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Connor Zilisch muscles through two overtime attempts and late fuel drama to win in Xfinity debut at The Glen

On a day when Connor Zilisch made his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut at Watkins Glen International, he added another pair of first-time accomplishments to his impressive racing resume, with his first career pole and first career win.

The 18-year-old Zilisch from Charlotte, North Carolina, led three times for a race-high 45 of 90 over-scheduled laps in an event where he commenced his Xfinity Series debut by notching his first pole position and claiming the first stage victory after leading all of the stage’s laps. Despite enduring a slow pit stop while pitting during the first stage break period, Zilisch methodically raced his way back up the leaderboard and settled in third place when the second stage period concluded.

The start of the final stage period with 38 laps remaining was where Zilisch’s opportunity to contend for the victory appeared to evaporate after he along with the leader Ty Gibbs and Sam Mayer were sent to the rear of the field due to driving through the Inner Loop’s off-course turn and not serving a “stop-and-go” penalty just as a caution flew for Justin Allgaier getting stuck in the Turn 6 gravel trap. However, since the following restart period with 33 laps remaining, Zilisch methodically carved his way back up the leaderboard with a fast car again. As fuel shortages became a highlighted topic in the closing laps, the Charlotte native, who had more fuel in his fuel tank compared to most of the front-runners who pitted, cycled back to the lead with 15 laps remaining. He would then maintain a healthy lead and conserve as much fuel in his fuel tank until a late-caution period with six laps remaining for Matt DiBenedetto stalling his car on the course briefly stalled his progress.

Then through another caution period during an attempted two-lap shootout and two overtime shootouts, Zilisch had enough fuel and muscle within his No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro entry to fend off the field amid a series of on-track chaos and coast to the finish line during the event’s race-ending caution for a multi-car wreck to win the Mission 200 at The Glen on Saturday, September 14, for his first career victory and become the seventh competitor overall to win in an Xfinity debut.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup on Saturday, newcomer Connor Zilisch notched his first Xfinity pole position in his series debut with a pole-winning speed at 124.176 mph in 71.028 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Ty Gibbs, who posted the second-fastest qualifying speed at 123.927 mph in 71.171 seconds.

Before the event, Ed Jones started at the rear of the field due to an engine change to his Sam Hunt Racing Toyota entry. The following names that include Jeb Burton, Ross Chastain, rookie Shane van Gisbergen, Joey Logano and Josh Williams also dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.

When the green flag waved and the race started, Connor Zilisch and Ty Gibbs dueled for the lead through the frontstretch until Zilisch, who was among select front-runners who briefly went off the course entering Turn 1, managed to fend off Gibbs to retain the lead. He would proceed to lead the next set of turns that included the Esses before he navigated his way through the backstretch and both the Inner and Outer Loops. Following the final set of turns that included a left-hand turn following a brief straightaway and a right-hand turn through Turn 7 back to the frontstretch, Zilisch proceeded to lead the first lap in front of Gibbs, Justin Allgaier, AJ Allmendinger and Chandler Smith.

Over the next four laps, Zilisch retained the lead ahead of a hard-charging Ty Gibbs, who trailed the leader by a second by the fifth lap mark, while third-place Allgaier followed suit by two seconds. With fourth-place Allmendinger trailing by five seconds, Chandler Smith retained fifth place ahead of William Byron while Sam Mayer, Aric Almirola, Sheldon Creed and Austin Hill were running in the top 10. Behind, rookie Jesse Love, Cole Custer, Riley Herbst, Ryan Sieg and Brandon Jones followed suit in the top 15 ahead of Sammy Smith, Parker Kligerman, Jeremy Clements, Parker Retzlaff and Mike Skeen while Shane van Gisbergen was up to 23rd place in front of Ross Chastain and Joey Logano.

Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Zilisch extended his lead to three seconds over runner-up Gibbs while Allgaier and Allmendinger remained in third and fourth, respectively. Behind, Byron was up into fifth place ahead of Mayer while Chandler Smith dropped to seventh ahead of Almirola, Creed and Hill. Meanwhile, van Gisbergen cracked the top-20 mark as he was running in 19th place behind Jeremy Clements while Love, Herbst, Custer, Brandon Jones and Ryan Sieg were mired in the top 15 ahead of Sammy Smith and Kligerman.

Five laps later, Zilisch continued to extend his advantage as he was now leading by over Gibbs while Allgaier, Allmendinger and Byron continued to run in the top five. Earlier, Herbst performed a stop-and-go on the course for missing the Inner Loop, which dropped him from 12th to 14th. In addition, Kligerman, who was reporting a gearing issue to his No. 48 Borchetta Bourbon Chevrolet Camaro entry, had dropped to 24th place from outside the top-15 mark. Amid the on-track battles, van Gisbergen carved his way up into the top-15 mark while Mayer, Chandler Smith, Almirola, Creed and Hill continued to run in the top 10.

Before the Lap 17 mark, select front-runners including Gibbs, Allmendinger, Byron, Mayer, Hill, Brandon Jones, van Gisbergen and Austin Green pitted their respective entries while Zilisch kept his pole-winning No. 88 Carolina Carports Chevrolet Camaro entry on the track with the lead.

When the first stage period concluded on Lap 20, Zilisch captured his first Xfinity stage career victory. Teammate Allgaier trailed by in second place by more than 10 seconds followed by a trio of Joe Gibbs Racing competitors that included Almirola, Chandler Smith and Creed while Custer, Love, Herbst, Ryan Sieg and Clements were scored in the top 10. By then, 36 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap, with van Gisbergen remaining on the lead lap and in front of the leader Zilisch in 36th place.

Under the stage break, Chandler Smith made an unscheduled pit stop from third place due to his No. 81 Smith General Contracting Toyota Supra entry overheating on water temperature due to a piece of debris lodged in his front grille. Once pit road became accessible for the field, a majority of the field led by Zilisch pitted for service while the rest led by Ty Gibbs remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Allgaier exited pit road first while teammate Zilisch was the sixth competitor to exit the pits following a slow pit service. Amid the pit stops, Alon Day and Thomas Annunziata were penalized for speeding on pit road. Not long after, Sammy Smith made a second pit stop to have a right-rear shock repaired.

The second stage period started on Lap 24 as Gibbs and Allmendinger occupied the front row. At the start, Gibbs and Allmendinger dueled for the top spot through the frontstretch and the first turn until Allmendinger managed to rocket his No. 16 Celsius Chevrolet Camaro entry ahead with the lead through the Esses. As the field behind jostled for spots through the backstretch and both the Inner and Outer Loops, Allmendinger retained the lead through the final set of turns that led back to the frontstretch as he led the following lap while Mayer and Byron battled for third place. Byron would manage to overtake Mayer for third place entering the first turn while Allmendinger retained a narrow lead over Gibbs. Meanwhile, Zilisch was back in 11th place as Allgaier, Brandon Jones, van Gisbergen, Creed, Custer and Herbst were scored in the top 10.

At the Lap 30 mark, Byron, who dueled and overtook Allmendinger through the frontstretch a lap prior, was leading by a second over Allmendinger while Gibbs and Allgaier also followed suit by a second. Meanwhile, Mayer had dropped to fifth place after he went off the course just past the Outer Loop while van Gisbergen, Jones, Zilisch, Creed and Custer trailed in the top 10 ahead of Herbst, Almirola, Ryan Sieg, Hill and Clements. By then, Logano and Chastain were mired in 18th and 19th, respectively, while Kligerman was back in 21st place in front of Parker Retzlaff and Chandler Smith. In addition, Sammy Smith was trapped a lap down in 36th place.

Five laps later, Byron stretched his advantage to more than two seconds over Gibbs while Allmendinger and Mayer trailed by four seconds. Behind, Zilisch navigated his way back into the top five after he overtook teammate Allgaier a lap earlier, while van Gisbergen, Jones, Creed and Custer were racing within the top 10 ahead of Herbst, Hill, Ryan Sieg, Clements and Love.

Another lap later, select names including Allmendinger, van Gisbergen, Jones, Creed, Chandler Smith and Josh Bilicki pitted their respective entries under green. By then, Logano had also pitted under green as Byron kept his No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro entry on the track with the lead.

When the second stage period concluded on Lap 40, Byron claimed his first Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Gibbs trailed in second place by more than three seconds while Zilisch, Mayer, Allgaier, Custer, Herbst, Hill, Ryan Sieg and Clements were scored in the top 10. By then, 34 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.

During the stage break, Almirola made an unscheduled pit stop to address losing both his third and fourth gears on his No. 20 Go Bowling Toyota Supra entry. Once pit road became accessible for the field, some, led by Allgaier, pitted while the rest, led by Byron and including Gibbs and Zilisch, remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Jeremy Clements was penalized for speeding on pit road. Not long after, Joey Gase filled in for Thomas Annunziata, who was taken to the care center due to feeling dehydrated. Allmendinger made a second pit stop to have a left-front tire changed.

With 38 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Byron and Gibbs occupied the front row. At the start, both dueled for the lead through the frontstretch until Byron got loose from Zilisch and went wide in Turn 1. This allowed Gibbs to move in front of the field as the field fanned out entering the Esses. Then after the field navigated through the backstretch and both the Inner and Outer Loops, trouble occurred as both Allgaier and Mike Skeen were sent sliding off the course in Turn 6, with Allgaier getting his No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro entry stuck in the gravel trap. Amid the incident, the race remained under green flag conditions before the caution flew a lap later. By then, Gibbs was the leader ahead of Mayer, Zilisch and Custer while Byron had dropped to fifth place.

Shortly after, however, the top three competitors including Gibbs, Mayer and Zilisch were penalized and sent to the rear of the field due to driving through the Inner Loop and not stopping for a stop-and-go penalty for missing the corner. The trio of penalties allowed Cole Custer to cycle into the lead as he was followed by Byron, van Gisbergen, and Austin Green.

During the caution period, some including Hill, Creed, Brandon Jones, Love, Jeb Burton, Josh Williams, Allmendinger, Josh Bilicki and Almirola pitted their respective entries while the rest led by Gibbs remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Hill was penalized for speeding on pit road.

The start of the next restart period with 33 laps remaining featured Custer retaining the lead following a strong start through the frontstretch and the first turn while van Gisbergen challenged Byron for the runner-up spot. With Herbst up to fourth place in front of Chandler Smith, Custer retained the lead through the backstretch and both the Inner and Outer Loop, with the field behind fanning out. As van Gisbergen was being intimidated by Herbst and Chandler Smith for third place, Byron retained second ahead of the trio battle while Custer led the following lap.

Then with 30 laps remaining, Byron gained a strong run beneath Custer through the frontstretch to reassume the lead. With Byron leading, Custer was being challenged by van Gisbergen for the runner-up spot through the Esses and backstretch while Herbst and Chandler Smith remained within close pursuit in the top five. Meanwhile, Kligerman was up to sixth place while Ed Jones, Logano, Austin Green and Ross Chastain were scored in the top 10.

A lap later, Byron surrendered the lead to pit under green, which allowed van Gisbergen, who overtook Custer for the runner-up spot a lap earlier, to cycle his No. 97 WeatherTech Chevrolet Camaro entry into the lead for the first time. Custer, Chastain, Austin Green, Mike Skeen, Kyle Sieg and Chandler Smith would all pit during the following two laps as Herbst, Kligerman, Ed Jones and Logano moved up into the top five. With Love and Creed following suit in sixth and seventh, respectively, Zilisch was up to eighth place ahead of Allmendinger and Brandon Jones while Gibbs and Mayer were mired in 14th and 15th, respectively. As more names including Logano and Brennan Poole pitted their respective entries, van Gisbergen retained the lead by three seconds over Herbst and Kligerman with 25 laps remaining.

With 20 laps remaining, van Gisbergen continued to lead by four seconds over Herbst while Kligerman, Zilisch and Creed trailed in the top five ahead of Allmendinger, Gibbs, Brandon Jones, Mayer and Love. By then, Ed Jones, who was dealing with a cool suit malfunction, pitted under green from fourth place two laps earlier, though he would then encounter a mechanical issue while trying to exit his pit stall. In addition, Retzlaff pitted his Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet entry.

A few laps later, Herbst surrendered the runner-up spot to pit his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang entry for both tires and enough fuel to the event’s scheduled distance. Kligerman, who briefly inherited the runner-up spot, would also pit, which allowed Zilisch to move into the runner-up spot. Zilisch, who was also trying to stretch his fuel tank to the event’s scheduled distance, would then return atop the leaderboard with 15 laps remaining as van Gisbergen pitted for fuel under green, though the latter would be penalized for speeding on pit road. With Zilisch leading, Creed, Gibbs, Allmendinger, Brandon Jones and Mayer followed suit in the top six. By then, Byron returned to pit road to address a vibration concern.

Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Zilisch continued to lead by more than five seconds over Creed while Ty Gibbs followed suit by within six-tenths of a second to teammate Creed. Behind, fourth-place Allmendinger trailed the lead by 13 seconds while JR Motorsports’ Brandon Jones and Mayer trailed in the top six by less than 20 seconds on the track.

Two laps later, teammates Gibbs and Creed dueled for the runner-up spot, with the former prevailing with the spot while Zilisch retained the lead by more than six seconds as he was also trying to stretch his fuel tank to the distance. A lap later, Creed surrendered his top-three spot on the track to pit for a quick splash of fuel, which allowed Allmendinger, Brandon Jones and Mayer to move up the leaderboard in the top five.

Then with six laps remaining, the caution flew due to Matt DiBenedetto coming to a stop in the Inner Loop after he endured a mechanical issue through the backstretch. The caution all but erased Zilisch’s steady advantage of six seconds over Gibbs as Allmendinger, Brandon Jones and Mayer were scored in the top five.

During the caution period, some including Love, Custer, Hill, Josh Bilicki, Ryan Sieg, Ryan Ellis and Anthony Alfredo pitted while the rest led by Zilisch remained on the track.

With the race restarting with two laps remaining, Allmendinger tried to throw a three-wide move beneath both Zilisch and Gibbs for the lead exiting the frontstretch and in Turn 1, but Zilisch managed to retain the lead as multiple competitors were sent spinning and colliding into one another, among which included Ed Jones, Josh Williams, Logano, Byron, Mike Skeen, Sammy Smith, Hill and Alfredo.

Amid the incidents, the race remained under green flag conditions as Zilisch retained the lead through the Esses and the backstretch. Then caution returned for the incidents, that left carnage and leaked fluid left from Turn 1, with Alfredo and Hill sustaining the most damage to their respective entries. With the caution being flown, the race was sent into overtime. It was also sent into a red flag period to have the carnage and the spilled fluid cleared, with Alfredo hitting the guardrails while trying to nurse his damaged No. 5 Ferguson Chevrolet Camaro entry that was leaking fluid back to the infield.

Twenty-two minutes later, the red flag was lifted and the field led by Zilisch proceeded under a cautious pace. During the caution period, select names led by Sammy Smith and including those involved during the previous caution period pitted while the rest led by Zilisch remained on the track.

The start of the first overtime attempt featured Zilisch fending off Mayer through the frontstretch, the first turn and the Esses with the lead. By then, Gibbs ran out of fuel and dropped out of contention during the restart as the field scattered through the opening turns. Zilisch, who was continuing to try and stretch his fuel tank to the distance, would proceed to lead through the backstretch and both the Inner and Outer Loops just before teammate Brandon Jones was sent for a spin from the middle of the field through the Inner Loop. Jones was then hit hard by Mike Skeen as the caution returned and the event was sent into a second overtime attempt.

Following an extensive caution period, the start of the second overtime attempt featured teammates Zilisch and Mayer dueling for the lead exiting the frontstretch before the former muscled ahead through the first turn, where Custer spun. Mayer, Allmendinger and van Gisbergen then went three wide through the Esses and backstretch in a battle for the runner-up spot. Shortly after, Mayer was seen slowly losing pace with the front-runners as he was shaking the car back and forth to keep it under power while Allmendinger and van Gisbergen continued to fiercely duel for the runner-up spot as Chandler Smith, Sheldon Creed and Kligerman joined the battle.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Zilisch remained as the leader by three seconds over Creed, who overtook Allmendinger, van Gisbergen and Chandler Smith for the runner-up spot through the frontstretch as Mayer spun entering Turn 7. Before this, Allgaier spun in the Inner Loop. Amid the chaos, the race remained under green flag conditions.

Then with numerous bumps and on-track chaos continuing to ensue around the course, the event concluded under caution as a multi-car wreck erupted on the backstretch that started when Ryan Sieg, who was running inside the top 10, got Herbst loose as Herbst spun back in front of Sieg and both were sent wrecking hard against the guardrails while clipping Austin Green in the process as more names, including Ed Jones, Clements and Brennan Poole, would also get collected.

With the caution being displayed, Zilisch, who was exiting the Outer Loop at the moment the event was deemed official, had enough fuel in his dry tank to coast his No. 88 Carolina Carports Chevrolet Camaro entry through the final two turns under reduced pace and back to the frontstretch for his first checkered flag in his debut in the Xfinity circuit.

With the victory, Connor Zilisch, who inked a sponsorship deal with Red Bull a day ago and is set to become a full-time Xfinity Series competitor for JR Motorsports in 2025, became the 179th competitor overall to win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series division as he joined Jesse Love and Shane van Gisbergen as competitors to notch a first-time Xfinity victory in 2024. He also joined an exclusive list that includes Dale Earnhardt, Ricky Rudd, Joe Ruttman, Terry Labonte, Kurt Busch and recently Ty Gibbs as competitors to win in an Xfinity Series debut. As added bonuses, he also became the second-youngest winner in the Xfinity Series division at age 18 years, one month and 23 days while becoming the first competitor to record a first-time Xfinity victory at The Glen since Austin Cindric made the last accomplishment in 2019.

Zilisch’s Xfinity victory at The Glen marked his second trip to Victory Lane of the weekend after he won Friday’s ARCA Menards Series event at The Glen, with the Charlotte native etching the fifth victory of the season for JR Motorsports, the first victory for JR Motorsports’ No. 88 Chevrolet entry in two seasons and the first ever for crew chief Andrew Overstreet.

“Man, I don’t even have words,” Zilisch, who fought tears of emotions on the frontstretch, said on USA Network. “I worked so hard for this one. I’ve been working for this one for months. It’s so special. I don’t even have words right now. I don’t know how I saved enough [fuel]. I sputtered up the hill with two [laps] to go. I didn’t think I was gonna make it back to the line. I was saving the last two laps. I’m gonna enjoy this one for a while. That’s special. One-on-one [in the Xfinity Series], not bad.”

“Coming into today, I just wanted to run all the laps,” Zilisch added. “I ran all the laps and I came home with a win too. I can’t complain about that. I just can’t thank everyone who’s helped me get to this point. It’s special [to] come out here and win my first race. Hopefully, the first of many.”

With Zilisch winning the race, Sheldon Creed settled in second place for the 12th time in his career while AJ Allmendinger came home in third place. The top three results were enough for both Allmendinger and Creed to secure their spots into the 2024 Xfinity Series Playoffs by points.

“[I was] Just trying to keep the nose on [the car] there,” Creed said. “[The race was] Actually really fun. I felt like that was the battle for the win probably if [Zilisch] ran out [of fuel]. I thought I put myself in really good position. To end up second again, I could be mad, but I’m actually happy for kind of how our day was going. We were a top-10 car, but I just didn’t know how good we were to run in the top three there. Another top five for our team. Just good momentum for the Playoffs and I can’t wait for Bristol next week. I’m having a lot of fun right now, so that’s what’s important.

Chandler Smith settled in fourth place while Shane van Gisbergen ended up in fifth place. Ross Chastain, Parker Kligerman, Jesse Love, Joey Logano and Josh Bilicki completed the top 10 in the final running order.

There were 10 lead changes for seven different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 19 laps. In addition, 21 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.

Following the 25th event of the 2024 Xfinity Series season, Justin Allgaier continues to lead the regular-season standings by 43 points over Cole Custer, 62 over Chandler Smith and 99 over Austin Hill.

With next weekend’s Xfinity Series event at Bristol Motor Speedway marking the final regular-season event of the 2024 season, the following names that include Justin Allgaier, Cole Custer, Chandler Smith, Austin Hill, AJ Allmendinger, Sheldon Creed, rookie Jesse Love, Riley Herbst, rookie Shane van Gisbergen and Sam Mayer have clinched spots into the 2024 Xfinity Series Playoffs either by regular-season victories or by points.

Currently, Parker Kligerman holds one of two vacant spots in the Playoffs by 85 points. Lastly, Sammy Smith, who fell back to 19th place in the final running order at The Glen, holds the 12th and final transfer spot into the Playoffs by 43 points over Ryan Sieg, who ended up in 22nd place after he was unable to complete the final lap amid his multi-car wreck.

Results.

1. Connor Zilisch, 45 laps led, Stage 1 winner

2. Sheldon Creed

3. AJ Allmendinger, five laps led

4. Chandler Smith

5. Shane van Gisbergen, 14 laps led

6. Ross Chastain

7. Parker Kligerman

8. Jesse Love

9. Joey Logano

10. Josh Bilicki

11. Austin Green

12. William Byron, 16 laps led, Stage 2 winner

13. Riley Herbst

14. Parker Retzlaff

15. Ryan Ellis

16. Leland Honeyman

17. Justin Allgaier

18. Jeremy Clements

19. Sammy Smith

20. Sam Mayer, one lap led

21. Cole Custer, six laps led

22. Ryan Sieg, one lap down

23. Brennan Poole, one lap down

24. Ed Jones, one lap down

25. Ty Gibbs, one lap down, three laps led

26. Aric Almirola, two laps down

27. RC Enerson, five laps down

28. Brandon Jones – OUT, Accident

29. Thomas Annunziata, six laps down

30. Mike Skeen – OUT, Accident

31. Jeb Burton – OUT, Oil Leak

32. Josh Williams – OUT, Accident

33. Austin Hill – OUT, Accident

34. Anthony Alfredo – OUT, Accident

35. Matt DiBenedetto – OUT, Rear Gear

36. Alon Day – OUT, Brakes

37. Kyle Sieg – OUT, Axle

38. Kyle Weatherman – OUT, Rear End

Next on the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is Bristol Motor Speedway for the Food City 300, which will serve as this year’s regular-season finale and determine the 12-car Playoff field. The event is scheduled to occur next Friday, September 20, and air at 7:30 p.m. ET on the CW Network.

September 14, 2024
Austin Hill sweeps Atlanta for third Xfinity victory of 2024

With his No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro entry sporting a special gold scheme to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his sponsor Bennett Transportation & Logistics, Austin Hill generated a late golden performance on the track to win the Focused Health 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday, September 7.

The 30-year-old Hill from Winston, Georgia, led the final 12 of 163-scheduled laps in an event where he started fourth place and spent the first stage period racing upfront getting shuffled within the top-10 mark throughout the second stage period. After spending most of the final stage period methodically carving his way back to the front amid the draft, Hill capitalized on the final restart period with 13 laps remaining to overtake Chandler Smith for the lead during the following lap. He then fended off a pair of final lap challenges from Chandler Smith and Corey Heim to notch his third NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of the 2024 season, his fourth at his home track and his first series victory since late February.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup on Saturday, rookie Jesse Love notched his fourth Xfinity career pole position after posting a pole-winning lap at 173.646 mph in 31.927 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Taylor Gray, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 173.489 mph in 31.956 seconds.

Before the event, the following names that included AJ Allmendinger, Jeremy Clements, Ryan Ellis and Brennan Poole dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.

When the green flag waved and the race started, Jesse Love and Taylor Gray dueled for the lead in front of two stacked lanes through the first two turns and the backstretch until the outside lane led by Love gained the advantage as Love muscled ahead with drafting help from teammate Austin Hill. As the field returned to the frontstretch, Love led the first lap in his No. 2 Samsara Chevrolet Camaro.

Over the next four laps and with the field briefly fanning out to three lanes before the majority of the filed settled in a long single-file line towards the outside wall, Love retained an early advantage ahead of teammate Hill and Justin Allgaier while Chandler Smith and Taylor Gray pursued in the top five. Behind, Sheldon Creed, Ryan Sieg, Cole Custer, rookie Shane van Gisbergen and Parker Kligerman were in the top 10 while Brandon Jones, Jeb Burton, Ryan Truex, Riley Herbst, Josh Williams, Sam Mayer, Sammy Smith, Corey Heim, Anthony Alfredo and Blaine Perkins were in the top 20 ahead of Parker Retzlaff, Brennan Poole, Kyle Sieg, AJ Allmendinger and Garrett Smithley.

Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Love continued to lead ahead of teammate Hill, Allgaier, Chandler Smith and Taylor Gray as the top-six competitors, including Creed, were separated by less than a second Meanwhile, the top 13 competitors were separated by within two seconds while the top 19 were separated by within three seconds.

A lap later, the event’s first caution flew when Ryan Sieg, a Playoff bubble competitor, coasted to a halt in the backstretch due to a wiring issue as he fell out of the lead lap category while needing a wrecker to have his No. 39 Sci Aps Ford Mustang entry nursed back to his pit stall. Amid Sieg’s issues, Anthony Alfredo also encountered early issues due to scraping the outside wall and damaging the right side of his No. 5 Our Motorsports entry. During the caution period, some led by Sammy Smith and including AJ Allmendinger pitted while the rest led by Love remained on the track.

When the race restarted under green on Lap 16, Sheldon Creed and Love dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Love muscled ahead from the outside lane with drafting help from Chevrolet teammates Hill and Allgaier. With Creed falling back to fourth place, Love proceeded to lead the following lap as the majority of the field migrated towards the outside wall and behind Love. Meanwhile, Parker Kligerman, who was running within the top-10 mark, was trying to form a drafting lane on the inside lane ahead of van Gisbergen, Sam Mayer and Jeb Burton before he quickly moved back up the outside lane and with the pack. Amid the shuffles and battles within the lead pack, Love proceeded to lead the Lap 20 mark.

At the Lap 25 mark, Allgaier, who spent the previous few laps dueling with Love for the lead from the inside lap despite having no drafting help, was out in front as he muscled his No. 7 Hellmann’s Chevrolet Camaro ahead of Love with the top spot and towards the outside lane. With Allgaier leading and the field behind slowly fanning out to two drafting lanes, Love was second ahead of teammate Hill, Creed and Cole Custer while Brandon Jones, Riley Herbst, Chandler Smith, Sam Mayer and Taylor Gray were scored in the top 10. Shortly after, the top-nine competitors were separated by less than a second and the top 19 were separated by less than four seconds as Allgaier continued to lead by the Lap 30 mark.

Nearing the Lap 35 mark, the top 12 competitors were separated by less than two seconds as Allgaier remained out in front of Hill and Love while Herbst and Creed were scored in the top five ahead of Mayer, Brandon Jones, Custer, Chandler Smith, Taylor Gray, Ryan Truex and Corey Heim.

When the first stage period concluded on Lap 40, Allgaier edged a hard-charging Hill by 0.012 seconds to score his 14th Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Hill settled in second ahead of Riley Herbst, Creed and Love while Mayer, Brandon Jones, Custer, Chandler Smith and Taylor Gray were scored in the top 10. By then, 34 of 37 starters were scored on the lead lap.

Under the stage break, nearly the entire field led by Allgaier pitted while others led by Allmendinger and Sammy Smith remained on the track. During the pit stops, Josh Williams was penalized for speeding on pit road.

The second stage period started on Lap 47 as Allmendinger and Allgaier occupied the front row. At the start, both dueled for the lead entering the first two turns and the backstretch as the field fanned out to three lanes. With Cole Custer fanning out to boost his way up to fourth place, Allmendinger retained the lead from the outside lane over Allgaier as the former had Sammy Smith drafting him.

Just past the Lap 50 mark, Allmendinger was leading ahead of Sammy Smith, Custer, Herbst and Mayer while Allgaier, Love, Hill, Creed and Gray were scored in the top 10 ahead of van Gisbergen, Brandon Jones, Kligerman, Chandler Smith and Ryan Truex.

Ten laps later, Allmendinger retained the lead ahead of Sammy Smith, Custer, Herbst and Mayer while Allgaier, Love, Creed, Gray and Jones followed suit in the top 10 ahead of van Gisbergen, Hill, Kligerman, Chandler Smith, Corey Heim, Truex, Jeb Burton, Parker Retzlaff, Brennan Poole and Lawless Alan. With a majority of the field running in a single-file line towards the outside wall, Allmendinger continued to lead by the Lap 79 mark as the top 14 competitors were separated by three seconds.

Then with three laps remaining in the second stage period, the caution flew after Mayer was turned across the frontstretch’s outside wall by Gray as Mayer, who hit the wall, proceeded with right-side damage to his No. 1 High Rock Vodka Chevrolet Camaro. As Mayer’s damaged car continued to zip through the frontstretch, his car then had flames bursting out from behind and Mayer proceeded to pull his car below the apron and park in the backstretch before exiting uninjured.

The caution for Mayer’s incident was enough for the second stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 80 to officially conclude under caution as Allmendinger notched his first Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Sammy Smith settled in second ahead of Custer, Herbst and Allgaier while Love, Taylor Gray, Chandler Smith, van Gisbergen and Creed were scored in the top 10.

During the stage break, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Allmendinger pitted for service while select names including Leland Honeyman, Jeremy Clements, David Starr and Garrett Smithley remained on the track. Following the pit stops and amid mixed strategies, teammates Gray and Creed exited first and second on two fresh tires. Amid the pit stops, Creed was penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation while teammate Ryan Truex was penalized for pitting outside of his pit box. In addition, Hill ran into the rear of van Gisbergen after entering pit road.

With 76 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Gray and Allmendinger occupied the front row. At the start, Gray and Allmendinger dueled for the top spot, with the former managing to retain the top spot. Amid the battles and with the field stacked to two lanes, Gray retained the lead with 70 laps remaining before teammate Chandler Smith would overtake him a lap later.

With 66 laps remaining, the caution returned for van Gisbergen getting into the outside wall in Turn 4 while running inside the top 10 as he proceeded to nurse his No. 97 Quad Lock Chevrolet Camaro back to his pit stall with right-side damage. During the caution period, multiple names including Hill, Allgaier, Sammy Smith, Kligerman, Corey Heim, Jeb Burton and Creed pitted while the rest led by Chandler Smith remained on the track.

The start of the following restart period with 59 laps remaining featured Chandler Smith and Gray dueling for the top spot as Smith retained the lead for the following lap. Three laps later, Smith was overtaken by Custer through the backstretch and Smith was left battling Herbst for the runner-up spot.

The caution would then return with 55 laps remaining due to Jeb Burton losing a left front tire and spinning to the bottom of the track. During the caution period, select names including Blaine Perkins, van Gisbergen, Clements and Ryan Ellis pitted while the rest led by Custer remained on the track.

As the race restarted with 48 laps remaining, Custer dueled and held off Gray to lead the field. Amid the late battles within the pack, Custer proceeded to lead with 40 laps remaining. By then, Chandler Smith was up to second ahead of Herbst, Love and Allmendinger while Josh Williams, Truex, Allgaier, Heim and Hill were in the top 10. After Custer led the next nine laps, Allmendinger overtook him with 31 laps remaining.

Down to the final 25 laps of the event, Chandler Smith, who assumed the lead two laps earlier, was out in front of Allgaier, Custer, Hill and Gray as Love, Ryan Sieg, Williams, Herbst and Jones followed suit in the top 10, with the top-16 competitors separated by a second. By then, Creed made an unscheduled pit stop under green.

With less than 20 laps remaining, Chandler Smith continued to lead ahead of Custer, Allgaier, Taylor Gray and Hill. Behind, Jones, who had tried to slide in front of Chandler Smith for the lead a few laps earlier but was unable to do so, slipped out of the top five on the inside lane, and was in seventh as the top 10 competitors were separated by less than a second. By then, Smith was also able to muscle ahead of Allgaier, who was trying to use the inside lane to slide in front of Smith but was unable to do so.

Then with 19 laps remaining, the caution flew when Allgaier, who was dueling Custer for the runner-up spot, went up the track just past the backstretch and made contact with Custer and Gray. Custer was sent for a spin before he collided with teammate Herbst and Ryan Sieg as Allgaier and Gray were pinned against one another towards the outside wall as Love barely ran into the rear of Gray. The incident was enough for the event to be placed in a red flag period for 15 minutes.

Once the red flag lifted and the field proceeded under a cautious pace, multiple names that included Love, Allmendinger, Brennan Poole, Parker Retzlaff, Clements, Nick Leitz, Blaine Perkins, Ryan Ellis, Garrett Smithley and David Starr pitted while the rest led by Chandler Smith remained on the track. Among those who pitted included Love, who had a rear bumper cover from Herbst’s car stuck atop the No. 2 Chevrolet.

With the race restarting under green with 13 laps remaining, Chandler Smith and Hill dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch before Hill muscled ahead and tried to slide in front of Smith through Turns 3 and 4. Smith, however, pulled a crossover move on Hill through the frontstretch, but Hill would prevail from the outside lane through the first two turns as he would maintain the lead through the backstretch while Smtih was battling Josh Williams and Corey Heim for second place.

Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Hill was leading ahead of Chandler Smith and Williams while the rest of the field behind followed in close pursuit amid two stacked lanes. By then, the top 12 competitors were separated by less than a second while the top 19 were separated by under two seconds.

With five laps remaining, Hill maintained a steady advantage ahead of Chandler Smith, Heim, Kligerman and Lawless Alan as the top-15 competitors were separated by less than two seconds. Allmendinger would then transition to the inside lane and try to gain a drafting run while battling Sammy Smith for sixth place, but he would then make contact with Alan and nearly send him spinning

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Hill, who nearly got sideways off the front nose of Chandler Smith as Smith made a move beneath Hill to duel with him exiting Turns 3 and 4, remained as the leader on the outside lane as Heim, who elected not to draft his Toyota teammate Smith from the inside lane, drafted Hill back out front ahead of Kligerman through the frontstretch.

Then through Turns 1 and 2, Heim attempted to make a move to Hill’s outside, but Hill blocked and fended off Heim as the latter scraped his No. 26 Sam Hunt Racing Toyota Supra towards the outside wall. This allowed Hill to retain the top spot as Kligerman zipped by for second place. With Allmendinger and Chandler Smith following Kligerman and passing Heim, all four were unable to regain their momentum and catch Hill as Hill cycled his No. 21 Bennett Transportation Chevrolet Camaro back to the frontstretch and claimed the checkered flag by three-tenths of a second.

With the victory, Hill notched his ninth Xfinity Series career win in his 105th series start, his seventh on a superspeedway venue and his fourth at Atlanta Motor Speedway, his home track. This season marks the first time Hill swept both Atlanta Xfinity events as he also notched the 96th Xfinity career victory for Richard Childress Racing and the 13th of the season for the Chevrolet nameplate.

Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.

“Just resilience with this whole Bennett No. 21 team,” Hill said on USA Network. “Our Bennett Chevrolet wasn’t handling great all day. It had plenty of speed. Just the handle on it was tough all day. We had to dig deep for that [win]. [Chandler Smith] got into [Turn] 3 and had me jacked up. He’s doing what he has to do to try to win. [I’m] Very surprised that [Heim] pushed me there and didn’t go with a Toyota and then, I thought that I messed up into [Turns] 1 and 2. I hate it that [Heim] got in the fence. I wasn’t trying to run him in the fence. I was just trying to get him aero-tight or get him aero-loose because that was happening to me a lot today.”

“This is insane like to win with this gold car, Bennett’s 50th anniversary. This is their biggest race of the entire year,” Hill added. “To do this for our sponsor, it means a lot. We’re gonna celebrate this one because [the win] didn’t come easy.”

With Hill winning the race, Parker Kligerman edged AJ Allmendinger by 0.004 seconds to finish in second place for the first time this season while Chandler Smith and Corey Heim rounded out the top five following their last-lap charges for the victory. To add to Hill being surprised about Heim not drafting with Chandler Smith and challenging him for the win, Smith was also left surprised and disappointed with not having the drafting help to challenge for the victory as his home track.

“I expected my Toyota teammate to come with me and that didn’t happen,” Smith said. “It is what it is. I’m kind of speechless, honestly. There’s a lot of different things I could’ve done that I could’ve been more selfish and when I got clear, went to the bottom [lane] and cover that and just control the race, for sure, but I was trying to be a good teammate. It didn’t pay off for me today, as usual.”

Rookie Jesse Love charged back up the field to finish sixth while Sammy Smith, Josh Williams, Brandon Jones and Ryan Truex finished in the top 10.

There were 12 lead changes for nine different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 36 laps. In addition, 23 of 37 starters finished on the lead lap.

Following the 24th event of the 2024 Xfinity Series season, Justin Allgaier continues to lead the regular-season standings by 34 points over Cole Custer, 67 over Chandler Smith and 71 over Austin Hill.

Results.

1. Austin Hill, 12 laps led

2. Parker Kligerman

3. AJ Allmendinger, 40 laps led, Stage 2 winner

4. Chandler Smith, 28 laps led

5. Corey Heim

6. Jesse Love, 23 laps led

7. Sammy Smith

8. Josh Williams

9. Brandon Jones

10. Ryan Truex

11. Kyle Weatherman

12. Parker Retzlaff

13. Lawless Alan

14. Anthony Alfredo

15. Brennan Poole

16. Kyle Sieg

17. Leland Honeyman, one lap led

18. Mason Maggio

19. Blaine Perkins

20. Nick Leitz

21. Ryan Ellis

22. David Starr

23. Garrett Smithley

24. Jeb Burton, one lap down

25. Sheldon Creed, three laps down, one lap led

26. Riley Herbst, five laps down

27. Shane van Gisbergen, six laps down

28. Taylor Gray – OUT, Suspension, 12 laps led

29. Jeremy Clements – OUT, Suspension

30. Justin Allgaier – OUT, Accident, 19 laps led, Stage 1 winner

31. Cole Custer – OUT, Accident, 27 laps led

32. Ryan Sieg – OUT, Accident

33. Morgen Baird, 21 laps down

34. CJ McLaughlin – OUT, Engine

35. Matt DiBenedetto – OUT, Oil Line

36. Sam Mayer – OUT, Accident

37. Dawsom Cram – OUT, Engine

Next on the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is Watkins Glen International in Watkins Glen, New York, for the Mission 200 at The Glen. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, September 14, and air at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network.

September 7, 2024
Ryan Truex muscles to second Xfinity victory of 2024 at Daytona

In his eighth NASCAR Xfinity Series start of the 2024 season, Ryan Truex struck gold for a second time by surviving an overtime attempt and fending off the competition amid the draft to win the Wawa 250 at Daytona International Speedway on Friday, August 23.

The 32-year-old Truex from Mayetta, New Jersey, led six times for 28 of 102 over-scheduled laps in an event where he qualified in sixth place and ran upfront from start to finish. Mingling within the field through the draft and close-quarters competition, Truex, who recorded a total of 13 stage points between the event’s first two stages, led for the first time on Lap 52 and he would spend the remainder of the event both working and fending off his fellow competitors and Toyota teammates amid the draft through every corner and straightaway.

Then during the event’s lone overtime attempt, Truex, who received a shove from Riley Herbst on the inside lane to move ahead of the field, fended off a late attempt charge from AJ Allmendinger and Parker Kligerman before the latter sent the former for a spin on the final lap. With the event concluding under caution, Truex was able to retain the lead from teammate Chandler Smith and Kligerman, which resulted in the part-time Xfinity Series competitor racing for Joe Gibbs Racing to cautiously cruise to his second Xfinity victory of the 2024 season and first at Daytona.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, Chandler Smith notched his first Xfinity pole position of the 2024 season with a pole-winning lap at 181.189 mph in 49.672 seconds. Smith was awarded the pole position following the first qualifying round after the second and final qualifying round was canceled due to lightning strikes within an eight-mile radius of the speedway. Qualifying in second place was Austin Hill, who posted his best qualifying lap at 181.123 mph in 49.690 seconds.

Prior to the event, Sam Mayer dropped to the rear of the field due to an engine change. Not long after, Hill was also sent to the rear of the field due to an unapproved adjustment. With Hill starting at the rear of the field, Joe Graf Jr. moved up and started alongside teammate/pole-sitter Chandler Smith on the front row.

When the green flag waved and the race started, Chandler Smith and Joe Graf Jr. led the field that was stacked amid two tight-packed lanes through the frontstretch, the first two turns and the backstretch. Then exiting the backstretch, the event’s first caution flew when Jeffrey Earnhardt bumped and got Jeremy Clements sideways as Clements spun his No. 51 One Stop/All South Electric Chevrolet Camaro below the apron before he almost made his way back across the track and slid across the apron again entering Turn 3. Clements’ spin ignited a chain reaction wreck as Austin Hill, Ryan Ellis Akinori Ogata and newcomer Gus Dean all damaged their respective entries. The incident spoiled Hill’s attempt to sweep both Xfinity Daytona events of the 2024 season as he lost multiple laps while his No. 21 pit crew proceeded to repair the car.

During the event’s first caution period, some including Sammy Smith, Ryan Sieg, Brennan Poole and Tim Viens pitted their respective entries, with Sieg sliding through his pit stall, while the rest led by Chandler Smith remained on the track.

Following an extensive caution period to clear the fluid on the track, the event restarted under green on the ninth lap. At the start, teammates Chandler Smith and Graf Jr. dueled for the lead entering the first two turns until Graf moved ahead from the outside lane as he had teammate Ryan Truex drafting him. With Graf then being disconnected from Truex exiting the backstretch, Chandler Smith gained the momentum from the inside lane entering Turns 3 and 4 and with drafting help from AJ Allmendinger powered ahead in his No. 81 QuickTie Toyota Supra and led the Lap 10 mark.

On the following lap, the field fanned out to multiple lanes as Truex was getting shuffled out of the draft. With Truex slipping out of the top-10 mark, Allmendinger assumed the lead as Chandler Smith and Riley Herbst dueled for second place amid the draft. Herbst would then challenge Allmendinger for the lead, but the latter would retain the top spot as the field behind continued to fan out and jostle amid the draft for early spots. By Lap 15, however, Chandler Smith drafted his way back to the lead by a narrow margin over Graf with Allmendinger, Truex, Josh Williams and Parker Kligerman following suit in the top six.

Through the first 20 scheduled laps, Allmendinger was leading ahead of Kligerman, Justin Allgaier, Chandler Smith and Ryan Sieg while Cole Custer, Graf, Jesse Love, Truex and Anthony Alfredo were scored in the top 10 ahead of Sheldon Creed, Jeb Burton, Sammy Smith, Jeremy Clements, Josh Williams, Brandon Jones, Kyle Weatherman, Sam Mayer, Jordan Anderson and Jeffrey Earnhardt, all of whom were separated within one second amid the draft. By then, 33 of 38 lead-lap competitors were separated by five seconds.

Five laps later, Allgaier, who led for the first time two laps earlier, was still leading amid the draft by a narrow margin over Allmendinger as Ryan Sieg, Kligerman and Love were scored in the top five ahead of Alfredo, Chandler Smith, Custer, Sammy Smith and Jeb Burton. Another lap later, Love was pinned in the middle lane and shuffled out of the draft as he slipped out of the top-10 mark. By then, Allgaier remained in the lead as he had Allmendinger and a bevy of competitors drafting him on the outside lane while Ryan Sieg was trying to ignite a drafting charge from the inside lane.

When the first stage period concluded on Lap 30, Allgaier blocked and fended off both Chandler Smith and Allmendinger through two lanes from the backstretch to the frontstretch to claim his 12th Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Chandler Smith settled in second ahead of Allmendinger, Sheldon Creed and Kligerman while Truex, Alfredo, Graf, Sammy Smith and Clements were scored in the top 10.

Under the stage break, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Allgaier pitted while the rest including Leland Honeyman, Matt DiBenedetto, Joey Gase, Kyle Sieg, Caesar Bacarella and CJ McLaughlin remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Sam Mayer exited pit road first. Prior to the pit road’s entrance, where the field led by Allgaier had pitted, Jeb Burton pitted to address a cut tire along with rookie Shane van Gisbergen, who was dealing with an ill-handling car.

During the pit stops, Sammy Smith came to a stop upon exiting pit road and reversed his No. 8 Pilot Flying J Chevrolet Camaro back into his pit stall to have his left front tire tightened. In addition, Jesse Love spun and pitted while facing the field backward, Graf overshot his pit box and Riley Herbst was penalized for not remaining in single file upon entering pit road. Soon after, Cole Custer made a second pit stop for repairs after he made contact with teammate Herbst while trying to exit his pit stall on pit road while Patrick Emerling was penalized for a safety violation.

The second stage period started on Lap 36 as Mayer and Creed occupied the front row. At the start, Mayer and Creed dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch until Creed moved ahead from the outside lane entering Turns 3 and 4. Mayer, however, would fight back on the inside lane and lead the following lap before he drove ahead of Creed through the first two turns. He then went on defense in blocking Creed on the outside lane and teammate Allgaier on the inside through the backstretch as he led the next lap period. Kligerman and Allmendinger would then come to assist Mayer and Allgaier amid the draft from the inside lane as the field behind fanned out to as wide as three lanes.

Just past the Lap 40 mark, Allmendinger, who made a bold three-wide move to overtake both Allgaier and Kligerman for the runner-up spot exiting the backstretch, assumed the lead from Mayer as he had the momentum and the draft from the outside lane. Allmendinger would then receive drafting help from Kligerman, Creed and Truex from the outside lane while Mayer was the lead competitor from the inside lane.

Through the first 45 scheduled laps and with a majority of the field running in a long single-file lane towards the outside wall, Allmendinger was leading ahead of Kligerman, Truex, Creed and Chandler Smith while Brandon Jones, Alfredo, Love, Mayer and Sammy Smith followed suit in the top 10. Behind, Jeb Burton occupied 11th place ahead of Blaine Perkins, Herbst, Jeffrey Earnhardt and Graf as Kyle Weatherman, Clements, Josh Williams, Allgaier and Anderson followed suit in the top 20 ahead of van Gisbergen, Parker Retzlaff, Josh Bilicki, Patrick Emerling and Brennan Poole. Meanwhile, Ryan Sieg was mired back in 28th place.

At the halfway mark on Lap 50, Allmendinger continued to lead a long line of competitors opting to run in a long single-file line towards the outside wall, with Kligerman, Truex, Creed and Chandler Smith following suit in the top five. Behind, Jones, Alfredo, Love, Mayer and Sammy Smith also continued to run in the top 10.

Five laps later and with the field beginning to fan out to two drafting lanes, Truex, who drafted his way into the lead three laps earlier, retained the lead ahead of a hard-charging Allgaier, who would then navigate his way back into the lead for the following lap. As Allgaier then moved up the track to block Truex through the first two turns, Allmendinger, Herbst, Jeb Burton and Kligerman followed suit amid the draft. As the front-runners continued to fan out and jostle for spots during the proceeding laps, Allgaier weaved his car back and forth amid the lanes to retain the lead.

Then on the final lap of the second stage period, the caution flew when Alfredo smacked the outside wall after he received contact from Alfredo in Turn 4 while Mayer, who was running right behind both, reacted by spinning his No. 1 Carolina Carports Chevrolet Camaro on the apron and towards the pit road entrance. The incident was enough for the second stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 60 to officially conclude under caution as Allgaier claimed his second Xfinity stage victory of the event and the 13th of the 2024 season. Herbst settled in second ahead of Truex, Allmendinger and Jeb Burton while Kligerman, Creed, Chandler Smith, Brandon Jones and Josh Williams were scored in the top 10. Amid the incident, both Alfredo and Mayer managed to continue.

During the stage break, select names including Poole, Matt DiBenedetto, CJ McLaughlin, Leland Honeyman and Caesar Bacarella remained on the track while the rest led by Allgaier pitted. With Truex being the first competitor to exit pit road, the remaining names who initially remained on the track eventually pitted.

With 35 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Truex and Herbst occupied the front row. At the start, Truex and Herbst dueled for the lead entering the first two turns until Truex received a push from teammate Creed to boost ahead from the inside lane through the backstretch. Kligerman and Chandler Smith would follow suit and gain the draft with Truex and Herbst on the inside lane while Herbst was trying to maintain pace on the outside lane.

Over the next three laps, Chandler Smith would weave his way into the lead, where he led a single lap, before Truex reassumed the top spot not long after. Then with 32 laps remaining, the caution returned when Brandon Jones was bumped by Love and sent for a long slide below the backstretch, though Jones was able to straighten his No. 9 Menards Chevrolet Camaro through the backstretch’s asphalt and continue.

During the caution period, some including Custer, Creed, van Gisbergen, Clements, Caesar Bacarella, Retzlaff, Leland Honeyman, Poole, Patrick Emerling, Jordan Anderson and Jones pitted while the rest led by Truex remained on the track.

The start of the next restart period with 27 laps remaining featured Truex and Allmendinger dueling for the lead until Truex nearly got loose off the front nose of teammate Chandler Smith entering Turn 1. This allowed Allmendinger to gain an advantage from the outside lane as he had drafting help from Kligerman. Allmendinger would then fend off Kligerman for the following lap as the field battled in close-quarters racing amid two drafting lanes.

With 24 laps remaining and with Allmendinger leading by a hair over Truex, the caution returned for a multi-car wreck that erupted just past the frontstretch’s tri-oval and involving Love, Custer, Jeb Burton, Retzlaff, Sammy Smith, Jones, Matt DiBenedetto, Kyle Sieg and Bacarella. During the extensive caution period, some including van Gisbergen, Emerling, Jordan Anderson, Joey Gase and CJ McLaughlin pitted while the rest led by Allmendinger remained on the track.

At the start of the next restart period with 18 laps remaining, Allmendinger had the advantage from the inside lane and he boosted into the lead with drafting help from Kligerman. Allmendinger would then transition from the top to the bottom of the track to keep Kligerman’s No. 48 Big Machine Spiked Coolers Chevrolet Camaro drafting him as he led the following lap. With Truex trying to fight back on the inside lane, he then dueled with Allmendinger through the backstretch before Allmendinger powered ahead with Kligerman and Herbst following suit. By then, Truex had Ryan Sieg drafting him with 16 laps remaining.

With 15 laps remaining, the front-runners slowly began to fan out to three lanes as Alfredo carved his No. 5 Dude Wipes Cameo Chevrolet Camaro towards the top-three mark with drafting help from Allgaier’s No. 7 Hellmann’s Chevrolet Camaro while Truex and Allmendinger dueled for the lead. With Kligerman continuing to draft Allmendinger’s No. 16 Campers Inn RV Chevrolet Camaro on the outside lane, Truex had Alfredo and Allgaier drafting his No. 20 Certified Collision Center Toyota Supra on the inside lane for the proceeding laps. Truex then received a strong push from Alfredo to boost ahead with 13 laps remaining, where he would remain ahead of Alfredo, Allmendinger, Kligerman and Allgaier. By then, the front-runners were racing in close-quarters competition in two tight-packed lanes and nearly getting sideways in the process.

Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Allmendinger and Kligerman drafted their way back into the top two spots, with Truex, Herbst and Allgaier following suit ahead of Chandler Smith, Alfredo, Creed, Kyle Weatherman and Blaine Perkins. By then, the top 22 competitors were separated by a second as Allmendinger maintained the top spot and the lead competitor on the outside lane while Truex led the charge from the inside lane.

Then with six laps remaining and the intensity towards the front intensifying, the caution flew when the slightest contact between Bacarella and Kyle Sieg got Sieg loose and he then darted back up the track and clipped Alfredo, who was beginning to fall off the pace, as Alfredo spun backward into the outside wall into the path of Sieg, with Clements, Bacarella, Josh Bilicki, Jeffrey Earnhardt and van Gisbergen all wrecking in between Turns 3 and 4. The incident was enough to send the event into overtime as Truex emerged with the lead amid a late, frantic battle with Allmendinger as Herbst, Kligerman, Chandler Smith, Allgaier, Creed and Ryan Sieg suit. Not long after, the event was placed in a red flag period for more than 12 minutes to have the on-track carnage cleared.

When the red flag lifted and the race resumed under a cautious pace, select names including Poole, Joey Gase, Jones, Jeb Burton and Sammy Smith pitted while the rest led by Truex and Allmendinger remained on the track.

The start of the first overtime attempt featured Truex receiving a strong draft into the lead ahead of Herbst and Allgaier from the inside lane while Allmendinger tried to fight back on the outside lane as he remained in front of his drafting partner Kligerman. While Allmendinger and Kligerman emerged as the strong duo towards the front of the field, Truex, who moved up to the outside lane and in front of the former two, retained the top spot for a full lap.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Truex remained as the leader ahead of Allmendinger and Kligerman, both of whom were drafting together and starting to gain a run through the tri-oval. Then entering the first turn, the caution flew and the event was deemed official after contact from Kligerman sent Allmendinger spinning below the apron entering Turn 1, where he slid back up the track and hit the outside wall despite being dodged by oncoming traffic. With the event concluding under caution, Truex was ruled the leader at the moment of caution and was declared the winner.

With the victory, Truex, who last won at Dover Motor Speedway in late April, recorded his third NASCAR Xfinity Series career win in his 98th series start and his first ever at Daytona International Speedway as he achieved his first multi-win season in the Xfinity circuit.

Truex’s Daytona victory was the eighth for both Joe Gibbs Racing and the Toyota nameplate through 22 scheduled events of the 2024 season, with both the team and manufacturer winning at Daytona in the Xfinity Series for the first time since Matt Kenseth piloted a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota entry to Victory Lane in July 2013. The victory was also the sixth of the season for Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20 Toyota team led by rookie crew chief Tyler Allen.

“Oh my gosh, man,” Truex, who strongly credited the Joe Gibbs Racing simulator group as part of his weekly simulator training, said on the frontstretch on USA Network. “Thanks to these fans. It’s so amazing to race here. Just thanks to these [No. 20] guys, man. I don’t get to race that often. I don’t know what I’m going to do next year. It’s all working progress, but just a great car. We’ve worked hard on our superspeedway stuff. Daytona, Atlanta, I feel like we were behind the eight-ball and we came here, all qualified well, all raced well. Shoutout to [spotter] Tyler [Green] up on the roof. What an amazing spotter. He drove this car, I just turned the steering wheel. I can’t believe this. I felt good this week coming in and I knew we’d have a shot. I feel like every time I’m here, I just end up making the dumb mistake or getting caught up in a wreck. I’m just glad we finished one out.”

Teammate Chandler Smith, who led 15 laps from pole position, charged his way to a second-place finish, thus recording a 1-2 finish for Joe Gibbs Racing, while Parker Kligerman settled in third place. While Chandler Smith was left pleased with his runner-up result, which marked his first top-two result coming off four consecutive finishes of 15th or worse, the third-place result did little to satisfy Kligerman’s strong race and result despite being scored 44 points above the top-12 cutline in his efforts to make the 2024 Xfinity Series Playoffs.

“Just extremely, extremely happy for everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing,” Smith said. “I say this in a very nice way. We have not been good on superspeedways for a very, very, very long time on the Xfinity program. We came here today and sat on the pole. That’s huge for us. Just couldn’t time my run good enough and just wasn’t meant in the cards for today.”

“I just feel like I’ve put myself in position time after time [to win] and this race team has helped me do that,” Kligerman said. “[Me and AJ Allmendinger] were awesome. We were the best two [competitors] that weren’t Toyotas all day. I just had a run and I had to go. I felt like it was a run I had to take to try and put myself on the bottom [lane] to win this race. I felt like the bottom was gonna win it in [Turn] 4. I hate it. I love [Allmendinger] like a brother. He and I have been in this for a long time together. I don’t want to turn someone like that, but I would’ve liked to been able to finish under green [flag conditions] as well. We did everything right. We never led a lap, but I got to think we were probably the most in the top three, so we had a really strong car, strong night and overall, but god, I just want to win one of these damn things so bad.”

Riley Herbst came home in fourth place while Ryan Sieg battled his way to finish fifth, with the latter moving back into the top-12 cutline after notching his fifth top-10 result of the 2024 season.

“We’ve just been chasing points,” Sieg said. “It’s been great. We’ve been doing what we need to do and then, come out of here with the top five, where we should be running, but finally, we got some momentum. Hopefully, we can continue it. We’ve been running really well. Just got to keep executing and keep it there at the stage three and try to, I guess, point our way in and all we can do and try to win one of these races out of here before we start the Playoffs.”

Jordan Anderson, Justin Allgaier, Sheldon Creed, Leland Honeyman and Kyle Weatherman finished in the top 10.

Meanwhile, AJ Allmendinger, who led a race-high 35 laps, ended up in 24th place, the final competitor scored on the lead lap.

There were 19 lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 34 laps. In addition, 24 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.

Following the 22nd event of the 2024 Xfinity Series season, Justin Allgaier leads the regular-season standings by 33 points over Cole Custer, 75 over Chandler Smith and 102 over Austin Hill.

Results.

1. Ryan Truex, 28 laps led

2. Chandler Smith, 15 laps led

3. Parker Kligerman

4. Riley Herbst, one lap led

5. Ryan Sieg

6. Jordan Anderson

7. Justin Allgaier, 16 laps led, Stages 1 & 2 winner

8. Sheldon Creed

9. Leland Honeyman

10. Kyle Weatherman

11. Josh Williams

12. Joe Graf Jr.

13. Sam Mayer, seven laps led

14. Blaine Perkins

15. Kyle Sieg

16. Brennan Poole

17. Jeb Burton

18. Patrick Emerling

19. CJ McLaughlin

20. Joey Gase

21. Jesse Love

22. Brandon Jones

23. Sammy Smith

24. AJ Allmendinger, 35 laps led

25. Shane van Gisbergen, one lap down

26. Anthony Alfredo, one lap down

27. Jeremy Clements, one lap down

28. Jeffrey Earnhardt, three laps down

29. Caesar Bacarella – OUT, Accident

30. Josh Bilicki – OUT, Accident

31. Austin Hill, 23 laps down

32. Cole Custer – OUT, DVP

33. Matt DiBenedetto – OUT, Accident

34. Parker Retzlaff – OUT, Accident

35. Tim Viens – OUT, Engine

36. Gus Dean – OUT, Accident

37. Ryan Ellis – OUT, Accident

38. Akinori Ogata – OUT, Accident

Next on the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina, for the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200. The event is scheduled for next Saturday, August 31, and air at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

August 23, 2024
Allgaier utilizes pit strategy and survives for overtime Xfinity victory at Michigan

After 12 previous attempts, Justin Allgaier made his 13th attempt of winning at Michigan International Speedway pay off to perfection as he utilized pit strategy to withstand an overtime shootout and win the rain-delayed Cabo Wabo 250 on Saturday, August 17.

The 38-year-old Allgaier from Riverton, Illinois, led three times for a race-high 37 of 128 over-scheduled laps in an event where he qualified in 16th place, but managed to methodically carve his way to the front as he nearly won the first stage period on Lap 30 before settling in fourth place amid the draft. Then through a flurry of pit strategies, on-track chaos and a fight against time with Mother Nature, Allgaier, who pitted several laps later than most of his front-runners including teammate Carson Kvapil, Sheldon Creed and John Hunter Nemechek cycled his way into the lead for the third and final time with 16 laps remaining.

Despite having his progress to the victory halted as the caution flag flew with 10 laps remaining due to a late incident involving Kyle Weatherman and having to wait on pit road for more than 23 minutes due to a second red flag period for inclement weather, Allgaier managed to muscle ahead of teammate Sammy Smith at the start of an overtime shootout. He then proceeded to drive away from Creed, Nemechek and the field before claiming the checkered flag and the victory under caution amid a harrowing multi-car wreck on the final lap that resulted in Kyle Sieg going airborne, flipping and sliding on his roof through the backstretch’s infield.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, August 16, Sheldon Creed notched his second Xfinity pole position of 2024 and the third of his career with a pole-winning lap at 171.645 mph in 41.947 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Riley Herbst, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 171.233 mph in 42.048 seconds.

Prior to the event, Ryan Ellis and Joey Gase dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.

When the green flag waved and the race started, Sheldon Creed and Riley Herbst dueled for the lead in front of Taylor Gray, Cole Custer and the rest of the field through the first two turns. Then as the field fanned out through the backstretch amid the draft, this being due to the field running superspeedway restricted engines with intermediate aerodynamics, Gray attempted to execute a three-wide pass on Creed and Herbst for the lead, but Creed managed to muscle his No. 18 Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Toyota Supra ahead from the outside lane through Turns 3 and 4 as he just managed to lead the first lap.

Over the next four laps, Creed retained a narrow advantage over Herbst as Custer, Brandon Jones and Ryan Sieg followed suit in the top five. Behind, Carson Kvapil occupied sixth place in front of Noah Gragson, Sammy Smith and Justin Allgaier while Gray, who dropped back as far as 11th in the opening laps due to losing the draft from the leaders, was fending off teammate Chandler Smith for 10th place. With the majority of the front-runners running in a single file line towards the outside wall, Creed continued to lead by a tenth of a second over Herbst.

Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Creed stabilized his advantage to a tenth of a second over Herbst followed by Custer, Jones and Ryan Sieg as Kvapil, Sammy Smith, Gray, Noah Gragson and Chandler Smith were racing in the top 10. Behind, Justin Allgaier occupied 11th place ahead of John Hunter Nemechek, rookie Jesse Love, Parker Kligerman and Austin Hill while AJ Allmendinger, Daniel Dye, Anthony Alfredo, Jeb Burton and Parker Retzlaff occupied the top 20 ahead of Sam Mayer, Kyle Weatherman, Lawless Alan, rookie Shane van Gisbergen and Kyle Sieg.

Three laps later, the event’s first caution period flew when Gray, who was battling Sammy Smith for seventh place, got loose underneath Smith and slid his No. 19 Operations 300 Toyota Supra sideways towards the apron between Turns 1 and 2 before he steered and looped his car in a 360 spin below the track as he then proceeded without sustaining any significant damage.

During the event’s first caution period and with early pit strategy amid weather concerns commencing, some led by Carson Kvapil and including Jesse Love, Austin Hill, AJ Allmendinger, Sam Mayer, Daniel Dye, Noah Gragson, Shane van Gisbergen, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Jeremy Clements, Jeb Burton and Gray pitted while the rest led by Creed and including top-five contenders Herbst, Custer, Jones and Ryan Sieg remained on the track.

When the race restarted under green on Lap 18, Creed muscled ahead from the outside lane as he retained the lead through the first two turns while the rest of the field behind fanned out to multiple lanes. In the midst of the three-wide battle, Sammy Smith fell off the pace due to sustaining a flat right-rear tire to his No. 8 Allstate Peterbilt Group Chevrolet Camaro through the first two turns and the backstretch. With the race remaining under green flag conditions as Smith limped his car to pit road without damaging it and eventually lost a lap due to pitting, Creed retained the lead by a tenth of a second over Herbst by the Lap 20 mark as Jones, Chandler Smith and Allgaier followed suit in the top five.

Then on Lap 23, the caution flew when the leader Creed got aero loose off the front nose of Herbst’s No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang, slipped sideways and spun towards the outside wall in Turn 4, where he then proceeded to straighten his car and drive through pit road. With Creed spinning and plummeting below the leaderboard, Herbst inherited the lead as Jones, Chandler Smith, Allgaier, Parker Kligerman and Ryan Sieg followed suit in the top six.

During the caution period, select names including Custer, Nemechek, Parker Retzlaff, Sam Mayer, Brennan Poole, Leland Honeyman, Jeremy Clements, Blaine Perkins, Kyle Weatherman and Creed pitted while the rest led by Herbst remained on the track.

With the race restarting under green with three laps remaining in the first stage period, Herbst launched ahead from the outside lane to retain the lead before Allgaier muscled ahead from the inside lane amid the draft as he led for the first time. With Allgaier leading, Ryan Sieg would follow suit in second while Herbst was battling Chandler Smith, Jones and Kyle Sieg to retain third place as the field behind battled within close quarters and fanned out through all corners and straightaways.

When the first stage period concluded on Lap 30, Ryan Sieg, who received a draft from Chandler Smith and Brandon Jones to overtake Allgaier through the backstretch on Lap 29, proceeded to claim his second Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Jones followed suit in second and Chandler Smith edged Allgaier for third place while Lawless Alan, Austin Hill, Herbst, Kyle Sieg, Allmendinger and Kligerman were scored in the top 10.

Immediately after the first stage period concluded, rain started to hit the track. Soon after, the field, led by Ryan Sieg, was directed to pit road, halted and placed in a red flag period due to the damp conditions, beginning on Lap 33.

More than nine minutes later, the red flag lifted as the track was deemed dry from the wet weather and the field led by Ryan Sieg returned to the track under a cautious pace. During the caution period, some led by Chandler Smith and including Lawless Alan, Kyle Sieg, Kligerman and Matt DiBenedetto pitted while the rest led by Ryan Sieg remained on the track.

The second stage period started on Lap 36 as Ryan Sieg and Allgaier occupied the front row. At the start, Sieg and Allgaier dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. Then as the field fanned out, Austin Hill, who was trying to execute a three-wide move on Allgaier and Sieg in his bid for the lead, turned across the right-front fender of Kvapil and spun his No. 21 United Rentals Chevrolet Camaro below the track and through the infield grass before he came back up across the track and was dodged by the field just past the backstretch and in Turn 3. In the process, Allgaier managed to move into the lead over Sieg as Herbst, Allmendinger and Kvapil were scored in the top five.

The start of the next restart period on Lap 41 featured Allgaier and Allmendinger, the latter of which moved up to start on the front row during the choose lane option the lap prior, dueling for the lead entering the first two turns as the field fanned out. With Allgaier receiving a shove from Ryan Sieg from the outside lane, he continued to battle Allmendinger before he muscled ahead and retained the lead for the following lap Behind, Allmendinger slipped to third as Sieg moved back into second while Kvapil would overtake Herbst for fourth place.

Herbst would then be overtaken by Love, Nemechek and Jones for the following lap as he slipped out of the top five as a flurry of battles ensued behind him. With a majority of the front-runners running in a single-file line amid the draft towards the outside wall, Allgaier continued to lead by a tenth of a second ahead of Ryan Sieg, Kvapil, Love and Nemechek, respectively, as Herbst, Jones and Gray followed suit by the Lap 45 mark.

Then on Lap 47, the caution returned when Herbst, who was battling Sieg for fourth place, veered right and got turned off the left-front fender of Sieg as Herbst went head-on into the outside wall in Turn 3 while Jones slid his No. 9 Menards Chevrolet Camaro as he was trying to dodge Herbst’s carnage. With Herbst left with a wrecked No. 98 Monster Energy Ford, Jones, who was dodged by most of the field through Turns 3 and 4, was then hit on the driver’s side by teammate Sam Mayer, which sent Jones’ car back up the track as he received a shunt in the rear by Cole Custer’s No. 00 Autodesk Ford Mustang. Amid the carnage, Herbst, Jones and Mayer were knocked out of contention while Custer continued with a patched-up nose.

During the caution period, the leader Allgaier along with Kvapil, Ryan Sieg and Gragson pitted while the rest led by new leader John Hunter Nemechek remained on the track.

When the race restarted under green on Lap 54, the field jostled for spots amid two tight-laned packs as Nemechek and Allmendinger dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. For the following lap, Nemechek would prevail from the outside lane and retain the lead. Behind, Jesse Love would retain second over Allmendinger while Gray, Sammy Smith, Chandler Smith and Gray battled for fourth place. With more battles ensuing around the track just past the Lap 55 mark, Nemechek remained as the leader ahead of Love and Allmendinger.

When the second stage period concluded on Lap 60, Nemechek captured his second Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season after he fended off Love by three-tenths of a second. Love settled in second ahead of Allmendinger, Gray and Sammy Smith while Chandler Smith, Allgaier, Creed, Jeb Burton and Anthony Alfredo were scored in the top 10 amid a flurry of on-track battles.

During the stage break, nearly the entire field led by Nemechek pitted for service while a select few led by Kvapil and including Clements and Josh Williams remained on the track. With mixed strategies ensuing, Nemechek exited pit road first with only two fresh tires ahead of Gragson and Allgaier while Chandler Smith, Austin Hill and Parker Retzlaff followed suit.

With 61 laps remaining and the sun brightly overshadowing the Michigan circuit, the final stage commenced as Kvapil and Nemechek occupied the front row. At the start, Nemechek received a draft from Allgaier that moved Nemechek’s No. 20 Pye Barker Toyota Supra into the lead through the first two turns. With the field fanning out through the backstretch and back to the frontstretch, Nemechek retained the lead ahead of Allgaier as Kvapil, Chandler Smith and Sammy Smith were in the top five.

A lap later, however, the caution returned for a multi-car wreck that started when Lawless Alan got loose and clipped both Jeb Burton and Daniel Dye. The contact sent the former spinning below the track’s infield grass while the latter backed his No. 10 Race to Stop Suicide Chevrolet Camaro into the outside wall and was hit by Alan, all of which occurred in Turn 2 and which knocked both Dye and Alan out of contention. During the recent caution period, some including runner-up Allgaier, Clements, Williams, Allmendinger, Ryan Sieg and van Gisbergen pitted while the rest led by Nemechek remained on the track.

The start of the next restart period with 54 laps remaining featured another duel for the lead, this time between Nemechek and Sammy Smith, while the rest of the field behind began to fan out through the first two turns. With the field still fanned out through the frontstretch and jostling for late positions, Nemechek maintained the lead and he would proceed to lead with 50 laps remaining by a tenth of a second over Kvapil while Sammy Smith, Gragson and Chandler Smith followed suit in the top five. By then, van Gisbergen was penalized for a restart violation while Custer lost multiple laps due to pitting under green.

With 40 laps remaining, Nemechek continued to lead by a tenth of a second over Kvapil while third-place Sammy Smith trailed by half a second. Meanwhile, fourth-place Gragson trailed the lead by a second as he was trying to fend off Chandler Smith for the spot while Creed, Gray, Hill, Love and Allgaier were scored in the top 10 ahead of Kligerman, Allmendinger, Alfredo, Kyle Sieg, Matt DiBenedetto and Ryan Sieg.

Shortly after, Kvapil overtook Nemechek through the backstretch to lead the proceeding lap with 39 laps remaining. Kvapil’s overtake on Nemechek allowed Sammy Smith, Gragson, Chandler Smith, Creed and Gray to all close in on runner-up Nemechek amid the draft. In the process, Chandler Smith overtook both Gragson and Sammy Smith for third place. In addition, Creed would move back up into the top five and Gragson slipped to sixth. With Allgaier overtaking Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill and Love for eighth place, Kvapil extended his advantage to more than a second over Nemechek with less than 35 laps remaining.

Down to the final 25 laps of the event, Kvapil continued to stretch his advantage as he was leading by more than two seconds over Nemechek as Creed trailed Nemechek by less than two-tenths of a second. With JR Motorsports’ Allgaier and Sammy Smith mired in the top five, Chandler Smith followed suit in sixth along with Gragson and Gray, all of whom trailed the lead by more than four seconds, while Hill and Love rounded out the top 10.

Five laps later, Kvapil stabilized his advantage to less than two seconds over Nemechek as teammate Creed, Allgaier and Sammy Smith battled for third place. With the top-five competitors separated by two seconds, sixth-place Chandler Smith trailed by five seconds along with Gray, Gragson and Hill while Love and 11th-place Allmendinger trailed by eight seconds.

Another three laps later and with a cloud overcast hovering around Turns 3 and 4, Kvapil, who tried extending his dry fuel tank as far as possible, surrendered the lead to pit his No. 88 Clarience Technologies Chevrolet Camaro for fuel. Meanwhile, Allgaier, who powered past Creed and Nemechek over the last few laps, cycled his No. 7 Hellmann’s/Meijer Chevrolet Camaro into the lead. With Love also pitting his No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Camaro under green, Nemechek and Creed moved up to second and third behind Allgaier while Sammy Smith and Gragson were scored in the top five. Allgaier would proceed to lead by half a second over Nemechek as Creed followed closely behind with 15 laps remaining.

Then with 10 laps remaining, the caution flew due to Kyle Weatherman blowing a right-front tire and hitting the Turn 2 outside wall hard. At the time of caution, Allgaier was leading by four-tenths of a second over Creed as Sammy Smith, Nemechek, Gray and Gragson were running in the top six. During the caution period, select names including Chandler Smith, Ryan Sieg, Kligerman, Retzlaff and Leland Honeyman pitted while the rest led by Allgaier remained on the track.

Amid the caution period as the laps dwindled, a drizzle started to fall and soon began to increase into a steady rain. With the light rain continuing to fall, however, the field led by Allgaier was directed to pit road and placed in a second red flag period for more than 23 minutes and with two laps remaining of the event’s scheduled distance.

When the red flag was lifted, the field led by Allgaier returned to track under a cautious pace as the event was sent into overtime.

The start of the first overtime attempt featured Sammy Smith, who opted to start alongside teammate Allgaier on the front row and attempted to slide up in front of Allgaier through the first two turns. Allgaier, however, managed to duel and overtake Smith through the backstretch as the field fanned out to multiple lanes. With Smith losing ground as he got shuffled out of the draft while being pinned in the middle lane and being overtaken by a bevy of competitors, Creed muscled his way up to second followed by Nemechek and Gragson as Alfredo charged his way into the top five, all of which occurred through Turns 3 and 4.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Allgaier remained as the leader by six-tenths of a second over Creed and a flurry of competitors jostling for positions. Then as Allgaier kept his No. 7 Meijer/Hellmann’s Chevrolet out in front through the first two turns and the backstretch, the event concluded under caution when Caesar Bacarella made contact and turned Kvapil into the backstretch’s outside wall. This ignited a chain reaction wreck as Chandler Smith and Kyle Sieg were sent spinning towards the inside wall, with Sieg then getting airborne and rolling over onto his roof, where his No. 28 Bailey Excavating Ford Mustang slid through the infield backstretch and into the grass before the car rolled back over and came to rest on all four wheels.

With the event concluding under caution, Allgaier was able to coast his car back to the frontstretch and claim the checkered flag for his second Xfinity race victory of the 2024 season.

With the victory, Allgaier notched his 25th career win in the Xfinity Series, which moved him into sole possession on 10th place on the all-time wins list after he was initially tied with his team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tommy Houston for the mark. The Michigan victory was also the Illinois veteran’s first since winning at Darlington Raceway in May as he became the fifth multi-race winner of this year’s Xfinity Series season. Allgaier’s Xfinity victory was also the fourth for JR Motorsports and the 12th for the Chevrolet nameplate through 21 scheduled events in 2024.

Photo by Tim Jarrold for SpeedwayMedia.com.

“[I] Just cannot say thank you enough to this team, all these [No. 7] guys standing right here,” Allgaier said on USA Network. “The effort that’s been put in is incredible. We did not show up to Indianapolis two, three weeks ago like we wanted to and these guys have worked tirelessly through this break. It’s truly special and to win here at Michigan, manufacturer’s backyard, these fans. I can hear them all chanting whenever we were sitting in the car under the red flag. I hope whoever got turned over over here’s OK and we’ll go on and celebrate this one for a while.”

Amid his flip and slide on his roof on the final lap, Kyle Sieg, who ended up in 28th place, the first competitor scored a lap down, emerged uninjured.

With Allgaier winning, Sheldon Creed, the pole winner who led 23 laps and was announced to be driving for Haas Factory Team in 2025 earlier in the day, ended up in second place, where he has now accumulated the most runner-up results in the Xfinity Series as a winless competitor for the 11th time.

This [runner-up finish] frustrates me the most just because I was saving fuel there behind [Nemechek], we were, maybe, three to four laps short there, so I was just trying to buy some time,” Creed said. “I knew [Allgaier] wasn’t going to have to [save fuel] as much. [I] Kind of let him go and yeah, a caution at the wrong time that hurt us. Once I went and got around [Nemechek] and was running [Allgaier] down, I felt like I had a car just as fast as Xfinity Internet and could’ve passed him. That one stings a little bit, but I’m super proud of everyone. Starting today at 13 races left, I really think we’re turning into a team that can make a really good fight for this championship.

Teammate John Hunter Nemechek had enough fuel, like teammate Creed, to settle in third place after he led 31 laps while Anthony Alfredo and Sammy Smith finished in the top five. The rally for Smith to achieve the top-five result ended up being crucial as he launched himself back into the top-12 cutline to make the 2024 Xfinity Series Playoffs and holds sole possession of the final transfer spot by a single point over 13th-place finisher Ryan Sieg with five regular-season events remaining on the schedule.

Noah Gragson, Matt DiBenedetto, Taylor Gray, Caesar Bacarella and AJ Allmendinger completed the top 10 in the final running order.

There were 10 lead changes for seven different leaders. The race featured nine cautions for 39 laps. In addition, 27 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

Following the 21st event of the 2024 Xfinity Series season, Cole Custer continues to lead the regular-season standings by 12 points over Justin Allgaier, 70 over Austin Hill and 84 over Chandler Smith.

Results.

1. Justin Allgaier, 37 laps led

2. Sheldon Creed, 23 laps led

3. John Hunter Nemechek, 31 laps led, Stage 2 winner

4. Anthony Alfredo

5. Sammy Smith

6. Noah Gragson

7. Matt DiBenedetto

8. Taylor Gray

9. Caesar Bacarella

10. AJ Allmendinger

11. Parker Kligerman

12. Leland Honeyman

13. Ryan Sieg, seven laps led, Stage 1 winner

14. Ryan Ellis

15. Jeremy Clements

16. Jeb Burton

17. Shane van Gisbergen

18. Austin Hill

19. Josh Williams

20. Parker Retzlaff

21. Jeffrey Earnhardt

22. Patrick Emerling

23. Blaine Perkins

24. Josh Bilicki

25. Logan Bearden

26. Carson Kvapil, 25 laps led

27. Chandler Smith

28. Kyle Sieg, one lap down

29. Jesse Love, one lap down, one lap led

30. Cole Custer – OUT, Suspension

31. Joey Gase – OUT, Fuel Pump

32. Kyle Weatherman – OUT, Accident

33. Brennan Poole – OUT, Oil Pump

34. Daniel Dye – OUT, Accident

35. Lawless Alan – OUT, Accident

36. Brandon Jones – OUT, Accident

37. Sam Mayer – OUT, Accident

38. Riley Herbst – OUT, Accident, four laps led

Next on the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is Daytona International Speedway for the Wawa 250. The event is scheduled to occur next Friday, August 23, and air at 7:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

August 17, 2024
Riley Herbst scores thrilling last-lap Xfinity victory at Indianapolis

With his racing status for next season currently unknown, Riley Herbst peddled to the meddle and prevailed in a final lap battle with teammate Cole Custer and Aric Almirola to score a monstrous NASCAR Xfinity Series victory in the Pennzoil 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday, July 20.

The 25-year-old Herbst from Las Vegas, Nevada, led four times for 30 of 100-scheduled laps in an event where he shared the front row with teammate/pole-sitter Cole Custer and implemented an early strategic pit call to claim the first stage victory and gain valuable Playoff points while on old tires. After spending a majority of the event racing towards the front, Herbst, who executed a bold three-wide pass for the lead on both Aric Almirola and AJ Allmendinger amid a late-race restart with 35 laps remaining, retained the lead during another restart with 29 laps remaining and held a steady advantage over teammate Cole Custer when his momentum was stalled due to another caution for a multi-car wreck with 17 laps remaining.

Opting to remain on the track on old tires compared to a majority of the field, Herbst quickly lost the lead to Custer during the final restart with 11 laps remaining. Despite also losing the runner-up spot to Almirola, Herbst regained the spot amid light contact two laps later and spent the next seven laps methodically gaining ground on Custer with a strong race car amid the draft. Then as Herbst attempted to side-draft and snatch the lead from Custer through the frontstretch, Almirola threw himself into the picture by overtaking both in a three-wide pass at the start of the final lap. Herbst, however, quickly dispatched Custer and closed back in on Almirola through two turns before he executed his pass while side-drafting Almirola prior to Turn 4. With the lead in his grasp, Herbst, who nearly spun but regained control of his car prior to entering the frontstretch, fended off both Almirola and a hard-charging Custer to grab his first elusive Xfinity Series victory of the 2024 season and lock himself into the Playoffs.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Cole Custer notched his fifth Xfinity pole position of the 2024 season after he posted a pole-winning lap at 167.582 mph in 53.705 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate Riley Herbst, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 166.942 mph in 53.911 seconds.

Prior to the event, Sheldon Creed dropped to the rear of the field due to an engine change to his No. 18 Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Toyota Supra. Austin Hill and Parker Kligerman also dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.

When the green flag waved and the race started, teammates Cole Custer and Riley Herbst dueled for the lead through the first two turns before Custer mustered his No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang ahead of the field while clearing Herbst in the process prior to hitting the backstretch. Shortly after, Aric Almirola made his way into the runner-up spot over Herbst, who was trying to block Almirola, as Anthony Alfredo and Brandon Jones trailed in the top five.

Then as the field entered Turn 3, the event’s first caution flew when Sam Mayer, who was trying to fend off AJ Allmendinger and Carson Kvapil for sixth place, slipped underneath Allmendinger as Allmendinger made a bold move to Mayer’s outside prior to the turn, which resulted with Mayer spinning through the turn before he was hit by a sliding Chandler Smith and backed his No. 1 Huck’s Market Chevrolet Camaro both against the outside wall and into the path of Josh Berry, with Jeb Burton, Conor Daly, Justin Allgaier, Leland Honeyman, Jeremy Clements, Parker Retzlaff and rookie Jesse Love all sustaining damage to their respective entries.

Following an extensive cleanup of the wreckage, the race restarted under green on the seventh lap. At the start, teammates Custer and Herbst dueled for a second time for the lead through the first two turns and they remained dead even through the backstretch. As Almirola tried to navigate his way past Custer, who led the first lap under caution, Herbst started to muscle ahead from the outside lane through Turns 3 and 4, but Custer gained the draft from the inside lane to retain the lead for the next lap as he was followed by Almirola. With Custer leading Almirola, Jones and Alfredo would overtake Herbst through the backstretch. Amid a series of on-track battles around the venue, Custer proceeded to lead at the Lap 10 mark by four-tenths of a second over Almirola.

Through the first 15 scheduled laps, Custer retained the lead by a tenth of a second over a hard-charging Almirola, who kept gaining a draft while trying to close in on Custer for more through the straightaways. Behind, third-place Justin Allgaier trailed by four seconds as he was ahead of teammate Brandon Jones and Herbst while Kvapil, Allmendinger, Alfredo, Ryan Sieg and Josh Williams were racing in the top 10. Meanwhile, Matt DiBenedetto occupied 11th place ahead of Daniel Dye, rookie Shane van Gisbergen, Austin Hill and Parker Kligerman while Kyle Sieg, Kyle Weatherman, Brennan Poole, Parker Retzlaff and Sheldon Creed were mired in the top 20.

A lap later, the event’s second caution flew due to Chandler Smith, the fastest competitor during Friday’s practice session who was trying to continue after being involved in the opening lap wreck, falling off the pace due to losing fuel pressure to his No. 81 QuickTie Toyota Supra as he was also unable to limp back to pit road. During the caution period, nearly the entire field led by Custer pitted for service while the rest led by Herbst and including Allmendinger, Ryan Sieg, Josh Williams, Matt DiBenedetto, Daniel Dye, Parker Kligerman and Brennan Poole remained on the track.

The start of the next restart period on Lap 20 featured Herbst and Allmendinger dueling for the lead entering the first turn and they made contact in Turn 2 before they continued to duel in front of a stacked two-by-two through the backstretch. Then Ryan Sieg drafted Herbst into the lead as he cleared Allmendinger and muscled away prior to exiting the backstretch. With Herbst leading Sieg and Allmendinger for the following lap and through the frontstretch, Matt DiBenedetto trailed in fourth place along with Kligerman, Josh Williams and the rest of the field.

By Lap 25, Herbst stretched his advantage to more than a second over both Ryan Sieg and Allmendinger while Kligerman and DiBenedetto continued to run in the top five. Meanwhile, Brandon Jones, who restarted 18th and whose pit crew discovered a puncture that was removed from a tire when he pitted during the previous caution period, had carved his way into sixth place as he was the first competitor running on the track on fresh tires while Retzlaff, Allgaier, Custer and Almirola followed suit in the top 10.

When the first stage period concluded on Lap 30, Herbst claimed his second Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Allmendinger settled in second place ahead of Ryan Sieg while Jones muscled his No. 9 Menards Chevrolet Camaro up to fourth place. Teammate Allgaier settled in fifth place ahead of Custer, who had also charged his way back towards the front, as Kligerman, Almirola, Kvapil and DiBenedetto were scored in the top 10.

Under the stage break, a majority of the field, including those who did not pit during the previous caution period, led by Herbst pitted while the rest, including those who pitted recently, led by Jones remained on the track. During the pit stops, Kligerman was penalized for an uncontrolled tire penalty while both Retzlaff and Josh Williams were both penalized.

The second stage period started on Lap 34 as teammates Jones and Allgaier occupied the front row. At the start and as the field started to fan out, Jones managed to muscle ahead of teammate Allgaier through the first turn and he would retain the lead through Turn 2 and the backstretch while Custer, Almirola and Kvapil battled for third place. With Austin Hill trying to join the battle as a flurry of on-track battles ensued, Jones retained the lead ahead of Allgaier through the frontstretch and for the following lap.

Through the Lap 40 mark, Jones continued to lead as he was out in front of a four-car breakaway from the pack that included teammate Allgaier, Custer and Almirola. In the process, Herbst was in sixth place and trying to gain a draft on Kvapil for more. A lap later, Allgaier gained a run beneath Jones and overtook him for the lead through the backstretch. Soon after, however, Custer, who followed Allgaier in the process, battled Allgaier for the lead through Turn 3 and the frontstretch before he muscled ahead along with Jones as Almirola also followed suit. This resulted with Allgaier slipping to fourth place by Lap 42.

Within the Lap 45 range, Custer was leading by half a second over Almirola, who overtook Jones for the runner-up spot a lap earlier, while Allgaier trailed the lead by a second in fourth place. Meanwhile, Herbst navigated his way back into fifth place ahead of Kvapil and Hill while Ryan Sieg and Creed followed suit in the top 10 ahead of van Gisbergen, Conor Daly, Alfredo, Joe Graf Jr. and DiBenedetto.

At the halfway mark on Lap 50, Custer extended his advantage to nearly two seconds over Almirola while Herbst, Allgaier and Jones followed suit in the top five. While Kvapil, Allmendinger, Ryan Sieg, Hill and Creed were in the top 10, van Gisbergen occupied 11th place ahead of Conor Daly, Graf, Dye and Anthony Alfredo while a total of 35 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.

Four laps later, the caution flew due to smoke billowing out of the No. 44 Macc Door Systems Chevrolet Camaro as Poole was dealing with a potential power steering pump failure. During the caution period, nearly the entire field led by Custer pitted while Ryan Sieg, Leland Honeyman and Garret Smithley remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Herbst exited pit road first ahead of teammate Custer, Almirola, Allmendinger, Allgaier, Hill, van Gisbergen, Jones, Creed and Conor Daly. Not long after, Smithley voluntarily opted to restart at the rear of the field, which left Sieg and Honeyman restarting on the front row, but on old tires compared to the field.

The start of the next restart period with a single lap remaining in the second stage period featured Sieg muscling his No. 39 SciAps Ford Mustang ahead as he was drafted into the lead by Herbst. With the field fanning out through the first two turns, Custer got loose as he made light contact with Honeyman as he slipped out of the top five. Amid the contact that involved Custer, the field continued to fan out and jostle for late spots through the backstretch while Sieg was trying to fend off Herbst and Almirola for two final turns.

When the field returned to the frontstretch, Sieg managed to block and fend off both Almirola and Herbst to claim his first Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season as the second stage period concluded on Lap 60. Almirola edged Herbst to claim second place while Allmendinger, Allgaier, Custer, van Gisbergen, Hill, Honeyman and Creed were scored in the top 10.

During the stage break, select few led by Sieg and Honeyman pitted while the rest of the field led by Almirola remained on the track.

With 35 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Almirola and Allmendinger occupied the front row ahead of Herbst and Allgaier. At the start, Almirola and Allmendinger dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch as Almirola side-drafted Allmendinger to stall his momentum. In the process, Herbst went three wide on both Almirola and Allmendinger to move his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang into the lead as he retained the top spot for two corners and led the next lap. While Herbst made the biggest gain through the backstretch, Almirola was drifting out of the top five while Custer and Allgaier were moving their way up towards the front. Shane van Gisbergen would then make his way up to fifth place as he battled Austin Hill and Almirola through the frontstretch.

A lap later, however, the caution flew when Almirola, who was mired in sixth place, got tapped by Hill in Turn 1 and did two 360 spins through the turn, though he managed to keep his No. 20 He Gets Us Toyota Supra off the wall and be dodged by oncoming traffic as he limped back to pit road with flat-spotted tires.

With the race restarting under green with 29 laps remaining, Herbst and Allmendinger dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. Herbst then got loose entering Turn 3, which caused him to go high as he avoided Allmendinger while sliding sideways as Allmendinger assumed the lead while Herbst slipped to a side-by-side battle with teammate Custer for the runner-up spot. By the following lap, Custer moved into second place while Herbst settled in third place ahead of Allgaier, van Gisbergen and Hill as the rest of the field behind fanned out.

With 25 laps remaining, Allmendinger was leading by a tenth of a second over a hard-charging Custer, who was using the draft to gain runs on Allmendinger through the straightaways. Then in Turn 1, Custer made his move beneath Allmendinger’s No. 16 Celsius Chevrolet Camaro and assumed the lead. Custer, however, briefly lost his momentum in the backstretch, which allowed Allmendinger to fight back and duel with Custer through the backstretch until Herbst gave teammate Custer a draft that allowed Custer to drive his No. 00 Haas Ford Mustang away with the lead in his grasp just past the backstretch. Shortly after, teammate Herbst overtook Allmendinger from the outside lane to claim second place while Allmendinger was trying to fend off Allgaier for third place. Despite losing third place to Allgaier not long after, Allmendinger reassumed the spot from Allgaier with 23 laps remaining as both van Gisbergen and Hill tried to close in on Allgaier for fourth place.

Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Custer was leading by a tenth of a second over teammate Herbst, who was closing in on his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate through the straightaways amid the draft. Then entering the backstretch, Herbst gained a run underneath Custer and assumed the lead in his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang. Herbst would stabilize his advantage to three-tenths of a second over teammate Custer during the following lap as he was also trying to muscle away and break the draft off of Custer.

Three laps later, the caution flew for a vicious multi-car wreck that started when Daniel Dye made contact with Alfredo that got Dye loose towards the apron in Turns 1 and 2 while Alfredo, who scraped the outside wall, fell off the pace with a flat tire to his No. 5 Dude Mint Chill Chevrolet Camaro and made contact with the outside wall again entering the backstretch. In the process, Retzlaff rammed into the rear of Alfredo, who would proceed to hit the inside SAFER Barrier, at full pace as Josh Williams also rammed into Retzlaff’s wrecked No. 31 FUNKAWAY Chevrolet Camaro before he hit the backstretch’s outside wall head on, thus leaving all three with wrecked race cars.

During the caution period, some led by Herbst and including Custer, Allmendinger, Jesse Love, Almirola and DiBenedetto remained on the track while the rest led by Allgaier pitted.

Down to the final 11 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Custer cleared Herbst amid two turns to assume the lead. Behind, Almirola wasted no time navigating his way past Allmendinger and Herbst to move into the runner-up spot. With Custer stretching his advantage to a second over Almirola with 10 laps remaining, the rest of the field behind fanned out and jostled as both Almirola and Herbst tried to close in.

With nine laps remaining, Herbst got Almirola loose in Turn 1 and towards the outside wall, which allowed Herbst to reassume the runner-up spot as he set his sights on catching teammate Custer for the lead. Despite trailing teammate Custer by a second with eight laps remaining, Herbst started to close in while logging in faster lap times than Custer while Almirola, Allmendinger and van Gisbergen trailed in the top five.

With five laps remaining, Custer continued to lead by a second over teammate Herbst, who was not getting closer to Custer and slowly losing valuable lap time as Almirola started to close in on Herbst for the runner-up spot. A lap later, however, Herbst chopped off three-tenths of a second off of teammate Custer’s advantage in his quest to catch him, where he would then trail by six-tenths of a second to Custer with three laps remaining, while van Gisbergen occupied fourth place ahead of Creed, Allmendinger and Hill.

Then with two laps remaining, Herbst, who spent the previous two laps methodically gaining ground, gained all the ground he needed to get close to Custer’s rear bumper through the backstretch before he planned his move through Turns 3 and 4. As he made his move beneath Custer and dueled with him while also making contact with him through the frontstretch to gain the lead, however, Almirola gained a massive draft on both and he assumed the lead with a bold three-wide move from the outside lane before he started the final lap of the race.

With Almirola leading, Herbst quickly assumed the runner-up spot just past the frontstretch while Custer drifted back to third place. Herbst then kept the latter close enough in front of him amid the draft and gained the momentum to close back in through the first two turns and the backstretch. Then in Turn 3, Herbst got to Almirola’s left-rear quarter panel, which got Almirola slightly loose, as Herbst side-drafted and snatched the lead entering Turn 4 as he also saved his car from spinning sideways in the process. While Custer regained the momentum to challenge Almirola for the runner-up spot entering the frontstretch, Herbst managed to motor away and streak across the finish line in first place to claim his first Xfinity victory of the 2024 season by a tenth of a second over teammate Custer.

With the victory, Riley Herbst scored his second Xfinity Series career win in his 162nd series start and his first since winning his first series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, his home track, in October 2023. In addition, the Las Vegas native became the sixth competitor overall to win on Indy’s oval-shaped circuit as he recorded the second consecutive victory of the season for both Stewart-Haas Racing and the Ford nameplate.

Herbst’s Indianapolis victory also makes him the eighth Xfinity Series regular to win in this year’s regular-season stretch as he is guaranteed a spot into the 2024 Playoffs, where he will contend to win his first NASCAR national touring series championship.

Photo by Adam Lovelace for SpeedwayMedia.com.

“This is Indianapolis,” Herbst said on USA Network. “This is the most famous racetrack in the world. It’s an honor just to walk in this place, let alone win. Man, we’ve had speed all year. I felt like we could win. I just messed up on the restarts a little bit. It was a good fight. I thought I had Cole [Custer] clear and then, [my spotter] said bottom of three [wide] with [Almirola] and I was like, ‘Oh, this is gonna be tough.’ I just continue to work, continue to work, continue to work. It’s bee a pretty tough week on me mentally, to be honest to you. Proud of these guys, proud of everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing. These [No. 98] guys could’ve given up on me, gone to different teams, but they’ve stuck behind me and Cole. That’s back-to-back wins for Stewart-Haas Racing. This is fun. I’m gonna go drink beer and turn my phone off for three weeks.”

“This is hallowed ground, honestly,” Herbst added “This is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Every person in the world wants to race here and I won here. I don’t care if it’s the Xfinity Series, this is the Cup Series, it’s the go-kart track out back. This is the Brickyard. This is Indianapolis. This is the coolest racetrack in the world and I love you [fans]. This is pretty sweet!”

Behind Herbst, teammate Cole Custer edged Aric Almirola to claim the runner-up spot a week after he won at Pocono Raceway, with both Herbst and Custer delivering the first 1-2 finish for Stewart-Haas Racing’s in the team’s final season of competition.

“You could see us beating doors down the frontstretch,” Custer, who led a race-high 47 laps, said. “That was…You’re gonna do everything it takes to win Indy. I was doing everything I could to try and get this [car] to turn. I just needed one less lap. What an awesome day for [Stewart-Haas Racing]. Two cars at the front all day. We qualified one, two. Finished one, two. Unbelievable day for [Stewart-Haas Racing] and hopefully, keep this thing rolling.”

“[Stewart-Haas Racing drivers] were the class of the field,” Almirola, who led five laps and rallied from his late spin, said. “Those two cars were certainly better than us, but I knew if they got racing, it was gonna be an opportunity to steal it. I got to the lead and thought [I] was gonna be able to steal it. I just got too tight off of [Turn] 3 and [Herbst] got back inside of me. Those guys deserve it. Proud of them and happy for those guys. It was fun to get back in a race car and challenge for a win.”

Rookie Shane van Gisbergen motored his No. 97 WeatherTech Chevrolet Camaro to a stellar fourth-place result in his first NASCAR oval start at Indianapolis while Sheldon Creed ended up in fifth place.

Austin Hill, Daniel Dye, AJ Allmendinger, Justin Allgaier and Carson Kvapil completed the top 10 in the final running order.

There were 12 lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 29 laps. In addition, 29 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

Following the 20th event of the 2024 Xfinity Series season, Cole Custer continues to lead the regular-season standings by 56 points over Justin Allgaier, 87 over Austin Hill, 100 over Chandler Smith and 143 over teammate Riley Herbst.

Results.

1. Riley Herbst, 30 laps led, Stage 1 winner

2. Cole Custer, 47 laps led

3. Aric Almirola, five laps led

4. Shane van Gisbergen

5. Sheldon Creed

6. Austin Hill

7. Daniel Dye

8. AJ Allmendinger, four laps led

9. Justin Allgaier

10. Carson Kvapil

11. Ryan Sieg, four laps led, Stage 2 winner

12. Parker Kligerman

13. Jesse Love

14. Conor Daly

15. Brandon Jones, 10 laps led

16. Matt DiBenedetto

17. Joe Graf Jr.

18. Sammy Smith

19. Jeb Burton

20. Leland Honeyman

21. Brennan Poole

22. Kyle Sieg

23. Ryan Ellis

24. Joey Gase

25. Kyle Weatherman

26. David Starr

27. Josh Bilicki

28. BJ McLeod

29. Blaine Perkins

30. Jeremy Clements, one lap down

31. Garrett Smithley, three laps down

32. Greg Van Alst – OUT, Ignition

33. Chandler Smith, 14 laps down

34. Anthony Alfredo – OUT, Accident

35. Parker Retzlaff – OUT, Accident

36. Josh Williams – OUT, Accident

37. Sam Mayer – OUT, Accident

38. Josh Berry – OUT, Accident

With the Paris Summer Olympics set to occur for the next two weekends, the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ teams and competitors will be returning to action at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan, for the Cabo Wabo 250. The event is scheduled to occur on August 17 and air at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

July 20, 2024
Cole Custer prevails for first Xfinity victory of 2024 at Pocono

The reigning NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Cole Custer struck gold with his first elusive victory of the 2024 season in the Explore the Pocono Mountains 225 at Pocono Raceway on Saturday, July 13, following a wild four-lap dash to the finish.

The 26-year-old Custer from Ladera Ranch, California, led twice for 25 of 90-scheduled laps in an event where he started in eighth place but ran up front throughout the event as he assumed the lead for the first time on Lap 26. After winning the second stage period, he would find himself shuffled back within the top-10 mark before he methodically carved his way back towards the front.

Then after pitting with 29 laps remaining under green before a late-race caution period eight laps later, Custer capitalized on the following restart period with 12 laps remaining to overtake Justin Allgaier for the lead with nine laps remaining. Despite having his momentum stalled due to another late-race caution period for rookie Shane van Gisbergen spinning in Turn 2, Custer fended off both Allgaier and William Byron to muscle ahead and capture his first Xfinity Series victory of the season for himself, the Ford nameplate and Stewart-Haas Racing as he continues his quest to defend his series’ title.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Sheldon Creed notched his second Xfinity career pole position and his first of the 2024 season after posting a pole-winning lap at 167.255 mph in 53.810 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Brandon Jones, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying time at 166.334 mph in 54.108 seconds.

Before the event, the following names that included rookie Jesse Love, Josh Berry, Taylor Gray, Ryan Truex and Brennan Poole dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries. In addition, Poole was assessed a drive-through penalty through pit road due to unapproved adjustments made to Poole’s Alpha Prime Racing Chevrolet Camaro following Friday’s inspection process.

When the green flag waved and the race started, the field jumbled up in tight two-by-two formation through the frontstretch as Sheldon Creed and Brandon Jones dueled for the lead through the first turn before they led the field through the Long Pond Straightaway. Creed then tried to muscle ahead from the outside lane through the Tunnel Curve, but Jones fought back on the inside lane just past the curve as they navigated through the final sets of turns and back to the frontstretch in front of Chandler Smith, Justin Allgaier and William Byron. At the start/finish line, Creed managed to lead the first lap by a hair.

On the second lap and as both Creed and Jones continued to duel for the lead, the event’s first caution flew following a hard accident involving Dawson Cram in Turn 1, where Cram slid sideways towards the apron after he lost his brakes and collided rear-end into the outside wall at full speed.

Following an extensive cleanup process amid Cram’s incident, the event restarted under green on the sixth lap. At the start, Creed managed to fend off Jones from the outside lane to retain the lead through the first two turns and entering the Long Pond Straightaway. Behind, teammate Chandler Smith would muscle his way up to the runner-up spot before Allgaier would charge his way up to third place followed by William Byron as Jones slipped to fifth place.

Then on the eighth lap, Allgaier made his move beneath Creed to assume the lead through the frontstretch. At the same time, Chandler Smith moved to Creed’s outside to snatch the runner-up spot as Creed slipped to third place. Shortly after, Jones’ strong start evaporated as he pitted his No. 9 Menards Chevrolet Camaro to address a flat left-rear tire, which cost him a lap as he then endured a slow pit service. By then, Josh Berry, who was piloting the No. 15 AM Racing Ford Mustang in place of Hailie Deegan, who was released by the team earlier in the week, pitted with a flat tire.

Back on the track, a tight battle between Cole Custer, AJ Allmendinger, Byron and Creed ensued for third place, with all nearly colliding past the Tunnel Curve. With all four proceeding without wrecking, Byron and Creed continued to duel for fourth place as Austin Hill joined the battle. With Custer in third place, Allgaier proceeded to lead the Lap 10 mark by nine-tenths of a second over Chandler Smith.

At the Lap 15 mark, Allgaier was leading by three seconds over Chandler Smith followed by Custer, Byron and Hill while AJ Allmendinger, Riley Herbst, Ryan Sieg, Creed and Sammy Smith were running in the top 10. Behind, Sam Mayer occupied 11th place ahead of Parker Kligerman, Jeb Burton, Taylor Gray and Anthony Alfredo while Kyle Sieg, Corey Heim, Ryan Truex, Matt DiBenedetto and Parker Retzlaff trailed in the top 20 ahead of Josh Williams, Daniel Dye, Kyle Weatherman, Jesse Love and Jeremy Clements. Meanwhile, rookie Shane van Gisbergen was mired in 27th place behind Brennan Poole.

When the first stage period concluded on Lap 20, Allgaier claimed his 11th Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Custer followed suit in second ahead of Chandler Smith, Byron and Allmendinger while Hill, Herbst, Ryan Sieg, Sammy Smith and Creed were scored in the top 10.

Under the stage break, nearly the entire lap field led by Allgaier pitted for service while Jesse Love remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Anthony Alfredo was penalized for speeding on pit road. Soon after, Allgaier was also penalized and sent to the rear of the field due to an equipment interference, where the tire got loose and rolled into the next pit box.

The second stage period started on Lap 25 as Love and Custer occupied the front row. At the start, Love and Custer dueled for the lead through the frontstretch as the field fanned out to multiple lanes through the first two turns. With Byron rocketing his way up to third place ahead of Herbst and Chandler Smith through Long Pond Straightaway, Byron then joined the tight side-by-side battle for the lead between Custer and Love just past the Tunnel Curve before he fell off the pace through Turns 3 and 4. With Byron reporting a flat tire as he plummeted in the leaderboard while missing the pit road entrance, Custer, who rocketed ahead of Love through Turns 3 and 4, was leading as Chandler Smith, Herbst and Creed followed suit in the top five. A lap later, the caution returned due to debris being reported on the track and coming from Byron’s No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro, with the driver limping his car around the circuit as his tire carcass came off. Despite the early misfortune, Byron managed to pit for fresh tires and remain on the lead lap category.

The start of the next restart period on Lap 30 featured Custer and Chandler Smith dueling for the lead through the frontstretch and the first two turns before they navigated through the Long Pond Straightaway. With Custer retaining the lead, Hill made his way into the runner-up spot over Chandler Smith and Herbst while Love was in fifth place. Love was then overtaken by Creed for fifth place through Turns 1 and 2 during the following lap as Mayer, Ryan Sieg and Allmendinger went three wide within the top 10 and just past the Tunnel Curve. By then and amid a series of on-track battles ensuing around the Pocono circuit, Custer stretched his advantage to more than a second over a tight battle for the runner-up spot involving Chandler Smith and Hill.

By Lap 35, Custer continued to extend his advantage as he was now leading by three seconds over Chandler Smith with Hill keeping Smith closely within his sights. Herbst and Allmendinger were scored in the top five ahead of Ryan Sieg, Love, Creed, Corey Heim and Sammy Smith while Mayer, Taylor Gray, Kligerman, Allgaier and Ryan Truex were running in the top 15. With Allgaier rallying from his pit road penalty to be scored in the top 15, Byron had carved his way back up to 18th place as he was battling Jeb Burton for more. In addition, Brandon Jones was scored outside the top 20 in his efforts to rally from losing a lap from his flat tire.

Two laps later, Love and Mayer pitted their respective entries from the top 11 under green. By then, Custer, who remained on the track, was leading by nearly four seconds at the Lap 38 mark with Chandler Smith, Hill, Herbst and Ryan Sieg trailing in the top five and by six seconds on the track.

When the second stage period concluded on Lap 40, Custer captured his third Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Chandler Smith trailed in second place by nearly four seconds along with Hill, Herbst and Ryan Sieg while Allmendinger, Creed, Sammy Smith, Heim and Allgaier were scored in the top 10. With Allgaier scored in 10th place, Byron had carved his way to 12th place behind Kligerman while Jones was in 18th place behind Parker Retzlaff.

During the stage break, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Custer returned to pit road for service while select names led by Byron and including Alfredo, Mayer and Love remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Jeremy Clements was penalized for a safety violation.

With 44 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Byron and Alfredo occupied the front row. The final stage’s start, however, did not last long as a multi-car wreck erupted when Retzlaff got loose in Turn 1 and went up the track as he ran into Ryan Ellis, with both including Leland Honeyman and Poole wrecking against the outside wall. Amid the accident, Byron had retained the lead ahead of Mayer and Love while Chandler Smith, Hill and Custer were scored in the top six. During the caution period, select names including Allgaier, Alfredo, Sammy Smith, Jones and Blaine Perkins pitted while the rest led by Byron remained on the track.

With the race restarting with 40 laps remaining, Byron and Love battled for the lead as the field fanned out through the frontstretch. Then in Turn 1, Allmendinger slid sideways as he lightly rubbed fenders with Ryan Sieg, but he kept his car running straight below the apron and the race remained under green flag conditions as Love muscled his No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Camaro out in front with the top spot. Love would proceed to lead with 35 laps remaining over Byron before the latter ignited a side-by-side battle through Long Pond Straightaway. By then, Hill tried to join the battle before Byron split his way through both to reassume the lead.

Down to the final 30 laps of the event, Byron was leading by four-tenths of a second over Hill as Custer, Ryan Sieg and Mayer were scored in the top 10. Behind, Herbst, Chandler Smith, Allgaier, Kligerman and Corey Heim were in the top 10 as Love pitted under green. Love, however, would be penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation. Byron would then pit from the lead with 29 laps remaining along with Custer and Taylor Gray. With a host of names pitting over the proceeding laps, Allgaier would cycle into the lead with 24 laps remaining.

Then with 21 laps remaining, the caution flew due to Stephen Mallozzi stopping on the backstretch. During the caution period, some led by Allgaier and including teammate Sammy Smith and Alfredo remained on the track while the rest of the field pitted. Soon after, the next restart period with 16 laps remaining did not last long due to Clements spinning and hitting the outside wall in Turn 2 after getting pinned in a three-wide battle, with Mason Massey also getting collected.

The next restart period with 12 laps remaining featured Allgaier muscling his No. 7 Carolina Carports Chevrolet Camaro ahead from the outside lane before Custer tried to mount a charge from the inside lane. Allgaier would retain the lead by two-tenths of a second over Custer as the field behind jostled for late positions with 10 laps remaining. Amid the battles, third-place Byron trailed the lead by nine-tenths of a second as Creed and Alfredo were scored in the top five.

With nine laps remaining, Custer trailed Allgaier by a tenth of a second as he started to close in on Allgaier for the lead. Then through Turn 1, Custer made his move beneath Allgaier and dueled with him through Long Pond Straightaway before he moved his No. 00 Haas Ford Mustang into the lead. He would proceed to lead with eight laps remaining and slowly begin to stretch his advantage before the caution returned due to Shane van Gisbergen spinning in Turn 2 after he got hit by Mayer.

The start of the next restart period with four laps remaining featured Custer and Allgaier dueling for the lead before Custer muscled ahead through Long Pond Straightaway. Allgaier then tried to fight back through the Tunnel Turn and Turn 2, but Custer muscled ahead with the lead through the frontstretch and led the next lap. Soon after, the two-car battle between Custer and Allgaier became a three-car battle as Byron closed in. Behind, van Gisbergen spun for a second time in Turn 2, but the race remained under green as Custer led by nearly half a second over both Allgaier and Byron.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Custer remained as the leader by six-tenths of a second over Allgaier and by seven-tenths of a second over Byron. With both Allgaier and Byron losing ground and unable to narrow the deficit, Custer was able to cycle his No. 00 Haas Ford Mustang smoothly around Pocono’s tricky turns for a final time before he returned to the frontstretch and claimed his first elusive checkered flag of the 2024 Xfinity season.

With the victory, Custer, who came into Pocono as the leader in the regular-season standings, notched his 14th career win in the Xfinity circuit and his second at Pocono after he won his first in 2019. The victory was also his first since winning both the 2023 season-finale event and the series’ championship at Phoenix Raceway last November. The victory was also the first of the year for both Stewart-Haas Racing and the Ford nameplate.

“Man, you just try and manage it the best you can, but it’s just the luck of the draw on who gets the best push and everything,” Custer said on USA Network. “Man, that was some Doug Yates horsepower right there. We definitely had some [horsepower] on the straightaways today. Man, I just can’t say enough about these guys. They worked so hard this whole year and just haven’t had that final result. To finally get [a win], it’s so awesome. This is the second win here at Pocono for our team, so it’s awesome. We can really carry this momentum through the summer and into the Playoffs. I’ve been telling people [that] I’ve never been so frustrated [at] being the points leader. It was the weirdest feeling in the world. We’ve been so good pretty much all year, just top five [runs], and just haven’t been able to break through the year till now. It’s awesome to get [a win] now and I think we can really carry this.”

As Custer celebrated on the frontstretch, Allgaier was left disappointed on pit road after coming up four laps shy of netting his second victory of the season, though he had enough fuel to finish. The runner-up result marks the second time Allgaier has finished in the runner-up spot and first since Portland International Raceway in early June.

“I just feel like, unfortunately, we had the best car all day and at the end, the old tires were just a difference maker,” Allgaier said. “We did what we had to do with the penalty and being able to come through the field. We did all the right things. Obviously, William [Byron] gave me a great push on that last restart and it’s just so hard to keep the right front on [the car] on the long run like that. Really stinks to come out here second. I’ve led so many laps here. [I] Feel like this is same result every time, just not able to go to Victory Lane. Really proud of our team, proud of the effort. Just came up a little bit short and it’s going to sting for a while.”

William Byron came home in third place in his third Xfinity start of the 2024 season while pole-sitter Sheldon Creed and Taylor Gray finished in the top five.

AJ Allmendinger, Austin Hill, Parker Kligerman, Sammy Smith and Sam Mayer completed the top 10 in the final running order.

There were 10 lead changes for seven different leaders. The race featured eight cautions for 30 laps. In addition, 31 of 37 starters finished on the lead lap.

Following the 19th event of the 2024 Xfinity Series season, Cole Custer leads the regular-season standings by 51 points over Allgaier, 59 over Chandler Smith and 76 over Austin Hill.

Results.

1. Cole Custer, 25 laps led, Stage 2 winner

2. Justin Allgaier, 30 laps led, Stage 1 winner

3. William Byron, 16 laps led

4. Sheldon Creed, seven laps led

5. Taylor Gray

6. AJ Allmendinger

7. Austin Hill, one lap led

8. Parker Kligerman

9. Sammy Smith

10. Sam Mayer

11. Riley Herbst

12. Ryan Sieg, four laps led

13. Brandon Jones

14. Anthony Alfredo

15. Chandler Smith

16. Corey Heim

17. Daniel Dye

18. Josh Williams

19. Ryan Truex

20. Kyle Sieg

21. Jeb Burton

22. Jesse Love, seven laps led

23. Kyle Weatherman

24. Matt DiBenedetto

25. Leland Honeyman

26. Brennan Poole

27. Josh Berry

28. Thomas Annunziata

29. Mason Massey

30. Jeremy Clements

31. Shane van Gisbergen

32. Parker Retzlaff, one lap down

33. Patrick Emerling, one lap down

34. Blaine Perkins – OUT, Suspension

35. Stephen Mallozzi – OUT, Engine

36. Ryan Ellis – OUT, Accident

37. Josh Bilicki – OUT, Electrical

38. Dawson Cram – OUT, Accident

Next on the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the return of the Pennzoil 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Indiana. The event is scheduled for Saturday, July 20, and will air at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

July 13, 2024
John Hunter Nemechek perseveres for second Xfinity victory of 2024 at Nashville

John Hunter Nemechek capitalized on a late restart period with 46 laps remaining and amid humid temperatures to win the Tennessee Lottery 250 at Nashville Superspeedway on Saturday, June 29.

The 27-year-old Nemechek from Mooresville, North Carolina, led twice for a race-high 76 of 188 scheduled laps in an event where he started 15th and steadily carved his way to the front. After settling in eighth place during the first stage period, he led for the first time on Lap 71 and proceeded to claim the second stage victory.

Despite losing the lead to Cole Custer with 87 laps remaining, Nemechek’s opportunity to reclaim the top spot occurred with 54 laps remaining following a multi-car wreck that involved his teammate Ty Gibbs. Once he restarted on the front row alongside Custer with 46 laps remaining, he reassumed the top spot. He retained it for the remainder of the event as he beat teammate Chandler Smith by three-tenths of a second to grab his second NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of the 2024 season.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Ty Gibbs notched the second Xfinity pole position of this season and of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 155.072 mph in 30.876 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Cole Custer, the reigning Xfinity Series champion who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 154.816 mph in 30.927 seconds.

Prior to the event, the following names that included Austin Hill, Sheldon Creed, Blaine Perkins, rookie Jesse Love and Jeb Burton dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.

When the green flag waved and the race started, Ty Gibbs and Cole Custer dueled for a full lap for the early advantage while the rest of the competitors in the field behind also jostled amongst one another amid two lanes. Amid the tight side-by-side battle, Gibbs would lead the first lap by a hair over Custer as they continued to duel through the frontstretch and entering the first two turns. Gibbs would then muscle his No. 19 He Gets Us Toyota Supra ahead of Custer to have both lanes to his control by the second lap while Ryan Sieg and AJ Allmendinger battled for third place in front of Noah Gragson. Amid the early battles towards the front, Gibbs led by half a second by the fifth lap mark.

Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Gibbs was leading by a second over Custer followed by Allmendinger, Gragson and Ryan Sieg while Brandon Jones, Justin Allgaier, Riley Herbst, Sammy Smith and Chandler Smith were in the top 10. Behind, John Hunter Nemechek trailed in 11th place ahead of Parker Kligerman, Anthony Alfredo, Jeremy Clements and Tyler Reddick while Sam Mayer, Parker Retzlaff, Ross Chastain, Brennan Poole and Ryan Ellis occupied the top 20 ahead of Kyle Sieg, Sheldon Creed, Austin Hill, Jesse Love and Josh Williams.

Just past the Lap 20 mark, Gibbs added another second to his advantage as he was now leading by two seconds over Custer while Allmendinger, Brandon Jones and Gragson followed suit in the top five. Meanwhile, Allgaier was in sixth place ahead of Ryan Sieg, who lost two spots, while Herbst, Nemechek and Sammy Smith were racing in the top 10.

At the Lap 30 mark, Gibbs continued to extend his advantage as he was up by three seconds over Custer while Allmendinger, Jones and Gragson continued to trail in the top five. Another lap later, Allmendinger took advantage of Custer getting loose entering the backstretch to battle and overtake the latter for the runner-up spot entering Turns 3 and 4. With Custer unable to execute a crossover move to reclaim the spot, Allmendinger was left trailing Gibbs for the lead by three seconds by Lap 35.

When the first stage period concluded on Lap 45, Gibbs claimed his second Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Allmendinger settled in second followed by Jones, Custer and Allgaier while Gragson, Herbst, Nemechek, Chandler Smith and Ryan Sieg were scored in the top 10.

Under the stage break, the field led by Gibbs pitted for a first round of service. Following the pit stops, Custer emerged with the lead after he exited pit road first followed by Jones and Herbst while Gibbs exited in fourth place ahead of teammate Nemechek, Allmendinger, Chandler Smith, Hill, Sammy Smith and Ryan Sieg. Amid the pit stops, Kligerman and Sammy Smith were both penalized for speeding on pit road.

The second stage period started on Lap 51 as Custer and Jones occupied the front row. At the start, Custer rocketed his No. 00 Haas Ford Mustang into the lead while Gibbs quickly made his way past Jones for the runner-up spot. Teammate Nemechek would follow suit and overtake Jones for third place prior to the ensuing lap as Herbst, who was battling both radio and cooling issues, and Allmendinger battled for fifth place in front of Chandler Smith, Hill, Gragson and Ryan Sieg.

By Lap 60, Custer stabilized his advantage to four-tenths of a second over Gibbs while Nemechek, Allmendinger and Jones were racing in the top five as Chandler Smith, Herbst, Gragson, Hill and Love trailed in the top 10 by four seconds. Meanwhile, Sammy Smith and Kligerman were mired in 25th and 28th, respectively, while Allgaier was in 13th behind Ryan Sieg and teammate Mayer. In addition, Reddick was in 14th ahead of Creed, rookie Shane van Gisbergen was mired in 20th ahead of teammate Josh Williams and Carson Kvapil was in 26th behind Poole.

Ten laps later, Nemechek overtook Custer for the lead through the first two turns. Despite Custer keeping Nemechek within close distance in his front windshield, Nemechek retained the top spot by the Lap 75 mark while Allmendinger trailed in third place by more than a second. Behind, Gibbs was back in fourth ahead of teammate Chandler Smith and Jones while Gragson and Herbst battled for seventh place.

At the Lap 80 mark, Nemechek stretched his advantage to a second-and-a-half over Custer as Allmendinger started to close in on Custer for the runner-up spot. Meanwhile, Gibbs and Chandler Smith continued to occupy the remaining top-five spots on the track while Gragson was up to sixth ahead of Love, Jones, Herbst and Allgaier.

When the second stage period concluded on Lap 90, Nemechek claimed his third Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Allmendinger navigated his way to second ahead of Custer, Gibbs and Chandler Smith while Gragson, Love, Jones, Allgaier and Herbst were scored in the top 10.

During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Nemechek returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Nemechek retained the lead after he exited pit road first and was followed by Custer, Allmendinger, Gibbs, Mayer, Allgaier, Hill, Gragson, Chandler Smith and Creed.

With 91 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Nemechek and Custer occupied the front row. At the start, Nemechek rocketed away with the lead while Custer struggled to launch as he stacked up the field through the restart zone. As the field fanned out through the first two turns and the backstretch, Nemechek retained the lead for the following lap ahead of Custer while Allmendinger battled Gibbs to retain third in front of Allgaier, Mayer, Hill and Gragson.

A few laps later, Sammy Smith, who was running in 11th place after recovering from his pit road speeding penalty earlier, pitted under green to address a loose rear wheel to his No. 8 Pilot Flying J Chevrolet Camaro. Amid Smith’s issues that pinned him a lap down, Nemechek retained the lead over a hard-charging Custer. Shortly after, however, Custer overtook Nemechek through the frontstretch to reassume the lead with 87 laps remaining and slightly stretched his advantage to half a second during the proceeding laps.

With 75 laps remaining, Custer stabilized his advantage to a second over Nemechek as Allmendinger, Gibbs and Chandler Smith were in the top five. Behind, Allgaier, who was battling a potential voltage issue, occupied sixth place ahead of Gragson, Mayer, Hill and Ryan Sieg while Creed, Retzlaff, Jones, Alfredo, Kligerman, Reddick, Poole, Williams, van Gisbergen and Herbst all trailed in the top 20.

Another lap later, Allmendinger and Nemechek battled dead even for the runner-up spot. Allmendinger would prevail in the battle for the spot while Custer stretched his advantage to eight-tenths of a second with 70 laps remaining.

With 60 laps remaining, Custer stabilized his advantage to six-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Allmendinger while Joe Gibbs Racing’s Nemechek, Gibbs and Chandler Smith followed suit in the top five. In the process, Allgaier retained sixth ahead of Gragson and Mayer while Hill and Ryan Sieg were scored in the top 10.

Six laps later, the caution flew when Gibbs and Allgaier, both of whom were battling in the top five, made contact as Gibbs was sent sideways by Allgaier toward the outside wall in Turn 4. In the process, Chandler Smith slid up the track and made contact with both the outside wall and Allgaier while trying to avoid the carnage, though all three managed to continue to run straight.

During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Custer pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Custer retained the lead after exiting pit road first while Nemechek, Chandler Smith, Hill, Gragson, Creed, Herbst, Mayer, Allmendinger and Ryan Sieg followed suit in the top 10. Amid the pit stops, Allmendinger exited ninth as he lost seven spots during his pit procedure while Allgaier spent extra time in his pit stall to have a battery changed in his car.

As the event restarted with 46 laps remaining, Custer held a brief advantage through the first two turns before Nemechek reassumed the top spot in his No. 20 Pye Barker Fire & Safety Toyota Supra through the backstretch. Teammate Chandler Smith, who would recover from being involved in the previous caution period, made his way into the runner-up spot behind Nemechek as Hill and Gragson also overtook Custer to move up to third and fourth, respectively. Amid a series of late-race battles ensuing around the field, Nemechek retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over teammate Chandler Smith with 40 laps remaining.

With 30 laps remaining, Nemechek, who had debris on his front grille, stabilized his advantage to six-tenths of a second over teammate Chandler Smith while third-place Hill trailed by four seconds. A few laps later, Nemechek would use the lapped competitor of Patrick Emerling to remove the debris, which kept him both on the track and in the lead over Smith.

Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Nemechek continued to lead by eight-tenths of a second over teammate Chandler Smith as Hill, Gragson and Love trailed in the top five by eight seconds. Herbst, Allmendinger, Custer, Mayer and Ryan Sieg trailed in the top 10 while Allgaier, Kvapil, Jones, Reddick and Creed were mired in the top 15. Not long after, however, Creed’s run came to a sour end as he pitted his No. 18 Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Toyota Supra for a new battery due to his voltage dropping low.

With 10 laps remaining, Nemechek extended his advantage to a second over teammate Chandler Smith. Nemechek kept his advantage running to a second over Smith with five laps remaining as Love, Hill and Gragson followed suit in the top five. In addition, Herbst retained sixth ahead of Allmendinger and Allgaier while Custer and Mayer were in the top 10.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Nemechek remained as the leader by a second over teammate Chandler Smith. Smith then ignited his late charge on Nemechek and managed to cut the deficit down to as low as three-tenths of a second for a full circuit. Smith’s charge, however, was not enough as Nemechek managed to cycle back to the frontstretch and claim the checkered flag for his second Xfinity victory of the 2024 season.

With the victory, Nemechek, who used the Xfinity Nashville event to gain an upper hand for Sunday’s Cup event with Legacy Motor Club, notched his 11th career win in the Xfinity Series, his second in nine starts of the 2024 season, his first since winning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March and his first at Nashville Superspeedway.

The victory was also the seventh of the season for both Joe Gibbs Racing and the Toyota nameplate as JGR’s No. 20 entry has been piloted to an Xfinity Victory Lane for the fifth time in 17 events and the second in recent weeks after Christopher Bell piloted the entry to victory a week ago at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

“Man, I thought we gave the race away there at the start of Stage 3,” Nemechek said on USA Network “It feels good to be back in this No. 20 machine. We’ve been close to winning a lot this year in this thing. I have limited [Xfinity] starts, so being able to capitalize on that is huge. It’s great to get it done here at Nashville. I’m kind of speechless right now.”

Teammate Chandler Smith settled in second place for his seventh top-five result of the 2024 season while rookie Jesse Love came home in third place for his fourth career top-five result. Austin Hill finished in fourth place for his eighth top-five result of the season while Noah Gragson ended up in fifth place in his second start driving the No. 30 Ford Mustang for Rette Jones Racing.

Riley Herbst, who endured the warm temperatures from start to finish due to his cool shirt failing, settled in sixth place while AJ Allmendinger, Justin Allgaier, Cole Custer and Sam Mayer finished in the top 10.

There were four lead changes for three different leaders. The race featured three cautions for 17 laps. In addition, 23 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap

Following the 17th event of the 2024 Xfinity Series season, Cole Custer continues to lead the regular-season standings by 15 points over Chandler Smith, 48 over Justin Allgaier, 78 over Austin Hill and 118 over Riley Herbst.

Results.

1. John Hunter Nemechek, 76 laps led, Stage 2 winner

2. Chandler Smith

3. Jesse Love

4. Austin Hill

5. Noah Gragson

6. Riley Herbst

7. AJ Allmendinger

8. Justin Allgaier

9. Cole Custer, 64 laps led

10. Sam Mayer

11. Ryan Sieg

12. Carson Kvapil

13. Brandon Jones

14. Tyler Reddick

15. Shane van Gisbergen

16. Parker Kligerman

17. Parker Retzlaff

18. Anthony Alfredo

19. Jeb Burton

20. Ty Gibbs, 48 laps led, Stage 1 winner

21. Brennan Poole

22. Jeremy Clements

23. Ryan Ellis

24. Josh Williams, one lap down

25. Leland Honeyman, one lap down

26. Kyle Sieg, one lap down

27. Ross Chastain, one lap down

28. Hailie Deegan, one lap down

29. Matt DiBenedetto, one lap down

30. Sammy Smith, one lap down

31. Kyle Weatherman, two laps down

32. Logan Bearden, three laps down

33. Sheldon Creed, three laps down

34. Chad Finchum, four laps down

35. Blaine Perkins, four laps down

36. Garrett Smithley, five laps down

37. Dawson Cram, five laps down

38. Patrick Emerling, five laps down

Next on the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the series’ second annual The Loop 110 at the Chicago Street Course in Downtown Chicago, Illinois. The event is scheduled for next Saturday, July 6, and will air at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

June 29, 2024
Bell survives overtime shootout for fourth consecutive Xfinity victory at New Hampshire

Christopher Bell remains undefeated in four NASCAR Xfinity Series career starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway after prevailing in an overtime battle against teammate Sheldon Creed and Cole Custer to win the SciAps 200 on Saturday, June 22.

The 2024 Coca-Cola 600 champion from Norman, Oklahoma, led twice for 43 of 203 over-scheduled laps in an event where he started in 23rd place based on a qualifying metric formula as the event’s qualifying session was canceled due to on-track precipitation. After methodically carving his way to the front, Bell assumed the lead for the first time at the start of the second stage period on Lap 52 and he would proceed to capture the second stage victory on Lap 90.

Despite losing the lead to Cole Custer at the start of the final stage period with 95 laps remaining, Bell remained upfront and withstood a series of late-race caution periods to restart alongside Custer on the front row as the event was sent into overtime. Then during the event’s only overtime attempt, Bell seized an opportunity amid a late-race battle between Custer and teammate Sheldon Creed to make a three-wide move on both through the frontstretch to start the final lap. He then overtook both through the first two turns and retained the top spot through the final two turns to claim his fourth consecutive Xfinity Series checkered flag at the Magic Mile and in his first Xfinity start of the 2024 season.

On-track qualifying was scheduled for Friday, June 21, but was canceled due to on-track precipitation. The starting lineup for the main event was determined through a qualifying metric formula. As a result, Cole Custer was awarded the pole position and shared the front row with rookie Chandler Smith.

Before the event, Parker Retzlaff dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to his No. 31 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet Camaro entry. He was also assessed a stop-and-go penalty at the start of the event.

Prior to the field entering the track for pace laps, NASCAR directed the teams to change to wet weather tires on their respective entries due to this weekend’s on-track precipitation and with more wet weather looming near the circuit.

When the green flag waved and the race started, the field jumbled up and scattered as Matt DiBenedetto, who qualified in 10th place and started alongside teammate Ryan Sieg in the fifth row, struggled to launch at the start and through the frontstretch. During the early chaos, Custer muscled his No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang ahead with the lead from the outside lane. He would retain the lead from the backstretch and back to the frontstretch, where he would lead the first lap ahead of teammate Riley Herbst and Chandler Smith.

During the next four laps, Custer extended his advantage to a second over teammate Herbst while Chandler Smith, Sam Mayer and Sammy Smith trailed in the top five, with the latter trailing by two seconds. Chandler Smith would then slowly drift out of the top five while battling handling issues to his entry as Parker Kligerman overtook him for fifth place. Sheldon Creed, Austin Hill, Justin Allgaier and Corey Heim would all overtake Chandler Smith, who would soon lose 10th place to Anthony Alfredo, as Kligerman was being challenged Creed, Hill and Allgaier for fifth place.

Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Custer was leading by nine-tenths of a second over teammate Herbst followed by Mayer, Hill and Sammy Smith while Allgaier, Heim, Creed, Jeremy Clements and Kligerman occupied the top 10 spots on the track. Behind, Alfredo was in 11th place ahead of Christopher Bell, who carved his way up to the top 12 on the track after starting 23rd, while rookie Jesse Love, AJ Allmendinger and Ryan Sieg were running in the top 15.

Shortly after, a competition caution was flown as NASCAR analyzed the track to determine if it was still wet or not. With the track deemed dry, the field led by Custer pitted for slick, dry tires. Following the pit stops, Custer retained the lead after exiting pit road first as Hill, Sammy Smith, Bell, Creed and Mayer followed suit in the top six.

When the event restarted under green on Lap 16, Hill challenged Custer for the lead through the first two turns before he muscled his No. 21 Bennett Transportation Chevrolet Camaro ahead through the backstretch. Hill retained the lead over Custer for the following lap while Bell was intimidating Sammy Smith for third place. Amid the early battles around the circuit, Custer reassumed the lead from Hill by Lap 18 and he would retain the lead by the Lap 20 mark while Sammy Smith retained third place ahead of Bell and Creed.

At the Lap 25 mark, Custer stretched his advantage to more than a second over Hill while Bell was up to third place after he overtook Sammy Smith for the spot. Corey Heim, who was making his eighth Xfinity Series start of the 2024 season with Sam Hunt Racing, occupied fifth place ahead of Herbst, Creed, Mayer, AJ Allmendinger and Allgaier while Kligerman, Ryan Sieg, Alex Bowman, Clements and Chandler Smith followed suit in the top 15 ahead of Jesse Love, Justin Bonsignore, Jeb Burton, Carson Kvapil and Brennan Poole.

Two laps later, the event’s second caution flew due to Patrick Emerling stalling his SS-Green Light Racing entry off of Turn 2. During the caution period, select names including Allgaier, teammate Brandon Jones, Retzlaff, Leland Honeyman, rookie Shane van Gisbergen and newcomer Justin Bonsignore pitted while the rest led by Custer remained on the track.

As the event restarted under green on Lap 33, Custer rocketed away from Hill and the field entering the first two turns while Bell overtook Hill for the runner-up spot. Heim would move his No. 26 Yahoo! Toyota Supra to third place as he also overtook Hill for the spot while Custer retained the lead for the following lap. The caution would then return by Lap 34 as Kligerman, who was racing in eighth place, received a tap from Allmendinger that sent Kligerman’s No. 48 Spiked Coolers Chevrolet Camaro spun towards the outside wall in between Turns 1 and 2.

During the caution period, some led by Custer and including Bell, Hill, Creed, Heim, Chandler Smith and Jesse Love pitted while the rest led by Sammy Smith remained on the track.

The start of the next restart period on Lap 39 featured Sammy Smith retaining the lead while Mayer and Alex Bowman battled for the runner-up spot. Mayer would then muscle through and overtake teammate Sammy Smith to assume the lead during the following lap as Herbst, Allmendinger and Bowman battled for third place.

When the first stage period concluded on Lap 45, Mayer, winner of last weekend’s Xfinity Series event at Iowa Speedway, secured his first Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Teammate Sammy Smith fended off Herbst for the runner-up spot as they were followed by Allmendinger and Allgaier while Bowman, Kvapil, Ryan Sieg, Jeb Burton and Bonsignore were scored in the top 10. By then, Bell was up to 11th place while Creed, Hill, Custer, Chandler Smith and Heim were trailing in the top 21 on the track.

Under the stage break, some led by Mayer and including those who did not during the previous caution period pitted while the rest led by Bonsignore and Bell remained on the track.

The second stage period started on Lap 52 as teammates Bonsignore and Bell occupied the front row. At the start and with the field fanning out to three lanes through the frontstretch, Bonsignore struggled to launch at the start while Bell received a push from teammate Creed to assume the lead. Bonsignore would retain second place ahead of teammate Creed, Brandon Jones and Hill while teammate Bell retained the lead for the following lap. Bell would proceed to lead by half a second over teammate Bonsignore, who kept Bell’s No. 20 Mobil 1 Toyota Supra close in his front windshield, while Custer was trying to carve his way back into the top five as he trailed Creed, Hill and Heim in sixth place.

Through the Lap 60 mark, Bell extended his advantage to a second over teammate Bonsignore while teammate Creed was trying to retain third place ahead of Heim, Custer, Chandler Smith, Brandon Jones and Hill, all of whom trailed Creed by a second. Meanwhile, Allgaier, who pitted during the first stage break period due to concerns of smoke coming out of his No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro, was in ninth place as he trailed the lead by five seconds while Kligerman was up to 10th place. Behind, Jesse Love, Mayer, Sammy Smith, DiBenedetto and Alfredo occupied the top 15 while Allmendinger, Kyle Weatherman, Ryan Sieg, Bowman and Kvapil trailed in the top 20.

Ten laps later, Bell stretched his lead to another second as he was leading by two seconds over teammate Bonsignore while third-place Creed retained third place as he trailed teammate Bell by five seconds. Behind, Custer and Heim were in the top five while Chandler Smith, the fourth Joe Gibbs Racing competitor, was up to sixth place ahead of Allgaier, Hill, Brandon Jones and Kligerman.

By Lap 80 and with the leaders lapping the rear end of the field, Bell stabilized his advantage to two seconds over teammate Bonsignore. Behind, Custer, who trailed the lead by more than five seconds, was up to third place and Creed dropped to fourth while Chandler Smith was up to fifth place ahead of Allgaier and Heim.

When the second stage period concluded on Lap 90, Bell cruised to his first Xfinity stage victory in his first Xfinity start of the 2024 season. Teammate Bonsignore settled in second as he trailed Bell by four seconds followed by Custer, Creed and Chandler Smith while Allgaier, Heim, Brandon Jones, Hill and Kligerman were scored in the top 10.

During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Bell pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Custer returned atop the leaderboard after he exited pit road first ahead of Bell, Chandler Smith, Creed and Bonsignore. Allgaier slid through his pit box and endured a slow pit service as he exited the pits in 25th place.

With 102 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Custer and Bell occupied the front row. At the start, Custer launched ahead of Bell from the outside lane while Chandler Smith tried to challenge Bell for the runner-up spot. Bell then tried to draw even with Custer through the first two turns, but Custer retained the lead through the backstretch. Bell then got briefly loose entering Turn 3, which allowed teammate Chandler Smith to assume the runner-up spot while Custer retained the lead during the following lap. Then just as the event reached its halfway mark on Lap 100, the caution returned after Armani Williams spun in Turn 4.

With the event restarting under green with 95 laps remaining, Custer gained another strong start from the outside lane to retain the lead while Chandler Smith battled and prevailed in a brief battle over teammate Bell for the runner-up spot. Teammate Bonsignore followed suit in fourth along with Heim and Creed while Hill and Sammy Smith battled for seventh place in front of Herbst and Kligerman. Amid the battles within the field, Custer continued to lead by half a second over a side-by-side battle between teammates Chandler Smith and Bell.

With 80 laps remaining, Custer stretched his advantage to a second over Chandler Smith while Smith’s Toyota teammates that included Bell, Bonsignore, Creed and Heim followed suit in the top six. Herbst, Sammy Smith, Hill and Mayer trailed in the top 10 while Ryan Sieg, Kligerman, Allmendinger, Bowman and Allgaier were running in the top 15 ahead of Kvapil, Brandon Jones, Love, van Gisbergen and DiBenedetto.

Ten laps later, Custer added another second to his advantage and was now leading by two seconds over Bell. Bonsignore was up to third place after he prevailed in an earlier battle with teammate Chandler Smith for the spot, as he overtook Smith from the outside lane. With Smith dropping to fourth place, teammate Creed retained fifth place as he trailed Smith by half a second while Heim was scored in sixth place ahead of Herbst, Sammy Smith, Hill and Mayer.

Another 10 laps later, Custer stretched his advantage to three seconds over Bell while third-place Bonsignore also trailed by three seconds, but by seven-tenths of a second to teammate Bell. With the event remaining under green flag conditions despite light precipitation being reported around the circuit, Custer, who was nearing his fuel window, retained the lead as Bell, Sammy Smith and Herbst pitted under green with 51 laps remaining.

The following lap, more green flag pit stops commenced as the leader Custer pitted along with Bonsignore, Heim, Hill, Allgaier, Allmendinger and Love before Chandler Smith, Creed, Mayer, Kligerman, van Gisbergen and DiBenedetto pitted with 49 laps remaining. During the pit stops, Kvapil, who had yet to pit, was leading and would continue to lead with 45 laps remaining while Brandon Jones, Bowman, Weatherman, Josh Williams, Alfredo and Retzlaff all trailed in the top seven as all have yet to pit.

With 40 laps remaining, Kvapil, who was opting to stretch his fuel tank as far as he could, continued to lead ahead of teammate Jones, Bowman and Weatherman while Custer, the first competitor on four fresh tires and a full tank of fuel, carved his way up to fifth place as he trailed the lead by 12 seconds. Meanwhile, Bell was mired in eighth place and trailing Custer by four seconds while Chandler Smith, Creed and Bonsignore were back within the top 12.

Four laps later, Bowman pitted his No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro from third place as Retzlaff would also pit under green. As Bowman was then assessed a penalty for an uncontrolled tire violation, Jones would pit his No. 9 Menards Chevrolet Camaro from the runner-up spot a few laps later before Kvapil surrendered the lead to pit his No. 88 Clarience Technologies Chevrolet Camaro with 34 laps remaining. As a result, Custer cycled his way back into the lead while Bell, Chandler Smith, Creed and Bonsignore moved back into the top five.

The caution would then fly with 33 laps remaining after Armani Williams spun in the backstretch, which marked his second incident of the day. During the caution period, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Custer returned to pit road for service while Love and Kvapil remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Custer exited pit road first ahead of Bell, Chandler Smith, Kligerman, Sammy Smith, Hill, Creed and Bonsignore.

The start of the following restart period with 26 laps remaining featured Kvapil receiving a push from Custer to shoot into the lead from the inside lane as Chandler Smith tried to make a three-wide move on Custer and Love through the frontstretch. With the move not prevailing for Smith, Custer would battle and overtake Love for the runner-up spot as he started to close in on Kvapil for the lead. Then as Custer attempted to draw even with Kvapil through the frontstretch, the caution returned after Chandler Smith spun his No. 81 Smith General Contracting Toyota Supra from fifth place after he made contact with teammate Creed in Turn 3.

The start of the next restart period with 19 laps remaining did not last long as Sammy Smith made contact with Bonsignore as both Bonsignore and Mayer, who was racing beneath Sammy Smith at the moment of contact, spun together through Turns 1 and 2. At the same time, a chain reaction wreck occurred that collected Hill, van Gisbergen, Jones, Brennan Poole, Weatherman, Allmendinger and Bowman. At the moment of caution, Custer had managed to reassume the lead from Kvapil while Bell, Love, Creed and Allgaier were scored in the top six.

Down to the final 12 laps of the event, the field restarted under green. At the start, Custer rocketed ahead of Kvapil from the outside lane with the lead while Bell was battling Kvapil for the runner-up spot. Creed then tried to ignite a three-wide battle between teammate Bell and Kvapil for the runner-up spot, but Bell prevailed in the battle as he assumed the spot followed by Creed and a hard-charging Allgaier, who was charging strong from the outside lane, while Kvapil dropped to fifth. The caution, however, would return during the following lap as Nathan Byrd and Hailie Deegan wrecked in Turn 4.

With the event restarting under green with six laps remaining, Custer held a brief advantage entering the first two turns until Bell drew even with Custer through the backstretch. With both remaining dead even for the top spot during the following lap, Custer held the advantage by a hair over Bell while Creed followed in close pursuit in third place. As all three continued to battle closely for the lead, the caution returned for an incident involving Mason Massey and Deegan in Turn 2. At the moment of caution and with the event sent into overtime, Custer was deemed the leader over Bell as Creed, Allgaier and Kvapil were scored in the top five.

The start of the first overtime attempt featured Custer gaining another strong start from the outside lane as he muscled ahead with the lead while Creed muscled his way up to second place from teammate Bell. Then as Custer retained the lead through the backstretch, he received a little bump from Creed entering the frontstretch, which allowed both Creed and Bell to make their move beneath Custer as Creed emerged ahead of both Custer and Bell by a hair to start the final lap of the event.

Then entering Turns 1 and 2, Bell made the inside lane stick as he muscled ahead of both Custer and teammate Creed to assume the lead entering the backstretch. As Creed and Custer battled for the runner-up spot through the backstretch and in front of Allgaier, Bell was able to maintain his ground and make the final two turns stick as he cycled back to the frontstretch victorious by claiming the checkered flag by two-tenths of a second over Creed and by six-tenths of a second over Custer.

With the victory, Bell notched his fourth consecutive Xfinity Series win in all four career starts at New Hampshire that includes the 2018, 2019 and 2021 seasons. He also recorded his 18th career victory in the series and his first since winning at New Hampshire in 2021 as he joined AJ Allmendinger as competitors to win in first four career starts at a track.

In addition, Bell recorded the 13th Xfinity victory overall at New Hampshire for both the Toyota nameplate and Joe Gibbs Racing. He is the fourth Cup Series regular to win through the first 16 events of the 2024 Xfinity season, joining John Hunter Nemechek, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott. He is also the fourth competitor overall to pilot the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Supra entry to a victory this season, including Nemechek, Aric Almirola and Ryan Truex.

“I feel so bad for Sheldon [Creed],” Bell said on USA Network. “He’s been really, really close to winning these [races] and today, he did everything right to win that race. He restarted in the right lane, gave Cole [Custer] a good push and then coming to the white flag, he got Cole loose and that’s what opened the door for me. This Mobil 1 [Supra] was really, really good early in the race and once I lost the track position, I was just kind of another guy. Very fortunate to keep my undefeated streak alive. We got really lucky there. Everyone on this No. 20 car’s doing awesome.”

Teammate Sheldon Creed, who led the penultimate lap before being overtaken by teammate Bell on the final lap, settled in second place for the third of the 2024 season and the 10th time in his career while Cole Custer, who led a race-high 114 laps, ended up in third place.

“I feel like there’s a million things to do differently,” Creed said. “[Finishing second for the 10th time]’s not a stat I wanted to tie. Most seconds before a win. I thought when I got next to [Custer] off of [Turn] 4 coming to the white [flag], that was going to be my opportunity. Obviously, Bell got a good run and we shifted down there in [Turn] 1. I felt like I was gonna stay outside of him. I think [Custer] was able to stay close enough to me and me being free on the short run all day, just a little too free there to stay outside of [Bell]. Overall, a great day. I’ve been in the hunt the last four weeks, so just gonna keep working hard at it.”

“I would’ve done the same thing [on Creed with the contact],” Custer said. “You’re racing for the win. It is what it is. Man, it just stings. I felt like we had the best car all day. That’s not easy to do at these flat short tracks. Our guys brought such a fast car. [I] Guess you get put in those late-race restarts six times or whatever, eventually, it’s probably not gonna going your way, but I’m gonna relive that, definitely, of what I could’ve done different. Maybe I could’ve protected a little bit more, but you watch the replay and it went perfectly wrong for us. Just got to keep digging. I’m really excited about what we can do. That was a really fast car. We got the points lead. Just got to keep knocking on the door.”

Justin Allgaier rallied from his early issues on pit road to finish fourth while Carson Kvapil finished in fifth place for the third time in his first four Xfinity Series career starts.

Ryan Sieg, Parker Kligerman, Riley Herbst, Alex Bowman and Corey Heim finished in the top 10. Notably, Justin Bonsignore, a three-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion who won the Modified event at New Hampshire hours before the Xfinity event, finished 22nd in his Xfinity Series debut while Sam Mayer, who won the first stage period, ended up in 19th place.

*Matt DiBenedetto was disqualified from his 17th-place result due to three loose lug nuts that were discovered on his right-rear section of his car.

There were 15 lead changes for 10 different leaders. The race featured 11 cautions for 58 laps. In addition, 29 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

Following the 16th event of the 2024 Xfinity Series season, Cole Custer leads the regular-season standings by 15 points over Chandler Smith, 42 over Justin Allgaier, 69 over Austin Hill, 105 over Sheldon Creed and 111 over Riley Herbst.

Results.

1. Christopher Bell, 43 laps led, Stage 2 winner

2. Sheldon Creed, one lap led

3. Cole Custer, 114 laps led

4. Justin Allgaier

5. Carson Kvapil, 24 laps led

6. Ryan Sieg

7. Parker Kligerman

8. Riley Herbst

9. Alex Bowman

10. Corey Heim

11. AJ Allmendinger

12. Sammy Smith, three laps led

13. Jesse Love, three laps led

14. Brandon Jones

15. Chandler Smith, one lap led

16. Brennan Poole

17. Jeb Burton

18. Shane van Gisbergen

19. Sam Mayer, nine laps led, Stage 1 winner

20. Anthony Alfredo

21. Jeremy Clements

22. Justin Bonsignore, three laps led

23. Josh Williams

24. Austin Hill, two laps led

25. Kyle Weatherman

26. Parker Retzlaff

27. Blaine Perkins

28. Glen Reen

29. Garrett Smithley, one lap down

30. Mason Massey, one lap down

31. Kyle Sieg, two laps down

32. Hailie Deegan, two laps down

33. Armani Williams, five laps down

34. Patrick Emerling, six laps down

35. Ryan Ellis – OUT, DVP

36. Nathan Byrd – OUT, Accident

37. Leland Honeyman – OUT, Accident

38. Matt DiBenedetto – Disqualified

Next on the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, Tennessee, for the Tennessee Lottery 250. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, June 29, and air at 5 p.m. ET on USA Network.

June 22, 2024
Mayer survives overtime shootout for dramatic Xfinity victory at Iowa

Sam Mayer preserved his tires to the very end and fended off a late challenge from Riley Herbst during an overtime shootout to win the Hy-Vee PERKS 250 at Iowa Speedway on Saturday, June 15.

The 20-year-old Mayer from Franklin, Wisconsin, led three times for 47 of 253 over-scheduled laps in an event where he started fifth and ran up front for the majority of the event. Amid a series of on-track carnages that knocked a multitude of front runners out of contention due to tire explosions, Mayer, who nearly wrecked at the start of the second stage period on Lap 82 but led for the first time on Lap 169, made the event’s final pass for the lead on Herbst with seven laps remaining. Then amid an overtime shootout, Mayer managed to fend off Herbst for two laps to score his second NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of the 2024 season and cap off an eventful afternoon of competition in Iowa Speedway’s return to hosting Xfinity events.

With on-track qualifying that was scheduled to occur on Saturday canceled due to inclement weather, the starting lineup for the main event was determined through a performance metric system from the NASCAR Rule Book. As a result, Austin Hill was awarded the pole position.

Rookie Shane van Gisbergen, winner of last weekend’s Xfinity event at Sonoma Raceway, was scheduled to start alongside Hill on the front row but he dropped to the rear of the field in a backup car after he wrecked his primary car during Friday’s practice session. Patrick Emerling also dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to his respective entry.

When the green flag waved and the race started, Austin Hill muscled ahead with a brief advantage through the frontstretch until Justin Allgaier, who was scheduled to start in fourth place but moved up to start alongside Hill on the front row in second place, used the outside lane to his advantage as he rocketed his No. 7 BRANDT/Precision Build Chevrolet Camaro into the lead through the first two turns. Sheldon Creed then tried to battle Hill for the runner-up spot through the backstretch, but he slipped up the track while making light contact with Hill’s No. 21 Bennett Transportation Chevrolet Camaro. The contact cause Creed to slip into a side-by-side battle with Sam Mayer for third place as Hill retained second while Allgaier proceeded to lead the first lap.

During the proceeding four laps, Creed retained third place while teammate Chandler Smith moved his No. 81 Mobil 1 Toyota Supra into fourth place over Mayer. Amid a flurry of battles ensuing within the middle of the pack, Brennan Poole got loose off the front nose of Sammy Smith and nearly slipped up the track and into the path of Jeremy Clements in Turn 3, but all kept their respective entries running straight. Amid the tight side-by-side battles as the competitors in the mid-pack region fanned out to multiple lanes, Allgaier retained the lead by nearly half a second over Hill as Chandler Smith, Creed and Mayer were running in the top five.

Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Allgaier was leading by three-tenths of a second over Hill followed by Chandler Smith, Creed and John Hunter Nemechek while Mayer, Cole Custer, rookie Jesse Love, Riley Herbst and Corey Heim trailed in the top 10. Behind, Parker Kligerman followed suit in 11th place ahead of AJ Allmendinger, Ryan Sieg, Sammy Smith and Parker Retzlaff while Anthony Alfredo, Brandon Jones, Matt DiBenedetto, Brett Moffitt and Ross Chastain were in the top 20 ahead of Jeb Burton, Kyle Sieg, Brennan Poole, Leland Honeyman and Jeremy Clements. Meanwhile, Shane van Gisbergen was up to 33rd place while teammates Josh Williams and Daniel Dye were mired in 28th and 29th, respectively.

Five laps later, Chandler Smith overtook Allgaier to assume the lead. Smith would stretch his advantage to a second over Allgaier by the Lap 20 mark as Nemechek and Creed were up to third and fourth, respectively. Meanwhile, Hill, who was battling loose conditions, dropped to fifth while Mayer, Custer, Love, Herbst and Allmendinger followed suit in the top 10.

At the Lap 30 mark, Chandler Smith stabilized his advantage to more than a second over teammate Nemechek while third-place Creed, another Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, trailed by four seconds. In the midst of the three Joe Gibbs Racing competitors running first through third on the track, Allgaier trailed in fourth place by six seconds while Hill retained fifth. Allgaier and Hill would then battle for fourth place as Mayer, Custer, Herbst, Love and Allmendinger were in the top 10. By then, van Gisbergen was lapped by the leaders.

Three laps later, the event’s first caution period flew after Allmendinger, who was running 10th, blew a right-front tire and veered dead straight into the Turn 4 outside wall at full speed before he parked his damaged No. 16 Cirkul Chevrolet Camaro on the frontstretch’s grass and retired from the event. During the event’s first caution period, nearly the entire field led by Chandler Smith pitted while the rest led by teammate Nemechek and including Jeremy Clements and Ryan Ellis remained on the track. Shortly after the pit stops, Brandon Jones nursed his No. 9 Menards Chevrolet Camaro back to pit road as smoke was seen billowing out of his car with the driver battling oil pressure issues that would send the Georgian to the garage.

When the event restarted under green on Lap 42, Nemechek gained a brief advantage from the outside lane through the frontstretch, but he then went wide in Turn 1, which allowed Jeremy Clements to move his No. 51 Whitetail Smokeless Chevrolet Camaro into the lead from the inside lane. Clements would retain the lead through Lap 48 before Chandler Smith reassumed the lead. Smith would be followed by teammates Creed and Nemechek along with Mayer by the Lap 50 mark while Clements dropped to fifth ahead of Hill.

By Lap 60, Chandler Smith extended his advantage to more than a second over teammate Creed as Mayer, Nemechek and Custer trailed in the top five. Behind, Allgaier was up to sixth place and Clements dropped to seventh place, with Sammy Smith, Herbst and Moffitt following suit in the top 10 ahead of Love, Hill, Heim, Chastain and Ryan Sieg.

Nearing the Lap 70 mark, Chandler Smith continued to extend his advantage as he was leading by nearly three seconds over teammate Creed while JR Motorsports’ Mayer, Allgaier and Sammy Smith were up in the top five. Meanwhile, Nemechek dropped to ninth as he trailed Custer, teammate Moffitt and Heim on the track as Love occupied 10th place.

Two laps later, the event’s second caution period flew after Jeb Burton, who was running 14th, blew a right-front tire and scrubbed the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2. Burton’s incident was enough for the first stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 75 to officially conclude under caution as Chandler Smith claimed his fourth Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Teammate Creed followed suit in second ahead of Mayer, Allgaier and Sammy Smith while Custer, Moffitt, Heim, Nemechek and Love were scored in the top 10.

Under the stage break, the entire lead lap field led by Chandler Smith pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Chandler Smith retained the lead after exiting first followed by teammate Creed, Custer, Sammy Smith, Mayer and Moffitt.

The second stage period started on Lap 82 as teammates Chandler Smith and Creed occupied the front row. At the start, both Joe Gibbs Racing teammates dueled for the lead until Smith muscled ahead from the outside lane while Creed got loose on the inside lane. Creed was then placed in a tight four-wide battle against Herbst, Mayer and Moffitt for fourth place through the backstretch while Custer and Sammy Smith grabbed second and third, respectively, through the backstretch.

Mayer then slid sideways after getting hit by Moffitt through Turns 3 and 4, but he kept his car running straight as the oncoming field behind scattered and fanned out to avoid hitting him. Amid the war of attrition in the middle of the pack, Chandler Smith proceeded to lead Custer by a tenth of a second by the Lap 85 mark while third-place Sammy Smith trailed by four-tenths of a second in third.

On Lap 87, the caution returned after van Gisbergen, who was mired in the top 25, got loose entering the backstretch and slipped up the track and into Blaine Perkins, which resulted in Perkins slapping the outside wall as van Gisbergen slid down the track and was hit hard by Kyle Weatherman, which took all three out of contention and spoiled van Gisbergen’s hopes of winning three consecutive Xfinity races.

As the event restarted under green on Lap 96, the two Smiths, Chandler and Sammy, battled for the lead, with the former edging ahead for nearly a lap from the outside lane until Sammy mounted the pressure on Chandler for the top spot after the latter slipped up the track. With the battle for the lead intensifying during the following lap, Chandler Smith would muscle ahead followed by Custer while Sammy Smith slipped to third. Behind, Chastain and Moffitt carved their way up to fourth and fifth, respectively, while Love trailed in sixth as Chandler Smith was leading by two-tenths of a second by the Lap 100 mark.

Fifteen laps later, Chandler Smith was leading by more than a second over Custer followed by Sammy Smith, Moffitt and Love while Chastain, Nemechek, Herbst, Allgaier and Mayer were in the top 10. Behind, Heim trailed in 11th place ahead of Creed, Kligerman, Ryan Sieg and Hill while Ryan Ellis, Leland Honeyman, Daniel Dye, Brennan Poole and Clements were scored in the top 20.

Then on Lap 123 and with a multitude of competitors battling for car control on the track’s paved surface, the caution flew after Patrick Emerling spun in Turn 1. During the caution period, some including Moffitt, Hill, Josh Williams, Ryan Sieg, Kligerman, Clements, Dawson Cram and Joey Gase pitted while the rest led by Chandler Smith remained on the track.

With the event restarting under green on Lap 132, Chandler Smith muscled ahead of Custer to retain the lead as Custer slipped through the first two turns. Custer’s misfortune cost him three spots as Sammy Smith, Chastain and Allgaier all moved up the leaderboard. Soon after, Allgaier and Custer made contact, but they continued to race in the top 10 as the field fanned out. Amid the battles in the middle of the pack, the battle for the lead between the two Smiths, Chandler and Sammy, began to intensify as the latter challenged the former for the top spot. Chastain and Mayer would close in to make the battle for the lead a four-car battle while Chandler Smith retained the top spot.

Just past the Lap 140 mark, Chandler Smith continued to lead by three-tenths of a second over Sammy Smith as Mayer, Chastain and Creed followed suit within a second in the top five. Behind, Heim was up to sixth place while Allgaier, Herbst, Love and Custer trailed in the top 10 ahead of Hill, DiBenedetto, Nemechek, Daniel Dye and Moffitt.

Then on the final lap of the second stage period, the caution flew due to 14th-place runner Love cutting a right-front tire and going dead straight into the outside wall in between Turns 3 and 4 as his event came a late end. The drama for Love would continue as his damaged No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Camaro went up in flames while being towed back to the garage.

Love’s incident was enough for the second stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 150 to officially conclude under caution as Chandler Smith captured his fifth Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season and second of the day. Mayer muscled his way up to second place as he was followed by Chastain, Heim and Sammy Smith while Creed, Allgaier, Herbst, Custer and Hill were scored in the top 10.

During the stage break, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Chandler Smith returned to pit road for service while Josh Williams remained on the track, with the latter assuming the lead. Amid the pit stops, Ryan Sieg exited pit road second after he opted for a full tank of fuel to his entry.

With 90 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Williams and Ryan Sieg occupied the front row. At the start, Chandler Smith tried to force his way in between both for the lead, but Sieg muscled ahead with the lead. In addition, Mayer overtook both to assume the runner-up while Chandler Smith slipped. This resulted with Smith dropping out of race-winning contention and out of the top 10 on the track while Sieg was leading ahead of Mayer and a bevy of battles ensuing behind them.

With 80 laps remaining, Mayer, who overtook Ryan Sieg for the lead two laps earlier, was leading by six-tenths of a second over Creed followed by Ryan Sieg, Custer and Moffitt while Nemechek, Heim, Hill, Williams and Sammy Smith were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Chandler Smith was still mired in 12th.

Ten laps later, Mayer stabilized his advantage to half a second over Creed as Custer, Nemechek and Moffitt trailed in the top five. Behind, Chandler Smith retained 12th place as he was racing in between Allgaier and Chastain while Heim, Hill, Ryan Sieg, Sammy Smith and Williams were mired in the top 10.

Another 10 laps later, Mayer slightly extended his advantage to nine-tenths of a second over Creed as Custer, Nemechek and Heim followed suit in the top five. Meanwhile, Ryan Sieg and Moffitt, both of whom pitted under green a few laps earlier, were mired back in 25th and 27th, respectively.

With 50 laps remaining, Mayer stabilized his advantage to a second over Creed as Nemechek moved up to third place ahead of Custer and Heim. By then, Williams and Matt DiBenedetto had pitted under green. Another lap later, the caution flew after Allgaier blew a right-front tire and went dead straight into the outside wall entering Turn 4 as his strong run came to a late end.

During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Mayer pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Nemechek emerged with the lead after he exited first while teammate Creed, Mayer, Custer, Hill and Chandler Smith followed suit in the top six.

As the event restarted with 40 laps remaining, Nemechek muscled ahead with the lead from the outside lane followed by teammate Creed while Hill put the bumper to Mayer and moved Mayer in the middle of a three-wide battle as Hill tried to march his way back to the front. Then as Kligerman went wide and nearly hit the outside wall in between Turns 3 and 4, the battle for the lead intensified between teammates Nemechek and Creed as they dueled in front of Custer through the frontstretch. Creed then briefly wiggled in Turn 1, which allowed Nemechek to muscle back ahead as Custer and Hill overtook Creed for second and third on the track.

Then with 33 laps remaining, Hill’s chances of contending for the victory evaporated after a blown left-front tire sent Hill straight into the outside wall in Turn 1. With Hill out of contention, Nemechek had retained the lead while Custer, Creed, Mayer and Chandler Smith were scored in the top five.

Down to the final 26 laps of the event, the event restarted under green. At the start, Nemechek continued to make the outside lane work to his advantage as he muscled away from the field followed by Custer while Mayer, who restarted as the first competitor on the inside lane, settled in third and in front of Creed. Mayer would then overtake Custer for the runner-up spot during the following lap. He would retain the spot over Herbst and Custer over the next four laps before the caution flew as Brennan Poole went up in smoke and dropped fluid around the circuit.

The start of the next restart period with 13 laps remaining featured Nemechek fending off Herbst for nearly a lap before Herbst drew his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang alongside Nemechek’s No. 20 Daisy Brands Toyota Supra in a late battle for the lead through the frontstretch. Herbst then managed to clear Nemechek and emerge with the lead and with both lanes to his control during the following lap while Creed battled Nemechek for the runner-up spot.

Shortly after, Nemechek and Creed made contact that resulted in Nemechek generating a tire rub and slipping out of the top five. Amid the contact, Mayer made his way into the runner-up spot. Heim, Custer and Chastain moved into the top five while Herbst retained the lead by three-tenths of a second with 10 laps remaining.

Then with seven laps remaining, Mayer drag-raced against Herbst through the backstretch before he assumed the lead in his No. 1 Roto-Rooter Chevrolet Camaro. As Mayer started to pull away from Herbst and Heim with the lead, the caution returned with five laps remaining after Nemechek, who was trying to nurse his car to the finish amid his tire rub and late run-in with teammate Creed, ended up against the outside wall towards Turn 4 with a flat tire. Nemechek’s incident was enough to send the event into overtime.

The start of the first overtime attempt featured Herbst and Mayer battling dead even for the lead approaching the first turn. As Creed got loose and nearly slid into Heim, Mayer managed to rocket ahead of Herbst through the first two turns and lead through the backstretch.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Mayer was leading by two-tenths of a second over Herbst as Heim tried to join the battle. With both Herbst and Heim unable to mount a final lap charge, Mayer was able to nurse his car around the Iowa circuit smoothly for a final time before he cycled back to the frontstretch and claimed the checkered flag by a tenth of a second.

With the victory, Mayer, who ended up with a flat left-rear tire after Herbst gave Mayer a post-race bump into the side to express his displeasure from an earlier on-track contact and proceeded to blow his right-rear tire from his post-race burnout, notched his sixth career win in his 99th Xfinity Series career start, his second of the 2024 season and his first since winning at Texas Motor Speedway in April.

In addition to becoming the fourth multi-race winner of this year’s Xfinity Series season, Mayer became the 15th competitor overall to win an Xfinity event at Iowa in the speedway’s return to hosting NASCAR Xfinity events since the 2019 season. The Wisconsin native also delivered the 10th victory of the season for the Chevrolet nameplate and the third of the season for JR Motorsports.

“We struggled yesterday and this Roto-Rooter team went to work,” Mayer said on USA Network. “Obviously, we did pretty good overnight making good decisions on this race car. Man, I’m out of breath because I was just huffing in a bunch of smoke, but I feel really good. I could do another 100 laps, for sure. With a race car like this, it’d be a lot of fun. We definitely got a little bit tight there at the end of the second stage, so I was a little concern [of the tire wear] there. [Crew chief] Mardy [Lindley] said the tires look all good. We took care of [the car] and we did our job and now, we get to celebrate.”

As Mayer celebrated on the frontstretch, Herbst was left disappointed on pit road and with a small axe to grind towards Mayer after the latter had made contact with the former earlier prior to their late-race battle for the victory. Nonetheless, Herbst was also left pleased with his performance and the resilience being exhibited by Stewart-Haas Racing amid the team’s closure at this season’s conclusion. Currently, Herbst’s racing plans for the 2025 season remains to be determined.

“It was just frustrating,” Herbst said. “It was an up-and-down day, for sure. I felt like we were okay yesterday and we got it better. We worked all night. [The No. 98 team] did a really good job. We worked our day back up through the field, got some track position and then, the guy who won [Mayer], I mean, he just absolutely brooms us into [Turns] 1 and 2, so that was frustrating. Then for him to door me down the straightaway before the green white checkered [restart], I don’t know.

“That was a bit frustrating, but all in all, it was fun to race with them on the green-white checkered. I’m just most proud in that the speed’s back in the No. 98 Monster Energy car. It was really fast today, so I appreciate everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing for sticking together. It’s been a hard last couple of months and it’s gonna be a hard couple months going forward as well with everything that’s going on. Everybody staying together is awesome. Hopefully, we can continue to bring the speed to New Hampshire next week.”

Corey Heim piloted the No. 26 Yahoo! Toyota Supra from Sam Hunt Racing to a career-best third place in his 11th career start in the Xfinity Series while Sammy Smith and Sheldon Creed finished in the top five.

Cole Custer came home in sixth place while Matt DiBenedetto, Chandler Smith, Ross Chastain and Daniel Dye completed the top 10 in the final running order.

There were 13 lead changes for eight different leaders. The race featured nine cautions for 71 laps. In addition, 17 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

Following the 15th event of the 2024 Xfinity Series season, Cole Custer leads the regular-season standings by a single point over Chandler Smith while Austin Hill trails by 41 points and Justin Allgaier trails by 44 points.

Results.

1. Sam Mayer, 47 laps led

2. Riley Herbst, seven laps led

3. Corey Heim

4. Sammy Smith

5. Sheldon Creed

6. Cole Custer

7. Matt DiBenedetto

8. Chandler Smith, 131 laps led, Stages 1 & 2 winner

9. Ross Chastain

10. Daniel Dye

11. Parker Kligerman

12. Ryan Sieg, eight laps led

13. Leland Honeyman

14. Ryan Ellis

15. Anthony Alfredo

16. Joey Gase

17. David Starr

18. Brett Moffitt, one lap down

19. Kyle Sieg, one lap down

20. Josh Williams, one lap down, four laps led

21. Jeremy Clements, one lap down, seven laps led

22. Dawson Cram, one lap down

23. Patrick Emerling, one lap down

24. Jeb Burton, three laps down

25. Hailie Deegan, three laps down

26. Garrett Smithley, three laps down

27. John Hunter Nemechek – OUT, Accident, 35 laps led

28. Brennan Poole – OUT, Oil Line

29. Austin Hill – OUT, Accident

30. Justin Allgaier – OUT, Accident, 14 laps led

31. Jesse Love – OUT, Accident

32. Parker Retzlaff – OUT, Electrical

33. Kyle Weatherman – OUT, Accident

34. Shane van Gisbergen – OUT, Accident

35. Blaine Perkins – OUT, Accident

36. Brandon Jones – OUT, Engine

37. AJ Allmendinger – OUT, Accident

38. Glen Reen – OUT, Carburetor

Next on the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the series’ annual visit to New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire, for the SciAps 200. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, June 22, and air at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

June 15, 2024
Shane van Gisbergen scores first Xfinity career victory at Portland

Nearly a year after making his inaugural presence in NASCAR quickly known with his first Cup Series career victory at Chicago, rookie Shane van Gisbergen checked off another accomplishment by clinching his first Xfinity Series career win in the third annual running of the Pacific Office Automation 147 at Portland International Raceway on Saturday, June 1.

The three-time Supercars champion from Auckland, New Zealand, led three times for 12 of 75 scheduled laps in an event where he started on the front row and quickly endured a wild start by sending pole-sitter Sam Mayer for a spin. Despite struggling to launch on restarts and after slipping off the course during the second stage period, van Gisbergen managed to keep himself running towards the front in the closing stages. Amid two late-race restarts, van Gisbergen then managed to overtake and fend off Justin Allgaier during a four-lap shootout to the finish to claim his first Xfinity career win in his 13th series start.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Sam Mayer claimed his first Xfinity pole position of the 2024 season and the second of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 96.654 mph in 73.375 seconds. Joining him on the front row was rookie Shane van Gisbergen, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 96.596 mph in 73.419 seconds.

Prior to the event, AJ Allmendinger dropped to the rear of the field in a backup car after he wrecked his primary car during the event’s qualifying session earlier in the day. The following names that included rookie Jesse Love, Patrick Gallagher, Brandon Jones, Hailie Deegan, ED Jones, Sage Karam, Austin Green, Chandler Smith, Kyle Weatherman and Logan Bearden also dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.

When the green flag waved and the race started, Sam Mayer launched ahead with a brief lead over Shane van Gisbergen as the field fanned out entering the first set of turns. Then in Turn 1, van Gisbergen hit Mayer as Mayer was sent spinning backwards through the course’s first three tight turns. Amid the early contact with the field scattering to avoid Mayer as Mayer plummeted below the leaderboard, Riley Herbst navigated his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang into the lead as Justin Allgaier overtook van Gisbergen for the runner-up spot. As Cole Custer, Sheldon Creed and Parker Kligerman followed suit in the top six while Sammy Smith and Josh Bilicki battled for seventh, Herbst proceeded to lead the first lap.

Over the next four laps, Herbst stabilized his advantage within four-tenths of a second over Allgaier while van Gisbergen trailed by a second in third place. Behind, Custer and Creed continued to trail in the top five along with Kligerman, Bilicki and Sammy Smith while Ryan Truex and Jeb Burton followed suit in the top 10. Meanwhile, Kyle Weatherman was trying to regain his momentum back on the course after he was sideways off the course in Turn 12 while AJ Allmendinger was mired in the top 30.

Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Herbst was leading by four-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Allgaier followed by van Gisbergen, Custer and Creed while Kligerman, Bilicki, Sammy Smith, Truex and Burton continued to follow suit in the top 10. Behind, Austin Hill trailed in 11th place ahead of Parker Retzlaff, Anthony Alfredo, Josh Williams and Jeremy Clements while Sage Karam, Ryan Sieg, Jesse Love, Chandler Smith and Sam Mayer trailed in the top 20, with AJ Allmendinger and Brandon Jones occupying 21st and 24th, respectively.

Five laps later and as Logan Bearden was trying to rally from getting sideways off the course entering Turn 12, Herbst continued to lead by half a second over van Gisbergen while Allgaier dropped to third place. Behind, Custer and Creed continued to run in the top five while Kligerman was trying to fend off Bilicki for sixth place and with Sammy Smith, Truex and Hill racing in the top 10.

Another lap later, van Gisbergen, who got to Herbst’s rear bumper through the frontstretch, pulled a crossover move on Herbst through three turns to move into the lead. Van Gisbergen would maintain the lead for the following lap while Allgaier was trying to find a way to overtake Herbst for the runner-up spot.

Just past the Lap 20 mark, van Gisbergen stretched his advantage to more than a second and a half over Allgaier while Herbst, Custer, Creed, Kligerman and Bilicki continued to follow suit in the top seven and by within less than five seconds. Behind, Sammy Smith trailed by more than seven seconds in eighth place and ahead of Truex and Hill while Retzlaff, Karam, Chandler Smith, Mayer and Alfredo occupied the top 15.

Then on Lap 22, Custer went for a spin entering the first turn after he locked the brakes and got loose while trying to avoid hitting teammate Herbst. Amid Custer’s issues, the race remained under green flag conditions as Custer proceeded despite dropping to eighth place. Another lap later, van Gisbergen surrendered the lead to pit his No. 97 Quad Lock Chevrolet Camaro under green. This enabled Allgaier to cycle into the lead over Herbst and Creed while Bilicki and Kligerman trailed in the top five and within less than four seconds.

When the first stage period concluded on Lap 25, Allgaier, who navigated past a spinning Retzlaff in Turn 12, captured his ninth Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Herbst settled in second followed Creed, Bilicki and Kligerman while Sammy Smith, Custer, Truex, Hill and Sage Karam were scored in the top 10.

Under the stage break, the field led by Allgaier pitted for a unique, competitive pit sequence for this event, where the pit stops were to last a minimum of 63 seconds from the pit road entrance to exit. Amid the pit sequence, all competitors could either gain or lose positions on pit road, with the lineup for the next stage being determined by the order of exit from pit road. Following the pit stops, Allgaier retained the lead after he exited pit road first followed by Creed, Bilicki, Custer, Truex, Herbst, Chandler Smith, Hill, Sage Karam and Jesse Love.

The second stage period started on Lap 29 as Allgaier and van Gisbergen occupied the front row. At the start, van Gisbergen struggled to launch and he was being pinned in a three-wide Joe Gibbs Racing sandwich in between Creed and Bilicki while Allgaier launched ahead through the frontstretch. As Allgaier led Creed through the first three turns, van Gisbergen made contact with Custer, which stalled their momentum as Bilicki and Ryan Truex overtook them to move up to third and fourth. As the field navigated through the next turns amid two tight lanes, Chandler Smith then passed van Gisbergen to claim sixth place. Amid the battles over the next sets of turns, Allgaier retained the lead by eight-tenths of a second by the Lap 30 mark.

By Lap 35, Allgaier was out in front by more than a second over Creed and more than three seconds over Bilicki as van Gisbergen and Custer trailed in the top five ahead of Truex. Behind, Chandler Smith trailed in seventh ahead of Herbst and Sage Karam while AJ Allmendinger was scored in 10th.

A lap later, van Gisbergen, who was racing with a damaged left-front fender amid his earlier contact with Custer, slipped off the course after he hopped the curbs in Turns 10 and 11. He then slid sideways and went off the course in Turn 12, all while battling Bilicki for third, but he managed to quickly blend back onto the racing surface as he dropped to seventh place.

At the Lap 40 mark, Allgaier extended his advantage by more than over Creed as Bilicki, Custer and Chandler Smith occupied the top five. Meanwhile, van Gisbergen was mired back in sixth while Herbst, Truex, Karam and Allmendinger were in the top 10.

Then on the final lap of the second stage period, Lap 49, the caution flew after Matt DiBenedetto stalled his RSS Racing entry on the course. DiBenedetto’s stalled incident was enough for the second stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 50 to conclude under caution as Allgaier proceeded to capture his 10th Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season and sweep both stages of the event. Creed settled in second followed by Bilicki, Custer and van Gisbergen while Chandler Smith, Herbst, Karam, Mayer and Ed Jones were scored in the top 10.

During the stage break, the field led by Allgaier returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Allgaier retained lead after exiting ahead of Creed, Bilicki, Chandler Smith, Truex, Herbst, Karam, Ed Jones, Mayer and van Gisbergen.

With 20 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Allgaier and Creed occupied the front row. At the start and as the field fanned out through the frontstretch, Allgaier and Creed dueled for the lead entering the first turn. Then as Bilicki was sent for a spin while three competitors led by Herbst missed the first turn, Creed muscled his No. 18 Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Toyota Supra ahead of Allgaier to move into the lead. Despite receiving numerous bumps into the rear by Allgaier for a series of turns, Creed retained the top spot when he led Allgaier back to the frontstretch.

A lap later, however, Allgaier and Creed dueled through the frontstretch. Both competitors then proceed to hit and rub fenders against one another past the first three turns, with Allgaier reassuming the lead prior to entering Turn 4. Amid their contact, Chandler Smith tried to close in from third place while Truex and van Gisbergen were in the top five. Meanwhile, Jesse Love pitted with a crumbled hood after he T-boned into the rear of Mayer prior to the latest restart period.

With 15 laps remaining, Allgaier was leading ahead of a side-by-side battle between Creed and van Gisbergen for second place while Mayer and Chandler Smith followed suit in the top five. Behind, Truex was in sixth ahead of Sammy Smith, Herbst, Ed Jones and Kligerman while Williams, Allmendinger, Weatherman, Retzlaff and Hill were in the top 15. With Allgaier maintaining a reasonable advantage of three seconds during the following lap, van Gisbergen bumped, rubbed and overtook Creed for the runner-up spot before Mayer seized third place from Creed during the next lap.

Following another late caution period with 13 laps remaining after Hailie Deegan lost a right front tire in Turn 9, the race restarted under green with nine laps remaining as Allgaier and van Gisbergen occupied the front row for a second time. At the start, Allgaier muscled his No. 7 Brandt Chevrolet Camaro ahead of a four-wide battle for second place entering the first turn. With the field tightly navigating through the first three turns, Allgaier maintained the top spot over Creed, who moved back into second place, as van Gisbergen, Mayer and Sammy Smith followed suit in the top five.

As Chandler Smith, who was running sixth, pulled his car off the course in Turn 12 with a damaged front nose, the caution quickly returned during the following lap for a multi-car wreck that ensued in Turn 12 when Brennan Poole and Blaine Perkins got turned sideways separately, with the latter getting spun into the path of Bilicki and Brandon Jones as Jones went head-on into the tire barriers while Andre Castro, Ryan Ellis, Kyle Sieg and Herbst were also involved. By then, Creed was assessed a drive-through penalty through pit road due to being penalized for a restart violation.

During the next restart period with four laps remaining, Allgaier fended off van Gisbergen and teammate Sammy Smith through the frontstretch to retain the lead and through the first three turns. With the field behind navigating through the turns, the battle for the lead ignited as van Gisbergen attempted to make a move beneath Allgaier entering Turn 4. Despite sliding sideways through the next two turns, van Gisbergen managed to keep his car pointing straight while also keeping Allgaier next to him as he avoided spinning Allgaier through the turns. Then as Allgaier also got loose in between Turns 5 and 6, van Gisbergen seized an opportunity to move into the lead. As Allgaier was getting pressured by teammate Mayer for the runner-up spot, van Gisbergen retained the lead through the frontstretch and with three laps remaining.

Then with two laps remaining, Mayer’s strong rally back to the front evaporated after he scrubbed the wall entering the frontstretch, which cut his left-rear tire as Mayer had to keep his No. 1 RTIC Outdoors Chevrolet Camaro running straight while going off the course. Amid Mayer’s incident, the race remained under green flag conditions as Allgaier was slowly closing in on van Gisbergen for the lead through each set of turns.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, van Gisbergen remained as the leader by four-tenths of a second over Allgaier while third-place Sammy Smith trailed by two seconds. As van Gisbergen retained the lead through the first three turns before he made his way to Turn 4, he started to extend his advantage by more than a second as Allgaier was losing ground. With Allgaier unable to close the deficit for the final nine sets of corners, van Gisbergen was able to keep his car running straight on the course and cycle back to the frontstretch victorious as he claimed his first checkered flag of the season and of his career.

With the victory, van Gisbergen, who drifted his race-winning car through the turns while performing his victory burnouts and kicked a rugby ball into the frontstretch’s crowd, became the 178th competitor overall to win in the Xfinity Series as he joined rookie rival Jesse Love as first-time Xfinity race winners of the 2024 season. He also became the seventh foreign-born competitor to win in the Xfinity level and the first since Daniel Suarez made the last accomplishment at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November 2016. As an added bonus, van Gisbergen notched the first victory of the season for Kaulig Racing.

“Firstly, I’m very sorry to Sam Mayer and the No. 1 team for [hitting them in the] first corner,” van Gisbergen said on FS1. “I just mucked up there and just clipped him. He got back well, but year, Quad Lock Chevy. Thanks Kaulig Racing, Trackhouse [Racing] guys. What a day. It was really cool. Had some great racing. I need to get better at my restarts and learn how to position, but man, that was so much fun. Really cool racing. I love these cars. They’re great.”

Justin Allgaier, who led a race-high 46 laps, settled in the runner-up spot for a second consecutive season in Portland while teammate Sammy Smith, AJ Allmendinger and Ed Jones finished in the top five.

Cole Custer, the winner of last year’s Xfinity event at Portland, rallied for sixth place while Josh Williams, Parker Kligerman, Parker Retzlaff and Riley Herbst finished in the top 10.

Notably, Josh Bilicki piloted the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Supra to a 12th-place result behind Austin Hill, Sheldon Creed rallied for 13th, Jesse Love ended up 19th, Ryan Truex dropped to 27th after he spun on the final lap and Sam Mayer plummeted to 28th.

There were nine lead changes for four different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 14 laps. In addition, 27 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

Following the 13th event of the 2024 Xfinity Series season, Cole Custer leads the regular-season standings by 18 points over both Austin Hill and Chandler Smith, with Justin Allgaier trailing by 23 points and rookie Jesse Love trailing by 73 points.

Results.

1. Shane van Gisbergen, 12 laps led

2. Justin Allgaier, 45 laps led, Stages 1 & 2 winner

3. Sammy Smith

4. AJ Allmendinger

5. Ed Jones

6. Cole Custer

7. Josh Williams

8. Parker Kligerman

9. Parker Retzlaff

10. Riley Herbst, 15 laps led

11. Austin Hill

12. Josh Bilicki

13. Sheldon Creed, two laps led

14. Ryan Sieg

15. Austin Green

16. Brennan Poole

17. Ryan Ellis

18. Kyle Sieg

19. Jesse Love

20. Blaine Perkins

21. Nathan Byrd

22. Garrett Smithley

23. Andre Castro

24. Patrick Gallagher

25. Kyle Weatherman

26. Leland Honeyman

27. Ryan Truex

28. Sam Mayer, one lap down

29. Logan Bearden, one lap down

30. Jeremy Clements, two laps down

31. Matt DiBenedetto, two laps down

32. Anthony Alfredo, three laps down

33. Hailie Deegan, four laps down

34. Sage Karam, six laps down

35. Chandler Smith – OUT, Accident

36. Brandon Jones – OUT, Accident

37. Jeb Burton, 14 laps down

38. Preston Pardus – OUT, Track Bar

Next on the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the series’ second annual event at Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, California, for the Zip Buy Now, Pay Later 250. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, June 8, and air at 8 p.m. ET on FS1.

June 1, 2024