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  • Justin Allgaier outlasts Xfinity field, Scores Road America win

    Justin Allgaier outlasts Xfinity field, Scores Road America win

    Staff Report | NASCAR.com

    Justin Allgaier pulled away for his fourth NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of the year Saturday at Road America.

    Allgaier’s JR Motorsports No. 7 Chevrolet led 14 of the 45 laps in the Johnsonville 180. His second straight road-course win this season was the ninth of his Xfinity Series career.

    “This team is incredible,” Allgaier said in Victory Lane. “They never give up. … I never would’ve thought we could have a dream season like this one.”

    Allgaier cruised away to a 5.403-second margin of victory after his nearest challengers, Justin Marks and James Davison, made contact and spun with three laps remaining. Allgaier’s winning pass came at Davison’s expense as the Australian driver’s miscue with seven laps left opened the door.  If you want a fast car like his, get cash for your car and get your new car.

    Pole-starter Matt Tifft brought the Richard Childress Racing No. 2 Chevrolet home in second place. Tifft later reported through social media that he made a post-race trip to the infield care center for fluids, but was otherwise OK.

    Daniel Hemric took third with Cole Custer fourth and Elliott Sadler fifth on the 4.048-mile road course.

    Allgaier took over the series points lead from Christopher Bell, who spun out with five laps remaining after a bump from Tifft. Bell was forced to make a late pit stop and finished 23rd.

    NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott finished 20th in his first national-series start since 2012. His GMS Racing No. 23 Chevrolet sustained significant front-end damage near the end of Stage 1. A later spin with seven laps to go dropped him further down the leaderboard.

    “I feel like I hit everything but the lottery,” Elliott said.

    Richard Childress Racing teammates swept the stage victories. Tifft led the first 10 laps from the pole position to capture Stage 1 for his first stage win of the season. Hemric led the final six laps of Stage 2 for his third stage victory in 2018.

    Austin Cindric led briefly during Stage 2 until his No. 22 Team Penske Ford lost power after Turn 11 on the long Kettle Bottoms straight. “It just blew up. At least we blew up in the lead,” Cindric told NBC Sports.

    Elliott Sadler, Cole Custer and Daniel Hemric all clinched playoff berths based on points, joining this season’s race-winners Allgaier, Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick in the playoffs field. That leaves six spots open with three regular-season races remaining.

    The series’ next race is the VFW Sport Clips Help A Hero 200, scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 1 (3:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM) at Darlington Raceway.

    RELATED: Race results

  • Allgaier Scores Third Win of XFINITY Season at Mid-Ohio

    Allgaier Scores Third Win of XFINITY Season at Mid-Ohio

    Justin Allgaier scored his third win of the 2018 NASCAR XFINITY Series season at Mid-Ohio, holding off polesitter and rookie Team Penske driver Austin Cindric to the checkered flag in the Rock N’ Roll Tequila 170.

    Daniel Hemric took home third, while Matt Tifft and Ryan Truex rounded out the top-five. Elliott Sadler, Cole Custer, Spencer Gallagher, Alex Labbe, and Ryan Reed rounded out the top-10.

    The race was slowed by six cautions for 18 laps, with seven lead changes among four drivers. Cindric, who holds a strong road racing background, led the most laps with 59. However, Allgaier was able to get past Cindric with four laps left, making JR Motorsports a four-race winner this season.

    “We needed to get up front,” said Allgaier. “That last restart was going to be pivotal.” This was after two brief incidents ended up with him going off course at one point and getting spun by Custer at another.

    Cindric was gracious in defeat, saying, “It’s NASCAR racing. We knew there would be a late-race restart. Great driver on new tires, great restart. We finished second. It’s frustrating. This place means a lot to me. We just came up short.”

    There were some post-race fireworks between Joey Gase and Ross Chastain following the race, with Gase and his pit crew confronting Chastain and his crew at his car. Video taken by Autoweek’s Matt Weaver showed Gase being restrained as he shouted at the JD Motorsports crew, while Chastain smiled and waved at the camera.

    Gase was called to the NASCAR hauler following the incident, after it was alleged he had rammed Chastain on pit road after crews, fans, and media had already begun gathering on pit road.

    “Basically I drove him hard and passed him clean, and going into the esses he hit me, I don’t know, three or four different turns and never got off my bumper and pushed me into the sand,” said Gase on the incident. “I don’t really appreciate that a whole lot. He’s Johnny Davis’s golden child and he can’t do anything wrong, and he forgets that we’re right there with him now, and the funny thing is that he also forgets that we’re trying to get in there in the Chase with him, and the only way we can do that is if we win.

    “So he’s trying to do that off of points. So, we can make that really difficult for him, and people just got to remember we’re here to race too. This is the most fun I’ve ever had, this is the best I’ve ever ran this year, and we’re improving every race.”

    The next XFINITY Series race will be Friday, August 17 at Bristol Motor Speedway, on NBC Sports Network.

     

  • Joey Logano Wins from the Pole in the Xfinity Series at Watkins Glen

    Joey Logano Wins from the Pole in the Xfinity Series at Watkins Glen

    Joey Logano drove his No. 22 Penske Ford to Victory Lane Saturday at Watkins Glen International in the Xfinity Series Zippo 200. This marked Logano’s 30th win in the series and his second Xfinity win this year.

    Logano started from the pole position today and led 31 laps. Even driving in the rain wouldn’t dampen his efforts to obtain the prize. Logano fought hard with teammate Brad Keselowski and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ryan Preece in the closing laps, going three-wide on the last restart. Preece finished fourth and Keselowski, who spun with  2 laps to go, recovered from the spin to finish 10th.

    “That was all I had,” said Logano, “He (Keselowski) was definitely faster. I thought the tires would have been enough to be faster than him.

    “I had a good restart and got in front of him, and he dogged me. These Xfinity cars draft quite a bit down these straightaways, and it’s hard to pull away. It felt good to race each other really hard, so it’s cool to see Penske cars doing that.”

    Stage 1 would have one minor caution, however, Logano led from flag to flag becoming the stage winner. But the skies were darkening and the threat of rain was in the air.

    Stage 2 would be the most challenging stage. Rain started to fall and on Lap 31 NASCAR made the call to have the cars pit to get rain tires and wipers on. On Lap 34 Vinnie Miller lost control of his car and went hard into the tire barriers. The red flag came out so the barriers could be repaired. By the time the repairs were completed the rain had stopped and the track was starting to dry. Some of the drivers pitted to put slick tires back on, while others waited until the end of the stage. A.J. Allmendinger would win the stage.

    The final stage of the race Keselowski started in the lead but had Kyle Larson all over his bumper trying to get the spot. Logano made his way up to third and battled with Larson to get second place. Once Larson was out of the way, Logano set his sights on Keselowski in first place. The two drivers put on a great show battling each other hard but cleanly. With eight laps to go Logano took the lead and won the race. Allmendinger would bring his car home in the runner-up spot and Justin Allgaier rounded out the top three.

    Ryan Preece and Aric Almirola would round out the top five. Cole Custer, Brandon Jones, Ryan Reed, Christopher Bell and Brad Keselowski finished sixth through 10 respectively.

    Christopher Bell leads the Xfinity Series Standings with 737 points, Custer is in second with 715points followed by Daniel Hemric in third with 714 points. Elliott Sadler is in fourth with 711 points and Allgaier rounds out the top five with 700 points.

    The Xfinity Series heads next to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the Mid-Ohio 200, on Saturday, Aug. 11.

  • Bell Scores Three-Peat, Wins at Iowa

    Bell Scores Three-Peat, Wins at Iowa

    Yogi Berra’s oft-used saying, “It’s never over ’til it’s over,” was certainly appropriate for Christopher Bell in Saturday’s U.S. Cellular 250 at Iowa Speedway.

    Certainly, Bell had the strongest car, leading 94 of 257 laps. However, Bell’s chance to win at Iowa appeared to be in jeopardy during the first overtime restart.

    Veteran racer Justin Allgaier made a bold, outside, four-wide pass to nab the lead from Bell in Turn 1. While the field raced toward the stripe, the caution came out for a hard crash involving Matt Tifft and Max Tullman.

    Following a somewhat lengthy red flag period, Allgaier held the top spot in the final restart of the race. As the late Benny Parsons would’ve summarized, Bell, who restarted fourth, appeared to have been shot out of a cannon.

    Suddenly, Bell found himself back in position for the win. The points leader caught Allgaier while knocking on his rear bumper on lap 256. Racing off Turns 3 and 4, Bell was alongside Allgaier before these two gritty racers traded paint along the frontstretch.

    Eventually gaining the top spot, Bell pulled away from Allgaier to score his fourth win of the NASCAR XFINITY Series season and his third in a row.

    “When it’s your day, it’s your day,” Bell observed. “I’ll take them any way I can. It’s special to win for these guys. My crew chief Jason (Ratcliff) kept making the car better and better. This thing was so good. The races are hard to win.”

    Impressively, Bell has bested some of NASCAR’s top drivers like Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, and series stalwart Allgaier.

    When asked about his bold, aggressive pass for the win, the 23-year-old Norman, OK native may have offered some candor.

    “I mean, I haven’t seen it,” Bell said. “The spotter was yelling ‘clear.’ If I’m clear, it was clean.”

    Naturally, second place finisher Allgaier expressed some displeasure following the race, coming oh-so-close at sweeping the season at Iowa.

    “I’m salty,” Allgaier remarked.  “At the end of the day, we raced clean all day. We raced clear here in the spring. It’s disappointing to get run over like that. It’s disappointing. As racers, we’re disappointed to finish second.”

    Despite coming one position short, Allgaier led the Chevrolet contingency and was ahead of the last lap carnage.

    Ultimately, Bell and Allgaier took the top two spots, with Kyle Benjamin, Ross Chastain, John Hunter Nemechek, Elliott Sadler, Ryan Reed, Ryan Truex, Cole Custer, and Chase Briscoe coming home with top-10 finishes.

    Following some exciting short track action at Iowa, the NASCAR XFINITY Series kicks off “Road Course August” with the Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen International on Saturday, August 4th at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.

  • Justin Allgaier Beats the Heat and Wins the Xfinity Race at Iowa Speedway

    Justin Allgaier Beats the Heat and Wins the Xfinity Race at Iowa Speedway

    It was a hot day at Iowa Speedway for the American Ethanol E15 250, but one driver was hotter than the track. Justin Allgaier driving his No.7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet didn’t feel anything but elation as he wheeled into victory lane.

    Allgaier swept all three stages of the race claiming his second NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of the year. Today’s win also marked his seventh career victory. He dominated today’s race leading 182 of 250 laps.

    In Victory Lane Allgaier commented, “We had a great car today, these guys did a fantastic job I can’t thank everyone at JR Motorsports enough. We’re in the middle of a cornfield, how can you not enjoy this? Man is it cool to win one especially at Iowa.”

    In Stage 1 Austin Cindric, starting from the pole position, appeared to be the car to beat. There was only one caution for Garrett Smithley who had a tire go down. It seemed like Cindric would lead every lap of this stage. However, with two laps remaining, Allgaier made his move and took the stage win.

    Stage 2 would run caution free with Allgaier in the lead. Although others were jockeying for positions Allgaier proved dominant leading every lap and winning the stage.

    The final stage would bring the best battles of the day. There were two minor cautions, one for Chad Finchum tagging the wall and the other for the spinning car of Brandon Hightower. The battle for the lead would get intense, even going three wide at points. Christopher Bell, in his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, did everything he could to get the lead from Allgaier. On the last lap, Bell would try one final time but would come up short taking second place.

    After the race, Bell commented,” We had a very good Rheem Camry, just not good enough to get him (Allgaier).”

    Coming home in third place was Daniel Hemric in his No.21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Cole Custer and Brandon Jones would round out the top five. Riley Herbst finished sixth in his first ever NASCAR Xfinity Series start. Ty Majeski, Tyler Reddick, Matt Tifft, and Kaz Grala finished seventh through 10th, respectively.

    Elliott Sadler leads the Xfinity Series standing with 504 points over Cole Custer who has 500 points. Hemric is in third with 497 points, Reddick is in fourth with 473 points and Bell with 471 points rounds out the top five.

    The Xfinity Series is off next week but will be heading to Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday, June 30.

  • Justin Allgaier Slays The Monster And Wins At Dover

    Justin Allgaier Slays The Monster And Wins At Dover

    Justin Allgaier, driving his No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, brought home his first Xfinity Series win this season and his first ever at Dover International Speedway Saturday afternoon.

    Elliott Sadler made the last lap exciting by trying to get a run on Allgaier but ended up getting loose and falling back enough to give Allgaier the win in the OneMain Financial 200. Allgaier made it look easy by dominating the competition and leading 104 of 200 laps during the race. He topped it off by winning the final Dash 4 Cash prize of $100,000. It was a great way to finish the week off for Allgaier’s car owner, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who just had his first baby (a girl) with wife, Amy.

    Allgaier commented on that last lap stating, “Well, unfortunately, I thought the 15 was going to go to the bottom and he went to the top, I got on my brakes and almost spun myself out.” He added, “ That race, I couldn’t ask for anything better, these guys and everyone at JR Motorsports have done a fantastic job. I think we have a great shot at going for the championship.”

    Stage 1 was fairly uneventful only having two cautions, one for Matt Tifft spinning and the second when Josh Bilicki tagged the wall. Sadler was the dominant car in this stage of the race, but Allgaier and Brandon Jones were right up there fighting for the lead. Sadler would win Stage 1 followed by Allgaier, Brandon Jones, Daniel Hemric, and Ryan Truex rounding out the top five.

    Stage 2 would see Tyler Reddick come to the front and take the lead, but 25 laps into the stage Allgaier would take the lead back and finish out the stage taking the win. The top five in Stage 2 were Allgaier, Reddick, Austin Cindric, Christopher Bell, and Tifft.

    The final stage is where it really started to heat up. The drivers started going three wide trying to get to the front for the win, and that’s when the cautions started coming out. There were three cautions in this stage involving drivers such as John Hunter Nemechek, Cindric, Alex Labbe, Dylan Lupton, and Ty Majeski.

    Allgaier would dominate the final stage leading most of the laps. Sadler did his best to get to Allgaier to make a pass for the lead and the two of them were side by side on the last lap, when they got together. Sadler got loose and backed off giving Allgaier the win.

    A dejected Sadler commented, “ I gave it my best, I’m just proud of everyone on my team. I really want to give these guys a win, I’m tired of finishing in the top five but don’t have any checkered flags to show for it. I did the best I could but it just wasn’.t good enough today.”

    Hemric ran in the top 10 most of the race and came home in third. A frustrated Hemric commented, “My Lord, we’re doing everything we can to put ourselves in a good position. I just want to figure out what it takes to close one of these things out, but I hate finishing third.”

    Bell and Reddick round out the top five. Johnny Sauter, Noah Gragson, Tifft, Cindric, and Jones finished sixth through 10th, respectively.

    Sadler leads the Xfinity Series standings with 401 points. Allgaier is in second with 368 points followed by Reddick in third with 363 points, Bell is in fourth with 349 points and Hemric rounds out the top five with 343 points.

    The Xfinity series heads next to Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 26.

     

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

    Joey Logano Goes for a California Cruise in the Roseanne 300

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Joey continued talking about the trophy and winning the race.

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

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

     

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  • Kyle Larson Dominates to Win Boyd Gaming 300

    Kyle Larson Dominates to Win Boyd Gaming 300

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

     

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  • No. 7 NXS Crew Chief Suspended For Homestead-Miami Finale

    No. 7 NXS Crew Chief Suspended For Homestead-Miami Finale

    Justin Allgaier’s Crew Chief Jason Burdett has been fined $10,000 and suspended for the NASCAR XFINITY Series finale at Homestead following an L1-infraction issued after Saturday’s post-race inspection at Phoenix Raceway. The No. 7 NXS team has also been penalized both 10 driver and owner points heading into the weekend, although they will still remain in the Championship Round at Homestead.

    According to NASCAR’s statement, both team and Burdett were penalized for a rear-brake assembly cooling issue, which is in violation of Section 20.15.2.2, which states that rear brake cooling assemblies must be sealed from inlet to exhaust.

    As a result, Allgaier’s 10th-place finish Saturday is encumbered.

    We’ll bring you more as the story unfolds.