second,” Jeb Burton said. “AJ kind of slid up in front of me. I checked up and gave him a shot and then, I had to take the run. I looked and we were one, two and three, and I was thinking we were gonna come across the line like that, but [Allgaier] got me at the line. Really proud of Kaulig Racing. Thanks to Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen for coming on board. We needed this and the Playoffs are coming, so we needed the momentum.”

Bell settled in sixth followed by Gragson, Snider, Harrison Burton and Herbst.

With their top-10 results, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Daniel Hemric and Harrison Burton have locked themselves into the 2021 Xfinity Series Playoffs based on points. Including six other competitors that are in based on winning throughout the regular-season stretch (Austin Cindric, AJ Allmendinger, Justin Allgaier, Justin Haley, Jeb Burton and Myatt Snider), there are four spots left vacant to the Playoffs with three regular-season races remaining to the schedule.

There were 17 lead changes for eight different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 29 laps.

With his runner-up result, AJ Allmendinger leads the regular-season standings by 17 points over Austin Cindric.

Results.

1. Justin Haley, five laps led, Stage 1 winner

2. AJ Allmendinger, 30 laps led, Stage 2 winner

3. Justin Allgaier

4. Jeb Burton, eight laps led

5. Daniel Hemric

6. Christopher Bell, 23 laps led

7. Noah Gragson, 16 laps led

8. Myatt Snider

9. Harrison Burton

10. Riley Herbst, nine laps led

11. Brett Moffitt

12. Sam Mayer, one lap led

13. JJ Yeley

14. David Starr

15. Jason White

16. Ryan Sieg

17. Josh Williams

18. Tommy Joe Martins

19. Chase Briscoe

20. Jeffrey Earnhardt

21. Landon Cassill

22. Jordan Anderson

23. Blaine Perkins

24. Jeremy Clements

25. Mason Massey

26. Colby Howard

27. Ryan Vargas

28. Jade Buford

29. Tim Viens

30. Michael Annett

31. Alex Labbe

32. Kyle Weatherman, two laps down

33. Matt Mills, two laps down

34. Brandon Brown, three laps down, nine laps led

35. Joe Graf Jr. – OUT, Accident

36. Caesar Bacarella – OUT, Accident

37. Colin Garrett – OUT, Accident

38. Spencer Boyd – OUT, Engine

39. Austin Cindric – OUT, Accident

40. Brandon Jones – OUT, Engine

With the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series regular-season stretch nearing its conclusion, the series will next travel to Darlington, South Carolina, and compete at Darlington Raceway on Saturday, September 4, during Labor Day weekend. The event will occur at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

August 28, 2021