Testing SpeedwayMedia.com

Tag: Josh Berry

  • John Hunter Nemechek rallies from early spin to notch milestone Xfinity victory for Joe Gibbs Racing at Michigan

    John Hunter Nemechek rallies from early spin to notch milestone Xfinity victory for Joe Gibbs Racing at Michigan

    From a Lap 10 multi-car wreck that involved himself and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, John Hunter Nemechek rallied in dominant fashion by notching a milestone victory for the JGR organization in the Cabo Wabo 250 at Michigan International Speedway on Saturday, August 5.

    The 26-year-old Nemechek from Mooresville, North Carolina, led twice for a race-high 65 of 125-scheduled laps in an event where he started 10th and quickly raced his way towards the front. Amid a Lap 3 incident for a single car spin and a Lap 9 restart, Nemechek’s event quickly went south when he made contact with teammate Ty Gibbs entering the backstretch that sent Gibbs spinning while his third teammate, Sammy Smith, was also collected after making ensuing contact with Nemechek. Despite falling down the leaderboard, Nemechek, who pitted prior to the first stage’s conclusion, gained an advantage during the stage break when he remained on the track and moved up the leaderboard. From there, Nemechek assumed the lead for the first time on Lap 55 and proceeded to win the second stage. He then gained control of the field throughout the final stage spanning the final 59 laps and held off the field during a seven-lap dash to the finish to notch his fifth NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of the 2023 season and record the 200th Xfinity career win for Joe Gibbs Racing.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, August 4, Josh Berry notched his second Xfinity pole position of the 2023 season after posting a pole-winning lap at 189.549 mph in 37.985 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate Justin Allgaier, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 188.289 mph in 38.239 seconds.

    Prior to the event, the following names that included Connor Mosack, Sage Karam, Kyle Weatherman and Josh Williams dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to their respective entries.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Berry surged ahead with a strong start from the outside lane through the backstretch, but teammate Allgaier gained a strong run from the inside lane through the first two turns as he then assumed the lead entering the backstretch. With Allgaier placing a reasonable gap between himself and Berry exiting the backstretch before entering Turns 3 and 4, Allgaier proceeded to lead the first lap while Austin Hill and Sam Mayer battled for third place behind Berry.

    During the second lap, Allgaier stretched his lead to half a second over teammate Berry while teammate Mayer trailed in third place by less than a second. By then, Austin Hill was in fourth ahead of rookie Chandler Smith while Ty Gibbs, Carson Hocevar, John Hunter Nemechek, rookie Sammy Smith and Ross Chastain were in the top 10.

    On the third lap, the first caution of the event flew when Kaz Grala, who was battling within the top 20, slipped sideways entering Turn 4 and spun off the front nose of Sheldon Creed as Grala spun his No. 26 Toyota Genuine Parts Supra below the track and backwards on the frontstretch grass.

    When the race restarted on the ninth lap, teammates Allgaier and Berry dueled for the top spot until Allgaier muscled ahead in his No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro to retain the lead. As the field fanned out and jostled for positions, contact was made between Mayer and Chandler Smith entering Turn 3 as Mayer went up the track and lost a multitude of spots while Allgaier continued to lead.

    A lap later, the caution returned when Nemechek, who was battling amid close-quarters racing with Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Ty Gibbs and Sammy Smith, ran into the rear bumper of Gibbs’ No. 19 He Gets Us Toyota Supra entering the backstretch, which got Gibbs loose and spinning sideways as Nemechek also spun after getting hit by Sammy Smith. In the ensuring mayhem, Nemechek spun his No. 20 Mobil 1 Toyota Supra towards the bottom of the track in the backstretch while Smith collided into the side of Hocevar and nearly sent his No. 77 Premier Security Chevrolet Camaro flipping over before Hocevar’s car quickly came back down on all four wheels and spun through the backstretch. While Nemechek and Gibbs, who was left sour over the incident with Nemechek, continued along with Hocevar, Sammy Smith’s event came to an early end.

    During the proceeding restart on Lap 16, Allgaier retained the lead amid another strong restart while teammate Berry, who elected to restart on the second row, gained a strong start to move up to second followed by Chandler Smith while Hill, who moved up to restart on the inside lane on the front row, fell back to fourth.

    Approaching Lap 19, the caution flew for a third time when Mason Maggio, who was involved in the previous caution period for a multi-car wreck, went dead straight after blowing a right-front tire and smacked the outside wall towards Turn 2 as his event came to an early end. During the caution period, Nemechek, Karam and Josh Williams pitted while the rest led by Allgaier remained on the track.

    The following restart on Lap 23 featured Allgaier and Custer dueling for the lead on the front row as Allgaier retained the lead while the field fanned out through the first two turns. As Allgaier retained the top spot, Berry moved back into the runner-up spot followed by Custer while Chandler Smith and Herbst followed suit along with Brandon Jones. Amid the continuous on-track battles, Allgaier would retain the lead at the Lap 25 mark.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 30, Allgaier claimed his eighth stage victory of the 2023 Xfinity season. Teammate Berry settled in second while Custer, Chandler Smith, Herbst, Brandon Jones, Austin Hill, Ryan Sieg, Mayer and Anthony Alfredo were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, a majority of the field led by Allgaier pitted for service while the rest led by Ty Gibbs, Nemechek and Grala remained on the track amid mixed strategy ensuing. Amid the pit stops, Jeb Burton spun while trying to entering his pit stall and was penalized for a safety violation.

    The second stage started on Lap 36 as Ty Gibbs and Creed, who pitted for two fresh tires, occupied the front row. At the start, Gibbs took off with the lead ahead of Creed and the field that proceeded to fan out entering the first two turns. By the following lap, Ty Gibbs stretched his advantage to half a second while teammate Nemechek battled and overtook Creed for the runner-up spot.

    On Lap 38, the caution flew when Connor Mosack got turned by Joe Graf Jr. towards the outside wall exiting the frontstretch and approaching Turn 1 as Mosack limped back to pit road with extensive damage on his No. 24 Toyota Racing Development Supra.

    When the race restarted on Lap 42, Ty Gibbs pulled ahead from Riley Herbst with a push from teammate Nemechek as Gibbs assumed the lead while Nemechek and Herbst battled for second.

    At the Lap 50 mark, Ty Gibbs was leading by a tenth of a second over teammate Nemechek followed by Herbst, Cole Custer and Allgaier while Mayer, Austin Hill, Berry, Brandon Jones and Chandler Smith were in the top 10. Behind, Brett Moffitt was in 11th ahead of Creed, Anthony Alfredo, Parker Kligerman and Ryan Sieg while Daniel Hemric, Ross Chastain, Parker Retzlaff, Jeb Burton and Grala occupied the top 20.

    Five laps later, the top-nine competitors were separated by less than two seconds as Nemechek cycled his way around teammate Ty Gibbs to assume the lead. With Nemechek leading by four-tenths of a second and half a second over Herbst, Allgaier and Austin Hill settled in the top five.

    When the second stage concluded on Lap 60, Nemechek fended off the field to claim his fifth Xfinity stage victory of the 2023 season. Allgaier, who moved from fourth to second two laps earlier, settled in the runner-up spot while Ty Gibbs, Herbst, Austin Hill, Custer, Berry, Mayer, Brandon Jones and Moffitt were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, trouble struck for Allgaier as he got bumped and turned by Ty Gibbs while approaching his pit stall as the field entered pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Nemechek exited first ahead of Herbst, Hill, Custer, Berry and Ty Gibbs.

    With 59 laps remaining, the final stage started as Nemechek and Hill occupied the front row. At the start, Nemechek jumped ahead to retain the lead over the field that fanned out with the competitors jostling for positions.

    With 50 laps remaining, Nemechek was leading by three-tenths of a second over Austin Hill followed by Herbst, Berry and Brandon Jones while Ty Gibbs settled in sixth. With Custer and Mayer running in seventh and eighth, Allgaier, following his pit road incident during the stage break, had carved his way back up to ninth after restarting 30th while Chastain was in 10th.

    Ten laps later, Nemechek continued to lead by more than a second over Austin Hill while Berry, Herbst and Brandon Jones retained their respective spots in the top five. By then, Ty Gibbs and Custer were running sixth and seventh while Allgaier was in eighth followed by teammate Mayer and Chastain.

    Another 10 laps later, Nemechek increased his advantage to nearly two seconds over Berry while Hill, Herbst and Brandon Jones remained in the top five. Not long after, green flag pit stops commenced as Mayer and Chandler Smith pitted. A series of names that included Ty Gibbs, Allgaier and Custer would pit during the ensuing lap before the leader Nemechek pitted with 28 laps remaining along with Brandon Jones, Hill, Chastain, Berry, Creed, Hemric, Jeb Burton and Jeremy Clements. Amid the pit stops, Allgaier was penalized due to a crew member jumping over the pit wall too soon while Moffitt, who has yet to pit, cycled into the lead. In addition, Austin Hill reported a transmission issue to his No. 21 United Rentals Chevrolet Camaro as he was exiting pit road, which resulted with him losing ground of the leaders.

    Then with 22 laps remaining, Nemechek cycled his way back into the lead after Sage Karam, who led a lap for himself, pitted. In the process, Berry moved up to second as he trailed Nemechek by two seconds as Ty Gibbs would follow suit to third place.

    With 15 laps remaining, Nemechek was leading by more than a second over Berry while Gibbs, Jones and Custer were in the top five.

    Then two laps later, the caution flew when Patrick Emerling blew a left-front tire and went dead straight towards the outside wall in Turn 3. During the caution period, names that included Custer, Allgaier, Ryan Sieg, Karam and Moffitt pitted while the rest led by Nemechek remained on the track.

    Down to the final seven laps of the event, the race restarted under green as teammates Nemechek and Ty Gibbs occupied the front row. At the start, Nemechek retained the lead over the field as Berry and Ty Gibbs battled for second ahead of Brandon Jones and Mayer. With the field fanning out through the first two turns and the backstretch, Nemechek stabilized his advantage while starting to place a gap from the field.

    With five laps remaining, Nemechek was leading by three-tenths of a second over Berry and six-tenths of a second over Brandon Jones while Ty Gibbs and Mayer were in the top five. Behind, Herbst was in sixth followed by Chastain, Kligerman, Retzlaff and Jeb Burton. Nemechek would then stretch his advantage to nearly a second over Berry while Brandon Jones would slowly lose touch of the top-two competitors as the laps dwindled.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Nemechek remained as the leader by more than a second over Berry and Brandon Jones while Ty Gibbs and Mayer trailed by more than two seconds. Having no close competition lurking behind him, Nemechek was able to cycle his way around the circuit for a final time and cruise back to the frontstretch to notch his fifth checkered flag of the 2023 Xfinity season.

    With the victory, Nemechek notched his seventh Xfinity Series career victory in his 88th series start and his first at Michigan as he became the first five-time race winner of the 2023 season. In addition to delivering the seventh Xfinity victory of the season for Joe Gibbs Racing, Nemechek bestowed the honors of achieving the 200th career win for the JGR organization, with six of them coming from Nemechek.

    “Man, I’m grateful for this whole No. 20 bunch,” Nemechek, who accepted responsibility over the contact and incident with Ty Gibbs, said on NBC. “[I’m] Grateful for Joe Gibbs Racing, this opportunity. All of our great partners that help us get to the racetrack. I have to apologize to Ty [Gibbs]. I’ve been the one that’s been very vocal about teammates recently. I put him in a bad aero spot, got him loose and then, couldn’t check up. It’s my mistake. I hate that we both spun early, but at least, we both rebounded decently. I know he’s not too happy with me. He has every right not to be. I’m thankful for my team, all the guys. Win number five. After the last two weeks, we said that we needed to come out here and answer. We were able to do that today here at Michigan.”

    Berry, who did not lead a lap despite starting on pole position, ended up in the runner-up spot for the second time this season as he continues to pursue his first victory of the season while teammate Brandon Jones claimed his second top-five result of the season by notching a strong third-place result.

    “Yeah, we just built really tight that last run,” Berry said. “I thought I was kind of inching in on [Nemechek] for a while and then, we kind of leveled out. It was tough there. I felt like I needed to pick behind [Nemechek] there [on the final restart], but the bottom [lane] just got so slick there at the end. I felt like that was gonna give us our best chance. Overall, we were just a little too tight to make a run at him there. Overall, [I’m] really proud of these guys. Obviously, we’ve had a good couple of weeks, so we just got to keep working, keep getting better. We’re just gonna keep after it. We’re getting better at the right time. Definitely, a good day for JR Motorsports and we’ll be in Victory Lane soon.”

    Ty Gibbs, who led 22 laps, rallied from his early incident to finish fourth in his sixth Xfinity start of the season while Mayer, winner of last weekend’s event at Road America, finished fifth.

    Herbst, Ross Chastain, Kligerman, rookie Parker Retzlaff and Jeb Burton completed the top 10 on the track. Notably, Austin Hill ended up 11th in front of teammate Sheldon Creed, Allgaier settled in 14th following his late-race pit road penalty, Custer finished 16th behind Daniel Hemric and rookie Chandler Smith, who had a late-race run-in with Hill that led to a post-race discussion with Hill, fell back to 20th.

    There were seven lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 31 laps. In addition, 20 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    With five Xfinity regular-season events remaining on the schedule, John Hunter Nemechek and Austin Hill are tied for the lead in the regular-season standings, with Justin Allgaier trailing by 34 points and Cole Custer trailing by 86.

    Results.

    1. John Hunter Nemechek, 65 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    2. Josh Berry

    3. Brandon Jones

    4. Ty Gibbs, 22 laps led

    5. Sam Mayer

    6. Riley Herbst, one lap led

    7. Ross Chastain

    8. Parker Kligerman

    9. Parker Retzlaff

    10. Jeb Burton

    11. Austin Hill

    12. Sheldon Creed

    13. Ryan Sieg

    14. Justin Allgaier, 32 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    15. Daniel Hemric

    16. Cole Custer

    17. Bret Moffitt, four laps led

    18. Anthony Alfredo

    19. Kyle Sieg

    20. Chandler Smith

    21. Kaz Grala, one lap down

    22. Josh Williams, one lap down

    23. Ryan Ellis, one lap down

    24. Jeffrey Earnhardt, one lap down

    25. Sage Karam, one lap down

    26. Jeremy Clements, one lap down

    27. Joe Graf Jr., one lap down

    28. Dawson Cram, one lap down

    29. Brennan Poole, two laps down

    30. Garrett Smithley, two laps down

    31. Stefan Parsons, two laps down

    32. Carson Hocevar, two laps down

    33. Blaine Perkins, two laps down

    34. Patrick Emerling, five laps down

    35. Kyle Weatherman – OUT, Electrical

    36. Connor Mosack – OUT, Accident

    37. Mason Maggio – OUT, Accident

    38. Sammy Smith – OUT, Accident

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the series’ fourth annual running of the Pennzoil 150 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course in Indianapolis, Indiana. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, August 12, at 5:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

  • Sam Mayer scores first Xfinity career victory at Road America in wild double overtime finish

    Sam Mayer scores first Xfinity career victory at Road America in wild double overtime finish

    On a day where veteran Justin Allgaier dominated, teammate Sam Mayer captured the main spotlight and the delight of his home crowd with his first NASCAR Xfinity Series career victory in the 14th annual running of the Henry 180 at Road America on Saturday, July 29.

    The 20-year-old Mayer from Franklin, Wisconsin, led the final two of 49 over-scheduled laps in an event that was dominated by teammate Allgaier, but marred with late caution periods and incidents that sent the event into two overtime attempts. During the second and final overtime attempt, Mayer capitalized in a battle with Allgaier, Sage Karam and Parker Kligerman to move into the lead for the first time prior to the final lap. With the lead in his possession, Mayer smoothly navigated his way around his home track for a final time and fended off Kligerman to triumph for the first time in his 71st career start in the Xfinity Series.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, July 28, AJ Allmendinger notched his second Xfinity pole of the 2023 season after posting a pole-winning lap at 111.606 mph in 130.574 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Cole Custer, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 111.352 mph in 130.872 seconds.

    Prior to the event, several names that included Kyle Weatherman, Josh Berry, Joe Graf Jr., Ryan Sieg and Ryan Ellis dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries. Daniel Hemric and Alex Labbe also dropped to the rear of the field due to engine change to their respective entries while Brandon Jones, rookie Sammy Smith and Jeremy Clements started at the rear of the field in backup entries.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Allmendinger rocketed ahead with the lead entering the first turn while the field behind jostled for positions amid two stacked lanes. The field continued to jostle for positions through Turns 2 to 4 before entering a long straightaway prior to a braking zone in Turn 5 as Allmendinger maintained the lead. As Custer and Allgaier battled for the runner-up spot through Turns 6 and 7, Allmendinger started to extend his advantage and muscle away from the pack entering Turns 8 to 10. Following another series of turns from the Kink in Turn 11, Canada Corner in Turn 12 and towards Turns 13 and 14 before entering the long uphill climb to the frontstretch, Allmendinger proceeded to lead the first lap.

    By the second lap, Allmendinger extended his advantage to nearly three seconds over runner-up Allgaier followed by Custer while Sam Mayer and Riley Herbst battled for fourth.

    Through the first five scheduled laps, Allmendinger continued to lead by less than four-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Allgaier while third-place Custer trailed by eight-tenths of a second in his No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang. Behind, Herbst and Mayer were still in the top five while John Hunter Nemechek, Sage Karam, Kaz Grala, Sheldon Creed and Connor Mosack were in the top 10. By then, Austin Hill, coming off his victory at Pocono Raceway, was in 11th ahead of Parker Kligerman, Brett Moffitt, rookie Chandler Smith and rookie Sammy Smith while Josh Bilicki, Daniel Hemric, Josh Williams, Jeb Burton and Josh Berry occupied the top 20.

    Not long after and still during the fifth lap, the battle for the lead ignited as Allgaier gained a run and overtook Allmendinger entering the braking zone in Turn 5. Custer followed suit in the runner-up spot while Allmendinger fell back to third. Custer would then settle within close quarters of Allgaier’s rear bumper in his attempt to gain the lead, but the latter did not relent as he proceeded to lead the following lap.

    Two laps later, Custer, who continued to stalk Allgaier, attempted to make a move beneath Allgaier entering Turn 6. Allgaier, however, fought back while running the outside lane before gaining the upper lane entering Turn 7. Custer then tried to feign a move on Allgaier for another lead attempt entering Turn 8, but Allgaier kept his No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro out in front with the top spot. By then, Allmendinger was trailing the two leaders by more than two seconds while Herbst and Mayer remained in the top five.

    Then on the ninth lap, the first caution period of the event flew when Katherine Legge stalled her car in between Turns 5 and 6. The caution period for Legge’s issue served as the competition caution planned for Lap 10 as Allgaier was scored the lead ahead of Custer, Herbst, Mayer and Allmendinger while Nemechek, Karam, Grala, Mosack and Austin Hill were scored in the top 10.

    During the competition caution period, the entire lead lap field led by Allgaier pitted for a non-competitive pit service.

    When the race proceeded under green on Lap 12, where Allgaier and Allmendinger occupied the front row, Allgaier fended off Allmendinger through the first turn to retain the lead as Custer drew himself into a side-by-side battle with Allmendinger for the runner-up spot. As the field battled through close-quarters racing from Turns 2 to Turn 5, Allmendinger forced his way into the runner-up spot over Custer, who then quickly blocked Mayer to retain third place, while Allgaier retained the lead. With the field then filing in a long single file line through the remaining nine turns, Allgaier, who led the proceeding lap, started to extend his advantage to nearly a second over Allmendinger while Custer trailed by more than a second.

    At the Lap 15 mark, Allgaier was leading by eight-tenths of a second over Allmendinger followed by Custer, who trailed by more than a second, while Sage Karam and Mayer battled dead even for fourth place in front of Nemechek and Herbst. Behind, Grala was in eighth followed by Austin Hill and Mosack while Sammy Smith, Kligerman, Creed, Bilicki, Moffitt, Hemric, Jeb Burton, Chandler Smith, Berry and Alex Labbe were in the top 20.

    Six turns later, Custer overtook Allmendinger to reclaim the runner-up spot. By then, Karam, who overtook Mayer in Turn 1, retained the spot followed by Mayer, Nemechek, Herbst and Grala, all of whom battled intensely towards the front, as Allgaier retained the lead.

    The following lap, Mayer got loose and briefly went off the course entering Turn 6 as Nemechek overtook him for fifth place. By the time Mayer returned to the track, he fell back to seventh as Herbst also overtook him. Meanwhile, Allgaier stretched his advantage to more than a second over Custer while third-place Allmendinger trailed by more than three seconds.

    On Lap 17 and amid a series of on-track battles occurring towards the front, Dexter Stacey spun in Turn 1, but the event remained under green flag conditions as Allgaier extended his advantage to more than three seconds over runner-up Custer and more than four seconds over third-place Allmendinger. By then, Nemechek was up in fourth while Karam was in fifth.

    Three laps later and at the Lap 20 mark, the caution flew when Chandler Smith, who was battling Berry for 17th, had parts and pieces flying out beneath his No. 16 Quick Tie Chevrolet Camaro due to a brake rotor failure through the frontstretch. With no alternative option to slow his car, he then steered his car left and off the course to try to scrub speed while veering through the grass before slamming into the wall driver’s side at full speed before his car with the entire left side sheet metal from the car shredded off came to a stop near Turn 1. Despite his event coming to an early end, Smith emerged uninjured. The caution for Smith’s incident served as the concluding period of the first stage segment scheduled for Lap 22 as Allgaier, who had extended his advantage to more than three seconds, claimed his sixth stage victory of the 2023 season. Custer settled in second while Allmendinger, John Hunter Nemechek, Karam, Herbst, Kaz Grala, Austin Hill, Mayer and Sammy Smith were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, the field, led by Allgaier returned to pit road for non-competitive pit service spanning for three minutes.

    The second stage started on Lap 24 as Allgaier and Custer occupied the front row. At the start, Allgaier fended off Custer to retain the lead entering Turn 1 before pulling ahead entering Turns 2 and 3. Then through Turn 3, trouble ignited as Herbst got bumped by Nemechek as Herbst spun, which caused the entire field to scatter and Austin Hill to go off the course, while Ryan Ellis also spun and collided with Herbst. With the field then jostling amid two lanes entering the braking zone in Turn 5 before navigating from Turns 6 to 10, the caution returned when Herbst, who came into the event 26 points above the top-12 cutline to make the 2023 Xfinity Series Playoffs, stalled his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang on the course in Turn 3.

    During the following restart on Lap 27, Allgaier and Allmendinger dueled for the lead amid a stacked restart before Allmendinger went wide and briefly off the course through Turn 1. This allowed Allgaier to rocket away with the lead followed by Custer and Grala while Allmendinger fell back to fourth in front of Mayer, Karam, Parker Kligerman and Nemechek. As the field fanned out from Turns 3 to 8 with bumping within the field and jostling for positions occurring, Allgaier pulled away from the Custer as Grala, Karam and Allmendinger were in the top five. Then through the Kink corner, Nemechek, who was mired in 10th and was placed in a tight three-wide battle in Turn 5 that involved teammate Connor Mosack, briefly went off the course and dropped to 12th. Nemechek would then go off the course again, this time in the braking zone in Turn 5 during the following lap, as he was strapped in 14th while Allgaier maintained the lead over a hard-charging Custer.

    At the Lap 30 mark, Allgaier continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over Custer while third-place Karam trailed in third place by more than three seconds. Karam’s teammate Grala was in fourth followed by Allmendinger while Mayer, Kligerman, Berry, Mosack and Hemric were in the top 10.

    A lap later, more trouble struck for Nemechek, who went off the course entering Turn 13 and hit the access road as he plowed through the grass and ripped the front splitter of his No. 20 Mobil 1 Toyota Supra. As Nemechek tried to return to the course, he struggled to steer his car to the right in Turn 14, which caused a hard-charging Austin Hill to go off the course as he was trying to navigate his way around Nemechek, while Herbst spun behind for a second time in Turn 14 as the rest of the field scattered to avoid the carnage. Amid the issues, the caution flag returned as Nemechek’s event came to an end.

    With the event restarting for a one-lap shootout to conclude the second stage period, Allgaier retained the lead over Custer as the field fanned out to nearly three lanes entering Turn 1. With Custer following suit in second followed by Karam, Allmendinger, Grala and Kligerman, Allgaier continued to lead through the frontstretch and entering the braking zone in Turn 5. Allgaier remained out in front through Turns 6 to 11 as more battles ensued behind. Despite Custer’s late effort in gaining a run entering Canada Corner in Turn 12, Allgaier did not flinch for the final two turns and proceeded to claim his second Xfinity stage victory of the day and seventh of the year at the second stage’s concluding period on Lap 34. Custer settled in second while Karam, Allmendinger, Mayer, Grala, Berry, Kligerman, Sammy Smith and Josh Bilicki were scored in the top 10.

    Following another round of non-competitive pit stops for the entire field that spanned three minutes, the final stage started with nine laps remaining as Allgaier and Custer occupied the front row. At the start, Allgaier rocketed ahead with the lead through the frontstretch and entering Turn 1 while Custer briefly went off the course in Turn 1. This allowed Sage Karam to move into the runner-up spot through Turns 2 and 3 followed by Mayer while Custer fell back to fourth alongside Grala. With the field fanning out to two lanes before settling in a single file line approaching the frontstretch, Allgaier stretched his advantage to more than a second over a three-car battle ensuring between Mayer, Custer and Karam as Mayer received a push from Custer through the frontstretch to move into the runner-up spot. Custer then tried to make his move beneath Mayer through Turns 5 and 6 during the following lap, but the latter retained the spot as Allmendinger tried to join the battle. This, however, allowed Allgaier to muscle ahead as he was leading by more than two seconds.

    Then with seven laps remaining, the caution returned for a hard single-car accident involving Alex Labbe, who was running 13th, lost his brakes through the frontstretch and collided head-on into the tire barriers in Turn 1 at full speed. Despite climbing out of his demolished No. 08 Compass Team Schuler Ford Mustang before laying down on the ground, Labbe emerged uninjured as he was slowly escorted to the ambulance and to the infield care center. At the exact timing of Labbe’s wreck, Creed, who endured numerous on-track issues throughout the event, was shown to have sustained a flat right-rear tire on his No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Camaro.

    Down to the final four laps of the event, the race restarted under green as Allgaier and Custer occupied the front row ahead of Mayer and Allmendinger. At the start, Allgaier wasted no time launching away from the field as he rocketed away through the first turn while teammate Mayer followed suit in second as he overtook Custer for the spot. With Custer being challenged by Karam for third through Turn 3, Allgaier continued to lead through a long straightaway before entering the braking zone in Turn 5. The braking zone would serve as the site where the caution returned when Berry got loose and made contact with Sammy Smith which caused Smith to turn sideways and collide into the side of Allmendinger’s No. 10 LeafHome Water Solutions Chevrolet Camaro. With both Smith and Allmendinger spinning entering Turn 5, Custer was collected as Smith collided with him as both, including Allmendinger, veered off the right-hand side of the turn while Karam just avoided the incident. The multi-car incident, which damaged Sammy Smith and Allmendinger’s cars while also breaking the rear axle off of Custer’s Mustang, would send the event into overtime.

    At the start of the first overtime attempt, where teammates Allgaier and Karam occupied the front row ahead of Mayer and Berry, Allgaier retained the lead through the frontstretch and entering the first turn while Karam settled in second. As Mayer occupied third, Kligerman made his move up to fourth followed by Grala while Berry fell back to sixth. The field continued to jostle and battle dead even for spots around the circuit as Allgaier maintained the lead entering Turn 8. Shortly after, the caution returned and the event was sent into a second overtime attempt when Connor Mosack, who had smoke billowing out of his No. 19 Porter Pipe and Supply Toyota Supra entry and was leaking fluid, came to a stop just off the course in Turn 6. The event would then be placed in a red flag period due to the extensive fluid that spewed on the track from Mosack’s entry.

    Once the red flag period was lifted amid a delay that spanned nearly 10 minutes, the start of the second overtime attempt featured Allgaier and Kligerman lining up dead even on the front row ahead of Karm, Berry, Mayer and Grala. At the start, Allgaier received a strong shove from Karam to rocket ahead of Kligerman with the lead through the frontstretch and entering Turn 1. As Allgaier continued to lead Karam through Turns 2 and 3, the field behind fanned out and jostled for spots as Mayer tried to join the battle between the two leaders. Then exiting Turn 5, Allgaier got loose, which allowed Karam to muscle ahead in his No. 24 Carousel Online Toyota Supra with the lead through Turn 6. Then as Mayer, Karam and Allgaier went three wide for the lead through Turns 7 and 8, Allgaier slipped sideways in Turn 8, went off the course and spun as his hopes of winning the race were evaporating.

    Back at the front, Karam, who also went wide with Mayer in Turn 8 but managed to keep his car running straight, retained the lead through Turns 9 and 10 with Mayer closing in. Karam then got loose through the Kink, but he maintained the lead as the field approached Canada Corner. Then through Canada Corner, Mayer tried to make a move to Karam’s outside, but he went wide as Karam retained the lead. Just then, Karam went off the course entering Turn 13, which allowed Kligerman to move his No. 48 Spiked Light Coolers Chevrolet Camaro into the lead. Mayer then made slight contact with Kligerman in Turn 14 as he moved his No. 1 Accelerate Pros Talent Chevrolet Camaro into the lead while Karam fell back to fourth.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Mayer, the hometown hero, was leading a four-car breakaway from the field that included Kligerman, Austin Hill and Karam. While leading throughout the 14-turn circuit for a final time, Mayer was able to place a reasonable gap between himself and Kligerman without slipping through the turns and corners. As Kligerman tried to close back towards Mayer’s rear bumper through Turns 13 and 14, the gap was large enough for Kligerman to not draw close to Mayer’s rear bumper as Mayer was able to make the final uphill climb to the finish line and claim his first checkered flag in the Xfinity circuit.

    With the victory, Mayer, a two-time ARCA Menards Series East champion in 2019-20, became the fourth first-time winner of the 2023 Xfinity Series season and the 175th competitor overall to win in the Xfinity circuit. He also became the 14th different winner in the series 14-year running at Road America and the sixth to claim a first NASCAR Xfinity triumph at Road America as he recorded the second victory of the season and the 75th overall in the Xfinity circuit for JR Motorsports. The victory was also the first for crew chief Mardy Lindley, a former Craftsman Truck Series crew chief for Kyle Busch Motorsports, in the Xfinity circuit and the first for JRM’s No. 1 entry since teammate Josh Berry won at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in September 2021.

    “Oh my god,” Mayer said on NBC. “It was just about getting track position. We had [the lead] there at the end. I lost it for a second and then, all hell broke loose there at the end. We ended up on top. This team, it’s so special to get that first win and that monkey off your back. It feels so good. I felt it all day, like if I can do this one, I can do anything, and we came here today and did that. All’s well that ends well, I guess.”

    Amid the late turn of events, Kligerman settled in a career-best runner-up result while Austin Hill, who emerged as the new leader in the regular-season standings, came home in third place. Sage Karam, who was two laps away from notching his first NASCAR victory, settled in a career-best fourth place while Herbst rallied late to finish fifth.

    Berry, Grala, Josh Bilicki, Allmendinger and Brandon Jones finished in the top 10. Notably, Daniel Hemric ended up 11th, Parker Retzlaff ended up as the highest-finishing rookie in 14th and Allgaier fell back to 18th.

    There were two lead changes for three different leaders. The race featured eight cautions for 15 laps. In addition, 27 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    With six Xfinity regular-season events remaining on the schedule, Austin Hill leads the regular-season standings by 14 points over John Hunter Nemechek, 40 over Justin Allgaier and 84 over Cole Custer.

    Results.

    1. Sam Mayer, two laps led

    2. Parker Kligerman

    3. Austin Hill

    4. Sage Karam

    5. Riley Herbst

    6. Josh Berry

    7. Kaz Grala

    8. Josh Bilicki

    9. AJ Allmendinger, five laps led

    10. Brandon Jones

    11. Daniel Hemric

    12. Jeb Burton

    13. Ryan Sieg

    14. Parker Retzlaff

    15. Brennan Poole

    16. Anthony Alfredo

    17. Blaine Perkins

    18. Justin Allgaier, 42 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

    19. Brad Perez

    20. Kyle Weatherman

    21. Josh Williams

    22. Patrick Emerling

    23. Joe Graf Jr.

    24. Stanton Barrett

    25. Dexter Stacey

    26. Sheldon Creed

    27. Jeremy Clements

    28. Leland Honeyman – OUT, Transmission

    29. Connor Mosack – OUT, Rear gear

    30. Cole Custer – OUT, Accident

    31. Sammy Smith – OUT, Accident

    32. Kyle Sieg – OUT, Brakes

    33. Alex Labbe – OUT, Accident

    34. John Hunter Nemechek – OUT, Accident

    35. Ryan Ellis – OUT, Accident

    36. Brett Moffitt – OUT, Hub

    37. Chandler Smith – OUT, Accident

    38. Katherine Legge – OUT

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the series’ lone visit of the season to Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, August 5, at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

  • Austin Hill rallies for dramatic Xfinity victory in overtime at Pocono

    Austin Hill rallies for dramatic Xfinity victory in overtime at Pocono

    In an event dominated by JR Motorsports’ Josh Berry, Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill stole the spotlight after outdueling Berry during an overtime attempt to win the eighth annual running of the Explore The Pocono Mountains 225 at Pocono Raceway on Saturday, July 22.

    The 29-year-old Hill from Winston, Georgia, led the final two of 92 over-scheduled laps in an event where he started 11th and nabbed a single point at the conclusion of the first stage. After being penalized with a speeding penalty prior to the final stage, Hill and his No. 21 RCR Chevrolet Camaro team led by crew chief Andy Street rolled the dice by pitting for fuel during a caution period with less than 45 laps remaining amid a two-car wreck that collected fellow competitors John Hunter Nemechek and Cole Custer.

    From a restart with 40 laps remaining through a late caution period with 11 laps remaining and prior to a six-lap dash to the finish, Hill elected to remain on the track amid concerns of running low of fuel. Despite losing a brief lead to Berry at the start of the six-lap dash, an opportunity presented itself for Hill as another late-race incident sent the event into overtime. During the event’s lone overtime attempt, the Georgian capitalized on a late mistake made by Berry slipping up the track in Turn 1 that enabled Hill to muscle into the lead. Despite being placed in a duel against Berry on the final lap, Hill managed to rocket away from Berry with a push from Berry’s teammate Sam Mayer and retain the lead just as a final lap incident involving Berry concluded the event under caution and handed Hill his fourth Xfinity victory of the 2023 season.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, July 21, Josh Berry notched his first Xfinity Series pole of the 2023 season after posting a pole-winning lap at 167.951 mph in 53.587 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Daniel Hemric, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 167.128 mph in 53.851 seconds.

    Prior to the event, the following names that included Garrett Smithley, Chad Chastain and Blaine Perkins dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Berry fended off a brief duel with Hemric through the frontstretch to launch ahead with the lead through the first turn. As the field battled two by two through Long Pond Straight, the Tunnel Curve and Turns 2 and 3, Berry managed to rocket ahead in his No. 8 Tire Pros Chevrolet Camaro and lead the first lap followed by Hemric while Sheldon Creed, Connor Mosack, John Hunter Nemechek and rookie Sammy Smith pursued within the top six.

    Through the second lap, more battles ensued within and outside the top 10 as Cole Custer was trying to protect ninth place ahead of Austin Hill, rookie Chandler Smith, Justin Allgaier, Corey Heim, Jeb Burton and others while Brandon Jones and Sam Mayer tried to close in on the top-six competitors. Meanwhile, the leader Berry proceeded with a reasonable advantage ahead of Hemric.

    Through the first five scheduled laps, Berry was leading by more than a second over Hemric followed by Creed, Mosack and Sammy Smith while Nemechek, Brandon Jones, Mayer, Custer and Austin Hill were in the top 10. Behind, Allgaier occupied 11th in front of Chandler Smith, Corey Heim, Ryan Sieg and Jeb Burton while Chase Elliott, Brett Moffitt, Daniel Suarez, Kaz Grala and Jeremy Clements occupied the top 20. By then, Ty Dillon was mired in 21st in front of Riley Herbst, Parker Kligerman, rookie Parker Retzlaff and Anthony Alfredo.

    At the Lap 10 mark, Berry stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Hemric while Creed retained third place in his No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Camaro. Behind, Sammy Smith moved up to fourth followed by teammate Nemechek and Brandon Jones while Mosack fell back to seventh. In addition, Custer and Mayer battled for eighth, Allgaier cracked the top 10 as he was running in 10th, Hill fell back to 12th and Elliott was up to 14th.

    Five laps later, Berry extended his advantage to nearly two seconds over Hemric while third-place Creed trailed by nearly three seconds. By then, teammates Sammy Smith and Nemechek retained fourth and fifth while Mosack had fallen back to 10th as Mayer, Allgaier and Custer moved up the leaderboard in the top 10.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 20, Berry, who has led since the drop of the green flag, captured his second Xfinity stage victory of the 2023 season. Hemric settled in second, trailing by more than a second, while Nemechek, Sammy Smith, Creed, Jones, Mayer, Allgaier, Mosack and Austin Hill were scored in the top 10. By then, Custer, who pitted for service under green on Lap 17 and just as pit road closed to signify the conclusion of a stage period, was mired back in 37th place, the next-to-last spot.

    Under the stage break, nearly the entire field led by Berry pitted while select names that included Custer, who pitted prior to the stage’s conclusion, along with Alex Labbe, Brennan Poole and Garrett Smithley remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Berry exited first ahead of Hemric, Smith, Jones and Nemechek. Amid the pit stops, Josh Williams was penalized for equipment interference.

    The second stage started on Lap 25 as Custer and Berry occupied the front row. At the start and amid a stacked two-by-two restart, Custer received a push from Hemric while running on the outside lane to battle Berry for the lead until the latter reassumed the top spot through Long Pond Straight. Behind, Hemric slipped in Turn 1 and fell back to seventh while Brandon Jones rocketed to third along with Sammy Smith, Nemechek and Allgaier. With Berry back in the lead, Jones would then move his No. 9 Menards Chevrolet Camaro into second after overtaking Custer through Turns 2 and 3 as Allgaier followed suit. Not long after, trouble struck for Jeffrey Earnhardt, who fell off the pace after cutting a left-front tire while the event remained under green flag conditions.

    During the proceeding laps, Berry was leading ahead of teammates Jones and Allgaier while Custer was overtaken by Sammy Smith and Nemechek for top-five spots amid older tires compared to the field. Behind, Hemric retained seventh as Herbst and Mayer tried to close in.

    By Lap 30, Berry was leading by more than a second over teammate Allgaier while teammate Jones, who was in third, trailed by more than two seconds. Behind, Nemechek was in fourth while Custer was being challenged by Sammy Smith for fifth place. Meanwhile, Hemric continued to run in seventh ahead of Herbst and Mayer while Chandler Smith was in 10th ahead of Chase Elliott. In addition, Creed, who was boxed in during his previous pit stops, was in 14th behind Austin Hill and Ryan Sieg.

    Five laps later, Berry’s advantage decreased to a tenth of a second over a hard-charging, teammate Allgaier while teammate Jones retained third as he trailed by less than two seconds. Shortly after, the battle for the lead between JR Motorsports’ Berry and Allgaier intensified as Allgaier started to intimidate Berry for the top spot. Behind, the battle for third place also intensified as Nemechek started to gain ground on Brandon Jones for the spot. By then, Parker Kligerman was mired in 36th after pitting under green and remaining on the lead lap. Creed, Ryan Sieg and Daniel Suarez would then pit just as pit road closed with two laps remaining in the second stage.

    Then on the final lap of the second stage, Allgaier drew even on teammate Berry for the lead and for the stage victory. With Berry pulling ahead and retaining the spot from Allgaier entering the straightaways while Allgaier gained runs through the turns, Berry managed to fend off Allgaier by a tenth of a second to claim his second stage victory of the day and the third of the 2023 Xfinity season on Lap 40. Nemechek settled in third while Brandon Jones, Custer, Sammy Smith, Mayer, Herbst, Hermic and Chandler Smith were scored in the top 10.

    During the stage break, nearly the entire field led by Berry pitted while some led by Allgaier and including Garrett Smithley, Brennan Poole, Suarez, Creed, Ryan Sieg and Kligerman remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Austin Hill was penalized for speeding on pit road.

    With 45 laps remaining, which marked the halfway point of the event, the final stage started as Allgaier and Suarez occupied the front row. At the start, however, the caution quickly returned amid a stacked restart when Nemechek, who restarted in the top 10 and was getting boxed in behind Kligerman after Kligerman struggled to launch, got sideways after getting bumped by teammate Sammy Smith as Nemechek then got turned before colliding into Custer’s No. 00 Haas Ford Mustang with both spinning and hitting the outside wall through the frontstretch. Amid the carnage, Suarez managed to emerge as the leader over Allgaier while Ryan Sieg, Berry and Creed were in the top five. During the caution period, names that included Mayer, Ryan Ellis, Patrick Emerling, Herbst, Nemechek, Custer and Sammy Smith pitted while the rest led by Suarez remained on the track. In addition, Chad Chastain was sent to the rear of the field for laying back during the previous restart.

    During the proceeding restart with 40 laps remaining, Suarez and Allgaier dueled for the lead as the field fanned out entering the first turn. Through Turn 1, Suarez tried to muscle ahead with the lead, but Allgaier fought back entering Long Pong Straight as Berry tried to launch a three-wide move on both. With Berry backing out, Allgaier rocketed ahead to assume the lead. Behind and during the proceeding lap, Berry continued to battle Suarez for the runner-up spot as Creed battled Ryan Sieg for fourth place.

    With 36 laps remaining, Allgaier retained the lead by a tenth of a second over a hard-charging Berry while Suarez fell back to third and trailed the lead by less than two seconds. A lap later, Suarez surrendered third place to pit his No. 10 LeafHome Water Chevrolet Camaro under green as Creed, Elliott and Kligerman moved up the leaderboard in the top five. In addition, Berry navigated his way around teammate Allgaier for the lead. Another lap later, Chandler Smith and Corey Heim pitted under green.

    Then with 33 laps remaining, Allgaier pitted his No. 7 Reese’s Ice Cream Chevrolet Camaro under green followed by Hemric and Jeb Burton, with Hemric exiting ahead of Allgaier after opting for only fuel to his No. 11 Chevy Accessories Chevrolet Camaro. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Sammy Smith and Connor Mosack would pit during the proceeding lap, with Smith pitting for only fuel, as Kligerman and Kaz Grala both pitted for only fuel with 31 laps remaining.

    With 30 laps remaining, Berry surrendered the lead to pit for four fresh tires and fuel under green as Elliott cycled into the lead. Creed would also pit for four fresh tires as Berry was mired outside the top 20 by the time he returned to the track.

    With 25 laps remaining and with mixed strategies continuing to ensue, Elliott, who has yet to pit, was leading by more than six seconds over Brandon Jones while Ryan Sieg, Ty Dillon and Herbst were in the top five. With Mayer and Moffitt running sixth and seventh, Hill, who topped off on fuel during the previous caution period and aiming to finish the event on his current fuel tank, was running in eighth. By then, Berry, the first competitor with enough fuel to finish the event, cycled his way up to 20th with teammate Allgaier following pursuit.

    Five laps later, Elliott surrendered the lead to pit his No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro under green followed by Parker Retzlaff as Brandon Jones cycled into the lead. In addition, Kaz Grala ran into late issues after spinning, but he managed to proceed without drawing a caution.

    Another five laps later, Brandon Jones retained the lead by more than eight seconds over Ty Dillon while Ryan Sieg occupied third place. Behind was Herbst, who was aiming to stretch his fuel tank to the distance, along with fifth-place Mayer while Moffitt and Hill were in sixth and seventh. Meanwhile, Berry cycled his way up to eighth while Anthony Alfredo and Allgaier were in the top 10. By then, Elliott, who pitted five laps earlier, was in 12th in front of Chandler Smith and Creed, Hemric was in 16th and Suarez was in 17th.

    Then with 11 laps remaining, the caution flew when Allgaier hit and sent the lapped competitor of Joey Gase spinning exiting Turn 2 as Allgaier also sustained damage to the right-front fender of his car. At the moment of caution, Brandon Jones was leading by more than 12 seconds over Herbst while Mayer, Hill and Berry were in the top five. By then, Ty Dillon, Moffitt and Ryan Sieg had made pit stops under green.

    During the caution period, nearly the entire field led by Brandon Jones, who was set to pit prior to Gase’s incident, and including Allgaier, who sustained a flat right-rear tire amid the contact with Gase, pitted while the rest led by Herbst and including Mayer, Hill, Berry, Elliott, Creed and Ryan Sieg remained on the track.

    Down to the final six laps of the event, the race restarted under green as Herbst and Hill occupied the front row ahead of Mayer and Berry. At the start, Hill muscled his way into the lead on the inside lane followed by Berry. Berry then wasted no time cycling his way back to the lead after overtaking Hill through Long Pond Straight as the field behind jostled for late spots. With Herbst and Mayer falling back to third and fourth in front of Elliott and behind Hill, Berry retained the lead as the event reached its final five-lap mark. Then amid the on-track battles, the caution returned when Connor Mosack wrecked his No. 19 IRWIN Toyota Supra in the Tunnel Curve in Turn 2. The incident was enough to send the event into overtime with Berry leading the field.

    During the first overtime attempt, where teammates Berry and Mayer occupied the front row, Berry received a push from Hill while restarting on the outside lane to pull ahead of teammate Mayer. Then in Turn 1, Berry missed the turn and went wide, which allowed Hill to rocket his No. 21 Global Industrial Chevrolet Camaro into the lead while Berry was trying to straighten his car while falling back to third. Amid stacked racing through Turns 2 and 3, Berry quickly reassumed the runner-up spot as he then ignited his pursuit on Hill for the lead and win.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Hill remained as the leader by two-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Berry. Through Turn 1, Berry lightly bumped into the rear of Hill to get Hill loose through the turn. With both then making light contact against one another entering Long Pond Straight, Berry and Hill dueled for the lead until Mayer drafted Hill clear of Berry and to the lead. In the process, Berry made contact against teammate Mayer’s No. 1 Accelerate Pros Talent Chevrolet Camaro as Mayer moved into second. Then entering the Tunnel Curve, Berry’s event went south after he went dead straight toward the outside wall with a flat right-front tire and wrecked against the wall. In front of him, Ryan Sieg, who was vying for a top-10 spot, spun just exiting Turn 2. The incidents forced NASCAR to draw the caution and deem the event official on the final lap as Hill navigated his way back to the frontstretch and claim his fourth checkered flag of the 2023 Xfinity season.

    With the victory, Hill notched his sixth career victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and fourth of the season, thus joining John Hunter Nemechek as a four-time race winner in 2023. He also became the eighth different winner in the Xfinity Series’ eight-year span at the Tricky Triangle as he also recorded the fourth Xfinity victory of the season for Richard Childress Racing and the 10th of the season for the Chevrolet nameplate.

    “We didn’t have the best car all day,” Hill said on USA Network. “[Crew chief] Andy [Street] and everybody back at [Richard Childress Racing] and ECR Engines worked really hard. We got the car better. I thought that we were maybe a top-five, top-seven car, but I didn’t think that we had anything for the leaders. [Berry] was so fast today. On that [overtime] restart, he drove into [Turn] 1 and he got really loose on entry. I was just trying to hit my line and I throttled up, cleared him. Then taking the white [flag], I backed it up way too much into [Turn] 1, just not wanting to do what [Berry] did and he packed air on me, ended up getting into my back bumper and then, we drag-raced down the backstretch. I thought [Mayer] was about to split us three wide. He had a big run, me and [Berry] both closed it up and he just had to push me at that point. Once I cleared him, I just knew I had to hit my marks and obviously, the caution came out.”

    “Man, such a special win,” Hill added. “Obviously with fuel saving and had to save fuel there, didn’t know if we were gonna make it and that was on my mind on the last lap. Going into the Tunnel Turn, I was like, ‘Man, I gotta get back to the start/finish line’. [I] Had enough fuel for a burnout, so we saved enough.”

    Mayer came home in a career-best runner-up spot for the third time in his career while Elliott, Herbst and Hemric finished in the top five.

    Sammy Smith, Brandon Jones, Moffitt, Kligerman and Suarez finished in the top 10. Notably, Creed ended up 11th, Ty Dillon settled in 14th and Allgaier fell back to 23rd after wrecking on the frontstretch along with Chandler Smith that resulted in a rear bumper cover coming off of Allgaier’s car before the veteran went dead straight and wrecked against the Turn 1 outside wall.

    Meanwhile, Berry, who led a race-high 51 laps and swept both stages, ended up 24th after wrecking on the final lap and having his first victory of the season slip out of his grasp as he was unable to finish the event.

    “It was just a wild restart,” Berry said in the infield care center. “I think [Hill] pushed me a little bit longer and a little harder than I wanted to go into [Turn] 1, and just got loose, got up the track and [into] the marbles. [I] Was able to battle back there and race with him. I was trying to time the run. I got there quicker than I wanted in the center and that’s why I got into [Mayer] and we just lost momentum there. The deal with me and Sam [Mayer], I knew Sam was coming with a huge run and obviously, I just tried to cover it to get next to [Hill]. He moved left and I moved right. It was just a racing deal. Just hate that we didn’t get the finish we deserved today, but man, what a really, really fast Tire Pros Chevrolet. I know that if we can continue to have that kind of speed, we’ll win plenty of races. Tough way to end, but still a lot of positives from today and things that I know I could’ve done better to at the end.”

    There were 11 lead changes for eight different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 72 laps. In addition, 23 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.

    With seven Xfinity regular-season events remaining on the schedule, John Hunter Nemechek continues to lead the regular-season standings by 13 points over Austin Hill, 55 over Justin Allgaier and 85 over Cole Custer.

    Results.

    1. Austin Hill, two laps led

    2. Sam Mayer

    3. Chase Elliott, nine laps led

    4. Riley Herbst, three laps led

    5. Daniel Hemric

    6. Sammy Smith

    7. Brandon Jones, 12 laps led

    8. Brett Moffitt

    9. Parker Kligerman

    10. Daniel Suarez, five laps led

    11. Sheldon Creed

    12. Jeb Burton

    13. Anthony Alfredo

    14. Ty Dillon

    15. Jeremy Clements

    16. Kyle Sieg

    17. Joe Graf Jr.

    18. Ryan Ellis

    19. Jeffrey Earnhardt

    20. Chandler Smith

    21. Garrett Smithley

    22. Ryan Sieg

    23. Justin Allgaier, eight laps led

    24. Josh Berry, one lap down, 51 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

    25. Kaz Grala, one lap down

    26. Patrick Emerling, one lap down

    27. Blaine Perkins, one lap down

    28. Alex Labbe, one lap down

    29. Brennan Poole, one lap down

    30. Chad Chastain, one lap down

    31. Joey Gase, two laps down

    32. John Hunter Nemechek, three laps down

    33. Cole Custer, five laps down, two laps led

    34. Connor Mosack – OUT, Accident

    35. Parker Retzlaff, eight laps down

    36. Josh Williams, 10 laps down

    37. Corey Heim – OUT, Suspension

    38. Sage Karam – OUT, Transmission

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the series’ annual return to Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, July 29, at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.

  • John Hunter Nemechek caps off dominant run with overtime Xfinity victory at New Hampshire

    John Hunter Nemechek caps off dominant run with overtime Xfinity victory at New Hampshire

    A week after capturing a thrilling overtime victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway, John Hunter Nemechek doubled down with a second consecutive NASCAR Xfinity Series win in overtime after marching away from the field and winning the Ambetter Health 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Saturday, July 15.

    Compared to a week ago where he led the final three laps en route to victory, the 26-year-old Nemechek from Mooresville, North Carolina, led four times for a race-high 137 of 206 over-scheduled laps at the Magic Mile. After assuming the lead for the first time on the ninth lap before spending the majority of the event as the leader, Nemechek assumed the lead for good with 36 laps remaining during a late caution period.

    Amid two late restarts and two caution periods due to on-track incidents, the latter of which sent the event into overtime, Nemechek capitalized in overtime by muscling away from rookie Chandler Smith and Cole Custer and started the final lap under green flag conditions just before a two-car wreck on the final lap involving Custer and Sheldon Creed concluded the event under caution and handed Nemechek his fourth Xfinity victory of the 2023 season.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, July 14, rookie Chandler Smith scored his second consecutive Xfinity pole and third of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 126.291 mph in 30.159 seconds. Joining him on the front row was John Hunter Nemechek, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 126.123 mph in 30.199 seconds.

    Prior to the event, the following names that included rookie Sammy Smith, Jeb Burton, Patrick Emerling, Ryan Sieg and Greg Val Alst dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries. Rajah Caruth also dropped to the rear of the field due to a tire change along with Kaz Grala, who started the event in a backup car after being involved in a two-car wreck with Ryan Sieg during Friday’s practice session.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Chandler Smith rocketed ahead with the lead on the outside lane while Justin Allgaier and Josh Berry attempted to go three wide on John Hunter Nemechek for the runner-up spot entering the first two turns. As the field fanned out and jostled early for positions through the backstretch and entering Turns 3 and 4, Smith fended off Allgaier to lead the first lap.

    During the second lap and amid a series of on-track battles, Allgaier made his move beneath Chandler Smith through the backstretch and claimed the lead entering Turn 3. Nemechek would then move into the runner-up spot two laps later while Berry and Cole Custer battled for fourth behind Chandler Smith. As Brandon Jones and Daniel Hemric tried to close in on the top-five runners, Allgaier was leading by two-tenths of a second over Nemechek during the fifth lap mark.

    A lap later, however, an early battle for the lead ignited between Allgaier and Nemechek as both dueled and rubbed for the top spot while the former fended off the latter for the top spot. Despite Allgaier’s efforts in retaining the lead while running the second lane and to Nemechek’s outside during the proceeding laps, Nemechek was able to assume the lead for himself by the ninth lap after Allgaier got loose in Turn 2. All in the process, Custer kept the two leaders in front of him followed by Chandler Smith and Berry while Jones and Hemric battled for sixth.

    Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Nemechek was leading by half a second over Allgaier followed by Cole Custer, Chandler Smith and Berry while Jones, Hemric, Austin Hill, Austin Dillon and Sam Mayer were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Parker Kligerman was in 11th ahead of Sheldon Creed, rookie Parker Retzlaff, Riley Herbst and Brett Moffitt while Jeremy Clements, Anthony Alfredo, Josh Williams, Sammy Smith and Joe Graf Jr. were in the top 20.

    Ten laps later, Nemechek stabilized his advantage to four-tenths of a second over Allgaier, who started to regain ground on the former for the lead, while Custer, Chandler Smith and Berry remained in the top five. In addition, Jones, Hemric, Hill, Austin Dillon and Mayer continued to run sixth through 10th, respectively.

    Another 10 laps later, Allgaier, who reassumed the lead from Nemechek on Lap 27 amid another on-track battle and contact while navigating through lapped traffic, was leading by three-tenths of a second over Nemechek. Meanwhile, third-place Custer trailed by half a second as he tried to join the battle while Chandler Smith and Berry were in the top five. Allgaier would then slowly stretch his advantage to eight-tenths of a second by Lap 35 and to more than a second by Lap 40 while Nemechek retained second.

    On Lap 41, the first caution of the event flew when Chris Hacker spun on the backstretch. Not long after, Rajah Caruth ran into early issues after his car emerged with heavy smoke and was leaking fuel. Hacker’s incident was enough for the first stage period set to conclude on Lap 45 to conclude under caution as Allgaier claimed his fifth stage victory of the 2023 season. Nemechek ended up second while Custer, Chandler Smith, Berry, Brandon Jones, Austin Dillon, Mayer, Hemric and Hill were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Allgaier pitted. Following the pit stops, Chandler Smith exited first followed by Allgaier, Nemechek, Hill, Jones and Berry. Amid the pit stops, Sammy Smith and Joe Graf Jr. were penalized for speeding on pit road. In addition, Allgaier, who opted for two fresh tires after sliding through his pit box and reversing his car followed by the audible two-tire service, would then be penalized for pitting outside his pit box while having a right-rear lug nut removed when the car was over the pit line.

    The second stage started on Lap 54 as Chandler Smith and Nemechek occupied the front row. At the start, Chandler Smith received a push from Hill from the outside lane to briefly retain the lead over Nemechek through the first two turns before Nemechek made his move beneath Smith and reassumed the lead through Turns 3 and 4. With Nemechek leading Chandler Smith, the following competitors that included Hill, Brandon Jones, Berry and Custer battled for top-six spots in front of Herbst while Hemric, Austin Dillon and Mayer started to fan out and battle for eighth.

    Just past the Lap 60 mark, Nemechek was leading by seven-tenths of a second over Chandler Smith while third-place Hill trailed by more than a second. Behind, Custer and Berry were running in the top five while Brandon Jones, Herbst, Mayer, Hemric and Dillon were in the top 10.

    Five laps later and as Nemechek continued to lead ahead over Chandler Smith, Custer, Berry, Hill and Herbst, the event’s second caution flew when Chad Finchum stalled in the middle of pit road.

    Then as the field attempted to restart under green on Lap 70, the caution quickly returned when the front-runners did not launch early and stacked the field behind as Parker Kligerman sustained heavy front nose damage after running into the rear of Hemric. A multi-car wreck would then ensue on the frontstretch amid the stack up and within the middle of the pack after Allgaier rear-ended Ryan Sieg and Jeremy Clements while Anthony Alfredo collided into Allgaier as more including Blaine Perkins, Mason Massey, Parker Retzlaff, Chris Hacker, Patrick Emerling, Ryan Ellis and Alex Labbe wrecked.

    During the caution period, some including Brandon Jones, Joe Graf Jr., Creed, Sammy Smith and Dillon pitted while the rest led by Nemechek remained on the track.

    When the event restarted under green on Lap 81, Nemechek rocketed ahead with the lead from the outside lane as he retained the top spot through the first two turns while Berry battled and overtook Chandler Smith for second. In addition, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Custer and Herbst started to close in on Chandler Smith for third while Mayer and Hill battled for sixth in front of Jeb Burton and Hemric. In the process, Nemechek stretched his advantage to more than a second over Berry. The caution, however, would return on Lap 84 when Connor Mosack slipped sideways and slapped the outside wall between Turns 1 and 2.

    During the caution period, some led by Nemechek pitted while others led by Retzlaff remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Nemechek exited first followed by Berry, Chandler Smith, Herbst, Custer, Hemric and Hill.

    As the event restarted with two laps remaining in the second stage, Retzlaff and Sammy Smith dueled for the lead followed by Creed, Josh Williams and Brandon Jones while Allgaier and Joe Graf Jr. battled for sixth. Then prior to the final lap of the second stage, Sammy Smith muscled his No. 18 TMC Toyota Supra into the lead while Retzlaff battled Creed for second.

    When the second stage concluded on Lap 90, Sammy Smith claimed his first stage victory of the 2023 season. Retzlaff settled in second followed by Creed while Brandon Jones, Williams, Allgaier, Graf, Nemechek, Dillon and Chandler Smith were scored in the top 10.

    During the stage break, some led by Retzlaff and including Josh Williams, Kyle Weatherman, Clements, Blaine Perkins and Ryan Ellis pitted while the rest led by Sammy Smith remained on the track.

    With 103 laps remaining, the final stage started as Sammy Smith and Creed occupied the front row. At the start, Smith and Creed briefly dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Smith gained the advantage from the outside lane and retained the lead. With Sammy Smith out in front, Nemechek battled Brandon Jones for third, and he succeeded in gaining the spot during the following lap as Nemechek battled Creed for second. Behind, Allgaier was in fifth ahead of a multi-car battle ensuing behind that involved Graf, Berry, Chandler Smith, Custer, Herbst and Dillon.

    Then with 99 laps remaining, the caution flew when Herbst, who was battling Dillon for a top-10 spot, drove across the front left-front fender of Dillon’s No. 10 LA Golf Chevrolet Camaro entering the frontstretch as Herbst squeezed and forced Dillon into the outside wall. Dillon then proceeded to turn and send Herbst spinning sideways and into the wall with Herbst sustaining damage to his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang.

    When the event restarted with 93 laps remaining, Nemechek fended off teammate Sammy Smith, who briefly got loose after receiving a push from Creed, to assume the lead as the field fanned out through the first two turns and the backstretch. As Nemechek stabilized his advantage over teammate Sammy Smith, Creed was in third followed by a four-car battle that included Graf, Berry, Allgaier and Custer. Behind more battles ensued as Hemric was fighting to remain in 10th ahead of Mayer, Hill, Grala, Moffitt, Retzlaff, Williams and Jeb Burton.

    With 85 laps remaining, Nemechek was leading by eight-tenths of a second over teammate Sammy Smith as Creed, Brandon Jones and Graf were in the top five. Nemechek would proceed to stretch his advantage to more than a second over Smith with 80 laps remaining and to nine-tenths of a second with 75 laps remaining.

    Down to the final 60 laps of the event, Nemechek extended his advantage to more than three seconds over teammate Sammy Smith while third-place Jones trailed by more than six seconds. By then, Creed also trailed by more than six seconds in fourth while Custer and Chandler Smith were in fifth and sixth.

    Six laps later, green flag pit stops started to ensue as Creed pitted along with Kyle Weatherman, Connor Mosack and Sammy Smith pitted. Berry would also pit not long after along with teammate Jones and Custer. Then with 50 laps remaining, the race leader Nemechek pitted along with Hill, Kaz Grala and Mayer. Following his pit stop, Nemechek managed to exit pit road and blend back on the track ahead of teammate Sammy Smith while the green flag pit stops ensued.

    Then with 41 laps remaining, the caution flew when Kyle Sieg spun in front of Berry through Turns 3 and 4. By then, Austin Dillon, who had yet to pit, was leading ahead of Graf, Allgaier and Josh Williams, all of whom had yet to pit, while Nemechek, the first competitor who pitted, was in fifth followed by teammate Sammy Smith. During the caution period, however, some including Graf and Dillon pitted while the rest led by Nemechek remained on the track as Nemechek cycled his way back to the lead.

    During the proceeding restart with 33 laps remaining, Nemechek rocketed ahead with the lead as the field fanned out entering the first two turns. Behind, smoke emerged out of the left-front fender of Berry’s No. 8 Jarrett Logistics Systems Chevrolet Camaro amid contact from Creed and Jones after Jones nearly got turned by Chandler Smith in Turn 1. With the race remaining under green flag conditions and the field fanning out while jostling for late positions, Nemechek retained the lead over Custer followed by Sammy Smith, Mayer and Chandler Smith.

    With 25 laps remaining, Nemechek was leading by more than a second over Custer while Sammy Smith, Chandler Smith and Mayer continued to run in the top five. Nemechek would retain the lead by nearly a second and a half over Custer while third-place Sammy Smith trailed by more than two seconds with 20 laps remaining.

    Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Nemechek continued to lead by a second and a half over Custer while Chandler Smith trailed in third by more than two seconds in his No. 16 Quick Tie Products Inc. Chevrolet Camaro. Behind, Sammy Smith trailed in fourth by more than seven seconds while fifth-place Mayer trailed by more than 10 seconds. A lap later, however, the caution flew when Retzlaff spun and smacked the outside wall in Turn 1 after losing a right-rear tire.

    As the event attempted to restart under green with four laps remaining, the caution quickly returned when Mayer was tapped in the rear end by Sammy Smith as he spun before getting hit by Dillon and Graf, whose car caught on fire amid heavy front nose damage to his No. 19 Rocky’s ACE Hardware Toyota Supra. The incident, which also collected Brandon Jones and Connor Mosack, was enough to send the event into overtime as Nemechek had retained the lead over Chandler Smith, Custer, Creed and Hill.

    At the start of the first overtime attempt, Nemechek received a huge push from Chandler Smith, who elected to restart on the outside lane behind Nemechek instead of next to Nemechek on the front row. Smith’s push enabled Nemechek to drive away in his No. 20 Persil Toyota Supra from the field while Chandler Smith was left to battle Creed, Custer and Hill for second as the field fanned out.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Nemechek remained as the leader by four-tenths of a second over Chandler Smith. Shortly after, Custer turned Creed across the frontstretch and into the outside wall as Custer was also sent spinning in the middle of the frontstretch, which caused the field to scatter to avoid both competitors. The incident was enough to conclude the event under caution as Nemechek cycled back to the frontstretch and claimed his fourth checkered flag of the 2023 season.

    With the victory, Nemechek became the first four-time winner of this year’s Xfinity season. He also recorded his sixth career victory in the Xfinity circuit, his first at New Hampshire, the sixth of the season for Toyota and the 199th Xfinity career win for Joe Gibbs Racing. This also marked the first time in his Xfinity career that he achieved back-to-back victories.

    “Man, I am so proud of this No. 20 team and everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing,” Nemechek said on USA Network. “Man, [sponsor] Persil ProClean, this [car] looked clean on the racetrack today. [I] Had, I think, our first clean race all year. I was a little worried there on the last restarts. We kept getting really good launch and we were able to clear [the field], but I didn’t know who was saving what. I was trying to save in front of Cole [Custer] until he started pushing there. He definitely was gonna give us a run our the money, but hats off to all the men and women at Joe Gibbs Racing, everyone at Toyota, [Toyota Racing Development]. Just blessed to have this opportunity. I’m the lucky guy that gets to sit behind the wheel of this No. 20 car every weekend.”

    With Nemechek winning the event, Chandler Smith, who led 10 laps from pole position, ended up in the runner-up spot for the first time in his career while Austin Hill, Hemric and Sammy Smith finished in the top five.

    Allgaier, who rallied from his early pit road penalty and wreck, nursed his damaged No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro in sixth while Jeb Burton, Josh Williams, Moffitt and Mason Massey finished in the top 10. Notably, Austin Dillon ended up 16th in his second Xfinity start of the season while Creed and Custer ended up 21st and 22nd, respectively, following their last lap wreck.

    There were 13 lead changes for seven different leaders. The race featured 10 cautions for 60 laps. In addition, 20 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    With eight Xfinity regular-season events remaining on the schedule, John Hunter Nemechek continues to lead the regular-season standings 33 points over Austin Hill, 60 over Justin Allgaier and 74 over Cole Custer.

    Results.

    1. John Hunter Nemechek, 137 laps led

    2. Chandler Smith, 10 laps led

    3. Austin Hill

    4. Daniel Hemric

    5. Sammy Smith, 18 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    6. Justin Allgaier, 27 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    7. Jeb Burton

    8. Josh Williams

    9. Brett Moffitt

    10. Mason Massey

    11. Brandon Jones

    12. Alex Labbe

    13. Kaz Grala

    14. Patrick Emerling

    15. Jeremy Clements

    16. Austin Dillon, four laps led

    17. Josh Berry

    18. Sam Mayer

    19. Ryan Ellis

    20. Riley Herbst

    21. Sheldon Creed

    22. Cole Custer

    23. Kyle Sieg, one lap down

    24. Brennan Poole, two laps down

    25. Blaine Perkins, three laps down

    26. Connor Mosack, three laps down

    27. Kyle Weatherman, four laps down

    28. CJ McLaughlin, five laps down

    29. Joe Graf Jr. – OUT, Accident, eight laps led

    30. Chris Hacker, 11 laps down

    31. Parker Retzlaff – OUT, Accident, two laps led

    32. Parker Kligerman – OUT, Accident

    33. Ryan Sieg – OUT, Accident

    34. Anthony Alfredo – OUT, Accident

    35. Chad Finchum – OUT, Suspension

    36. Stefan Parsons – OUT, Suspension

    37. Rajah Caruth – OUT, Oil line

    38. Greg Van Alst – OUT, Brakes

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the series’ lone visit of the season to Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, July 22, at 5:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

  • John Hunter Nemechek grabs third Xfinity victory of 2023 at Atlanta

    John Hunter Nemechek grabs third Xfinity victory of 2023 at Atlanta

    An overtime shootout amid a late on-track incident provided an opportunity for John Hunter Nemechek to capitalize against Kaulig Racing’s trio squad, which he did so as he motored his way to a thrilling victory in the Alsco Uniforms 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday, July 8.

    The 26-year-old Nemechek from Mooresville, North Carolina, led the final three of 169 over-scheduled laps in an event where he started on the front row and was running up front with the front-runners before he slipped and lost the draft in the closing laps of the first stage. In spite of not finishing in the top 10 during both stage periods, a multi-car wreck at the start of the final stage drew Nemechek and his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota crew back into contention.

    He was left to contend against Kaulig Racing’s triple squad and a host of Xfinity Series regulars for the victory. Then after a caution period for Austin Hill’s wreck with three laps remaining that sent the field into overtime, Nemechek received a push from Daniel Hemric to overtake Justin Haley for the lead and fend off Hemric for two laps to capture his third checkered flag of the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series season.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, rookie Chandler Smith scored his second Xfinity career pole after posting a pole-winning lap at 172.565 mph in 32.127 seconds. Joining him on the front row was John Hunter Nemechek, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 171.971 mph in 32.238 seconds.

    Prior to the event, the following names that included Sheldon Creed, Austin Hill, rookie Parker Retzlaff, Greg Van Alst and Mason Massey started at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Chandler Smith and John Hunter Nemechek dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Smith launched ahead through the backstretch with drafting help from Josh Berry on the outside lane. Berry then veered left and drew himself alongside Smith through Turns 3 and 4. With both competitors remaining dead even entering the frontstretch, Smith managed to lead the first lap by a hair over Berry as rookie Sammy Smith, Nemechek and Riley Herbst pursued amid the draft.

    During the second lap, Chandler Smith and Berry would continue to duel early for the lead in front of Sammy Smith and Nemechek as Smith managed to pull ahead and lead the proceeding laps while running on the outside lane.

    Then on the fifth lap, Berry would manage to pull ahead on the inside lane in Turn 1 and emerge out in front of the stacked pack that fanned out through the backstretch. Berry would then lead by three-tenths of a second over a side-by-side duel between Chandler Smith and Nemechek as all 37 starters were separated within nine seconds. Berry would continue to lead as the event surpassed its Lap 10 mark. By then, Herbst moved up to third behind Chandler Smith while Nemechek was in fourth in front of teammate Ty Gibbs.

    At the Lap 20 mark, Berry continued to lead by a tenth of a second over Chandler Smith, Herbst, Nemechek, Ty Gibbs, Justin Haley, Custer, Jeremy Clements, Daniel Hemric and Justin Allgaier. By then, Austin Hill, who started the event at the rear of the field, carved his way up to 11th ahead of Brandon Jones, Parker Kligerman, Sam Mayer and Anthony Alfredo while Jeffrey Earnhardt, Brett Moffitt, Sheldon Creed, Joe Graf Jr. and Sammy Smith occupied the top 20.

    Seven laps later, the first caution of the event flew when Kligerman, who was running within the top 15, spun in Turn 2 after cutting a left-rear tire on his No. 48 Spiked Light Coolers Chevrolet Camaro. During the first caution period, some including Ty Gibbs, Custer, Moffitt, Mayer, Creed and Sammy Smith pitted while the rest led by Berry remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Ty Gibbs was penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation.

    When the race restarted on Lap 34, Berry, who restarted on the outside lane, muscled ahead with a push from Herbst as he retained the lead over Nemechek, who restarted on the inside lane before he pulled even through the backstretch. Berry and Nemechek would then duel for the lead amid a stacked pack trailing behind, with the former still emerging out in front. As the laps proceeded, Nemechek then slipped up the track in Turns 3 and 4, which allowed Herbst, Chandler Smith, Hill, Haley and Clements to move up while Berry retained the lead.

    When the final lap of the first stage struck, Berry was still leading ahead of a side-by-side battle between Herbst and Chandler Smith. Then exiting the backstretch, Herbst gained a strong run to Berry’s outside amid a push from Haley. With Chandler Smith trying to draw against Berry entering the frontstretch, Herbst used the momentum from the outside lane to pull away with the lead and claim the first stage victory on Lap 40, which marked his first stage victory of the 2023 season. Berry, who led 34 of 40 laps, settled in second while Chandler Smith, Haley, Hill, Allgaier, Clements, Creed, Joe Graf Jr. and Retzlaff were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, a majority of the field led by Herbst pitted while others led by Creed, who was among those who pitted during the first caution period, remained on the track. During the pit stops, Jeb Burton exited first after only opting for fuel in his car while Herbst, the first competitor who pitted for fresh tires, followed pursuit.

    The second stage started on Lap 46 as Creed and Custer occupied the front row. At the start, Creed gained a brief advantage on the outside lane until Custer drew himself into a side-by-side challenge with Creed from the inside lane. As both continued to duel, Creed would manage to lead at the start/finish line when the field returned to the frontstretch.

    By Lap 50 and with the field fanning out, Ryan Sieg made his move to the front as he battled Creed for the lead. Not long after, the caution returned for an incident involving Nemechek and Retzlaff in Turn 4. During the caution period, some including Moffitt and Daniel Hemric pitted while the rest led by Sieg remained on the track.

    During the following restart on Lap 56, Sieg and Creed dueled for the lead as Creed attempted to take the lead while restarting on the inside lane. Sieg, however, fought back on the outside lane and despite gaining a strong run through Turns 3 and 4, Creed would return to the top of the leaderboard during the following lap. Creed would continue to lead by a hair through the Lap 60 mark as Hill was lurking in the top five behind Sieg, Custer and Chandler Smith.

    Then two laps later and just as Sieg overtook Creed amid a tight battle at the front, the caution flew when Greg Van Alst, a newcomer to the Xfinity Series and winner of this year’s ARCA Menards Series opener at Daytona International Speedway, wrecked along with Mason Massey in Turn 4 as Van Alst’s No. 44 car burst into flames, with the driver able to exit uninjured. Amid an extensive caution period, some including Chandler Smith, Haley, Herbst, Mayer, Nemechek, Jeb Burton, Brandon Jones, Parker Retzlaff, Joe Graf Jr., Brennan Poole, Blaine Perkins, Garrett Smithley and David Starr pitted while the rest led by Sieg remained on the track.

    When the race restarted on Lap 71, Creed managed to overtake Sieg to reassume the lead. As Creed continued to lead during the proceeding laps, Hill then commenced his attempt to take the lead as he tried to overtake Sieg, who blocked and briefly stalled his momentum. By Lap 75, however, Hill carved his way into second as he then battled dead even against teammate Creed for the lead. While Hill would lead a lap for himself on Lap 77, he would remain stuck in a dead-even battle with teammate Creed as Sieg, Custer, Berry, Allgaier and the rest of the field pursued in close-quarters racing.

    When the second stage concluded on Lap 80, Creed fended off a last-lap charge from teammate Hill to claim his fourth stage victory of the 2023 season. Hill settled in second while Sieg, Berry, Allgaier, Custer, Hemric, Chandler Smith, Kligerman and Sammy Smith were scored in the top 10. By then, the top-12 competitors were separated by nine-tenths of a second while 36 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.

    During the stage break, nearly the entire field led by Creed pitted for service while Joe Graf Jr., Akinori Ogata and Mason Massey remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Allgaier was the first competitor to exit pit road first followed by Clements, Haley, Mayer, Hemric and Custer. Both Allgaier and Clements, however, would return to pit road after both missed their respective pit boxes amid the pit stops with the majority of the field. This cycled Haley into second behind Graf, who remained on the track with the lead, while Mayer, Hemric and Custer were scored in the top five.

    With 77 laps remaining, the final stage started as Graf and Haley occupied the front row. At the start, Graf briefly took off with the lead through Turns 1 and 2 until Haley rocketed to the lead followed by teammates Hemric and Chandler Smith on the inside lane.

    Two laps later, the caution quickly returned for a multi-car wreck that started when Herbst, who was running within the top 12, dropped off the pace through the backstretch after losing a left-rear tire on his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang. Herbst’s tire issue ignited a stack-up and a chain-reaction wreck that involved Sieg, Mayer, Blaine Perkins, Poole, Weatherman, Alfredo, Josh Williams, Brandon Jones and Creed. The multi-car wreck on the backstretch occurred just as Ty Gibbs had also fallen off the pace and was running at the rear of the field due to a flat right-rear tire on his car.

    During the caution period, names that included Mason Massey, Berry, Mayer, Garrett Smithley, Josh Bilicki, Clements, Allgaier, Poole, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Brandon Jones, Kyle Weatherman and Alfredo pitted for adjustments and repairs while the rest led by Kaulig Racing’s trio of Haley, Hemric and Chandler Smith remained on the track.

    When the race restarted with 67 laps remaining, Haley, who restarted on the outside lane and in front of teammates Hemric and Chandler Smith, retained the lead ahead of Nemechek, who restarted on the inside lane. Haley would remain in front of teammates Hemric and Chandler Smith with the lead during the proceeding laps. The caution, however, would return with 63 laps remaining when Kyle Weatherman came to a stop at the entrance of pit road after he had made earlier contact with the wall.

    During the proceeding restart with 55 laps remaining, Haley received the upper hand amid a side-by-side duel against Nemechek through the first two turns as Haley retained the lead through the backstretch. With Haley out in front, teammate Hemric settled in second while Nemechek, Hill and Graf were in the top five.

    With 50 laps remaining, Haley was still leading by a tenth of a second over teammate Hemric as Hill motored past Nemechek for third place. By then, Graf retained fifth while Custer, Retzlaff, Sammy Smith, Kligerman and Chandler Smith were in the top 10. A few laps later, Hill navigated his way around Hemric for second place as he ignited his pursuit of Haley for the lead.

    Down to the final 40 laps of the event, Haley continued to lead by a tenth of a second in his No. 10 Campers Inn RV Chevrolet Camaro over Hill while Chandler Smith made a bold, aggressive move from the inside to the outside lane to move up to third in front of teammate Hemric and Nemechek while Custer, Retzlaff, Kligerman, Moffitt and Graf were in the top 10. By then, the top-14 competitors were separated by two-and-a-half seconds with the top seven separated within a second.

    Three laps later, Hill, who tried to make an early move on Haley for the lead, was unable to execute his move for the lead and lost the draft towards the front with no one electing to draft with him as Chandler Smith, Hemric, Nemechek and Custer all overtook him, which dropped Hill to sixth on the leaderboard.

    Down to the final 25 laps of the event, Kaulig Racing’s trio led by Haley and followed by teammates Chandler Smith and Hemric were at the top of the leaderboard followed by Nemechek and Custer while Hill was still mired back in sixth. Meanwhile, Kligerman, who was a lap down following his early incident, was back up to seventh followed by Retzlaff, Moffitt and Allgaier while Sammy Smith, Ty Gibbs, Clements, Graf and Mayer were in the top 10.

    With 15 laps remaining, Haley was still leading by a tenth of a second ahead of teammates Smith and Hemric while Hill carved his way back to fourth as he then tried to challenge Hemric for third. By then, the top-six competitors that included Hill, Nemechek and Allgaier were separated by seven-tenths of a second as the leaders were also starting to approach lapped traffic. With some of the lapped traffic that included Berry were lapped, Haley would retain the lead ahead of his Kaulig Racing teammates with 10 laps remaining.

    Then with three laps remaining, Hill, who moved up to third as he along with Nemechek and Kligerman overtook Hemric, had his hopes of winning at his home track three consecutive times evaporate after the air off of Kligerman’s front nose of the car caused Hill’s No. 21 Bennett Transportation Chevrolet Camaro to get loose as he slipped sideways and made rear end contact with the outside wall in between Turns 3 and 4 with the caution flying and the event being sent into overtime.

    With the field restarting in overtime, Chandler Smith and Kligerman both ran out of fuel, which caused the field to fan out and scatter as Nemechek rocketed his No. 20 Mobil 1 Toyota Supra to the lead over Haley with Hemric pushing Nemechek out in front. Through the backstretch and with the field still being scattered, Nemechek led a four-car breakaway that involved Hemric, Haley and Custer, all of whom were separated by three-tenths of a second.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Nemechek remained the leader by a tenth of a second over Hemric as Haley tried to make a move beneath Hemric for second. With Nemechek retaining the lead in front of the field through Turns 1 and 2, Hemric retook the runner-up spot from teammate Haley entering the backstretch and tried to gain a run amid the draft on Nemechek with Custer following suit. Nemechek, however, blocked Hemric’s No. 11 Cirkul Chevrolet Camaro entering Turn 3, which stalled Hemric’s momentum and was the difference maker as Nemechek was able to muscle away entering the frontstretch and claim the checkered flag by two-tenths of a second.

    With the victory, Nemechek, who last won at Martinsville Speedway in April, notched his third victory of the 2023 Xfinity season and the fifth of his career as he joined Austin Hill as three-time race winners of this season. He also achieved his second NASCAR national touring series victory at Atlanta after winning the Truck Series event at Atlanta in February 2016 and the fifth of the season for Joe Gibbs Racing.

    “I got a huge push from [Hemric in overtime], so thanks to Daniel for giving me that huge push,” Nemechek said on USA Network. “Early on in the race, if you would’ve said that we would’ve won the race, I definitely would’ve told you that wasn’t going to be the case. We didn’t have the fastest car tonight. I’m really proud of this whole No. 20 team. We just had to keep making our Mobil 1 Toyota GR Supra better all night. [Crew chief] Ben [Beshore] and the guys did awesome. They made the right adjustments all night, got us to where we needed to be. It came down to an overtime finish and luckily, we were able to execute on that restart. Proud to be the one holding the wheel of this No. 20 car.”

    Meanwhile, Hemric settled in second place for a second consecutive time at Atlanta after also finishing second at Atlanta earlier in March. In between his two runner-up results at Atlanta, he has finished in the top 10 six times in 11 events. Despite coming up one spot short of winning, he has moved up to 10th place in the Xfinity regular-season standings and is 41 points above the top-12 cutline to make the 2023 Xfinity Series Playoffs.

    “I showed some super amount of frustration at the end when I got out of the car,” Hemric said. “I felt like I’d backed up to [Nemechek] there and thought I was gonna have the run down the front to at least give myself an opportunity to get [Nemechek] back. It’s frustrating. Obviously, we all want to bring back Kaulig [Racing] some trophies. For sure, [I] let one get away here tonight. I probably couldn’t be as aggressive as I wanted to there throughout the last 20 laps, even trying to hold [Hill] off there for our organization. When the dust started to settle, I thought we were gonna have an opportunity to do something special there. Hate it for [sponsor] Cirkul. I wanted to get them to Victory Lane, but fell short.”

    Custer settled in third after edging Haley, who led a race-high 80 laps, in a photo finish while Sam Mayer came home in fifth.

    “I think just leading all those laps, [I was] just short on fuel there,” Haley said. “I thought, obviously, we had [the race] won. Things just don’t work out sometimes.”

    Ty Gibbs, Kyle Sieg, Kligerman, Josh Williams and Sammy Smith completed the top 10. Notably, pole-sitter Chandler Smith ended up 20th after running out of fuel during the overtime attempt and never recovering his pace.

    There were 14 lead changes for nine different leaders. The race featured eight cautions for 50 laps. In total, 17 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    With nine Xfinity regular-season events remaining on the schedule, John Hunter Nemechek leads the regular-season standings by 16 points over Austin Hill, 45 over Cole Custer and 54 over Justin Allgaier.

    Results.

    1. John Hunter Nemechek, three laps led

    2. Daniel Hemric

    3. Cole Custer

    4. Justin Haley, 80 laps led

    5. Sam Mayer

    6. Ty Gibbs

    7. Kyle Sieg

    8. Parker Kligerman

    9. Josh Williams

    10. Sammy Smith

    11. Brett Moffitt

    12. Austin Hill, one lap led

    13. Jeb Burton

    14. Kaz Grala

    15. Jeremy Clements

    16. Parker Retzlaff

    17. Justin Allgaier

    18. Josh Bilicki, one lap down

    19. Josh Berry, one lap down, 34 laps led

    20. Chandler Smith, one lap down, five laps led

    21. Joe Graf Jr., two laps down, four laps led

    22. David Starr, two laps down

    23. Jeffrey Earnhardt, two laps down

    24. Mason Massey, two laps down

    25. Ryan Ellis, two laps down

    26. Garrett Smithley, two laps down

    27. Parker Chase, two laps down

    28. Brennan Poole, four laps down

    29. Akinori Ogata – OUT, Tranmission

    30. Mason Maggio – OUT, Electrical

    31. Kyle Weatherman – OUT, Accident

    32. Blaine Perkins – OUT, Accident

    33. Brandon Jones – OUT, Dvp

    34. Anthony Alfredo – OUT, Dvp

    35. Sheldon Creed – OUT, Accident, 24 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    36. Riley Herbst – OUT, Accident, three laps led, Stage 1 winner

    37. Ryan Sieg – OUT, Accident, 15 laps led

    38. Greg Van Alst – OUT, Accident

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the series’ lone visit of the season to New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, July 15, at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network.

  • Allmendinger rolls to a chaotic Xfinity victory at Nashville

    Allmendinger rolls to a chaotic Xfinity victory at Nashville

    AJ Allmendinger survived a series of caution periods and on-track chaos, including one that involved him at the start of the second stage, to muscle his way to the front, assume a late lead and fend off the field during two late-race restarts to win the Tennessee Lottery 250 at Nashville Superspeedway on Saturday, June 24.

    The 41-year-old Allmendinger from Los Gatos, California, led three times for 25 of 196 over-scheduled laps in an event where he rolled off the starting grid in 11th place. After settling in third place at the conclusion of the first stage, he was then involved in a multi-car wreck at the start of the second stage that eliminated a handful of front-runners that included Cup Series rookie Ty Gibbs.

    Following a methodical drive back to the front for the remainder of the event, he then muscled his way into the lead with 46 laps remaining. Despite losing ground amid a slow pit service under green during the proceeding laps, Allmendinger then managed to reassume the lead from Parker Kligerman with 11 laps remaining. Despite having to endure two late-race restarts, including an overtime attempt, Allmendinger did not relent as he fended off the field of Xfinity Series regulars to grab his second checkered flag of the 2023 season.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Cole Custer notched his third pole position of the season after posting a pole-winning lap at 157.020 in 30.493 seconds. Joining him on the front row was rookie Chandler Smith, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 156.302 mph in 30.633 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Connor Mosack and Zane Smith dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries. Joey Gase also dropped to the rear of the field as he started the event in a backup car and as a result of a driver change, where he replaced CJ McLaughlin.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, early trouble struck through Turns 1 and 2 when Jeb Burton and Kyle Sieg made contact and triggered a multi-car wreck that included Ryan Sieg, his brother Kyle and Stefan Parsons while the rest of the field veered to the bottom lane to avoid the carnage. Also involved was Justin Allgaier, winner of last year’s event at Nashville, after he collided into Parsons sideways while Parsons smacked the outside wall head-on. Despite suffering cosmetic damage to his No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro, Allgaier managed to continue while remaining on the lead lap along with the Sieg brothers and Jeb Burton while Parsons retired.

    During the following restart on the eighth lap, Custer, who retained the lead through the event’s start and early caution period, continued to lead ahead of rookie Sammy Smith while Chandler Smith and Ty Gibbs battled for third. Entering the backstretch, Gibbs and Smith made contact, which caused the field behind Custer and Sammy Smith to fan out to three lanes. Then entering Turns 3 and 4, Austin Hill, who tried to overtake Gibbs and Chandler Smith for third amid three lanes, made contact beneath Gibbs and was sent spinning up the track as he barely clipped Jeb Burton before lightly backing his No. 21 Bennett Transportation Chevrolet Camaro into the outside wall while the rest of the field managed to dodge Hill’s incident. The incident was enough to draw the event’s second caution period.

    At the start of the proceeding restart on Lap 14, Sammy Smith and Custer dueled for the lead as the field fanned out. With Ty Gibbs also fanning out and overtaking teammate Smith for second, Custer retained the lead as the field navigated its way through a full lap under green flag conditions. With Custer leading, Carson Hocevar, winner of Friday night’s Craftsman Truck Series event at Nashville, muscled his way into third while Sammy Smith and Riley Herbst occupied the top five ahead of AJ Allmendinger.

    Three laps later, the event’s third caution flew when Chad Chastain, who was running in the middle of the pack, got loose entering Turns 3 and 4 and spun backward toward the outside wall as he also collected Ryan Ellis, who veered sideways and scrubbed the wall, while the rest of the field escaped unscathed.

    When the race restarted on Lap 21, Custer and Ty Gibbs dueled for the lead as the field fanned out to three lanes entering Turn 1. Through the turns, Gibbs started to peek ahead with the lead ahead of Custer before he assumed the spot with full authority during the following lap. With Gibbs leading Custer, Sammy Smith was in third followed by Hocevar and Allmendinger while Herbst was in sixth ahead of Chandler Smith, Parker Kligerman, Brandon Jones and rookie Parker Retzlaff.

    At the Lap 30 mark, Ty Gibbs was leading by more than a second over Custer followed by Sammy Smith, Allmendinger and Hocevar while Chandler Smith, Herbst, Parker Kligerman, Sheldon Creed and Sam Mayer were in the top 10. Behind, Brandon Jones was in 11th ahead of John Hunter Nemechek, Josh Berry, Allgaier and Hill while Retzlaff, Zane Smith, Brett Moffitt, Daniel Hemric and Kaz Grala occupied the top 20.

    Nearing the Lap 40 mark, Ty Gibbs extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Custer while third-place Sammy Smith trailed by more than four seconds. Behind, Allmendinger and Hocevar remained in the top five while Chandler Smith was in sixth ahead of Herbst.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 45, Ty Gibbs, who was making his fourth Xfinity start of the season and swept both stages at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May, claimed his third Xfinity stage victory of the 2023 season. Custer trailed in second place by more than a second while Allmendinger, Hocevar, Sammy Smith, Chandler Smith, Herbst, Mayer, John Hunter Nemechek and Kligerman were scored in the top 10.

    Under the first stage break, the lead lap field led by Ty Gibbs pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Hill exited first after only opting for fuel to his car followed by Gibbs. During the pit stops, Nemechek was penalized for having too many crew members over the pit wall.

    The second stage started on Lap 52 as Hill and Gibbs occupied the front row. At the start, trouble struck for the front-runners when Hill made contact with Gibbs and sent Gibbs’ No. 19 He Gets Us Toyota Supra spinning through the first two turns, where he clipped Allmendinger and sent him spinning with damage before being hit by Hocevar’s No. 77 Premier Security Chevrolet Camaro against the outside wall as the rest of the field turned to the bottom of the track to avoid the carnage. In the midst of the carnage, Custer escaped with the lead followed by Mayer, Chandler Smith, Herbst and Creed while Gibbs and Hocevar retired.

    During the proceeding restart on Lap 59, Custer and Mayer battled dead even for the lead until Custer, who restarted on the outside lane, prevailed to retain the lead ahead of Mayer. The caution, however, quickly returned during the following lap when Connor Mosack slid sideways toward the outside wall in Turn 2. While trying to straighten his car, his car then jerked back across the wall and smacked the wall before emerging with extensive damage on both the front and rear ends.

    When the race restarted under green on Lap 65, Mayer peeked ahead to lead a lap for himself, but Custer reassumed the top spot amid a fierce battle between himself, Chandler Smith and Mayer. On Lap 67, Chandler Smith made his move to the front and emerged as the new leader while Mayer, Custer and Herbst battled for second. During the following lap, the caution flew again when Sammy Smith, who was battling Sheldon Creed for fifth place, was bumped by Creed through Turns 1 and 2. The contact sent Smith back hard against the outside wall as the rear end of Smith’s No. 18 Pilot Flying J Toyota Supra was left destroyed while Creed, who veered sideways amid the contact, was hit by an oncoming Brandon Jones, who veered sideways with left-front damage to his No. 9 Menards Chevrolet Camaro.

    As the event restarted under green on Lap 75, Chandler Smith retained the lead ahead of Mayer while Custer rocketed his way up to third followed by Hemric, Herbst and Zane Smith.

    By Lap 80, Chandler Smith was leading by more than a second over Mayer followed by Custer, Hemric and Herbst while Zane Smith, Nemechek, Josh Berry, Brett Moffitt and Retzlaff were in the top 10 ahead of Kligerman, Ryan Sieg, Allgaier, Hill and Grala.

    When the second stage concluded on Lap 90, Chandler Smith claimed his second stage victory of the 2023 season. Custer settled in second followed by a hard-charging Hemric while Mayer, Herbst, Nemechek, Zane Smith, Berry, Retzlaff and Moffitt were scored in the top 10.

    During the second stage break, where the event surpassed its halfway mark, the lead lap field led by Chandler Smith pitted. Following the pit stops, Chandler Smith retained the lead after exiting first followed by Custer, Hemric, Herbst, Nemechek and Zane Smith. Amid the pit stops, Herbst was penalized and sent to the rear of the field for an uncontrolled tire violation. In addition, Mayer, who pitted from fourth place, exited just outside of the top 10 amid a slow pit service, where he had to back his car while trying to leave his pit box after being blocked by Blaine Perkins.

    With 91 laps remaining, the final stage started as Chandler Smith and Custer occupied the front row. At the start, Chandler Smith retained the lead following a push from teammate Hemric while Hemric challenged Custer for second. With Custer retaining the runner-up spot over Hemric, Chandler Smith continued to lead while Nemechek charged his way in fourth followed by Zane Smith and Allmendinger.

    Six laps later, the caution returned when Kligerman spun in Turn 4 after receiving a bump by Kaz Grala, though Kligerman managed to quickly straighten his car below the apron and proceed without sustaining any significant damage.

    With the race restarting under green with 79 laps remaining, Chandler Smith retained the lead ahead of Custer and Hemric, with Hemric launching his charge for the lead as he overtook Custer for second. Then two laps later, Hemric assumed the lead over teammate Chandler Smith. Smith, however, reignited another charge on his Kaulig Racing teammate as he reassumed the top spot during the following lap with Custer rechallenging Hemric for second. Behind, Nemechek and Allmendinger battled for fourth as Chandler Smith stabilized his advantage to half a second.

    With 70 laps remaining, Chandler Smith was leading by four-tenths of a second over Custer and by more than a second over teammate Hemric while Nemechek and Allmendinger trailed in the top five. Smith would continue to lead with 60 laps remaining, but his advantage decreased to a tenth of a second over Custer as Custer methodically caught and challenged Smith for the lead. By then, Allmendinger, Hemric and Berry were in the top five while Nemechek, who was running in the top five a few laps earlier, made an unscheduled pit stop after reporting a vibration to his No. 20 Pye Barker Fire and Safety Toyota Supra.

    Five laps later, the battle for the lead intensified as Custer drew his No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang into a side-by-side battle against Chandler Smith’s No. 16 Quick Tie Products Chevrolet Camaro. While Custer had the advantage on the inside lane, Smith refused to relent as he remained on the gas and maintained the momentum with a narrow lead on the outside lane. With both continuing to duke for the lead, Allmendinger joined the battle as he gained massive ground on the two leaders in his No. 10 Bailey Zimmerman – Religiously Chevrolet Camaro. The battle amongst Smith, Custer and Allmendinger soon narrowed down to six-tenths of a second with the trio still dueling for the lead with 50 laps remaining.

    Two laps later, Allmendinger made his way into the runner-up spot after overtaking Custer before he proceeded to challenge his Kaulig Racing teammate Chandler Smith for the lead. With Custer losing ground on the two leaders, Allmendinger, who had managed to methodically carve his way back to the front following his Stage 2 incident, assumed the lead for the first time with 46 laps remaining while their third teammate, Hemric, was trailing in fourth place by more than three seconds.

    Then with under 45 laps remaining, green flag pit stops commenced as Allgaier pitted along with Custer, Chandler Smith and Jeremy Clements. The race leader Allmendinger and teammate Hemric would also pit with 43 laps remaining as Berry cycled his way into a brief lead. Amid the pit stops, Smith and Custer managed to cycle ahead of Allmendinger, who endured a slow pit stop.

    Down to the final 30 laps of the event and with nearly the entire field having made a pit stop under green, Kligerman, who had yet to pit, was leading followed by Allmendinger, who had overtaken teammate Chandler Smith, who was dealing with an ill-handling race car amid a slide, on the track while Brandon Jones, Smith and Custer were in the top five.

    With 20 laps remaining, Kligerman, who remained on the track and was trying to conserve fuel to finish, continued to lead by more than six seconds in his No. 48 Spiked Light Coolers Chevrolet Camaro and over a hard-charging Allmendinger with third-place Custer trailing by more than nine seconds. Kligerman would proceed to lead by more than two seconds over Allmendinger with 15 laps remaining.

    Then with 11 laps remaining, Allmendinger, who methodically gained ground and drew himself alongside Kligerman during the proceeding lap, overtook Kligerman for the lead entering Turn 1. Allmendinger would proceed to stretch his advantage to more than two seconds over Kligerman, who continued to run on fuel-conserve mode, with 10 laps remaining while third-place Custer trailed by more than three seconds.

    Then with six laps remaining, the event’s 10th caution period flew when Chad Chastain spun in Turn 4. The caution period stalled Allmendinger’s progress as he was leading by more than two seconds over Custer while Kligerman was in third. During the caution period, six competitors that included the leader Allmendinger, Chandler Smith, Hill, Herbst, Berry and Hemric remained on the track while the rest led by Custer and Kligerman pitted.

    With the race restarting under green with two laps remaining, Allmendinger was drafted into the lead with help from Hill as the front-runners fanned out, among which included Herbst as he bolted his way towards the front. Then in Turns 1 and 2, trouble struck for Chandler Smith after contact with Berry amid a tight four-wide action that also included Custer and Hemric sent Smith spinning up the track while the rest of the field scrambled to the bottom of the track to avoid Smith’s incident. Amid the incident, Allmendinger remained as the leader followed by Herbst, Hill, Hemric, Berry and Kligerman, but the return of the caution sent the event into overtime.

    At the start of the first overtime attempt, Allmendinger managed to rocket away from Herbst and the field. The field behind would then fan out to multiple lanes through the backstretch as Allmendinger continued to muscle away with the lead entering Turns 3 and 4.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Allmendinger remained as the leader by eight-tenths of a second over Herbst, who was trying to fend off Hemric. Then just past the start/finish line, Hemric veered sideways, but he managed to straighten his car without triggering a wreck. Hemric’s loose moment, however, cost him a bevy of spots as Herbst, Hill and Mayer went by him. By then, Allmendinger was long gone with an advantage of more than a second through the backstretch. With the field battling amongst one another for as high as second, Allmendinger was able to cycle his way back to the finish line uncontested and score his second Xfinity victory of the 2023 season just as a multi-car wreck in the middle of the field erupted.

    With his first victory at Nashville, Allmendinger scored his 17th career win in the Xfinity Series, his second of the season after winning at Circuit of the Americas in March and his first oval, superspeedway venue victory since winning at Talladega Superspeedway in October 2022. In addition, this marked the third victory of the season for Kaulig Racing’s No. 10 “all-star” entry: twice made by Allmendinger and once by Kyle Larson at Darlington Raceway in May.

    “All thanks to all the men and women at Kaulig Racing,” Allmendinger said on USA Network. “We got [country artist] Bailey Zimmerman. He flew in from Chicago this morning. [It’s] Awesome to have him here and win a race for him. The car was really good. [I] Got caught up in that wreck on that one restart. [I] Thought at least our chance to win was over, but the guys did such a great job of fixing [the car]. This is one of those iconic trophies [Gibson guitars] you wanna win. What a cool way to do it.”

    “All these wins are amazing,” Allmendinger added. “I love winning on ovals because I know a lot of people doubt me being on an oval. What a great time.”

    Herbst, racing for the first time with new crew chief Davin Restivo, settled in a career-best second place for the third time in his career and after coming off eight consecutive events of finishing no higher than 14th. Mayer ended up third while Hill and Berry finished in the top five.

    Nemechek came home in sixth place while Zane Smith, Hemric, Custer and Retzlaff finished in the top 10. Behind, Kligerman, Moffitt and Allgaier, all of whom wrecked approaching the finish line, ended up 11th, 14th and 15th, respectively, while Chandler Smith rallied his way to 12th.

    There were 17 lead changes for 11 different leaders. The race featured a record-tying 11 cautions for 58 laps. In total, 16 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    With 11 Xfinity regular-season events remaining on the schedule, John Hunter Nemechek leads the regular-season standings by nine points over Austin Hill, 41 over Justin Allgaier and 51 over Cole Custer.

    Results.

    1. AJ Allmendinger, 25 laps led

    2. Riley Herbst

    3. Sam Mayer, six laps led

    4. Austin Hill, three laps led

    5. Josh Berry, one lap led

    6. John Hunter Nemechek

    7. Zane Smith

    8. Daniel Hemric, one lap led

    9. Cole Custer, 32 laps led

    10. Parker Retzlaff, three laps led

    11. Parker Kligerman, 22 laps led

    12. Chandler Smith, 74 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    13. Jeb Burton

    14. Brett Moffitt

    15. Justin Allgaier

    16. Kaz Grala

    17. Sheldon Creed, one lap down

    18. Kyle Weatherman, one lap down

    19. Ryan Sieg, one lap down

    20. Brennan Poole, one lap down

    21. Joe Graf Jr., one lap down

     22. Jeremy Clements, one lap down

    23. Anthony Alfredo, one lap down

    24. Brandon Jones, one lap down

    25. Kyle Sieg, one lap down

    26. Blaine Perkins, two laps down

    27. Jeffrey Earnhardt, two laps down

    28. Ryan Ellis, two laps down

    29. Chad Chastain, two laps down

    30. David Starr, three laps down

    31. Joey Gase, three laps down

    32. Mason Massey, 10 laps down

    33. Josh Williams – OUT, Alternator

    34. Sammy Smith – OUT, Accident, one lap led

    35. Connor Mosack – OUT, Dvp

    36. Carson Hocevar – OUT, Accident

    37. Ty Gibbs – OUT, Accident, 28 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    38. Stefan Parsons – OUT, Accident

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the series’ inaugural event at the Chicago Street Course in Downtown Chicago, Illinois. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, July 1, at 5 p.m. ET on USA Network.

  • Almirola wins inaugural Xfinity Series event at Sonoma

    Almirola wins inaugural Xfinity Series event at Sonoma

    In a race dominated by Kyle Larson, a late opportunity presented itself for Aric Almirola and it resulted in the Floridian veteran fending off road ringers AJ Allmendinger and Larson to win the inaugural DoorDash 250 at Sonoma Raceway on Saturday, June 10.

    The 39-year-old Almirola from Tampa, Florida, led twice for 17 of 79 scheduled laps in a weekend where he was one of eight competitors pulling double-duty roles between the Xfinity and Cup Series divisions in Wine Country. Initially appearing to settle for a top-five result, a late caution period with 19 laps remaining followed by a restart with 15 laps remaining enabled Almirola to carve his way into the lead amid a scramble between Daniel Suarez and Alex Labbe.

    In the proceeding laps, however, Almirola found himself being pressured by hometown hero Kyle Larson through every corner and turn. A mistake, however, by Larson, where he clipped a tire barrel in Turn 11 and briefly lost control of his steering with eight laps remaining, allowed Almirola to place a reasonable gap between himself and Larson as Allmendinger joined the battle. With Allmendinger and Larson battling for second, Almirola was able to drive away and retain the lead through the final seven laps as he claimed his first Xfinity checkered flag in six years.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Kyle Larson notched his sixth career Xfinity Series pole position after posting a pole-winning lap at 91.393 mph in 78.387 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Justin Allgaier, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 90.562 mph in 79.106 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Anthony Alfredo was the only competitor to drop to the rear of the field in a backup car after wrecking his primary car during Friday’s practice session.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Larson rocketed away with the lead entering the first two turns. Larson would continue to lead through Turns 3 and 4 while Allgaier was trying to fend off Aric Almirola for second. As the field fanned out and jostled early for positions, Larson would cruise to lead the first lap while Almirola was up in second after overtaking Allgaier entering Turn 8.

    During the second lap, Larson stabilized his advantage to a second-and-a-half over Almirola followed by Allgaier, Sheldon Creed and AJ Allmendinger while Ty Gibbs was in sixth after nearly turning Sam Mayer in Turn 7, with Mayer settling suit in seventh. Daniel Hemric was in eighth followed by John Hunter Nemechek and rookie Sammy Smith while Parker Kligerman, Alex Labbe, Austin Hill, Ross Chastain and Brett Moffitt were running in the top 15. Behind, rookie Parker Retzlaff, Daniel Suarez, rookie Chandler Smith, Josh Berry and Kyle Weatherman occupied the top 20.

    As the race proceeded through the third lap, Larson extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Almirola while Allmendinger moved up to third. Allgaier, meanwhile, was being challenged by Creed for fourth while Ty Gibbs retained sixth. Larson would continue to lead by more than two seconds over Almirola as the event reached its Lap 5 mark.

    Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Larson continued to lead by more than two seconds over Allmendinger while third-place Almirola trailed by more than five seconds. Allgaier and Ty Gibbs were in the top five followed by Hemric while Mayer moved up to seventh after overtaking Creed, who locked up his tires in Turn 7. Kligerman and Nemechek filled out the top 10 on the track while Sammy Smith, Austin Hill, Chastain, Brett Moffitt and Retzlaff were mired in the top 15.

    Three laps later, on-track troubles occurred for a pair of RSS Racing competitors as Ryan Sieg spun in Turn 7. At the same time, teammate Joe Graf Jr. spun prior to entering the chute corner between Turns 4 and 7. In spite of both incidents, the race remained under green flag conditions as Larson continued to lead by more than two seconds over Allmendinger.

    Then on Lap 18, Chastain bumped and sent Nemechek’s No. 20 Yahoo Toyota Supra for a spin in Turn 11 while both were battling with Austin Hill in the top 15. With Nemechek falling back to 18th and the race remaining under green, Larson stabilized his advantage to more than two seconds over Allmendinger.

    At the conclusion of the first stage on Lap 20, Larson captured the stage victory after leading all the laps within the stage. Allmendinger trailed by more than two seconds while Almirola, Allgaier, Ty Gibbs, Hemric, Mayer, Kligerman, Creed and Sammy Smith were scored in the top 10. By then, Riley Herbst and Retzlaff had pitted under green a lap ago.

    Not long after, the first caution of the event flew when Josh Berry stalled his No. 8 Tire Pros Chevrolet Camaro in between Turns 7 and 8. Prior to the caution being displayed for Berry’s issue, Nemechek, Hill and Sage Karam pitted.

    During the caution period, nearly the entire field led by Larson pitted while the rest that included Hill, Nemechek, Karam and Herbst remained on the track. Following the pit stops and amid the field cycling past Berry’s car that was slowly limping onto pit road, Larson exited first followed by Allmendinger, Allgaier, Ty Gibbs, Mayer and Kligerman. Amid the pit stops, Berry returned to the track in spite of being scored two laps down following early mechanical issues to his car while Retzlaff’s car was being pushed behind the pit wall.

    When the race restarted under green on Lap 25, where Hill and Nemechek occupied the front row, Hill and Nemechek dueled for the lead through the first two turns. As the field bumped and jostled for positions through the first two turns before entering Turns 3 and 4, Hill managed to pull ahead with the lead followed by Nemechek and Herbst while Larson carved his way up to fourth in front of Karam and Allmendinger. With the field continuing to fan out and jostle for positions through a series of right- and left-hand turns through Turns 7 to 10 before entering a sharp right-hand turn in Turn 11, Hill retained the lead by four-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Larson while Nemechek, Allmendinger and Herbst were scored in the top five. By then, Ty Gibbs was in sixth while Allgaier, Karam, Kligerman and Creed were scored in the top 10.

    A lap later, Larson overtook Hill’s No. 21 Bennett Transportation Chevrolet Camaro entering Turn 7 to reassume the lead while Allmendinger pressured Nemechek for third. Allmendinger would then succeed and overtake Nemechek entering Turn 11 as Ty Gibbs muscled his way into the top five after overtaking Herbst’s No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang in Turn 11.

    By Lap 30, Larson was leading by more than two seconds over Allmendinger while Hill fell back to third, though he trailed by more than two seconds. Ty Gibbs moved his No. 19 He Gets Us Toyota Supra into fourth after bumping and overtaking teammate Nemechek in Turn 11 while Allgaier was in sixth ahead of Herbst, Kligerman, Karam and Almirola.

    At the halfway mark between Laps 39 and 40, Larson retained the lead by more than six seconds over Allmendinger and more than seven seconds over third-place Ty Gibbs while Hill and Allgaier were scored in the top five. Almirola, Nemechek, Herbst, Kligerman and Mayer trailed in the top 10 while Sammy Smith, Chandler Smith, Creed, Hemric, Custer, Brett Moffitt, Daniel Suarez, Chastain, Alex Labbe and Josh Bilicki were mired back in the top 20. By then, 35 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.

    At the conclusion of the second stage on Lap 45, Larson remained dominant as he claimed his second consecutive stage victory of the day with an advantage of more than nine seconds. Allmendinger and Ty Gibbs followed suit in second and third while Allgaier, Hill, Almirola, Nemechek, Herbst, Kligerman and Mayer were scored in the top 10. By then, Cole Custer pitted his No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang a lap earlier.

    With the event proceeding under the final stage with 34 laps remaining, Allmendinger, who was engaged in a tight battle with Gibbs to retain second during the closing laps of the second stage, pitted a lap later followed by Allgaier, Mayer, Hemric and others. Larson then surrendered the lead to pit under green with 33 laps remaining followed by runner-up Gibbs, Hill, Nemechek and more competitors as Almirola cycled into the lead.

    With 30 laps remaining, Almirola pitted from the lead along with Sammy Smith as Larson cycled back into the lead. By then, he was more than 10 seconds ahead of Allmendinger, who was strapped in third behind Suarez, who trailed Larson by more than four seconds despite needing a pit stop. Meanwhile, Ty Gibbs was back in fifth as he trailed by more than 14 seconds.

    Two laps later, Suarez surrendered second place to pit under green as Allmendinger cycled back into second, though he trailed Larson by more than 10 seconds. In the process, Ty Gibbs moved up to third as he trailed the lead by more than 14 seconds while Allgaier and Hill were running in the top five. Following his pit stop after leading a handful of laps prior to the final 30-lap mark, Almirola was in sixth.

    With less than 25 laps remaining, Larson stretched his advantage to more than 11 seconds over Allmendinger and more than 15 seconds over third-place Ty Gibbs while Allgaier and Hill retained their spots in the top five. Almirola also retained sixth while Nemechek, Mayer, Herbst and Kligerman were running in the top 10. Behind, Cole Custer was back in 11th while Chandler Smith, Sammy Smith, Creed and Brett Moffitt were running in the top 15.

    Five laps later, Larson continued to extend his advantage as he now led by more than 13 seconds over Allmendinger while third-place Ty Gibbs trailed by more than 16 seconds. Meanwhile, Almirola carved his way up to fourth followed by Allgaier while Hill was back in sixth ahead of Nemechek, Kligerman, Herbst and Mayer.

    A lap later, the caution flew when Jeffrey Earnhardt got loose, spun and wrecked his No. 45 ForeverLawn Chevrolet Camaro against the tire barriers in Turn 10. The incident all but erased Larson’s advantage of more than 13 seconds over Allmendinger. During the caution period, Alex Labbe and Suarez remained on the track while the rest of the lead lap field led by Larson pitted. Following the pit stops and amid mixed strategy, Larson, who opted for no fresh tires during his pit stop, exited first followed by Allmendinger, who opted for two fresh tires. Almirola followed suit in third along with Allgaier, Hill and Nemechek while Ty Gibbs exited seventh after losing four spots on pit road.

    Down to the final 15 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Labbe and Suarez dueled for the lead entering the first two turns. Suarez then slipped up the track in Turn 2, which allowed Almirola, driving the No. 28 Michael Roberts Construction Ford Mustang, to move into the lead amid the scramble. Through Turns 3 and 4, Suarez got loose again as Allmendinger and Larson quickly moved up to second and third. Behind, a series of bumps and jostles ensued within the middle of the pack from the Chute corner towards the entrances of Turns 7, 8 and 9 while Almirola continued to lead ahead of a fierce battle for second place between Allmendinger and Larson.

    A lap later, Larson overtook Allmendinger for second as he began his charge on Almirola for the lead. Amid a series of late jostles and fierce battles around the circuit, trouble struck for Brandon Jones as he spun within the middle of the pack in Turn 8, but the race remained under green flag conditions. In the midst of the battles, Daniel Suarez was black-flagged for a restart violation.

    With 10 laps remaining, Almirola continued to lead by three-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Larson while third-place Allmendinger trailed by more than a second. Behind, Ty Gibbs cycled his way back into fourth while Allgaier was in fifth ahead of Hill, Kligerman, Custer, Mayer and Sammy Smith.

    Then with eight laps remaining, Larson, who kept putting pressure on Almirola for the lead, made the slightest of contact against a tire barrel in Turn 11, which caused him to slip wide and lose his momentum briefly as he tried to steer his No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro straight. This allowed Allmendinger to move his No. 10 Gabriel Glas Chevrolet Camaro into second while Larson fell back to third as Almirola was now leading by more than two seconds.

    Down to the final five laps of the event, Almirola continued to lead by more than two seconds over Allmendinger and Larson, with Larson still trying to navigate his way around Allmendinger for second. With Ty Gibbs retaining fourth and trailing by more than five seconds, Allgaier was engaged in a fierce battle with Kligerman for fifth.

    A lap later, Larson gained a run on Allmendinger and overtook him for second in Turn 7. Allmendinger, however, was able to execute a crossover move on Larson to reassume the spot while Almirola was still leading by nearly three seconds.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Almirola remained as the leader by less than three seconds over Allmendinger with Larson still stuck in third. With both Allmendinger and Larson unable to close the deficit throughout the 12-turn circuit, Almirola was able to smoothly cycle his way back to the finish line and claim the checkered flag for an upset victory in Northern California.

    By becoming the inaugural Xfinity Series winner at Sonoma, Almirola notched his fourth career victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in his 104th series start, his first on a road course venue and his first since winning at Talladega Superspeedway in May 2017. He also recorded the first NASCAR career win for RSS Racing.

    SONOMA, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 10: Aric Almirola, driver of the #28 Michael Roberts Construction Ford, takes the checkered flag to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series DoorDash 250 at Sonoma Raceway on June 10, 2023 in Sonoma, California. (Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images).

    “This [win] is so special,” Almirola said on FS1. “It’s hard to explain. I know it’s an Xfinity win. It’s not a Cup win, but after [Circuit of the Americas], I was like, ‘Man, I really don’t think I should run any more road course races in the Xfinity car.’ I lose self-confidence going into Sunday, but I knew that this racetrack; this is one that I can run good at. I’ve run good here my whole career. I don’t know what it is about this place, but I love racing here. Just so thankful to everybody on this race team. It’s been a really tough year on the Cup side and to come out here, get a win and get to celebrate,…[my kids]’re gonna get to go to Victory Lane. That is so special. So excited to share this Victory Lane here. Man, this is awesome. I can’t wait to get to Victory Lane.”

    Allmendinger, who led two laps, came home in second place as he trailed Almirola by more than a second followed by Larson, who led a race-high 53 laps compared to Almirola’s 17 but was unable to claim another victory at his home track.

    “I just got too greedy,” Larson said. “If you can get your rights [tires] below the rumbles, into the paint, it’s a lot of grip. I got it good a couple of times and then, I was just tucked up behind [Almirola] and clipped the tire [barrel]. It knocked the wheel out of my hand and after that, the toe [link] was off. I was really tight in the lefts and really loose on the rights, so we couldn’t make runs at it. I hate it for [crew chief] Kevin Meendering and everybody. They deserve a win so badly with his No. 17 car. Just bummed and mad at myself.”

    Ty Gibbs finished in fourth place as the top-four finishing spots were occupied by Cup Series regulars. Parker Kligerman was the highest-finishing Xfinity Series regular in fifth place while Custer, Allgaier, Austin Hill, rookie Sammy Smith and Sam Mayer finished in the top 10.

    Notably, John Hunter Nemechek ended up 16th, Ross Chastain finished 18th in his 100th Xfinity career start and Suarez ended up 27th following his late penalty.

    There were 10 lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured two cautions for eight laps. In total, 31 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    With 12 Xfinity regular-season events remaining on the schedule, John Hunter Nemechek leads the regular-season standings by four points over Austin Hill, 25 over Justin Allgaier and 59 over Cole Custer.

    Results.

    1. Aric Almirola, 17 laps led

    2. AJ Allmendinger, two laps led

    3. Kyle Larson, 53 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

    4. Ty Gibbs

    5. Parker Kligerman

    6. Cole Custer

    7. Justin Allgaier

    8. Austin Hill, four laps led

    9. Sammy Smith

    10. Sam Mayer

    11. Sheldon Creed

    12. Brett Moffitt

    13. Daniel Hemric

    14. Chandler Smith

    15. Riley Herbst

    16. John Hunter Nemechek

    17. Jeremy Clements

    18. Ross Chastain

    19. Josh Bilicki

    20. Kaz Grala

    21. Brandon Jones

    22. Kyle Weatherman

    23. Ty Dillon

    24. Dylan Lupton

    25. Alex Labbe, two laps led

    26. Jeb Burton

    27. Daniel Suarez

    28. Ryan Sieg

    29. Brad Perez

    30. Blaine Perkins

    31. Joe Graf Jr.

    32. Connor Mosack, one lap down

    33. Josh Berry, three laps down

    34. Sage Karam – OUT, Transmission

    35. Josh Williams – OUT, Suspension

    36. Jeffrey Earnhardt – OUT, Accident

    37. Anthony Alfredo – OUT, Suspension

    38. Parker Retzlaff – OUT, Transmission

    The NASCAR Xfinity Series teams and competitors enter a one-week break period before returning to action at Nashville Superspeedway on June 24. The event’s air coverage is scheduled to occur at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network, which will launch USA’s and NBC’s coverage for the remainder of this year’s Xfinity season.

  • Custer grabs dramatic Xfinity victory in overtime at Portland

    Custer grabs dramatic Xfinity victory in overtime at Portland

    From starting at the rear of the field to muscling his way to the front, Cole Custer found himself at the right spot at the right time to steal the spotlight and drive to an overwhelming victory in the second annual running of the Pacific Office Automation 147 at Portland International Raceway on Saturday, June 3.

    The 25-year-old Custer from Ladera Ranch, California, led two times for five of 77 over-scheduled laps as he methodically carved his way to the front despite starting at the rear of the field for unapproved adjustments to his car. Then after spending the majority of the event running towards the front, where he claimed the second stage victory in a photo finish, Custer seized an opportunity during an overtime shootout when Parker Kligerman collided against the leaders Justin Allgaier and Sheldon Creed entering the first turn. This caused Kligerman to lose his momentum as both Allgaier and Creed took the chicane before blending back onto the circuit while Custer muscled into the lead. Once he had the lead, the Californian spent the final two laps fending off a late charge from Allgaier to claim his first Xfinity victory of the 2023 season.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, Sheldon Creed notched his first career pole position after posting a pole-winning lap at 95.694 mph in 74.111 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Cole Custer, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 95.398 mph in 74.341 seconds.

    Prior to the event, however, Custer joined Blaine Perkins, Sam Mayer, Garrett Smithley, Brandon Jones, Joe Graf Jr., Parker Kligerman, Jeremy Clements, Patrick Emerling, Anthony Alfredo and Josh Williams as a host of competitors who started at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries. Stefan Parsons also dropped to the rear of the field due to an engine change made to his car.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Creed and John Hunter Nemechek, who moved up to the front row, dueled for the lead entering the first two sets of sharp turns. Then as Creed fended off an early challenge from Nemechek, where Nemechek bumped Creed through the first two turns, rookie Chandler Smith spun in the middle of the turn after getting hit by Connor Mosack while running in the top 10. This caused the rest of the field to scatter and fan out across the chicane and the turns while Creed maintained the lead. After navigating his way through the 12-turn circuit, Creed proceeded to lead the first lap ahead of Nemechek as Jordan Taylor, Josh Berry, Justin Allgaier and Austin Hill followed suit.

    During the second lap, rookie Sammy Smith pitted to address a shifter issue to his No. 18 Pilot Flying J Toyota Supra that was stuck in second gear. Amid Smith’s issues, Creed retained the top spot with a steady advantage over Nemechek while Jordan Taylor retained third.

    Through the first five scheduled laps, Creed was leading by half a second over Nemechek followed by Taylor, Berry and Allgaier while Austin Hill, Daniel Hemric, Myatt Snider, Kaz Grala and Jeb Burton in the top 10. By then, Connor Mosack was in 11th ahead of Riley Herbst, Alex Labbe, Brett Moffitt and Dylan Lupton while Cole Custer, Anthony Alfredo, Leland Honeyman, rookie Parker Retzlaff and Ryan Sieg occupied the top 20. Two laps earlier, Parker Chase, who was running towards the rear of the field, had plummeted below the leaderboard after spinning in Turn 1.

    Just past the Lap 10 mark, Creed continued to lead by more than eight-tenths over Nemechek while Allgaier, Taylor and Berry were in the top five. By then, Custer had cracked the top 15 after starting at the rear of the field. A lap later, Ryan Sieg and Leland Honeyman spun in Turn 4 after making contact and going off the course.

    On Lap 16 and while Creed retained the lead by more than a second over Nemechek, Brennan Poole ran into early issues after he went off the course in Turn 11. He would then take his JD Motorsports entry to the garage without drawing a caution.

    Nearing the Lap 20 mark, however, the first caution of the event flew when Stefan Parsons came to a stop in Turn 3 Then prior to a restart with five laps remaining in the first stage, Hemric, who was in the top 10, pulled his No. 11 Cirkul Chevrolet Camaro that was on fire off the course as his event came to an early end.

    With the restart occurring with two laps remaining in the first stage, Creed and Nemechek dueled for the lead entering the first turn as Myatt Snider, who restarted in the top 10, fanned out in an attempt to gain spots. In spite of the bumps that were ongoing amid the front runners, the field navigated smoothly through the first two tight turns as Creed retained the lead over Nemechek and Berry while Allgaier, Hill and Taylor were in the top six.

    Prior to the final lap, Nemechek made his move beneath Creed entering the frontstretch as he assumed the lead entering the first two turns. Creed quickly responded back through Turns 4 and 5 before Nemechek fended off Creed’s run and maintained the top spot. Then after fending off Creed’s attacks through Turns 5 to 7, Nemechek appeared to pull away through Turns 8 to 10. In Turn 11, however, Nemechek went wide, which allowed Creed to draw beneath him and lightly rub fenders with Nemechek before he reassumed the lead. With the lead back in his grasp, Creed managed to pull away and conclude the first stage scheduled on Lap 25 with his second stage victory of the season. Nemechek ended up second followed by Allgaier, Hill and Berry while Taylor, Custer, Snider, Parker Kligerman and Herbst were scored in the top 10. With the rest of the field making its way to the start/finish line, Joe Graf Jr. spun off the course in Turn 11.

    During the first stage break, all competitors pitted for non-competitive pit stops, with each given three minutes to make any changes. Amid the pit stops, Brad Perez replaced Leland Honeyman as Honeyman had been under the weather.

    The second stage started on Lap 27 as Creed and Nemechek occupied the front row. At the start, Creed launched ahead with the top spot over Allgaier and Nemechek while Custer, who restarted seventh, fanned out to three lanes as he managed to move up to fourth entering the first turn. As the field navigated its way through the first two sharp turns, trouble struck for Berry as Hill hit and sent Berry’s No. 8 Tire Pros Chevrolet Camaro for a spin. With Berry spinning his car off the course, the event remained under green flag conditions as Creed retained the lead while the field behind scrambled and jostled for positions.

    Then on Lap 33, Allgaier gained a run and battled dead even with Nemechek, who briefly lost his momentum while challenging Creed for the lead, through Turns 7 and 8 before gaining second place. In the process, Creed managed to maintain the top spot by nearly half a second. During the following lap, the battle for the lead became a six-car battle as Custer, Kligerman and Jordan Taylor closed in for the battle of the lead.

    By Lap 40, Creed continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over Allgaier followed by Nemechek, Custer and Kligerman while Taylor, Myatt Snider, Hill, Herbst and Sam Mayer were in the top 10. Behind, Alex Labbe was scored in 11th over Jeb Burton, Chandler Smith, Connor Mosack and Brett Moffitt while Anthony Alfredo, Retzlaff, Kaz Grala, Brandon Jones and Josh Williams were running in the top 20.

    Two laps later, trouble struck for Preston Pardus, who spun in Turn 10 and briefly stalled his car before he limped it back to pit road. With the event remaining under green, Creed maintained the lead as Allgaier, Nemechek and Custer engaged in a fierce battle for second place. Kligerman would close in to join the battle as the top-five competitors were separated by less than two seconds.

    Another four laps later, Chandler Smith, who served an early pass-through penalty for missing the chicane, spun in Turn 11 while running within the top 15, but he continued despite plummeting to 20th. Not long after, Snider spun his No. 19 Tree Top Toyota Supra in between Turns 8 and 9 while running in the top 10, but he also continued as he dropped to 12th. In the process, the battle for the lead ignited between the top six as Creed remained out in front ahead of Allgaier, Nemechek, Custer, Kligerman and Taylor.

    Prior to the final lap of the second stage, Nemechek made his move beneath Allgaier through Turns 10 and 11 as he overtook him for second. Custer would then follow suit and move up to third entering Turn 1 as Allgaier slipped to fourth while Creed retained the lead. Then after trailing Creed for nearly the entire final lap, Nemechek put the front bumper to Creed’s rear bumper and sent Creed’s No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Camaro spinning off the course in Turn 11. This allowed Custer to draw even beneath Nemechek entering the frontstretch as he and Nemechek dueled for the stage victory. At the start/finish line, Custer managed to peek ahead and edge Nemechek in a photo finish to capture the second stage victory on Lap 50, which also marked Custer’s third stage victory of the season. Nemechek ended up in second followed by Allgaier, Kligerman and Taylor while Creed was able to salvage sixth. Mayer, Herbst, Hill and Jeb Burton were scored in the top 10.

    During the second stage break, all competitors led by Custer pitted for non-competitive pit stops as they all retained their respective spots from the second stage’s conclusion.

    With 23 laps remaining, the final stage started as Custer and Nemechek occupied the front row. At the start, Custer had appeared to pull ahead from the field until he went wide and missed the first turn as he was forced to take the chicane. With Custer off the track and pulling a stop-and-go move to avoid a penalty, Allgaier assumed the lead followed by Nemechek, Kligerman and Creed through the first three turns and entering a series of right and left-hand turns in Turns 4 and 5. As the field behind jostled, Allgaier managed to maintain the top spot by a steady margin over Nemechek while Creed battled Kligerman for third.

    A few laps later, Sam Mayer carved his way to the front as he battled and overtook Kligerman for fourth while Allgaier remained as the leader over Nemechek and Creed.

    With 20 laps remaining, Allgaier was leading by six-tenths of a second over Nemechek followed by Creed, Mayer and Kligerman while Taylor, Hill, Custer, Snider and Herbst were in the top 10. Behind, Mosack was in 11th ahead of Brett Moffitt, JEb Burton, Labbe and Alfredo while Jones, Berry, Retzlaff, Chandler Smith and Dylan Lupton were mired in the top 20.

    Then approaching the final 19 laps of the event, Creed delivered payback to Nemechek as he tapped and sent Nemechek’s No. 20 Red Bird Farms Toyota Supra for a spin in Turn 11 while the rest of the field scattered to avoid hitting Nemechek. With the race remaining under green and as Nemechek continued, Kligerman overtook Creed for second as Hill, Taylor, Custer and Mayer joined the battle for second. In the process, Allgaier retained the lead by nearly three seconds.

    Down to the final 15 laps of the event, Allgaier maintained the lead by more than two seconds over Creed and more than three seconds over third-place Kligerman while Hill and Custer were scored in the top five. Meanwhile, more trouble struck for Nemechek as he got slammed by teammate Sammy Smith, who overshot the first turn and had to take the chicane. Shortly after continuing, Nemechek ran into the side of Smith to express his displeasure as both sustained tire rub and damage to their cars. Both Joe Gibbs Racing teammates would pit simultaneously for repairs.

    With 10 laps remaining, Allgaier continued to lead by more than four seconds over Kligerman while Creed, Hill, Custer and Mayer occupied the top six on the track. Behind, Taylor was in seventh followed by Snider, Mosack and Labbe. By then, Nemechek, who returned to the track, was lapped by the leaders.

    Two laps later, the caution flew when Herbst, who was running a lap down in the top 30 amid overheating issues, pulled his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang off the course in Turn 9 as the car went up in smoke and flames. The caution erased Allgaier’s advantage of more than four seconds over Kligerman.

    Down to the final five laps, the race restarted under green. At the start, Allgaier and Kligerman dueled for the lead entering the first turn. Then entering the first sharp turn, Allgaier managed to pull ahead while Creed quickly followed suit in second. Meanwhile, Kligerman locked up the tires and slipped to battle with Custer for third while Mayer and Snider pursued. Through Turns 4 to 7, Allgaier maintained the lead over Creed while Custer and Kligerman battled for third.

    As the field returned to the frontstretch to hit the final four-lap mark, Alfredo and Retzlaff spun in Turn 11, but the race remained under green as the field scrambled and jostled for spots. Shortly after, Jeb Burton spun in Turn 4 after getting hit by Chandler Smith whom he had a run-in with through the frontstretch. Then with three laps remaining, the caution returned for debris on the backstretch. The caution period was enough to send the event into overtime.

    At the start of the first overtime attempt, Allgaier peeked ahead of Creed while receiving a push from Kligerman before Kligerman tried to make his move beneath Allgaier entering Turn 1. Through the turn, however, Kligerman locked up the front tires and could not steer his No. 48 Big Machine Racing entry to make the turn as he collided against Allgaier and Creed, sending both into the chicane while Kligerman was trying to regain his momentum on the track. Amid the chaos, Custer came out on top in his No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang with the lead while Allgaier and Creed managed to blend back onto the track in second and third with Mayer joining the battle. With the field behind jostling for late positions through Turns 4 to 7, Custer ran away from the field as Allgaier, Mayer and Creed continued to battle for second. Through Turns 8 and 9, Allgaier claimed second while Mayer dueled Creed for third.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Custer remained as the leader ahead of a hard-charging Allgaier. By then, Mayer had shoved Creed off the course in Turn 11 as Creed fell back to seventh behind Hill, Snider and Berry while Mayer moved up to third. Back at the front, Allgaier narrowed the deficit to six-tenths of a second as Custer retained the lead through the first three turns and entering Turn 4. Then after fending off Allgaier’s No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro through Turn 9, Allgaier gained more momentum into Turn 10 and got to Custer’s rear bumper approaching the final set of turns. He then tried to bump and overtake Custer entering the frontstretch, but it was not enough as Custer managed to fend off Allgaier by 0.142 seconds to grab his first checkered flag of the 2023 season in dramatic fashion.

    With the victory, Custer claimed his 11th career win in the Xfinity Series, his first since winning at Auto Club Speedway in February 2022 and his first on a road course venue. He also recorded the first Xfinity victory for Stewart-Haas Racing since Chase Briscoe won at Kansas Speedway in October 2020, the first NASCAR victory for crew chief Jonathan Toney and he became the seventh Xfinity regular to win and be guaranteed a spot for the 2023 Xfinity Series Playoffs.

    Ironically, Custer’s Portland victory occurred as the Californian achieved his seventh consecutive top-seven finish in recent weeks. This occurred after Custer finished no higher than ninth during the first six-scheduled events on this year’s schedule.

    “[I was telling myself] Just try and not make mistakes [on the restarts],” Custer said on FS1. “I saw [Kligerman] drive in there so deep. I did the same thing like two restarts ago. Man, I’m just so happy. I’ve never won a road course race before. I’ve been so close so many times and it’s just awesome to win this. I can’t thank Haas Automation, everybody at Stewart-Haas [Racing] in the Xfinity program and the Cup program. This is just a great day. It’s awesome to get this trophy and get that out of the way. I’m pumped for the rest of the year. We got fast cars and we’re starting to put it all together.”

    Allgaier, coming off last week’s victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway, finished second after leading 23 laps while Mayer, Berry and Hill finished in the top five. Myatt Snider came home in sixth place in his second start of the season while Creed, who led a race-high 47 laps ended up seventh. Connor Mosack, Chandler Smith and Nemechek completed the top 10 on the track.

    There were five lead changes for four different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 10 laps. In total, 27 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    With the 2023 Xfinity Series regular-season stretch reaching its halfway mark, John Hunter Nemechek leads the regular-season standings by 14 points over Austin Hill, 44 over Justin Allgaier, 65 over Cole Custer and 91 over Josh Berry.

    Results.

    1. Cole Custer, five laps led, Stage 2 winner

    2. Justin Allgaier, 23 laps led

    3. Sam Mayer

    4. Josh Berry

    5. Austin Hill

    6. Myatt Snider

    7. Sheldon Creed, 47 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    8. Connor Mosack

    9. Chandler Smith

    10. John Hunter Nemechek, two laps led

    11. Alex Labbe

    12. Brett Moffitt

    13. Brandon Jones

    14. Parker Kligerman

    15. Blaine Perkins

    16. Josh Williams

    17. Parker Retzlaff

    18. Ryan Sieg

    19. Jeffrey Earnhardt

    20. Patrick Emerling

    21. Anthony Alfredo

    22. Jeremy Clements

    23. Joe Graf Jr.

    24. Garrett Smithley

    25. Jeb Burton

    26. Kaz Grala

    27. Jordan Taylor

    28. Leland Honeyman – OUT, Accident

    29. Dylan Lupton, one lap down

    30. Sammy Smith, two laps down

    31. Preston Pardus, five laps down

    32. Riley Herbst – OUT, Engine

    33. Daniel Hemric, 30 laps down

    34. Kyle Sieg – OUT, Rear gear

    35. Parker Chase – OUT, Tie rod

    36. Mason Maggio – OUT, Transmission

    37. Stefan Parsons – OUT, Overheating

    38. Brennan Poole – OUT, Accident

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the series’ inaugural event at Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, California. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, June 10, at 8 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Berry, Gibbs and Gragson transfer to 2023 All-Star Race from All-Star Open

    Berry, Gibbs and Gragson transfer to 2023 All-Star Race from All-Star Open

    Josh Berry along with rookies Ty Gibbs and Noah Gragson completed the starting grid for the 2023 NASCAR All-Star Race after all three transferred from the NASCAR All-Star Open at North Wilkesboro Speedway on Sunday, May 21.

    Berry and Gibbs, both of whom started on the front row for the Open, raced their way into the main event after finishing first and second, respectively, during the Open while Gragson was revealed as the Fan Vote winner after rallying from a multi-car wreck to finish seventh on the track, thus claiming the final spot of the 24-car grid for the All-Star event that will follow suit.

    The starting lineup for the event was determined through the NASCAR Pit Crew Challenge that occurred on Friday, May 20, with the drivers’ qualifying time determined based on their respective crew’s pit stop time through a four-tire pit stop and the timing lines being established one box behind and ahead of the designated pit box.

    Following the Pit Crew Challenge, rookie Ty Gibbs was awarded the pole position after his No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing pit crew delivered the fastest pit stop overall at 13.012 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Josh Berry, an interim competitor for the injured Alex Bowman whose No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports pit crew posted a fast pit stop service at 13.677 seconds.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Ty Gibbs launched ahead in his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota TRD Camry with the lead on the inside lane as Michael McDowell made a bold three-wide move to the outside of the field as he tried to launch forward through Turns 1 and 2. McDowell, however, lost grip just as he cracked the top five and slipped back into the top 10 as Gibbs proceeded to lead the first lap. Behind, Berry maintained second in front of Justin Haley, Corey LaJoie, Todd Gilliland and Aric Almirola while McDowell fell back to seventh.

    Through the first five scheduled laps, Gibbs was leading by nearly nine-tenths of a second over Berry, who had Haley closing in for second place while Todd Gilliland and Aric Almirola were running in the top five. Gibbs then extended his advantage to more than a second as the event surpassed its Lap 10 mark.

    At the Lap 20 mark, Gibbs continued to extend his advantage by more than two seconds over Berry while third-place Haley trailed by more than three seconds. Almirola moved up in fourth followed by Gilliland while Harrison Burton, McDowell, Chandler Smith, Ryan Preece and AJ Allmendinger were in the top 10. Behind, Ryan Newman was in 11th while rookie Noah Gragson, Corey LaJoie, Josh Bilicki, JJ Yeley and Ty Dillon rounded out the field of 16 competitors currently running on the track.

    By Lap 30, Gibbs retained the lead by more than three seconds over Berry while Almirola overtook Haley for third place. Behind, Gilliland retained fifth ahead of teammate McDowell and Burton while Chandler Smith, Preece and Allmendinger occupied the rest of the top 10 on the track.

    When the competition caution flew on Lap 40, Gibbs had maintained the lead by more than three seconds over Berry while Almirola, Haley, Gilliland, McDowell, Allmendinger, Burton, Chandler and Newman were in the top 10. By then, Ty Dillon was lapped, but he received the free pass to cycle back on the lead lap.

    During the competition caution period, the entire field led by Gibbs pitted for fresh tires, fuel and adjustments. Following the pit stops, Berry assumed the lead after exiting pit road first followed by Gibbs, Almirola, Gragson, Haley and Gilliland. Amid the pit stops, Harrison Burton, who exited pit road in eighth place, only opted to have his rear tires changed on his No. 21 Motorcraft/DEX Imaging Ford Mustang.

    When the race restarted on Lap 47, Berry and Haley dueled for the lead as the field fanned out and battled in tight formation through the first two turns and the backstretch. During the following lap, however, Berry managed to pull ahead and assume the lead with a clear racetrack followed by Gibbs and Almirola while Haley fell back to fourth in front of McDowell.

    Two laps later, the caution returned when Gragson, who was running sixth and ran into the rear of McDowell entering Turn 1, went too low and hit the inside wall before his No. 42 Sunseeker Resort Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 shot back across the track and into the path of Gilliland as Gragson collided into the Turn 1 outside wall head-on along with Gilliland as Chandler Smith, Allmendinger and Newman were also collected. As Chandler Smith and Gilliand retired, Gragson managed to continue along with Allmendinger and Newman.

    With the race restarting with 44 laps remaining, Haley challenged Berry for the lead on the outside lane while McDowell battled Gibbs for third place. Not long after, however, the caution quickly returned when McDowell, who tried to move in front of Gibbs for third place through Turns 3 and 4, got squeezed by Gibbs as he then made contact with Haley for second as both competitors went up the track and slapped the outside wall in Turn 4 hard.

    During the following restart with 37 laps remaining, Berry and Almirola battled dead even for the lead until Berry muscled ahead on the inside lane. Behind, Almirola, who was stuck on the outside lane, was overtaken by Gibbs for second as Almirola tried to fend off teammate Preece and Allmendinger for more.

    With 32 laps remaining, Gibbs reassumed the lead from Berry as Preece started to challenge Berry for second. In the midst of the battles at the front, Allmendinger and Almirola joined the battle in fourth and fifth while JJ Yeley and Gragson trailed behind in sixth and seventh.

    Then with 23 laps remaining, Gibbs, who had maintained a steady lead over Berry through the backstretch, got held up and ran towards the apron by McDowell’s No. 34 Fr8Auctions Ford Mustang through Turns 1 and 2 before he then got shoved towards the inside wall through Turns 3 and 4 as McDowell expressed his on-track frustration to Gibbs over the late contact that eliminated McDowell and Haley from contention. This allowed Berry to reassume the lead in his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 through the frontstretch while Gibbs managed to fend off Almirola for second place. In the process, McDowell, who lost a lap for repairs during the initial caution period, went two laps down.

    With less than 20 laps remaining, Berry was leading by three-tenths of a second over Gibbs and Almirola while Preece and Allmendinger remained in the top five.

    Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Berry, who lapped McDowell for a third time, continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over Gibbs with Almirola trailing by a second and trying to close in on Gibbs for a transfer spot to the All-Star Race.

    With five laps remaining, Berry maintained the lead by more than a second over Gibbs as third-place Almirola cut his deficit to Gibbs by less than three-tenths of a second. Meanwhile, Preece and Allmendinger trailed the leaders by four seconds while Yeley maintained sixth as he trailed by more than eight seconds.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Berry remained as the leader by six-tenths over Gibbs as Almirola tried to ignite a final lap charge in his No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang on Gibbs for second through Turn 1. Almirola, however, could not execute the pass or bump on Gibbs to gain the spot as Gibbs pulled away. Back at the front, Berry managed to cruise away from the field and claim both the All-Star Open victory and a transfer spot to the 2023 All-Star Race by half a second over Gibbs.

    With his accomplishment, Berry, a NASCAR Xfinity Series full-time competitor for JR Motorsports who led three times for 46 laps, achieved his first checkered flag of any type in NASCAR’s premier series. This year’s All-Star weekend marks Berry’s fourth start as an interim competitor of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports entry in place of the injured Alex Bowman and ninth overall for HMS as he will contend for his first opportunity of winning a million dollars. Berry’s Open victory also enabled all four Hendrick Motorsports entries to make the All-Star feature.

    “I feel so relieved,” Berry said on FS1. “These guys deserve to be in this race so bad. Thank you so much to Hendrick Motorsports for believing in me and giving me this opportunity under circumstances. This is really cool. We were able to get the lead and stretch it out a little bit, and just kind of maintain it. I think the two best cars made it [to the All-Star Race]. We’ll just see what tonight gives us.”

    Behind, Gibbs, the reigning Xfinity Series champion who led twice for a race-high 53 laps, fended off Almirola to finish second and race his way into his first career All-Star Race. Gibbs’ accomplishment enabled all four Joe Gibbs Racing competitors to make the main event.

    Photo by Andrew Boyd for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “It’s really cool,” Gibbs said. “I feel like I’m kind of back here at Hickory Motor Speedway, honestly. It’s a worn-out racetrack, for sure. Just kind of looking for patches, looking for grip. I kind of understand [McDowell]’s frustration, but at Martinsville [Speedway], we were running 18th and they clobbered us and about wrecked us, so I think it’s, honestly, fair game. We got in [to the All-Star Race]. That’s all that matters.”

    Lastly, rookie Noah Gragson, who recovered from his wreck nearing the halfway point to finish seventh, was awarded the 24th and final transfer spot to the All-Star Race by virtue of being the Fan Vote winner. The accomplishment marks Gragson’s first appearance in the All-Star Race as both Legacy Motor Club competitors will compete in the main event.

    Photo by Andrew Boyd for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “It’s kind of bittersweet right now,” Gragson said. “[I] Got the Fan Vote so we can go racing. We want to race our way in, but grateful for the whole Legacy Motor Club team. Thank you fans for all the support and everything going into this. Voting, the cheers, everything. We fire and feed off your guys’ energy, so thank you. Unfortunate for our team [with the damaged car]. We’re gonna try to get [the car] back together and put a show for the fans. We’re gonna try and get up there.”

    Aric Almirola finished the Open in third, but was among the remaining 13 competitors who did not make the 2023 All-Star Race along with Ryan Preece, AJ Allmendinger, JJ Yeley, Ty Dillon, Corey LaJoie, Josh Bilicki, Harrison Burton, Ryan Newman, Michael McDowell, Justin Haley, Todd Gilliland and Chandler Smith.

    There were five lead changes for three different leaders. The race featured three cautions for 18 laps.

    Results.

    1. Josh Berry, 46 laps led

    2. Ty Gibbs, 53 laps led

    3. Aric Almirola

    4. Ryan Preece

    5. AJ Allmendinger

    6. JJ Yeley

    7. Noah Gragson

    8. Ty Dillon

    9. Corey LaJoie

    10. Josh Bilicki

    11. Harrison Burton

    12. Ryan Newman, three laps down

    13. Michael McDowell, three laps down

    14. Justin Haley – OUT, Accident, one lap led

    15. Todd Gilliland – OUT, Accident

    16. Chandler Smith – OUT, Accident

    The 2023 NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway will follow suit on Sunday, May 21, at 8 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Ty Gibbs’ No. 54 pit crew wins NASCAR Pit Crew Challenge at North Wilkesboro

    Ty Gibbs’ No. 54 pit crew wins NASCAR Pit Crew Challenge at North Wilkesboro

    In the return of NASCAR’s Pit Crew Challenge at a revived venue, the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota TRD Camry pit crew piloted by rookie Ty Gibbs and led by crew chief Chris Gayle achieved an advantage in their quest to make the 2023 NASCAR All-Star Race by winning the All-Star Pit Crew Challenge at North Wilkesboro Speedway on Friday, May 19.

    The No. 54 JGR pit crew executed the top four-tire pit service time of the day at 13.012 seconds, which was enough to best 36 challengers and their respective pit crews as they claimed the $100,000 bonus. The result also awarded Gibbs, the reigning NASCAR Xfinity Series champion from Charlotte, North Carolina, the pole position for the 2023 NASCAR All-Star Open which will comprise 100 laps and occur on Sunday, May 21, at 5:30 p.m. ET on FS1.

    This year’s Pit Crew Challenge made its first return since 2012 and served as part of NASCAR’s revival to the historic North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, with the last NASCAR competition occurring in 1996 and was won by four-time Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon.

    During the Pit Crew Challenge, which determined the starting lineup for the All-Star Open and two 60-lap Heat Races, which will determine the official starting lineup for the All-Star Race, the 37 competitors who participated in the challenge drove their respective cars into a pit stall prior to entering and stopping at their assigned for their pit service, which would start the time. Once the pit crew completed the four-tire service, the competitors exited their pit stall and crossed the stall after their own, which would complete the time.

    With the top starting spot for the All-Star Open, Gibbs, a 2023 Cup Series Rookie-of-the-Year contender who is currently campaigning in his first full-time season in NASCAR’s premier series, will attempt to race his way into this first All-Star Race event that will occur on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on FS1. Gibbs’ pit crew led by crew chief Chris Gayle include car chief Nate Bellows, fueler Peyton Moore, jackman Darrell Edwards, front-tire changer Blake Houston, rear-tire changer Mike Hicks and carrier Jacob Holmes.

    “All credit to [the pit crew],” Gibbs said on FS1. “To be honest with you, I don’t think you should be interviewing me. You should be interviewing those guys. They work so hard. Thank you to all those boys out there. All those guys work so hard, so I appreciate them and all they do. I’m excited. We’ll see what happens. [I’m] Excited that NASCAR brought this [pit crew challenge] back. I really appreciate them giving these pit crew guys a shot.”

    Joining Gibbs on the front row for the All-Star Open will be Josh Berry, who will also be making his fourth start as an interim competitor in the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry for the injured Alex Bowman. Despite Bowman and the No. 48 team’s eligibility for this year’s All-Star Race after winning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2022, Berry does not meet any automatic eligibility criteria for the event as he will attempt to race his way into the main event on Sunday. Nonetheless, the No. 48 pit crew delivered on Friday with the fifth overall and second for the All-Star Open pit stop time at 13.677 seconds.

    Corey LaJoie will line up in third place for his starting spot for the All-Star Open while Harrison Burton, Justin Haley, Michael McDowell, Todd Gilliland, Ryan Preece, Aric Almirola and AJ Allmendinger will start in the top 10.

    NASCAR All-Star Open Lineup (including pit stop time)

    1. Ty Gibbs (13.012 seconds)

    2. Josh Berry (13.677 seconds)

    3. Corey LaJoie (13.911 seconds)

    4. Harrison Burton (14.091 seconds)

    5. Justin Haley (14.294 seconds)

    6. Michael McDowell (14.509 seconds)

    7. Todd Gilliland (14.707 seconds)

    8. Ryan Preece (14.760 seconds)

    9. Aric Almirola (14.776 seconds)

    10. AJ Allmendinger (15.796 seconds)

    11. Josh Bilicki (18.281 seconds)

    12. Ty Dillon (18.447 seconds)

    13. Chandler Smith (19.004 seconds)

    14. Ryan Newman (20.300 seconds)

    15. Noah Gragson (20.886 seconds)

    16. JJ Yeley (21.066 seconds)

    Meanwhile, Daniel Suarez and Chris Buescher were also left victorious after both achieved pole positions for the two Heat Qualifying Races that will occur on Saturday, May 20, beginning at 7:20 p.m. ET on FS1.

    For Suarez, who received the second-fastest pit service from his No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team led by crew chief Travis Mack at 13.297 seconds, he will lead a group of 11 competitors overall to the start of the first Heat event, with the first Heat event determining the starting lineup of the inside lane for the All-Star Race. Joining him on the front row will be Chase Elliott, whose No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 pit crew posted the fourth-overall pit stop time at 13.572 seconds.

    “[The pit crew] are legends,” Suarez said. “I’m very, very fortunate to have an amazing pit crew. We have amazing people and it’s showing. It’s amazing that we’re gonna have a good starting spot [for the Heat Race]. The car is pretty good. I’m confident that we’re gonna be able to keep our track position, have some fun and hopefully, be fighting for the big trophy on Sunday.”

    Buescher, who received the third-fastest pit service from his No. 17 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford Mustang team led by crew chief Scott Graves at 13.381 seconds, will lead a group of 10 competitors to the start of the second Heat event that will follow suit at 8:15 p.m. ET on FS1 and determine the starting lineup of the outside lane for the All-Star Race. Joining him on the front row will be Austin Dillon, whose No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 pit crew posted the sixth-overall pit stop time at 13.712 seconds.

    “That was awesome,” Buescher said. “I’m so proud of our group. You’re interviewing the wrong person. I had nothing to do with [the result]. I just got it for [the pit crew] and they did a heck of a job. [I’m] Gonna be watching all the on-track activities here these next two days and be ready for this race. We had a really good car in practice too, so I’m pumped right now. That’s awesome.”

    Heat Race #1 Lineup

    1. Daniel Suarez (13.297 seconds)

    2. Chase Elliott (13.572 seconds)

    3. Joey Logano (13.835 seconds)

    4. Denny Hamlin (14.089 seconds)

    5. Chase Briscoe (14.674 seconds)

    6. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (15.063 seconds)

    7. Austin Cindric (14.154 seconds)

    8. Kevin Harvick (15.579 seconds)

    9. Ryan Blaney (18.819 seconds)

    10. Christopher Bell (20.064 seconds)

    11. Erik Jones (21.359 seconds)

    Heat Race #2 Lineup

    1. Chris Buescher (13.381 seconds)

    2. Austin Dillon (13.712 seconds)

    3. William Byron (13.867 seconds)

    4. Ross Chastain (14.373 seconds)

    5. Kyle Larson (14.697 seconds)

    6. Martin Truex Jr. (15.115 seconds)

    7. Bubba Wallace (15.167 seconds)

    8. Brad Keselowski (18.044 seconds)

    9. Kyle Busch (19.531 seconds)

    10. Tyler Reddick (21.034 seconds)

    With the starting lineups for both the All-Star Open and the All-Star Race Heat events set, the first All-Star Race Heat event is scheduled to occur on Saturday, May 20, at 7:20 p.m. ET on FS1 followed by the second All-Star Race Heat event that will follow suit at 8:15 p.m. ET on FS1. The All-Star Open is scheduled to occur on Sunday, May 21, at 5:30 p.m. ET on FS1 while the All-Star Race will follow suit at 8 p.m. ET on FS1, all at North Wilkesboro Speedway.