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  • Allgaier grabs thrilling Xfinity victory at Martinsville in overtime, secures Championship 4 berth

    Allgaier grabs thrilling Xfinity victory at Martinsville in overtime, secures Championship 4 berth

    In a matter of one turn during an overtime shootout, Justin Allgaier went from being scored outside of the cutline to make the Championship 4 round to racing his way into the round and receiving an opportunity to contend for this year’s NASCAR Xfinity Series championship after notching a thrilling victory in the Dead On Tools 250 at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday, October 28.

    The 37-year-old Allgaier from Riverton, Illinois, led twice for 21 of 256 over-scheduled laps in an event where he started on the front row and quickly took care of business in the early stages by winning the first stage period amid a strategic pit call to remain on the track on old tires. After pitting for fresh tires prior to the second stage, Allgaier spent the stage mired outside the top 10 and battling amongst his fellow Xfinity Series rivals to remain in contention of making the cutline.

    Then amid chaos after chaos followed by a multitude of caution periods and restarts, including an overtime shootout, Allgaier, who restarted fifth in overtime, managed to muscle his way up to third place on the final lap. He then benefitted from a final lap altercation involving Richard Childress Racing’s Playoff contenders Sheldon Creed and Austin Hill to overtake both entering the final turn before edging Creed in a photo finish to win for the fourth time in this year’s Xfinity Series season and race his way into the Championship 4, where he will be one of four competitors who will battle for this year’s championship at next weekend’s finale at Phoenix Raceway.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, October 27, Playoff contender and rookie Sammy Smith notched his first Xfinity pole position of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 94.515 mph in 23.035 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff contender Justin Allgaier, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 94.458 mph in 20.047 seconds.

    Prior to the event, the following names that included Jeb Burton, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chris Hacker, Devin Jones and Brett Moffitt 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, Sammy Smith rocketed his No. 18 Pringles Toyota Supra ahead of the field prior to entering Turn 1 as he maintained the lead over Allgaier and Playoff contender Cole Custer. With the field running in two-wide formation and stacked through the backstretch, Smith proceeded to lead the first lap ahead of both Allgaier and Custer while Riley Herbst and Playoff contender John Hunter Nemechek pursued in the top five.

    During the next three laps, Sammy Smith stretched his advantage to more than a second over Allgaier, who was being pressured by Custer for the runner-up spot while Nemechek and Herbst remained dead even for fourth place in front of Playoff contender Chandler Smith, Brandon Jones and Richard Childress Racing’s Playoff contenders Sheldon Creed and Austin Hill. Amid the early on-track battles, the first caution of the event flew on the fourth lap after Joe Graf Jr. spun with a flat left-rear tire in Turn 2.

    When the race restarted on Lap 10, Sammy Smith and Allgaier dueled for the lead until Smith muscled away from Allgaier entering the backstretch. Behind, Custer was in third ahead of Nemechek while Herbst, Creed, Chandler Smith and Austin Hill battled for fifth. Amid the battles, Sammy Smith retained the lead by six-tenths of a second over Allgaier and a second over Nemechek by the Lap 15 mark.

    At the Lap 20 mark, Sammy Smith was leading by half a second over Allgaier followed by Nemechek, Custer and Herbst while Creed, Hill, Myatt Snider, rookie Chandler Smith and Brandon Jones were in the top 10. With Daniel Hemric, Ryan Sieg, Josh Berry, rookie Parker Retzlaff and Parker Kligerman running in the top 15, Playoff contender Sam Mayer, who is already guaranteed a spot into this year’s Championship 4 by winning last weekend’s event at Homestead-Miami Speedway, was in 18th.

    Fifteen laps later, Sammy Smith continued to lead by seven-tenths of a second over Allgaier while Nemechek, Custer and Herbst continued to run in the top five. Behind, Creed, Snider, Hill, Chandler Smith and Hemric were scored in the top 10 while Mayer was mired in 19th.

    Another six laps later, the second caution flag of the event flew due to an incident involving Kyle Sieg in Turn 2. During the caution period, a majority of the lead lap field led by the leader Sammy Smith pitted while the rest, including Allgaier, Nemechek, Custer, Hill, Josh Bilicki, Anthony Alfredo, Rajah Caruth, Josh Williams and Brennan Poole remained on the track.

    During the following restart on Lap 49, Allgaier briefly dueled with Nemechek through the first two turns before muscling his No. 7 Hellmann’s Chevrolet Camaro ahead from the inside lane to gain the advantage with the top spot. Shortly after, Custer battled and overtook Nemechek for the runner-up spot as Hill tried to join the battle amid a series of on-track battles ensuing behind the front-runners.

    When the first stage period concluded on Lap 60, Allgaier, who came into the event three points below the top-four cutline to make this year’s Championship 4 round, captured his 13th Xfinity stage victory of the 2023 season. Custer followed suit in second along with Nemechek, Hill and Sammy Smith while Alfredo, Herbst, Myatt Snider, Chandler Smith and Josh Bilicki were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contender Sheldon Creed ended up 11th while Mayer was mired back within the top 30.

    Under the stage break, some led by Allgaier, including those who remained on the track during the previous caution period, pitted while the rest led by Sammy Smith remained on the track.

    The second stage period started on Lap 68 as teammates Sammy Smith and Myatt Snider occupied the front row. At the start, Smith and Snider dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Smith managed to fend off Snider through the backstretch to retain the top spot. Behind, Chandler Smith moved up to third ahead of Herbst and Berry while Creed was in sixth ahead of Hemric, Brandon Jones, Kaz Grala and Ryan Sieg. The caution, however, would return on Lap 72 after Custer, who was mired within the middle of the pack after pitting during the stage break, made contact with Layne Riggs entering Turns 1 and 2 as Riggs spun while Mayer slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting Riggs.

    When the race restarted on Lap 79, Sammy Smith fended off Chandler Smith entering Turn 1 to retain the lead while continuing to run on the inside lane. Shortly after, Snider gave Chandler Smith a light bump to move him out of the groove and overtake him for the runner-up spot while both Berry and Herbst tried to move Chandler Smith out of the groove to overtake him for third and fourth. In the midst of the bumping and on-track contact for positions, Creed pursued closely in sixth while Sammy Smith maintained the lead over teammate Snider.

    On Lap 87, the caution flew after Ryan Sieg, who was battling Herbst for sixth place, got loose underneath Herbst, made contact against Herbst’s Ford and spun towards the middle of the track in Turn 2, with the field managing to fan out and dodge Sieg’s No. 39 Ford as the Georgian continued without sustaining any significant damage to his entry. During the caution period, select names that included Mayer, Kligerman and Alfredo pitted while the rest led by Sammy Smith remained on the track.

    The ensuing restart on Lap 94 featured Sammy Smith rocketing away from the inside lane to retain the lead while Berry retained second place ahead of Snider, Chandler Smith, Creed and Herbst. Not long after, a three-wide battle ensued between Chandler Smith, Snider and Creed while Brandon Jones carved his way up to sixth followed by Hemric, Herbst, Grala and Retzlaff. Amid the contact and physical battles ensuing behind, Sammy Smith extended his advantage by nearly a second over Berry as the event surpassed the Lap 100 mark.

    At the Lap 110 mark, Sammy Smith was leading by more than a second over Berry and more than two seconds over third-place Snider while Creed, Chandler Smith, Grala, Brandon Jones, Retzlaff, Custer and Jeremy Clements were running in the top 10. Behind, Playoff contenders Allgaier, Nemechek, Mayer and Hill were scored in 14th through 17th, respectively.

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 120, Sammy Smith, who navigated his way through lapped traffic and came into the event 49 points below the Championship 4 cutline, captured his second Xfinity stage victory of the 2023 season. Berry trailed in the runner-up spot followed by Snider, Creed and Grala while Retzlaff, Chandler Smith, Custer, Brandon Jones and Herbst were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Allgaier, Mayer, Nemechek and Hill were scored in 11th, 14th, 15th and 17th, respectively, as Nemechek managed to clinch his spot into this year’s Championship 4 round.

    During the stage break, nearly the entire field led by Sammy Smith pitted for service while Layne Riggs and Ryan Sieg remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Mayer exited pit road first after only electing fuel to his entry while Sammy Smith followed suit with four fresh tires along with Berry, Snider, Creed, Custer and Herbst.

    With 121 laps remaining, the final stage period started as Riggs and Ryan Sieg occupied the front row. At the start, Riggs gained a strong start on the inside lane to muscle away from the field with the lead while Mayer quickly made his way into the runner-up spot along with a hard-charging Sammy Smith while Ryan Sieg fell back to fourth in front of Snider. Behind, Creed battled with Custer and Allgaier for seventh as Sammy Smith overtook Mayer for the runner-up spot before igniting his charge on Riggs for the lead.

    Then with 116 laps remaining, Sammy Smith reassumed the lead after overtaking Riggs for the top spot. Snider and Berry would follow suit not long after as Riggs managed to remain in fourth in front of Mayer.

    Down to the final 100 laps of the event, Sammy Smith was leading by more than three seconds over Berry and by four seconds over teammate Snider while Custer muscled his No. 00 Haas Ford Mustang into fourth place ahead of Riggs. Mayer, Creed, Herbst, Grala and Allgaier were in the top 10 while Retzlaff, Nemechek, Brandon Jones, Chandler Smith and Hill were back in the top 15.

    Four laps later, the caution flew after Riggs, who was running fifth, got hit by Mayer as Riggs spun for a second time in Turn 2. During the caution period, select names that included Playoff contenders Allgaier and Hill pitted while the rest led by Sammy Smith remained on the track.

    With the race restarting with 90 laps remaining, Sammy Smith fended off teammate Snider and Berry to retain the lead as the field behind fanned out and jostled for late positions. As Sammy Smith retained the lead and started to pull away from his competition, the caution returned a few laps later after Akinori Ogata spun in Turn 2. During the caution period, select names that included Snider, Creed and Chandler Smith pitted while the rest led by Sammy Smith remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Chandler Smith was penalized for having too many men over the pit wall.

    During the following restart with 81 laps remaining, Sammy Smith muscled away from Berry to retain the lead through the first two turns as Berry managed to remain in front of Custer and maintain the runner-up spot. With Herbst and Mayer battling for fourth place in front of Nemechek, Grala and Jones, Sammy Smith checked out with an advantage of more than a second with 75 laps remaining. Shortly after, the caution flew due to Kligerman losing a right-front tire and falling off the pace through the frontstretch. During the caution period, a majority of the field led by Sammy Smith pitted while the rest led by Nemechek remained on the track.

    With the race restarting with 68 laps remaining, Nemechek retained the lead ahead of the field while Hill made his way into the runner-up spot. As Allgaier was trying to carve his way into the top five, the bumping within the pack continued to ignite amongst the Playoff contenders and front-runners through every turn and straightaway. Then three laps later, more on-track trouble ignited after Snider fell off the pace and stacked up the field exiting the backstretch, which resulted with Connor Mosack, who was hit by teammate Grala and was scraping the inside wall, spinning and hitting Grala as Clements and Jeb Burton were also involved by hitting Mosack. In the midst of the carnage, Playoff contender Custer sustained minimal front-nose damage to his No. 00 Haas Ford, but he continued to remain on the track in 12th place. Not long after, Playoff contender Chandler Smith retired due to a mechanical issue to his No. 16 Quick Tie Products Chevrolet Camaro, which took him out of the equation of making this year’s Championship 4 round.

    In the ensuing restart with 54 laps remaining, Nemechek and Hill dueled for the lead for a full lap, with Hill leading the next lap, and they continued to duel for the lead during the next lap as he led the respective lap before he muscled his No. 21 Global Industrial Chevrolet Camaro ahead of Nemechek’s No. 20 Mobil 1 Toyota Supra and clear with the lead from the outside lane. The caution, however, quickly returned during the following lap after Akinori Ogata spun for a second time of the day, this time in Turn 4.

    During the following restart with 44 laps remaining, Nemechek challenged Hill for the lead from the outside lane and he managed to pull ahead through the frontstretch to lead the following lap just before the caution flew against after JJ Yeley and Ryan Ellis wrecked in the frontstretch.

    With the race restarting with 36 laps remaining, Nemechek and Hill dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Nemechek used the outside lane to retain the lead from Hill. With Nemechek leading Hill, Allgaier was trying to fend off Creed and Sammy Smith for third place, with Creed and Smith placed in “must-win” scenarios to advance into the Championship 4 round, before the latter two managed to overtake the veteran Allgaier for third and fourth. As the race progressed, the caution would return with 31 laps remaining after Kaz Grala spun in Turn 2.

    With the race restarting with 25 laps remaining, Nemechek retained the lead as he restarted from the inside lane while Hill managed to fend off teammate Creed to retain the runner-up spot. This allowed Sammy Smith to challenge Creed for third place followed by Allgaier and Custer as Smith made his way into third place.

    With less than 20 laps remaining, Nemechek was leading by eight-tenths of a second over Hill while third-place Sammy Smith trailed by more than a second. Behind, Creed, Allgaier and Custer engaged in a fierce battle for fourth place and for the final spots to the Championship 4 round while Herbst, Jeb Burton, Snider and Riggs were scored in the top 10. Meanwhile, Mayer was mired in 16th as the battle between Creed, Custer and Allgaier ensued while Nemechek extended his advantage to more than a second over Hill with 15 laps remaining.

    Following another caution period after Alfredo spun in Turn 4 with 14 laps remaining, the race restarted under green with eight laps remaining. At the start, Sammy Smith tried to make a move beneath teammate Nemechek entering Turn 1, but Nemechek blocked his teammate and retained the lead over Hill through the first two turns. Behind, Sammy Smith lost third place to Creed after he hopped the curb entering Turn 1, which allowed Allgaier to challenge him to fourth place. Back at the front, however, Hill gave Nemechek a push to the bumper entering Turn 3, which moved Nemechek up the track as Hill and Creed moved into first and second through the frontstretch. Then as Nemechek, Allgaier, Sammy Smith, Herbst and Custer battled for third behind the two Richard Childress Racing competitors during the following lap, the caution returned for six laps remaining as a multi-car wreck ignited entering the backstretch when Jeb Burton and Snider made contact and resulted with Snider hitting Riggs, spinning back across the track and collecting Grala, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Mayer, Clements, Josh Williams, CJ McLaughlin, Rajah Caruth, Chad Finchum, Jones and Bilicki. The carnage was enough for the event to be placed in a red flag period for 28 minutes.

    Once the red flag was lifted and the field returned under a cautious pace, the event was sent into overtime as the on-track safety workers continued to clean the racing surface amid the carnage and leaked fluid. Amid an extensive caution period, the race restarted in overtime as teammates Hill and Creed occupied the front row in front of Nemechek, Allgaier, Sammy Smith and Custer. At the start, Nemechek got into the rear of Hill, which caused Nemechek to go way below the inside lane as Hill tried to fend off teammate Creed for the lead entering Turn 1. Hill and Creed then made contact entering the backstretch, which allowed Hill to muscle ahead of his teammate as Allgaier trailed in third place. By then, Nemechek moved up to fourth while Sammy Smith and Custer battled for fifth.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Hill, who was bumped by teammate Creed entering Turns 3 and 4, remained as the leader ahead of Creed and Allgaier, who scrubbed the frontstretch’s outside wall after making contact with Nemechek. Then in Turn 1, Creed ran into the rear of teammate Hill, which caused Hill to go wide as Creed made his move beneath Hill for the lead. After dueling with Hill through the backstretch, where Hill rammed into the side of Creed, Creed muscled his No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Camaro ahead from Hill and assumed the lead before he went up the track in Turn 3, locked up the front tires and was hit in the rear by Hill. Amid the chaos, Allgaier made his move beneath both as Hill was then turned by Nemechek and triggered a multi-car wreck. With the wreck ensuing behind, Allgaier and Creed rubbed fenders approaching the finish line, with Allgaier edging Creed by 0.032 seconds to grab the victory and race his way into the Championship 4 round.

    With the victory, Allgaier achieved his fourth NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of the 2023 season, his first at Martinsville, his first since winning the Playoff opener at Bristol Motor Speedway in September and the 23rd of his career. The 2023 season marks Allgaier’s sixth season reaching the Championship 4 round as he will officially contend for his first elusive Xfinity Series championship in his 13th full-time campaign in the series, eighth while driving for JR Motorsports.

    “[Spotter] Eddie D’Hondt, [crew chief] Jim Pohlman, both of those guys kept telling me it’s not over,” Allgaier said on USA Network. “Thank God is so good. You fans that came here today. Coming to the start/finish line, I don’t think I saw a single person sitting down. I just was hanging on and trying to go as fast as I can. I hope everybody that crashed on the frontstraightaway is alright. Man, this Hellmann’s car has been lights out all year. It’s been as fast as Xfinity 10G, for sure. I cannot say enough about the Hendrick Engine shop, everybody at Chevrolet, all of our partners. We got a shot at going for the championship in Phoenix. This is an emotional one. I’ve wanted to win at Martinsville for a long time and man, I’ve been on the other end of that too many times. To be able to come out of here tonight with the win and to have a shot at the championship next week, Jim Pohlman, what an incredible crew chief. He’s done an amazing job. Pit crew was lights out. Heck, I don’t even know who to thank right now. This is incredible.”

    Amid the overtime shootout and the final lap accident, Cole Custer, who ended up 19th backwards and with a wrecked race car, managed to claim the fourth and final spot into the Championship 4 berth by seven points as he will join Allgaier, John Hunter Nemechek and Sam Mayer as the four competitors who will contend for this year’s Xfinity Series championship.

    “It’s just Martinsville, everybody’s desperate,” Custer, who made the Championship 4 for the third time in his career, said in the infield care center. “It’s just one of those deals. I just can’t all my guys enough. They worked so hard and just gotten better and better and better throughout the year. I’m so glad this is over. It’s just amazing to be in the Final Four and have a shot at [the championship]. I think we’ll have something for [the competition] at Phoenix.”

    Meanwhile, Austin Hill, this year’s regular-season champion who was unable to limp his wrecked race car across the finish line, ended up 21st with a DNF and was the first competitor scored out of the Playoffs. Teammate Sheldon Creed and Sammy Smith along with Chandler Smith were also eliminated from the Playoffs after all three came into Martinsville placed in “must-win” situations to transfer. The incident did very little to ease Hill’s frustration over missing an opportunity of contending for the title and towards his Richard Childress Racing teammate over the late contact.

    “It wasn’t cool of me to do what I did into [Turn] 1 like driving [Creed] up the racetrack, but I still kind of stayed off of him,” Hill said. “[Creed] just did not give me a chance getting into [Turn] 3 and he didn’t give me a chance getting into [Turn] 1 [on the final lap]. Just shoved me up the racetrack. I know he’s in a “must-win” situation, but still, man, uncalled for that to happen and then, neither of the [Richard Childress Racing] guys make it to the Final Four. It’s just frustrating. Pretty excited for [Creed] to go to his next adventure over at [Joe Gibbs Racing]. I don’t have to put up with him no more…Just ridiculous.”

    “I don’t know if it’s fair,” Creed said. “I don’t like racing that way and that seems to be the way that this race always plays out. I thought we had it there coming to the checkered. Not proud of racing like that. A shot at the Championship Four. I didn’t blast [Hill]. He’s still with me. I drug [raced] right here to keep him next to me and then, we raced pretty hard [in Turn 3] and I don’t know who gets into him. I feel like I played pretty fair for the situation and he’s gonna be mad, but it’s for a Championship 4 spot and I wanna fight for my guys all the way to the end.”

    On the track, Sammy Smith ended up third followed by Herbst and Josh Berry while Hemric, Parker Retzlaff, Alfredo, Jeb Burton and Kligerman finished in the top 10.

    There were 13 lead changes for eight different leaders. The race featured 15 cautions for 101 laps. In addition, 20 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Results.

    1. Justin Allgaier, 21 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    2. Sheldon Creed, one lap led

    3. Sammy Smith, 147 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    4. Riley Herbst

    5. Josh Berry

    6. Daniel Hemric

    7. Parker Retzlaff

    8. Anthony Alfredo

    9. Jeb Burton

    10. Parker Kligerman

    11. Layne Riggs, nine laps led

    12. Rajah Caruth

    13. CJ McLaughlin

    14. Josh Williams

    15. Myatt Snider, one lap led

    16. Brandon Jones

    17. Jeremy Clements

    18. John Hunter Nemechek, 54 laps led

    19. Cole Custer, one lap led

    20. Brett Moffitt

    21. Austin Hill – OUT, Accident, 22 laps led

    22. Blaine Perkins – OUT, Accident

    23. Josh Bilicki – OUT, Accident

    24. Ryan Ellis – OUT, Transmission

    25. Sam Mayer – OUT, Accident

    26. Jeffrey Earnhardt – OUT, Accident

    27. Chad Finchum – OUT, Accident

    28. Kaz Grala – OUT, Accident

    29. Joe Graf Jr., 16 laps down

    30. Chris Hacker – OUT, Radiator

    31. Connor Mosack – OUT, Radiator

    32. Brennan Poole – OUT, Engine

    33. Akinori Ogata – OUT, Oil line

    34. JJ Yeley – OUT, Accident

    35. Ryan Sieg – OUT, Steering

    36. Chandler Smith – OUT, Accident

    37. Devin Jones – OUT, Engine

    38. Kyle Sieg – OUT, Accident

    *Bold indicates Playoff competitors

    Playoff standings

    1. Sam Mayer – Advanced

    2. Justin Allgaier – Advanced

    3. John Hunter Nemechek – Advanced

    4. Cole Custer – Advanced

    5. Austin Hill – Eliminated

    6. Sammy Smith – Eliminated

    7. Sheldon Creed – Eliminated

    8. Chandler Smith – Eliminated

    The 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series season is set to conclude next Saturday, November 4, at Phoenix Raceway, where a champion will be crowned. The finale’s broadcast is slated to occur at 7 p.m. ET on USA Network.

  • Mayer clinches Championship 4 berth with late Xfinity victory at Homestead

    Mayer clinches Championship 4 berth with late Xfinity victory at Homestead

    Two weeks after keeping his championship hopes alive by earning a walk-off victory in the Playoff’s Round of 8 finale at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course, Sam Mayer will officially race for his first NASCAR Xfinity Series championship after achieving a late victory in the Contender Boats 250 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday, October 21.

    The 20-year-old Mayer from Franklin, Wisconsin, led three times for 46 of 200-scheduled laps in an event where he started 13th and made his presence at the front known at the start of the second stage period while scoring a handful of stage points during the first two stage periods. Then after assuming the lead with 49 laps remaining while pole-sitter and Playoff rival Cole Custer pitted under green due to a flat tire, Mayer, who pitted with under 37 laps remaining for his final set of tires, withstood two late restarts, including the final one with 23 laps remaining, to fend off a hard-charging Riley Herbst and claim his fourth Xfinity Series victory of the 2023 season. Above all, Mayer punched his ticket into this year’s Championship 4 round as he will contend for the 2023 Xfinity Series title at Phoenix Raceway in two weeks’ time.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, October 20, Playoff contender Cole Custer secured the pole position after posting a pole-winning lap at 165.604 mph in 32.608 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff contender John Hunter Nemechek, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 164.704 mph in 32.786 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Patrick Emerling and Ryan Ellis 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, Custer used the outside lane to rocket away from Nemechek and retain the lead through the first two turns. With the field fanning out and jostling for early spots through the backstretch, Custer proceeded to lead the first lap while Nemechek was overtaken by Justin Allgaier and Austin Hill for second and third place. Josh Berry would follow suit during the following along with rookie Sammy Smith while Custer was leading by half a second.

    Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Custer retained the lead by half a second over Allgaier followed by Nemechek, Hill, and Berry while Sammy Smith, Sam Mayer, Brett Moffitt, Riley Herbst and Ryan Sieg were in the top 10. Behind, rookie Chandler Smith and Sheldon Creed were in the top 15 along with Dale Earnhardt Jr. as Kaz Grala and Daniel Hemric were a part of the battle.

    Ten laps later, Custer stretched his advantage to a second over Nemechek followed by Allgaier, Hill and Sammy Smith while Mayer, Herbst, Berry, Moffitt and Creed occupied the top 10 on the track. Behind, Chandler Smith was in 13th ahead of Hemric and Earnhardt Jr. while Ryan Sieg and Grala were in the top 12. In addition, Ryan Newman was running in the top 20.

    At the Lap 35 mark, Custer continued to lead by more than a second over Nemechek as Allgaier, Mayer and Creed were in the top five. Behind, Herbst occupied sixth place ahead of Moffitt, Hill, Grala and Sammy Smith while Chandler Smith, Parker Kligerman, Daniel Hemric, Earnhardt Jr. and Berry were in the top 15.

    When the first stage period concluded on Lap 45, Custer, who came into the event 15 points above the top-four cutline to transfer into the Playoff’s Championship 4 round, captured his eighth Xfinity stage victory of the 2023 season. Mayer settled in second ahead of Nemechek, Creed and Moffitt while Allgaier, Herbst, Hill, Grala and Hemric were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Chandler Smith and Sammy Smith were mired in 11th and 14th, respectively.

    Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Custer pitted. Following the pit stops, Custer retained the lead after exiting pit road ahead of Mayer, Creed, Nemechek, Allgaier and Herbst. Amid the pit stops, Brandon Jones was penalized for his crew members’ going over the wall too soon. Josh Williams was also penalized for pit interference.

    The second stage period started on Lap 52 as Custer and Mayer occupied the front row. At the start, Custer and Mayer dueled for the lead for nearly a lap. Mayer would lead the following lap by a hair until Custer fought back and reassumed the top spot by Lap 54. Another few laps later, Allgaier made his way into the runner-up spot over teammate Mayer as Nemechek and Hill trailed in the top five.

    At the Lap 60 mark, Custer was leading by six-tenths of a second over Allgaier followed by Mayer, Nemechek and Hill while Herbst, Kligerman, Berry, Creed and Chandler Smith were racing in the top 10.

    Seven laps later, the caution flew after Dawson Cram wrecked in Turn 1 and lost his left-rear wheel in the process. During the caution period, the front-runners led by Custer remained on the track while select names that included Jeremy Clements, Derek Kraus, Brennan Poole and Kyle Sieg pitted for fresh tires.

    When the race restarted on Lap 72, Custer and Nemechek briefly dueled for the lead until Nemechek muscled ahead with the lead from the inside lane. With Nemechek driving away from the field, Mayer and Custer battled for the runner-up spot followed by Allgaier and Kligerman while Hill and Herbst followed suit along with a hard-charging Kraus.

    Then on Lap 78, Kraus, who pitted during the previous caution period, assumed the lead from Nemechek. Kraus would proceed to lead just past the Lap 80 by more than a second over Nemechek as Custer, Mayer and Allgaier were scored in the top five. By then, Kyle Sieg was in sixth while Hill, Kligerman, Herbst and Hemric were in the top 10. By then, Chandler Smith, Sammy Smith and Creed were in 11th, 12th and 14th while Earnhardt Jr. was in 13th.

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 90, Kraus, who was making his seventh Xfinity career start, captured his first Xfinity career stage victory. Nemechek settled in second ahead of Custer, Mayer and Allgaier while Kligerman, Kyle Sieg, Herbst, Hill and Hemric were scored in the top 10. 16, 18 and 2 in 11th, 12th and 14th while Earnhardt Jr. was back in 16th.

    Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Custer returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Custer retained the lead after exiting pit road first. Amid the pit stops, Berry was penalized for speeding on pit road.

    With 104 laps remaining, the final stage started as Custer and Allgaier occupied the front row. At the start, Custer and Allgaier dueled for the lead through the first two turns and they continued to battle dead even entering the backstretch. Shortly after, the caution returned after Playoff contender Chandler Smith, who was battling for a top-10 spot on the track, was hit by teammate Kraus, who was being rubbed by Brandon Jones, before Smith bounced off of Creed and spun before he was then hit by Brett Moffitt.

    During the following restart with 97 laps remaining, Allgaier benefitted from restarting on the inside lane as he muscled away from Custer to inherit the lead. Amid the battles ensuing behind the leaders, Allgaier would lead the next eight laps before Custer reassumed the lead with 90 laps remaining.

    Then with 81 laps remaining, Allgaier, who was running third, made a pit stop under green to address a loose left-rear wheel on his No. 7 hellowater Chevrolet Camaro. By then, Custer extended his advantage to two seconds over Mayer followed by Herbst, Nemechek and Hill while Earnhardt Jr., Sammy Smith, Creed, Hemric and Kraus were running in the top 10.

    With nearly 65 laps remaining, green flag pit stops commenced as Joe Graf Jr. pitted. Richard Childress Racing’s Hill and Creed would pit under green a few laps later followed by Earnhardt Jr., Herbst, Custer, Mayer and others. As the green flag pit stops dwindled, Custer reassumed the lead with 53 laps remaining.

    Four laps later, however, Custer fell off the pace while leading through the frontstretch and pitted after the right-front tire was spotted flat on the No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang. Custer’s late misfortune moved Mayer into the lead while Hill, Nemechek, Herbst and Allgaier followed suit in the top five.

    With 37 laps remaining, the caution returned after a wheel was spotted leaning against the outside wall on pit road. The caution occurred a few laps after Allgaier had pitted for his final set of tires. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Mayer pitted for their final set of tires.

    As the race restarted with 30 laps remaining, Mayer retained the lead ahead of Hill, Nemechek and Herbst as the field fanned out and jostled for late positions. Shortly after, the caution returned after Earnhardt Jr., who was battling within the top 10, got loose entering the backstretch, slipped up the track and bumped against his JR Motorsports’ driver Berry, which sent Berry into the outside wall before Berry went up the track in Turns 3 and 4 and scraped the wall amid a flat tire to his No. 8 Tire Pros Chevrolet Camaro.

    During the following restart with 23 laps remaining, Mayer cleared Hill entering Turn 2 to retain the lead as the field behind fanned out through the backstretch. Mayer would stabilize his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over Hill as Nemechek, Herbst and Brandon Jones followed suit in the top five with 20 laps remaining.

    Down to the final five laps of the event, Mayer extended his advantage to more than a second over Nemechek while Herbst, Hill and Earnhardt Jr. were scored in the top five. Behind, Hemric was in sixth while Brandon Jones, Sammy Smith, Kligerman and Joe Graf Jr. were up in the top 10.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Mayer remained as the leader by more than two-tenths of a second over Herbst. Amid Playoff contender Creed wrecking just past the backstretch, the race remained under green flag conditions. With Herbst unable to narrow the gap, Mayer was able to navigate his No. 1 Accelerate Pros Talent Chevrolet Camaro around the Homestead circuit smoothly for a final time as he returned to the frontstretch and claimed his fourth checkered flag of this season and of his career.

    With the victory, Mayer, who achieved his first oval-circuit win in the Xfinity Series and came into the event 16 points below the top-four cutline, became the first Playoff contender to secure one of four vacant spots into this year’s Championship 4 round as he will officially contend for his first Xfinity Series championship. Mayer’s victory was also enough for the Chevrolet nameplate to secure this year’s manufacturer’s title and it was the seventh of the season for JR Motorsports.

    “That’s unreal. We won on an oval! Whoo!” Mayer exclaimed on USA Network. “I can’t believe it. These guys, the Accelerate Pros Camaro today was just so good. It’s all about putting a full race together and I’m so proud of these guys. They kicked tail on pit road. We made it happen with these [Hendrick Motorsports] engines. Stewart-Haas [Racing] had [the race won] today, that’s for sure. It’s just really cool to be able to beat an amazing organization like that. We got to turn it on a little harder going to Phoenix.”

    Herbst, who achieved his first Xfinity victory a week ago at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, settled in the runner-up spot while Nemechek, Hill and Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished in the top five. Behind, Hemric ended up sixth while Kligerman, Brandon Jones, Sammy Smith and Joe Graf Jr. finished in the top 10. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders Custer, Allgaier and Creed, all of whom led a combined 126 laps, ended up 13th, 15th and 26th, respectively.

    There were 13 lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 33 laps. In addition, 12 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Results.

    1. Sam Mayer, 46 laps led

    2. Riley Herbst

    3. John Hunter Nemechek, seven laps led

    4. Austin Hill

    5. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

    6. Daniel Hemric

    7. Parker Kligerman

    8. Brandon Jones

    9. Sammy Smith

    10. Joe Graf Jr.

    11. Derek Kraus, 21 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    12. Parker Retzlaff

    13. Cole Custer, one lap down, 114 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    14. Ryan Sieg, one lap down

    15. Justin Allgaier, one lap down, eight laps led

    16. Kyle Weatherman, one lap down

    17. Josh Williams, one lap down

    18. Jeffrey Earnhardt, one lap down

    19. Brennan Poole, one lap down

    20. Jeb Burton, one lap down

    21. Jeremy Clements, one lap down

    22. Kyle Sieg, one lap down

    23. Leland Honeyman, one lap down

    24. Ryan Ellis, one lap down

    25. Patrick Emerling, two laps down

    26. Sheldon Creed, two laps down, four laps led

    27. Mason Massey, two laps down

    28. Anthony Alfredo, three laps down

    29. Blaine Perkins, four laps down

    30. Kaz Grala, six laps down

    31. Connor Mosack – OUT, Electrical

    32. Josh Berry – OUT, Accident

    33. Mason Maggio – OUT, Electrical

    34. Chandler Smith – OUT, Engine

    35. Brett Moffitt – OUT, Accident

    36. Dawson Cram – OUT, Accident

    37. CJ McLaughlin – OUT, Carburetor

    38. Ryan Newman – OUT, Rear gear

    *Bold indicates Playoff competitors

    Playoff standings

    1. Sam Mayer – Advanced

    2. John Hunter Nemechek +44

    3. Cole Custer +3

    4. Austin Hill +3

    5. Justin Allgaier -3

    6. Sammy Smith -49

    7. Chandler Smith -54

    8. Sheldon Creed -65

    The Round of 8 in the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs is set to conclude next Saturday, October 28, at Martinsville Speedway, which will determine the Championship 4 field. The event’s broadcast is slated for 3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

  • Mayer avoids title elimination with dominant Xfinity victory at Charlotte Roval; Playoff’s Round of 8 field set

    Mayer avoids title elimination with dominant Xfinity victory at Charlotte Roval; Playoff’s Round of 8 field set

    After crashing out of his last three consecutive starts, including his latest two that nearly derailed his championship hopes, Sam Mayer capitalized after being in a “must-win” situation and earned a walk-off win into the Playoff’s Round of 8 by dominating from pole position and winning the sixth annual running of the Drive for the Cure 250 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course on Saturday, October 7.

    The 20-year-old Mayer from Franklin, Wisconsin, led four times for a race-high 50 of 67 scheduled laps in an event in which he entered 34 points below the top-eight cutline and in a “must-win” situation to transfer to the next round after crashing and not finishing his previous two events. Commencing his weekend by winning the pole position, Mayer briefly lost the lead to teammate Justin Allgaier at the event’s start before claiming it for the first time on the fifth lap. Despite surrendering the lead to pit prior to the first two stage’s conclusion and sacrificing stage points, Mayer, who restarted in the top six with 11 laps remaining, capitalized on two late caution periods to overtake Cole Custer with four laps remaining and rocket away to score his third NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of the 2023 season and be one of eight Playoff competitors to race their way into the Round of 8.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Playoff contender Sam Mayer started on pole position after posting a pole-winning lap at 101.798 mph in 82.045 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate and Playoff contender Justin Allgaier, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 101.751 mph in 82.083 seconds.

    Prior to the event, a bevy of names that included Playoff contender John Hunter Nemechek, Kyle Sieg, Ryan Sieg, Jeremy Clements, Conor Daly and Josh Williams 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 Mayer and Allgaier dueled for the lead amid two stacked lanes through the first three turns until Allgaier managed to muscle ahead from the inside lane and assume the lead through the infield road course turns. With the field navigating its way through the road course turns and back onto the oval turns, Allgaier managed to retain the lead as he proceeded to lead the first lap while Mayer, Josh Berry, Sheldon Creed and Daniel Hemric followed suit.

    Through the second to fourth lap, Allgaier stabilized his advantage to as high as half a second over a hard-charging Mayer while Berry, Creed and Hemric remained in the top five. Behind, Parker Kligerman was in sixth while Cole Custer, Austin Hill, Riley Herbst and Alex Labbe were running in the top 10.

    Through the fifth lap, Mayer, who used the frontstretch chicane to claim the lead back from Allgaier, was leading by four-tenths of a second over teammate Allgaier while Berry, Creed and Hemric were scored in the top five. Behind, Kligerman was in sixth ahead of Custer, Hill, Herbst and Alex Labbe while Kaz Grala, Brandon Jones, Jordan Taylor, rookie Chandler Smith and Kyle Weatherman were in the top 15. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders Sammy Smith and Jeb Burton were in 17th and 18th while John Hunter Nemechek was mired in 27th.

    At the Lap 10 mark, Mayer continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over teammate Allgaier while Berry, Creed and Hemric retained their respective spots in the top five. With Custer, Kligerman and Hill running sixth through eighth, Chandler Smith, Sammy Smith and Jeb Burton were in 13th, 15th and 16th, respectively, while Nemechek was still back in 27th.

    Seven laps later, a host of names that included Berry, Custer, Herbst, Labbe and Grala pitted under green. More names that included Connor Mosack, Brandon Jones, Jordan Taylor, Parker Retzlaff, Myatt Snider and Nemechek would follow suit on pit road before the leader Mayer pitted on Lap 18, just before pit road closed and as Allgaier reassumed the lead.

    When the first stage period concluded on Lap 20, Allgaier, who had already secured his spot for the Playoff’s Round of 8 by virtue of winning the Playoff opener at Bristol Motor Speedway in September, claimed his 12th Xfinity stage victory of the 2023 season. Hemric settled in second followed by Creed, Kligerman and Hill while Chandler Smith, Sammy Smith, Mayer, Jeb Burton and Josh Bilicki were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, a majority of the field led by Allgaier pitted while the rest led by Mayer remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Jeb Burton was penalized for speeding on pit road while Conor Daly was also penalized for his crew being over the pit wall too soon.

    The second stage period started on Lap 24 as teammates Mayer and Berry occupied the front row. At the start, the field quickly fanned out entering the first turn as teammates Mayer and Berry dueled for the lead. After being locked in a dead even battle against Berry through the first three turns, Mayer muscled ahead from the outside lane and retained the top spot through the infield turns before blending back on the oval turns ahead of the field. As the field continued to jostle for spots back on the oval turns and through the backstretch chicane, Mayer was leading by nearly a second over teammate Berry while Custer, Riley Herbst and Alex Labbe followed suit. Mired within the on-track battles was the battle for the transfer spots to the Playoffs with Mayer, Hill, Chandler Smith, Creed and Sammy Smith currently scored above the cutline while Hemric, Kligerman, Berry and Jeb Burton were scored below the cutline.

    Through the Lap 30 mark, Mayer extended his advantage to more than two seconds over teammate Berry with Custer, Herbst and Labbe were in the top five. Behind, Nemechek, Brandon Jones, Allgaier, Hemric and Creed were in the top 10, Sammy Smith, Kligerman and Hill were running 12th through 14th, Chandler Smtih was in 20th and Jeb Burton was back in 28th.

    Two laps later, Berry, who came into the event below the cutline, spun and backed his No. 8 High Rock Vodka Chevrolet Camaro into the wall in between Turns 3 and 4 while running second, which dropped him to 13th. Amid Berry’s incident, the race remained under green flag conditions as Mayer continued to extend his advantage by more than five seconds over Custer. With Herbst, Nemechek and Brandon Jones running in the top five, Playoff contenders Allgaier, Hemric, Creed and Kligerman were battling in the top 10 while Sammy Smith, Berry and Hill were in the top 14. Meanwhile, Chandler Smith was in 19th and Jeb Burton was up to 23rd.

    By Lap 37, green flag pit stops ensued for a second time as Herbst pitted his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang from third place followed by Hill, Grala, Berry, Myatt Snider, Mosack, Jordan Taylor, Sage Karam and Retzlaff as Mayer stabilized his lead by more than six seconds over Custer. Mayer then pitted during the following lap along with Custer, Jones and Allgaier as Nemechek assumed the lead just as pit road closed. Shortly after, Conor Daly drew a caution after he blew a left-rear tire and spun towards the outside wall in Turn 15 before he limped his damaged car and came to a stop towards the frontstretch chicane. Daly’s incident was enough for the second stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 40 to conclude under caution. As a result, Nemechek, who had already secured his spot into the Round of 8 based on winning the previous Xfinity Playoff event at Texas Motor Speedway, captured his 10th Xfinity stage victory of the 2023 season, Hemric followed suit in second while Kligerman, Creed, Labbe, Sammy Smith, Mayer, Chandler Smith, Bilicki and Stefan Parsons were scored in the top 10.

    During the stage break, some led by Nemechek pitted for service while the rest led by Mayer remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Brandon Jones was penalized for speeding on pit road.

    With 24 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Mayer and Custer occupied the front row. At the start, Mayer used the outside lane to retain the lead from Custer through Turn 1. As the field behind jostled for positions, Mayer started to pull away from Custer while Allgaier was in third ahead of Herbst and Grala. By then, Hemric and Creed were currently tied for the eighth and final transfer spot to the Playoffs, with Hemric owning the tie-breaker by virtue of securing a higher result within the Round of 12, while Kligerman, who was in 12th, was two points below the cutline.

    With 20 laps remaining and amid the on-track battles, Mayer extended his advantage to a second over Custer followed by Allgaier, Herbst and Grala while Hill, Berry, Connor Mosack, Ryan Sieg and Myatt Snider were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Kligerman was in 11th ahead of Hemric, Jeb Burton, Sammy Smith and Creed while Nemechek and Chandler Smith were in 17th and 18th, respectively.

    Five laps later, Mayer continued to lead by more than a second over Custer while Allgaier, Herbst and Grala were in the top five. Meanwhile, Kligerman and Hemric were in ninth and 10th while Creed was back in 15th, which currently placed him a single point above the cutline over Hemric while Kligerman trailed the cutline by three points. In addition, Sammy Smith, who was in 14th, was five points above the cutline while Jeb Burton and Berry were currently scored out of the cutline. Shortly after, Hemric and Creed were scored tied for the final transfer spot after Hemric moved into 10th place on the track, with Creed in 15th and eighth-place Kligerman behind by two points while Sammy Smith was still scored above the cutline while running 14th on the track.

    Then with 12 laps remaining, Allgaier pitted under green as Mayer continued to lead by more than a second over Custer. Shortly after, the caution flew due to debris reported in Turn 17. During the caution period, Allgaier along with Jeb Burton and Blaine Perkins remained on the track while the rest, led by Mayer, pitted.

    Down to the final eight laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Jeb Burton and Allgaier dueled for the lead until trouble struck after Burton got sideways and sent him and Allgaier sliding into the wall, with Perkins also hitting the wall while slamming on the brakes as the caution quickly returned and Allgaier was left eliminated from contention. With the leaders wrecked, Custer assumed the lead followed by Mayer, Bery, Herbst and Hill.

    During the proceeding restart with five laps remaining, Custer and Mayer dueled for the lead entering Turn 1 until Custer managed to muscle his No. 00 Haas Ford Mustang ahead entering Turn 2 and the infield turns. With Mayer keeping Custer within his sights, Custer retained the lead through infield turns and the oval turns. Amid Ryan Ellis getting into the wall and Brandon Jones spinning on the frontstretch, the race remained under green as Custer retained the lead back to the frontstretch ahead of Mayer, Berry, Herbst and Grala.

    Then during the following lap, Mayer, who came into the event below the cutline and in a “must-win” situation, overtook Custer for the lead through Turn 4. Mayer’s move moved him back above the cutline. As a result, Creed was now scored a single point above Hemric on points and above the cutline with Kligerman behind by six points. Amid the battles, Sammy Smith was also scored above the cutline by three points.

    During the proceeding laps, Mayer extended his advantage to more than a second over Custer with Berry, Herbst and Grala were in the top five. Behind, Kligerman was in sixth and scored five points below the cutline, Hemric was in sixth and scored two points below and Creed was in 10th behind teammate Hill while scored two points above the cutline.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Mayer remained as the leader by more than two seconds over Custer. With Custer unable to close the gap, Mayer was able to smoothly navigate his way around the infield road course and oval circuits for a final time before returning to the frontstretch chicane and crossing the finish line to claim his third checkered flag of the 2023 Xfinity season.

    With the victory, Mayer notched his third NASCAR Xfinity Series career victory in his 80th series start, all occurring on road course events, and his first since winning at Watkins Glen International in August. The victory was also the sixth of the season for JR Motorsports and the 15th for the Chevrolet nameplate. By winning the Playoff’s Round of 12 finale, Mayer clinched his spot for the Round of 8 as he continues in his pursuit of winning his first Xfinity Series title.

    “I knew we had time,” Mayer said on NBC. “Our car was so fast. What a day. We kicked their tails today. It just feels so great. Bonus points feel great, winning feels great. Winning solves everything. That’s the name of the game. Getting another shot at [the title], I think this is our second chance moment and I think we can make something out of it. Winning still feels great.”

    Meanwhile, as Custer, Berry and Herbst finished second through fourth, Kligerman, who was locked in a tight battle against Kaz Grala for fifth place, made contact with Grala through the frontstretch chicane before he, Grala and a hard-charging Daniel Hemric crossed the finish line in a three-wide photo finish as Grala edged Kligerman and Hemric, respectively, to finish fifth. The sixth- and seventh-place results for Kligerman and Hemric, however, were not enough for both to transfer into the Round of 8 as Creed, who ended up 10th on the track, claimed the eighth and final transfer spot by two points over Hemric and four over Kligerman.

    As a result, Creed joins Sam Mayer, John Hunter Nemechek, teammate Austin Hill, Justin Allgaier, Cole Custer, Chandler Smith and Sammy Smith as competitors to transfer into the Playoff’s Round of 8 while Daniel Hemric, Parker Kligerman, Josh Berry and Jeb Burton were eliminated from title contention.

    “[I] Just kind of stumbled our way through this first round to make it,” Creed said. “Really just fortunate that we have the luck we did at the times we did. At the end of the day, we need to bring faster race cars. Just proud of everyone’s fight. We can’t stumble our way through the next [round], that’s for sure.”

    “It’s the way it is,” Hemric said. “Before the day started, I said I’m gonna be humble in victory and gracious in defeat. We were defeated this round. It’s the way it goes. We carry on. I put [my team] in a hole, for sure, there in Texas. I hate it for these guys. We got a long road ahead of us. It’s just part of the journey, man. Journey makes the man. Looking forward to what’s ahead and  what’s ahead for this race team.”

    “[I was saying] Just get every spot I could and hope something happen,” Kligerman said. “I just knew I had to pass people and I was just trying everything I could to get spots. I’m more upset because I love the pressure of all of this. I love the idea of fighting for something so big like we were, but it’s been a big achievement to be a part of the Playoffs for this race team. I think I can be a better driver in 2024 than I was this year for [the team]. Man, I feel like every move, aside from that one restart, I felt like we were money. Just not enough.”

    There were 10 lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 12 laps. In addition, 33 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Results.

    1. Sam Mayer, 50 laps led

    2. Cole Custer, four laps led

    3. Josh Berry

    4. Riley Herbst

    5. Kaz Grala

    6. Parker Kligerman

    7. Daniel Hemric

    8. John Hunter Nemechek, two laps led, Stage 2 winner

    9. Austin Hill

    10. Sheldon Creed

    11. Sammy Smith

    12. Chandler Smith

    13. Ryan Sieg

    14. Myatt Snider

    15. Alex Labbe

    16. Jordan Taylor

    17. Brennan Poole

    18. Stefan Parsons

    19. Rajah Caruth

    20. Josh Williams

    21. Leland Honeyman

    22. Parker Retzlaff

    23. Jeremy Clements

    24. Connor Mosack

    25. Josh Bilicki

    26. Kyle Weatherman

    27. Sage Karam

    28. Blaine Perkins

    29. Brandon Jones

    30. Anthony Alfredo

    31. Joe Graf Jr.

    32. Kyle Sieg

    33. Alex Guenette

    34. Jeb Burton, one lap down, one lap led

    35. Conor Daly, one lap down

    36. Ryan Ellis – OUT, Accident

    37. Justin Allgaier – OUT, Accident, 10 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    38. Brett Moffitt – OUT, Ignition

    *Bold indicates Playoff competitors

    Playoff standings

    1. John Hunter Nemechek – Advanced

    2. Justin Allgaier – Advanced

    3. Sam Mayer – Advanced

    4. Cole Custer – Advanced

    5. Austin Hill – Advanced

    6. Chandler Smith – Advanced

    7. Sammy Smith – Advanced

    8. Sheldon Creed – Advanced

    9. Daniel Hemric – Eliminated

    10. Parker Kligerman – Eliminated

    11. Josh Berry – Eliminated

    12. Jeb Burton – Eliminated

    The Round of 8 in the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs is scheduled to commence next Saturday, October 14, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event’s broadcast is slated to occur at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

  • Nemechek clinches Round of 8 spot with late Xfinity victory at Texas

    Nemechek clinches Round of 8 spot with late Xfinity victory at Texas

    In an event dominated by Justin Allgaier and compiled with a series of caution flags and on-track chaos, the seas parted ways for John Hunter Nemechek to storm to the lead in the closing laps and to his unprecedented seventh NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of the 2023 season in the Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday, September 23.

    The 26-year-old Nemechek from Mooresville, North Carolina, led twice for 38 of 200-scheduled laps in an event where he qualified 11th and spent the majority of the event running towards the front while avoiding a series of carnages and caution periods that started just past the opening lap and setting up a 10-lap dash to the finish. During the 10-lap shootout, Nemechek, who pitted during a late caution period for fresh tires with less than 20 laps remaining, capitalized on a late on-track skirmish involving the leaders Justin Allgaier and Parker Kligerman through Turns 3 and 4 to overtake them both through the frontstretch and assume the lead with six laps remaining. Once out in front of the field with the clean air and fresh tires, Nemechek was able to fend off a late charge from Kligerman to win for the seventh time in the 2023 Xfinity Series season and clinch his spot for the Playoff’s Round of 8.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Justin Allgaier, winner of last weekend’s Playoff opener at Bristol Motor Speedway, started on pole position after posting a pole-winning lap at 185.008 mph in 29.188 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Trevor Bayne, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 184.919 mph in 29.202 seconds.

    Prior to the event, the following names that included newcomer Layne Riggs, Playoff contender Chandler Smith, Joe Graf Jr. and Brett Moffitt 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, Allgaier and Bayne dueled for the lead through the frontstretch until Allgaier muscled ahead from the outside lane and retained the lead entering the backstretch. Behind, early trouble struck for Playoff contender Sam Mayer after Mayer, who was running sixth, slid up the track and hit the backstretch’s outside wall after blowing a right-front tire. Despite Mayer falling off the pace and nursing his damaged No. 1 Accelerate Pros Talent Chevrolet Camaro to pit road, the race remained under green flag conditions as Allgaier proceeded to lead the first lap ahead of Bayne while Cole Custer, Austin Hill and Brandon Jones followed suit. During the second lap, however, the first caution of the event flew after 10th-place Riley Herbst hit the outside wall in Turn 4 and damaged the right side of his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang. Mayer and Herbst’s separate incidents would knock both competitors out of contention and in the garage with wrecked race cars.

    When the race restarted under green on the seventh lap, Allgaier wasted no time in muscling his No. 7 Reese’s Ice Cream Chevrolet Camaro away with the lead. Behind Bayne and Custer battled in front of Hill, John Hunter Nemechek and Brandon Jones as the field jostled and fanned out through the backstretch. With Bayne keeping his No. 19 Interstate Batteries Toyota Supra running on the outside lane, Custer assumed the runner-up spot followed by Hill.

    Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Allgaier was leading ahead of Custer followed by Hill, Bayne and Nemechek while Jones, Josh Berry, Parker Kligerman, Sammy Smith and Daniel Hemric were in the top 10. Shortly after, the event’s second caution flew after Patrick Emerling, Layne Riggs and Joe Graf Jr. wrecked through the frontstretch.

    During the proceeding restart on Lap 16, Allgaier and Hill dueled for the lead until Hill muscled ahead from the outside lane with a slight advantage. Allgaier, however, fought back through the backstretch from the inside lane as he reassumed the lead through Turn 3 and led the proceeding lap. With Allgaier leading Hill, Custer trailed in third ahead of Bayne, Nemechek and Jones while Kligerman battled and overtook Berry for seventh. Not long after, Hemric, who was running 11th, went wide entering Turn 1 and began to fall off the pace after running his No. 10 Poppy Bank Chevrolet Camaro through the frontstretch’s grass and damaging the left-front fender and splitter. Hemric continued to remain on the track and under green flag conditions but would proceed to lose a bevy of spots and fall toward the bottom of the leaderboard.

    Just past the Lap 20 mark, Allgaier was leading by six-tenths of a second over Hill while Custer, Bayne and Nemechek were in the top five. Behind, Jones, Kligerman, Berry, Sammy Smith and Kaz Grala were in the top 10. Allgaier would slightly extend his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over Hill by Lap 25 while third-place Custer trailed by more than two seconds.

    At the Lap 35 mark, Allgaier would continue to lead by more than a second over Hill followed by Custer, Bayne and Nemechek while Jones, Kligerman, Berry, Sammy Smith and Chandler Smith were mired within the top 10 on the track.

    When the first stage period concluded on Lap 45, Allgaier captured his 10th Xfinity stage victory of 2023. Hill followed suit in second ahead of Custer, Bayne and Nemechek while Jones, Kligerman, Berry, Sammy Smith and Chandler Smith were scored in the top 10. By then, 23 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap while Hemric was trapped a lap down in 33rd Meanwhile, Jeb Burton was in 14th and Creed was in 24th, though he managed to remain ahead of Allgaier to stay on the lead lap.

    Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Allgaier pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Allgaier retained the lead after exiting pit road first followed by Custer, Hill, Bayne, Nemechek and Brandon Jones.

    The second stage period started on Lap 52 as Allgaier and Custer occupied the front row. At the start, Allgaier and Custer dueled for the lead through Turn 1 until Custer, who was being drafted by Hill, muscled ahead from the inside lane and assumed the lead entering the backstretch. As Custer grabbed the lead from Allgaier, Hill was in third ahead of Bayne and Nemechek while Kligerman and Jones battled for seventh in front of Berry and Chandler Smith.

    Then on Lap 55, the caution flew for a harrowing accident that involved Brennan Poole as Poole spun through the frontstretch’s grass, kept spinning towards pit road and slammed into Jeffery Earnhardt’s pit stall head-on before his car came to a stop with heavy front nose damage towards the pit road entrance. In the midst of the carnage, Gase also spun through the frontstretch while Poole emerged uninjured.

    As the race restarted under green on Lap 63, Allgaier and Custer dueled for the lead amid two stacked lanes until Allgaier rocketed away from the outside lane with the lead through the first two turns. Behind, Hill fended off Bayne to retain third as he pursued Custer while Nemechek followed suit by moving up to fourth. With Bayne falling back to fifth, Berry and Kligerman dueled for sixth while Brandon Jones, Chandler Smith and Sammy Smith followed suit in the top 10. By Lap 64, however, the caution returned after Jeffrey Earnhardt hit the wall in the backstretch.

    During the following restart on Lap 68, Allgaier and Custer again dueled for the lead through the frontstretch and through the first two turns until Allgaier muscled ahead from the inside lane and retained the lead from Custer. Behind, Hill fended off Nemechek to retain third while Bayne, Kligerman, Berry and Jones battled amid two tight lanes for positions fifth to eighth in front of Chandler Smith and Jeb Burton. Bayne and Berry would grab fifth and sixth ahead of Kligerman while Chandler Smith would move up to eighth in front of Jones and Jeb Burton. Further ahead, Hill and Nemechek started to close in on Custer for the runner-up spot while Allgaier retained the lead.

    At the Lap 75 mark, Allgaier was leading by more than a second over Custer, who remained ahead of Hill and Nemechek, while Bayne followed suit in fifth. Behind, Berry, Chandler Smith, Kligerman, Jones and Sammy Smith were in the top 10 while Jeb Burton, Jeremy Clements, rookie Parker Retzlaff, Kyle Weatherman Weatherman and Ryan Sieg were scored in the top 15. Meanwhile, Creed was mired back in 20th while Hemric was a lap down in 28th.

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 90, Allgaier, who navigated his way through lapped traffic, captured his 11th Xfinity stage victory of the season and second of the day after maintaining the lead by more than two seconds over Custer. Custer retained second ahead of Hill and Nemechek while Bayne, Berry, Chandler Smith, Kligerman, Jones, and Sammy Smith were scored in the top 10. By then, 23 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap while Playoff contenders Creed, Jeb Burton and Hemric were mired in 17th, 21st and 27th, respectively.

    During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Allgaier returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Allgaier retained the lead after exiting pit road first followed by Custer, Bayne, Berry, Chandler Smith, Jeremy Clements, Nemechek, Kligerman and Jones while Hill fell back to 11th after getting blocked by Nemechek on pit road. Amid the pit stops, Jeb Burton was held in his pit stall for two laps for losing a left-rear wheel on the track. In addition, Stefan Parsons relieved Josh Williams for the remainder of the event.

    With 103 laps remaining, the final stage started as Allgaier and Custer occupied the front row. At the start, Allgaier launched ahead from the outside lane to retain the lead through Turn 1 until Custer regained his momentum from the inside lane and dueled with Allgaier for the lead before grabbing it entering Turn 3. Behind, trouble ignited after Berry and Bayne, both of whom were battling for third place, made contact as Bayne clipped Berry before both spun sideways in front of the pack. In the process, Berry hit the outside wall and Bayne was hit by Hill and Kyle Weatherman, thus terminating his third and final scheduled start of the season with a wrecked race car, while both Chandler Smith and Kligerman barely escaped the carnage.

    When the race restarted under green with 96 laps remaining, Allgaier received a push from Chandler Smith to retain the lead from Custer while on the outside lane. Then through Turns 3 and 4, Chandler Smith engaged in a duel against Custer for the runner-up spot ahead of Nemechek and Kligerman while Allgaier rocketed away. Behind, Retzlaff made contact with the wall, but the race remained under green as Allgaier started to stretch his advantage to nearly a second. The caution, however, would return with 93 laps remaining after Jeffrey Earnhardt wrecked for a second time in Turn 2 and broke the drive shaft from his car.

    During the following restart with 86 laps remaining, Allgaier and Custer dueled for the top spot as Allgaier had Chandler Smith drafting him entering Turn 1. Then exiting the turn, Allgaier got loose while being drafted by Smith and slipped up the track entering the backstretch as he fell all the way back to 14th. With Allgaier falling back, Custer was out in front followed by Nemechek while Chandler Smith and Kligerman battled for third place in front of Sammy Smith. Amid a series of battles towards the front, the caution would fly with 81 laps remaining after Dawson Cram spun in Turn 4. By then, Custer retained the lead ahead of Nemechek and Chandler Smith while Sammy Smith was up to fourth in front of Kligerman and Jones. During the caution period, Allgaier and Hemric pitted while the rest led by Custer remained on the track.

    With the race restarting under green with 76 laps remaining, Nemechek briefly dueled and moved into the lead from Custer on the inside lane. In the process, Chandler and Sammy Smith battled for third in front of Jones, Kligerman and Kaz Grala while Nemechek proceeded to stretch his advantage to nearly half a second over Custer. As Nemechek continued to lead by seven-tenths of a second over Custer with 70 laps remaining, Allgaier muscled his way up to seventh while Chandler Smith, Sammy Smith, Jones and Kligerman were scored in the top six. By then, Jeb Burton, who returned to the track after spending a bevy of laps in the garage due to a mechanical issue, nursed his No. 27 Alsco Chevrolet Camaro to the garage as smoke started to come out of the car.

    With 60 laps remaining, Nemechek extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Custer, who had Chandler Smith intimidating him for the runner-up spot, while Sammy Smith maintained fourth place as he trailed the lead by more than three seconds. Meanwhile, Allgaier cracked the top five as he was back in fifth while Jones, Kligerman, Moffitt, Ryan Sieg and Clements were running in the top 10 ahead of Grala, Creed, Hill, Hemric and Parker Chase.

    Ten laps later, Nemechek stabilized his advantage to more than two seconds over Custer as Chandler Smith, Sammy Smith and Allgaier followed suit and in close-quarters racing. With Custer navigating his way through lapped traffic, Chandler Smith remained within close pursuit of Custer while Sammy Smith and Allgaier also followed suit in close conditions before Allgaier overtook Sammy Smith to move up to fourth.

    With 45 laps remaining, green flag pit stops ensued as Custer surrendered the runner-up spot to pit his No. 00 Haas Ford Mustang. Nemechek would surrender the lead to pit his No. 20 ROMCO Toyota Supra during the following lap while more names that included Chandler Smith, Jones, Kligerman, Creed, Sammy Smith, Grala pitted during the proceeding laps. Amid the pit stops, Allgaier, who pitted, remained on the track and reassumed the lead as he was leading by more than 15 seconds over Hill.

    Shortly after, the caution flew when newcomer Daniel Dye spun in Turn 2. By then, only seven competitors that included Allgaier, Hill, Hemric, JJ Yeley, Kyle Sieg, Ryan Ellis and Anthony Alfredo were scored on the lead lap. During the caution period, the remaining lead lap competitors pitted for service.

    When the race restarted with 35 laps remaining, Allgaier and Hemric battled for the lead through the frontstretch and entering Turn 1 as the field behind fanned out to three lanes. Allgaier, though, would clear Hemric and assume full command of the top spot with both lanes to his control through the backstretch while Hill and Kyle Sieg battled for third. By then, Nemechek, who was one of several competitors to use the wave around to cycle back on the lead lap, was trying to carve his way back to the front as he moved up to sixth ahead of Custer and Kligerman. Nemechek would proceed to climb up to fourth ahead of Custer and Kligerman while Allgaier extended his lead by more than two seconds over Hemric with 30 laps remaining.

    Down to the final 25 laps of the event, Allgaier continued to extend his advantage as he was leading by nearly three seconds over a hard-charging Nemechek followed by Hill, Custer and Kligerman while Hemric fell back to sixth. By then, Ryan and Kyle Sieg were battling Clements for seventh while Grala was in 10th. Meanwhile, Sammy Smith was mired back in 11th while Creed and Chandler Smith were mired within the top 15.

    Four laps later, the caution flew due to debris in the form of sheet metal being reported in the backstretch. During the caution period, a majority led by Nemechek pitted while the rest led by Allgaier remained on the track.

    With 17 laps remaining, the race restarted under green as Allgaier and Hill occupied the front row. At the start, Allgaier and Hill briefly dueled through the frontstretch until Allgaier muscled ahead to retain the lead. Shortly after, the caution quickly returned after Yeley and Grala wrecked and collided against one another towards the outside wall in Turn 3.

    Down to the final 10 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Hill and Allgaier dueled for the lead through the frontstretch as the field behind fanned out. Allgaier proceeded to retain the lead with the momentum on the outside lane exiting the backstretch. With Hill trying to keep pace with Allgaier, Kligerman drew himself into the picture as he ignited his late bid for the lead. With Kligerman taking the runner-up spot from Hill, he then proceeded to challenge Allgaier for the lead through the backstretch not long after. Then with eight laps remaining and amid a dead heat for the lead between Allgaier and Kligerman, the latter slipped up the track in Turn 3, which forced Allgaier to go wide as he would get caught in the marbles and nearly hit the outside wall entering the frontstretch. As both tried to regain their momentum, Nemechek threw himself back into the spotlight as he overtook Allgaier before he overtook Kligerman, who led a lap, through the frontstretch and returned to the lead.

    Down to the final five laps of the event, Nemechek, who officially reassumed the lead during the previous lap, was leading ahead of Kligerman while Sammy Smith moved his No. 18 Allstate Peterbilt Toyota Supra into third ahead of Allgaier, who was trying to retain fourth ahead of Chandler Smith while Custer and Hill followed suit within the top seven.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Nemechek remained as the leader by eight-tenths of a second over Kligerman. Having a clear racetrack in front of him and with Kligerman unable to close the gap, Nemechek was able to cycle his No. 20 Toyota around the Texas circuit for a final time and cross the finish line to claim his seventh checkered flag of the season and by more than three seconds over Kligerman.

    With the victory, Nemechek also claimed his second Xfinity Series win at Texas Motor Speedway, his first since winning the regular-season finale at Kansas Speedway two weeks earlier and the ninth of his Xfinity career. Thus, he joined Justin Allgaier as the only Playoff competitors to have clinched a spot for the Playoff’s Round of 8 by winning as he continues his quest to contend for this year’s Xfinity Series championship with Joe Gibbs Racing before returning to the NASCAR Cup Series to drive for Legacy Motor Club in 2024.

    “Well, I messed up that [last] restart,” Nemechek said on USA Network. “[The car] bounced out of third gear, so that one was on me, but I knew that I had to push hard and try and recover right there. Man, hats off to this No. 20 team, Joe Gibbs Racing. It is absolutely amazing what we’ve been able to accomplish so far this year. I don’t think we’re done yet, that’s for sure. We set a lot of goals as this No. 20 team coming into this year. It’s so good to accomplish all of those, but win number seven. ROMCO back in Victory Lane here at Texas. [We’re] Preparing for the Round of 8 [in the Playoffs]. My goal coming into today was to lock ourselves in for the next round. Going into the [Charlotte] Roval and not having to worry about [road course struggles] is definitely a relief. We’re still gonna go there, try and play strategy, try and win the race, get some more Playoff points, but focus on [Las] Vegas, Homestead, Martinsville, and then on to Phoenix.”

    While Nemechek celebrated with the fans on the frontstretch, Kligerman and Allgaier, both of whom exchanged words, were left disappointed on pit road after both had the race victory at the Lone Star state evaporate. For Kligerman, the runner-up result marked his second of this season and his eighth top-five result of the 2023 season. Initially being 22 points below the top-eight cutline, Kligerman and Big Machine Racing now trail the cutline by a single point with their strong result and approaching the Round of 8 finale at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course that will occur on October 7.

    “Obviously, I had a great run, got to [Allgaier] and then, down in [Turns] 3 and 4, I don’t know how much we got squeezed or just didn’t have it, but I felt like I could clear him pretty easily,” Kligerman, who addressed his contact with Allgaier, said. “I just somehow got super loose and that allowed [Nemechek] to get to us and then, whatever. It feels like I choked. [Allgaier] says he gave me a lot of room,…but proud of everybody at Big Machine Racing. We showed up here once again in a pressure-packed situation. I’m really disappointed right now. I could see that [win]. I could feel it. That was the best damn restart I ever had in my entire life. Put us in perfect position. We had the tire advantage. Just choked. This one will hurt, but we’ll go make up for it next [event] into the next round and then go on to the Championship 4 and go compete for a championship.”

    For Allgaier, he is already guaranteed a spot for the Round of 8 by winning last weekend’s Playoff opener at Bristol Motor Speedway despite ending up in fifth place after leading a race-high 133 laps.

    “When I went to talk to [Kligerman], he said I squeezed him, but I feel like I left him plenty of room getting down in [Turns 3 and 4], knowing he was gonna go to the bottom [lane] and he drove it in super, super deep into [Turn] 3,” Allgaier said. “He’s been around this sport long enough, so that’s what’s gonna happen. It’s just disappointing not only that because, not only did it screw up battling for second there, but it put us way up in the marbles and just hanging on to [the car]. He didn’t make contact, so I give him that, but proud of the effort today. We’ll keep digging. Lot’s to look forward to.”

    Rookie Sammy Smith, who has finished no higher than ninth during his previous eight Xfinity starts, came home in third place for his first top-five result in 10 races while Chandler Smith and Allgaier finished in the top five. Meanwhile, Custer, who led 28 laps, ended up in sixth place, which was enough for him to clinch his spot into the Round of 8 by points, while Hill, Creed, Brandon Jones and Brett Moffitt finished in the top 10.

    Notably, Hemric ended up 24th after taking his car to the garage with damage spotted to his right front with three laps remaining. In addition, Berry capped off his long afternoon in 27th, seven laps behind the leaders, and Jeb Burton retired in 31st due to a suspension issue.

    There were nine lead changes for four different leaders. The race featured 12 cautions for 65 laps. In addition, 15 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Results.

    1. John Hunter Nemechek, 38 laps led

    2. Parker Kligerman, one lap led

    3. Sammy Smith

    4. Chandler Smith

    5. Justin Allgaier, 133 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

    6. Cole Custer, 28 laps led

    7. Austin Hill

    8. Sheldon Creed

    9. Brandon Jones

    10. Brett Moffitt

    11. Ryan Sieg

    12. Kyle Sieg

    13. Ryan Ellis

    14. Anthony Alfredo

    15. Kyle Weatherman

    16. Parker Chase, one lap down

    17. Daniel Dye, one lap down

    18. Jeremy Clements, one lap down

    19. Layne Riggs, two laps down

    20. Josh Williams, two laps down

    21. Dawson Cram, two laps down

    22. David Starr, three laps down

    23. Sage Karam, three laps down

    24. Daniel Hemric – OUT, Accident

    25. CJ McLaughlin, five laps down

    26. Joey Gase, six laps down

    27. Josh Berry, seven laps down

    28. JJ Yeley – OUT, Accident

    29. Kaz Grala – OUT, Accident

    30. Parker Retzlaff – OUT, Accident

    31. Jeb Burton – OUT, Suspension

    32. Jeffrey Earnhardt – OUT, Accident

    33. Trevor Bayne – OUT, Accident

    34. Brennan Poole – OUT, Accident

    35. Patrick Emerling – OUT, Suspension

    36. Joe Graf Jr. – OUT, Dvp

    37. Riley Herbst – OUT, Accident

    38. Sam Mayer – OUT, Accident

    *Bold indicates Playoff competitors

    Playoff standings

    1. John Hunter Nemechek – Advanced

    2. Justin Allgaier- Advanced

    3. Cole Custer – Advanced

    4. Austin Hill +44

    5. Chandler Smith +32

    6. Sammy Smith +18

    7. Sheldon Creed +9

    8. Daniel Hemric +1

    9.  Parker Kligerman -1

    10. Jeb Burton -19

    11. Josh Berry -27

    12. Sam Mayer -34

    The Round of 12 in the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs is set to conclude at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course in Concord, North Carolina, on October 7, where the Round of 8 field will be determined. The event’s broadcast is slated to occur at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.

  • Allgaier fends off Hemric to win Xfinity Playoff opener at Bristol

    Allgaier fends off Hemric to win Xfinity Playoff opener at Bristol

    Justin Allgaier commenced the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs in dramatic fashion by dominating and making a late charge back to the front amid a late pit stop for four fresh tires to outduel Daniel Hemric amid a late battle and win the Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday, September 15.

    The 37-year-old Allgaier from Riverton, Illinois, led three times for a race-high 110 of 300-scheduled laps in an event where he started 10th and battled up towards the front as he collected stage points during both stage break periods, all while leading for the first time in Lap 109. Amid late on-track chaos, Allgaier and crew chief Jim Pohlman rolled the dice by surrendering the lead and pitting for fresh tires during a late caution period with 50 laps remaining. Restarting within the top 15 during the final restart with 44 laps remaining, Allgaier methodically carved his way back to the front before engaging in a fierce battle with Daniel Hemric for the lead with 20 laps remaining. Allgaier then succeeded in reassuming the top spot from Hemric following a bold pass with 12 laps remaining and managed to pull away to win for the third time in the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series season and become the first Xfinity Playoff contender to transfer from the Round of 12 to 8.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, Playoff contender Cole Custer claimed pole position after posting a pole-winning lap at 122.341 mph in 15.684 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Josh Berry, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 122.123 mph in 15.712 seconds.

    Prior to the event, the following names that included Derek Kraus, Anthony Alfredo and Riley Herbst dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries. Jeb Burton also dropped to the rear of the field in a backup car after wrecking his primary car during Friday’s practice session.

    When the green flag waved and the race started, Custer rocketed ahead as he then transitioned his No. 00 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang from the outside lane to the inside lane to retain the lead through the first two turns. Behind, rookie Chandler Smith made his way into second over Berry followed by John Hunter Nemechek as Daniel Hemric and rookie Sammy Smith followed suit. As the field jostled for early positions amid two lanes, Custer proceeded to lead the first lap.

    Through the second to fifth lap, the field running in the middle of the pack fanned out to as high as three lanes while most of the front-runners ran in a single file line behind the leader Custer. In the process, Berry, who nearly got loose while battling Nemechek for third place through Turn 2, slowly began to lose spots as he dropped out of the top five due to being stuck on the outside lane. Berry’s misfortunes allowed Nemechek, Sammy Smith and Brandon Jones to move into the top five behind Custer and Chandler Smith.

    Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Custer was leading by more than a second over Chandler Smith followed by Nemechek, Sammy Smith and Justin Allgaier while Brandon Jones, Berry, Daniel Hemric, Trevor Bayne and Ryan Sieg were in the top 10. By then, Playoff newcomer Parker Kligerman was in 11th ahead of Sam Mayer, Jeremy Clements, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and rookie Parker Retzlaff while Sheldon Creed and Austin Hill were mired in 19th and 20th. Meanwhile, Jeb Burton was mired back in 31st.

    Ten laps later, Custer continued to lead by two seconds over Nemechek followed by Chandler Smith, Sammy Smith and Allgaier. Behind, Berry lost a spot to eighth place over Brandon Jones and Bayne while Kligerman cracked the top 10 as he was in 10th ahead of Mayer and Hemric. Meanwhile, Earnhardt Jr. was in 13th while teammates Creed and Hill were still mired in 18th and 19th, respectively. In the process, Burton gained three spots to 28th as Custer’s lead decreased to a second over Nemechek by Lap 25.

    At the Lap 35 mark, Custer stabilized his lead by a second over Nemechek while Allgaier, Sammy Smith and Chandler Smith continued to run in the top five. Behind, Brandon Jones, Bayne, Berry, Ryan Sieg and Mayer completed the top 10 while Kligerman, Hemric, Earnhardt Jr., Jeffrey Earnhardt and Retzlaff trailed in the top 15. Meanwhile, Hill and Creed were in 17th and 18th while Jeb Burton was in 25th. Custer’s lead would increase again to more than two seconds over Nemechek at the Lap 40 mark.

    By Lap 50, Custer’s advantage stabilized to more than two seconds over the new runner-up competitor, Allgaier, while Nemechek fell back to third in front of Jones and Sammy Smith. By then, Playoff contenders Chandler Smith, Mayer and Kligerman were in the top 10 while Berry and Hemric trailed in 11th and 12th in front of Earnhardt Jr. In addition, Hill was in 16th, teammate Creed trailed in 19th and Burton, who would lose a lap to the leaders, was in 23rd.

    Fifteen laps later, Custer extended his lead by nearly three seconds over Allgaier while Nemechek, Jones and Sammy Smith were scored in the top five. With Bayne, Chandler Smith, Mayer, Kligerman and Ryan Sieg running in the top 10, Earnhardt Jr. moved up to 11th in front of Hemric, Berry, Retzlaff and Riley Herbst. Custer would proceed to stretch his advantage to more than two seconds over Allgaier just past the Lap 75 mark.

    When the first stage period concluded on Lap 85, Custer claimed his sixth Xfinity stage victory of the 2023 season. Allgaier settled in second as he trailed by more than a second while Brandon Jones, Nemechek, Bayne, Chandler Smith, Kligerman, Mayer, Earnhardt Jr. and Sammy Smith were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Hemric, Hill, Berry, Creed and Burton were mired within the top 20 on the track, but they did not claim the first round of stage points. In addition, 16 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.

    Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Custer pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Custer retained the lead after exiting first while Allgaier, Jones, Nemechek, Earnhardt Jr. and Bayne followed suit.

    The second stage started on Lap 95 as Custer and Allgaier occupied the front row. At the start, Custer rocketed ahead and retained the lead from the outside lane while Jones and Allgaier battled for second through Turns 1 and 2. Then in Turn 3, Allgaier nearly got loose after battling dead even and making slight contact with Jones. Their contact allowed Earnhardt Jr. to close in from fourth before Jones would succeed and clear Allgaier for the runner-up spot. Amid the battles, Custer proceeded to lead by the Lap 100 mark as Nemechek settled in fifth.

    Not long after, the battle for the lead intensified between Custer and Allgaier, who reclaimed the runner-up spot from teammate Jones during Lap 101 before using the inside lane to gain ground on Custer. After a brief dueling match, Allgaier gained the lead from the inside lane by Lap 109. With Allgaier leading, Custer, who remained on the outside lane, retained second in front of Earnhardt Jr. Behind, Jones, who had a small tire rub towards the left-rear fender of his No. 9 Menards Chevrolet Camaro, was in fourth in front of Nemechek while Sammy Smith, Herbst, Chandler Smith, Bayne and Mayer were in the top 10 by Lap 115.

    At the Lap 125 mark, Allgaier was leading by a second over Custer while Earnhardt Jr., Jones and Nemechek continued to trail in the top five. Behind, Sammy Smith was in sixth ahead of Herbst, Bayne, Chandler Smith and Mayer while Hill, Kligerman, Hemric, Berry, Jeb Burton and Creed were in 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 18th and 21st, respectively. Allgaier would continue to lead by more than a second over Custer by Lap 135. By then, Jones regained third place from Earnhardt Jr. while Nemechek retained fifth in front of teammate Sammy Smith.

    On Lap 146, the caution flew when Joe Graf Jr. got bumped by Connor Mosack before he spun exiting the frontstretch and through Turn 1 as he nearly collected Custer, Jones and Earnhardt Jr. while spinning towards the Turn 1 outside wall before he spun below the apron and proceeded. The incident occurred laps later after Playoff contender Kligerman took his No. 48 Spiked Light Coolers Chevrolet Camaro to the garage due to a wheel bearing issue.

    During the caution period, a bevy of names that included Jones, Earnhardt Jr., Bayne, Herbst, Mayer, Chandler Smith, Hemric and Berry pitted while the rest led by Allgaier remained on the track.

    When the race restarted on Lap 153, Allgaier fended off Nemechek to retain the lead as the field jostled for positions. Seven laps into the restart, Allgaier was leading by a tenth of a second over Custer followed by Hill, Bayne and Earnhardt Jr. while Nemechek was battling Hemric for sixth place. By then, Jones was in ninth ahead of Herbst while Berry was in 11th and Sammy Smith was back in 15th.

    Then on Lap 166, the caution flew when Berry, who was battling teammate Mayer in the top 10, raced up the track in Turn 1 and clipped Mayer’s No. 1 Huck’s Market Chevrolet Camaro, with the ensuing contact resulting with Mayer spinning and slapping the outside wall while Berry got hit and collided into the outside wall by teammate Jones, thus knocking out three JR Motorsports competitors from contention and hindering Mayer and Berry’s start to the Playoffs, as Ryan Sieg also spun and collided into Jones’ No. 9 Menards Chevrolet Camaro from the carnage. The caution for the multi-car wreck was enough to conclude the second stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 170 under caution as Allgaier claimed his ninth Xfinity stage victory of 2023. Custer settled in second followed by Hill, Earnhardt Jr. and Bayne while Nemechek, Hemric, Herbst, Chandler Smith and Jeffrey Earnhardt were scored in the top 10.

    During the stage break, various pit strategies ensued as Earnhardt Jr., Bayne, Chandler Smith, Parker Retzlaff and Herbst remained on the track while the rest led by Allgaier and Custer pitted.

    With 121 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Earnhardt Jr. and Chandler Smith occupied the front row. At the start, Earnhardt Jr. and Chandler Smith dueled for the lead for a full lap until Earnhardt Jr. rocketed his No. 88 Hellmann’s Chevrolet Camaro ahead of Smith and clear of the field with both lanes to his control. With Earnhardt Jr. leading, Bayne moved his No. 19 He Gets Us Toyota Supra into second as Allgaier would follow suit a few laps later. The caution, however, would return with 116 laps remaining after Jeremy Clements and Joe Graf Jr. wrecked in Turn 1. Following the incident, Jeb Burton ran into the side of Jeffery Earnhardt to express his displeasure over being put into the wall by Earnhardt prior to the caution period.

    During the ensuing restart with 110 laps remaining, Earnhardt Jr. retained lead and moved from the outside to the inside lane to fend off teammate Allgaier. By then, Bayne trailed closely along with Herbst, Chandler Smith and Nemechek as Earnhardt Jr. continued to lead.

    With 100 laps remaining, Earnhardt Jr. was leading by a second over Bayne followed by Allgaier, Custer and Nemechek while Herbst, Hill, Ryan Sieg, Sammy Smith and Chandler Smith were in the top 10. By then, Creed and Hemric were mired in the top 15.

    Fifteen laps later, Earnhardt Jr. continued to lead by more than a second over Custer while Allgaier, Nemechek and Bayne trailed in the top five ahead of Ryan Sieg, Sammy Smith, Hill, Creed, Herbst, Chandler Smith, Hemric, Retzlaff, Jeffrey Earnhardt and Derek Kraus as Jeb Burton followed suit in 16th.

    Shortly after, the caution flew when Creed slid up the track and made contact with teammate Hill entering the frontstretch as Hill, the 2023 Xfinity regular-season champion, spun and hit the inside wall. The damage to the No. 21 Bennett Transportation Chevrolet Camaro was enough to terminate Hill’s run late in the event. During the caution period, a majority of the field led by Earnhardt pitted while Allgaier, Ryan Sieg, Hemric, Jeffrey Earnhardt and Jeb Burton remained on the track.

    With the race restarting under green with 76 laps remaining, Allgaier and Hemric dueled for the lead until Allgaier pulled ahead through Turn 2 as Ryan Sieg closed in while in third place. Behind and in the ensuing laps, Earnhardt Jr. overtook Jeb Burton for fourth as Nemechek and Custer followed suit.

    With 60 laps remaining, Allgaier retained the lead by two-tenths of a second over Hemric while Earnhardt Jr., Ryan Sieg and Nemechek were in the top five. Behind, Custer was in sixth ahead of Chandler Smith, Sammy Smith, Bayne and Herbst while Creed was back in 12th ahead of Jeb Burton.

    Following another caution period eight laps later after Josh Bilicki got sideways off the front nose of Rajah Caruth and wrecked on the frontstretch, select names that included Allgaier, Jeb Burton and Retzlaff pitted while rest led by Hemric remained on the track.

    With the race restarting with 44 laps remaining, Hemric fended off Nemechek to lead from outside lead while Custer and Earnhardt Jr. battled for third. Though Nemechek led Lap 257 by a hair, Hemric regained momentum from the outside lane to reassume the lead in his No. 10 Cirkul Chevrolet Camaro. As Hemric worked to retain lead from Nemechek, Earnhardt Jr. trailed closely in third while Custer and Chandler Smith were in fourth and fifth.

    With 30 laps remaining and amid a four-car battle for the lead, Hemric was leading by two-tenths of a second over Nemechek while Custer and Earnhardt Jr. were under seven-tenths of a second as they joined the battle. Shortly after, Earnhardt Jr. fell off the pace and pitted under green before he then parked his No. 88 Chevrolet in Nemechek’s stall as smoke and fire started to billow inside of the car. Despite his event coming to a late closure, Earnhardt Jr. was able to emerge unscathed and the race remained under green flag conditions as the safety crew put out the fire and towed Earnhardt Jr.’s car back behind the wall.

    With Earnhardt out of contention, Hemric retained the lead by a tenth of a second over Allgaier followed by Nemechek, Custer and Chandler Smith with less than 25 laps remaining. Shortly after and with 20 laps remaining, the battle for the lead intensified as a side-by-side battle ensued between Hemric and Allgaier. Despite being pressured by Allgaier on the inside lane, Hemric, who nearly lost the lead after getting briefly held up by Kligerman, remained on the outside lane to retain the lead.

    With 15 laps remaining, Hemric was still leading by a tenth of a second over Allgaier as both continued to challenge one another amid the turns for the lead. Then three laps later, Allgaier muscled his No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro ahead from the inside lane. He would then clear Hemric through Turn 2 to assume the lead and continue to lead with 10 laps remaining as he had both lanes under his control.

    Down to the final five laps of the event, Allgaier stretched his advantage to nine-tenths of a second over Hemric while third-place Nemechek trailed by more than two seconds ahead of Custer and Chandler Smith.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Allgaier remained as the leader by more than a second over Hemric. With Hemric unable to close the deficit amid lapped traffic, Allgaier was able to navigate his way around the 0.533-mile oval circuit for a final time and cycle back to the frontstretch to claim the checkered flag and win for the third time this season by more than a second over Hemric.

    Photo by Chad Wells for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    With the victory, Allgaier notched his 22nd career win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, his third of the season, his first since winning at Daytona International Speedway in late August and first at Bristol since 2010, where Allgaier had claimed his first Xfinity career victory. The victory, which also marked the fifth of the season for JR Motorsports, automatically transferred Allgaier, crew chief Jim Pohlman and his No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro team a spot into the Round of 8 in the 2023 Xfinity Series Playoffs.

    During his victory celebration, Allgaier, who gave his father and team owner, Dale Earnhardt Jr., a ride across the side mirrors of his race-winning car to Victory Lane, broke the news that he will remain as a full-time Xfinity Series competitor for JR Motorsports for the 2024 season.

    “How cool was it that I got to battle with the bossman, Dale Jr.,” Allgaier said on USA Network. “Just cannot say enough for this team. This team has done such an amazing job at this racetrack since I started at JR Motorsports. We led a lot of laps and the monkey was definitely on our back. The pit strategy there, man, coming down pit road all by myself, that was nerve racking. I’m speechless, man. This place, Jim Pohlman and I circled this place on our calendar when we started the year, before we ever even took the green flag lap. We said we want to win Bristol. Man, we won Bristol! It’s Bristol, baby! Let’s go!”

    Hemric, who was announced to be driving for Kaulig Racing for the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season earlier in the day, settled in second place for the third time this season and the 13th time in his career. Despite falling one spot shy of claiming his second Xfinity victory, Hemric was left satisfied with his result as he is currently ranked in sixth place in the Playoff standings while 12 points above the top-eight cutline.

    “It’s been a hell of a day,” Hemric said. “I just want it so bad for these guys. Everybody at Kaulig Racing deserves it, so proud of our effort, though. We came a long way over the course of 300 laps there.”

    Nemechek, Custer and Chandler Smith finished in the top five, thus joining Allgaier and Hemric as Playoff contenders to notch top-five results in the Playoff opener. Ryan Sieg, Trevor Bayne, Herbst, Sammy Smith and Grala completed the top 10 in the final running order.

    Notably, Playoff contenders Sheldon Creed and Jeb Burton ended up 11th and 13th, Kligerman concluded his long night in 31st, 54 laps down, and Hill, Mayer and Berry were the three Playoff contenders who failed to finish the first Playoff event. In addition, Dale Earnhardt Jr. ended up 30th after his late ignition issues prevented him from finishing the event.

    There were eight lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 48 laps. In addition, 14 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Results.

    1. Justin Allgaier, 110 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    2. Daniel Hemric, 33 laps led

    3. John Hunter Nemechek, one lap led

    4. Cole Custer, 109 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    5. Chandler Smith

    6. Ryan Sieg

    7. Trevor Bayne

    8. Riley Herbst

    9. Sammy Smith

    10. Kaz Grala

    11. Sheldon Creed

    12. Derek Kraus

    13. Jeb Burton

    14. Connor Mosack

    15. Parker Retzlaff, one lap down

    16. Brett Moffitt, one lap down

    17. Rajah Caruth, two laps down

    18. Ryan Ellis, two laps down

    19. Stefan Parsons, two laps down

    20. Josh Williams, two laps down

    21. Kyle Sieg, two laps down

    22. Brennan Poole, three laps down

    23. Kyle Weatherman, three laps down

    24. Jeremy Clements, three laps down

    25. Anthony Alfredo, four laps down

    26. Joe Graf Jr., five laps down

    27. Josh Bilicki, six laps down

    28. Blaine Perkins, six laps down

    29. Chad Finchum, 24 laps down

    30. Dale Earnhardt Jr. – OUT, Ignition

    31. Parker Kligerman, 54 laps down

    32. Jeffrey Earnhardt – OUT, Brakes

    33. Austin Hill – OUT, Dvp

    34. Brandon Jones – OUT, Suspension

    35. Sam Mayer – OUT, Accident

    36. Josh Berry – OUT, Accident

    37. BJ McLeod – OUT, Power

    38. Timmy Hill – OUT, Rear gear

    *Bold indicates Playoff competitors

    Playoff standings

    1. Justin Allgaier – Advanced

    2. John Hunter Nemechek +65

    3. Cole Custer +39

    4. Austin Hill +21

    5. Chandler Smith +18

    6. Daniel Hemric +12

    7. Sammy Smith +5

    8. Sheldon Creed +4

    9. Jeb Burton -4

    10. Sam Mayer -14

    11. Parker Kligerman -22

    12. Josh Berry -24

    With the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs underway, the postseason battle for the title continues next weekend at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas, for the second Round of 12 event. The event is scheduled to occur on Saturday, September 23, at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

  • Nemechek wins Xfinity regular-season finale at Kansas; Kligerman claims final Playoff berth

    Nemechek wins Xfinity regular-season finale at Kansas; Kligerman claims final Playoff berth

    Three days after unveiling his planned return to the NASCAR Cup Series for the 2024 season, John Hunter Nemechek took care of extra business in his closing stretch as a full-time NASCAR Xfinity Series competitor and capped off this year’s regular-season stretch on a dominant note by winning the Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway on Saturday, September 9.

    The 26-year-old Nemechek from Mooresville, North Carolina, led four times for a race-high 154 of 200-scheduled laps in an event that was mired with 10 caution flag periods and on-track chaos that affected a bevy of competitors who were either locked in or looking from the outside to make the 2023 Xfinity Series Playoff field. Amid the battles for the final Playoff berth, Nemechek, who had already guaranteed himself a Playoff spot based on winning five times throughout the regular-season stretch, came into Kansas with a mission to both win and try to gain ground on Austin Hill to steal the regular-season title in last-minute fashion.

    Despite falling short in claiming the latter, Nemechek, who led for the first time on Lap 41, was flawless while leading as he executed the final restart with 50 laps remaining to perfection by muscling away and beating runner-up Brandon Jones by more than seven seconds to claim his unprecedented sixth checkered flag of the 2023 Xfinity season and officially enter the Playoffs with strong momentum in preparation to claim the series championship.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Justin Allgaier started on pole position after posting a pole-winning lap at 176.206 mph in 30.646 seconds. Joining him on the front row was rookie Sammy Smith, who clocked in the second-best qualifying lap at 175.347 mph in 30.796 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Leland Honeyman, who initially failed to qualify for the event, dropped to the rear of the field after replacing Timmy Hill in the No. 66 MBM Motorsports entry. Matt Mills also dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to his entry along with CJ McLaughlin, who fell back due to an engine change.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Allgaier and Sammy Smith dueled for the lead as the field began to fan out through the frontstretch and entering the first turn. Then as the field led by Allgaier made its way through the backstretch, the first caution flag of the event flew after Nick Leitz and Anthony Alfredo wrecked towards the outside wall and against each other in Turn 1.

    When the race restarted under green on the fifth lap, Allgaier used the outside lane to his advantage as he rocketed away from Sammy Smith to retain the lead while Cole Custer, who restarted behind Allgaier, followed suit by claiming the runner-up spot. With Allgaier leading, Custer retained second over Sammy Smith while John Hunter Nemechek, Josh Berry, Brandon Jones and Daniel Hemric followed suit as the field behind fanned out and jostled for early spots.

    Through the first 10 scheduled laps and as the field continued to jostle for spots, Allgaier was leading by six-tenths of a second over Custer followed by Nemechek, Sammy Smith and Brandon Jones while Berry, Hemric, Brett Moffitt, Sheldon Creed and Austin Hill were in the top 10. Behind, Ryan Sieg was in 11th ahead of Riley Herbst while Sam Mayer, Parker Kligerman and rookie Chandler Smith battled in the top 15.

    Two laps later, the second caution flag of the event flew due to debris reported near the entrance of pit road. During the caution period, select names, among which included rookie Chandler Smith and Jeremy Clements, pitted while the rest led by Allgaier, who was spotted to have a brake pad stuck on the splitter of his No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro, remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Chandler Smith’s pit crew went under the hood to diagnose a mechanical issue that would eventually send Smith and his No. 16 Quick Tie Products Chevrolet Camaro team to the garage.

    During the proceeding restart on Lap 18, Allgaier and Custer dueled for the lead through the frontstretch and they continued to duel through the backstretch while the field behind fanned out to three and four lanes. Then as Allgaier cleared the field and drove away from Custer entering the frontstretch, the caution quickly returned during the following lap when Sam Mayer, who was running ninth, made contact with Creed and spun across the frontstretch and was T-boned by Kyle Weatherman, thus knocking both out of the event.

    As the event restarted under green on Lap 25, Allgaier and Custer dueled again for the lead through the frontstretch and backstretch until Allgaier used the outside lane to his advantage and rocketed away with the lead. With Allgaier leading, Nemechek started to gain ground on Custer for the runner-up spot as the field fanned out through the backstretch with Berry losing a bevy of spots and slipping out of the top 10 on the track.

    At the Lap 30 mark, Allgaier was leading by six-tenths of a second over Nemechek, who overtook Custer for the runner-up spot a few laps earlier, while Custer, Sammy Smith and Hemric, who officially clinched his spot for the 2023 Xfinity Playoffs, were in the top five. Behind, Brandon Jones, needing a victory to make the Playoffs, was in sixth as he tried to close in on Hemric for a top-five spot while Hill, Kligerman, Creed and Derek Kraus were running in the top 10. With Kaz Grala, Ryan Sieg, Jeb Burton, Brett Moffit and Herbst occupying the top 15, Berry was back in 16th ahead of Connor Mosack, Joe Graf Jr., Rajah Caruth and Josh Williams.

    Five laps later, Allgaier continued to lead by half a second over Nemechek while third-place Custer trailed by more than a second. Meanwhile, Hemric, who was running in the top five, plummeted to 20th due to an issue with his No. 10 Cirkul Chevrolet Camaro and while Berry was mired back in 14th. By then, Brandon Jones cracked the top five in fourth while Sammy Smith was in fifth. With Hemric continuing to fall off the pace and running in the apron, his early run went from good to bad and worse after he missed his pit stall while trying to pit and dropped out of the lead lap category as he would eventually take his car to the garage.

    Then on Lap 41, Nemechek, who gained a massive run through the backstretch on Allgaier during the previous lap, overtook Allgaier for the lead in his No. 20 Pye Barker Fire & Safety Toyota Supra. With Allgaier trying to fight back through Turns 1 and 2 along with the backstretch, he nearly got loose in Turn 1 and slid up the track in Turn 3, which allowed Custer to battle him for the runner-up spot while Nemechek slowly started to pull away. Meanwhile, Herbst, who was battling Kligerman for the final spot to make the Playoffs, worked his way up to ninth while Kligerman, who was currently scored five points above the cutline over Herbst, was in seventh.

    When the first stage period concluded on Lap 45, Nemechek, who was trying to gain ground on Austin Hill in battling for this year’s Xfinity regular-season title, captured his eighth Xfinity stage victory of the 2023 season following his late rally and overtake on Allgaier for the lead. Custer settled in second followed by Allgaier while Brandon Jones, Sammy Smith, Kligerman, Hill, Creed, Herbst and Derek Kraus were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Nemechek pitted. Following the pit stops, Custer moved into the lead after exiting pit road first while Nemechek, Allgaier, Sammy Smith, Brandon Jones, Creed, Kligerman and Herbst followed suit.

    The second stage started on Lap 51 as Custer and Nemechek occupied the front row. At the start, Custer and Nemechek dueled for the lead as the field fanned out through the frontstretch and entering the first two turns until Nemechek managed to cycle around Custer and reassume the lead. With Nemechek back out in front with the lead, Allgaier started to battle Custer for second in front of Brandon Jones and Sammy Smith while Kligerman muscled his No. 48 Spiked Light Coolers Chevrolet Camaro up to sixth place in his bid to make the Playoffs. During the proceeding laps and with Nemechek still leading, Berry returned to the top 10 as he was running ninth in between Creed and Hill while Herbst joined the battle as he was five spots behind Kligerman on the track.

    Then on Lap 58, the caution returned due to debris in the form of a tire carcass coming apart from Jeremy Clements’ entry in Turn 1. In the midst of the issue, Custer, who was running third in front of Sammy Smith, went up the track after running over the debris and scrubbed the outside wall in Turn 1 as he limped his damaged No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang to pit road for repairs. The damage, which broke the upper control arm in the No. 00 entry, was enough to terminate Custer’s strong run in the garage.

    On the ensuing restart on Lap 64, Nemechek and Allgaier dueled for the lead in front of the field. Behind, however, Kligerman, who restarted in the top 10, spun the tires while trying to regain pace, which caused the field to briefly stack up as he was then hit by Herbst, who then fell off the pace as he went up the track with a flat tire and pitted his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang under green. Back on track, Nemechek retained the lead over Allgaier while Sammy Smith, Brandon Jones and Berry followed suit.

    At the Lap 70 mark, Nemechek was leading by three-tenths of a second over Allgaier while Sammy Smith, Brandon Jones and Berry continued to run in the top five. By then, Kligerman, who continued to run under full power, was in eighth while Herbst was mired back in 32nd after he lost two laps in the process of pitting under green and was now 29 points behind Kligerman for a Playoff spot.

    Four laps later, the caution flew when Brandon Jones, who was running fourth, snapped sideways and spun his No. 9 Menards Chevrolet Camaro across the frontstretch grass, though he continued without sustaining any damage.

    With 11 laps remaining in the second stage period, the event restarted under green. At the start, teammates Nemechek and Sammy Smith dueled for the lead as the field fanned out through the frontstretch. With Nemechek muscling away with the lead, where he proceeded to lead the Lap 80 mark, Allgaier trailed and started to challenge Smith or the lead while Hill, Allgaier and Berry battled for fourth. Teammates, Allgaier and Berry would overtake Hill for third and fourth while Sammy Smith tried to gain ground on teammate Nemechek for the lead.

    When the second stage period on Lap 90, Nemechek captured his ninth Xfinity stage victory of the 2023 and second of the day after extending his advantage to more than a second over teammate Sammy Smith. Smith settled in second followed by Allgaier, Berry and Hill while Kligerman, Creed Kraus, rookie Parker Retzlaff and Moffitt were scored in the top 10.

    During the stage break, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Nemechek returned to pit road for service while Brandon Jones remained on the track to inherit the lead. Following the pit stops, Nemechek exited first while teammate, Sammy Smith, Hill, Creed, Allgaier, Kraus, Berry and Kligerman followed suit.

    With 104 laps remaining, the final stage started as Brandon Jones and Nemechek occupied the front row. At the start, Nemechek reassumed the lead after gaining a strong start from the inside lane while Hill, Allgaier, Sammy Smith and Creed followed suit with the field fanning out through the backstretch. Not long after, the caution quickly returned when Sammy Smith, who was bumped by Creed, clipped and sent Allgaier for a spin as both wrecked against the outside wall in Turn 3 while Brandon Jones, who was losing spots while restarting on old tires, spun sideways to avoid the carnage. In the midst of the carnage, Herbst, who gained one of his two lost laps during the second stage break period, was the recipient of the free pass to cycle back on the lead lap and potentially draw himself back into contention to still make the Playoffs.

    During the proceeding restart with 97 laps remaining, Nemechek and Hill battled early for the lead past the restart zone as the field scattered and jostled for late positions through the first two turns and the backstretch. With Nemechek retaining the lead through the proceeding laps, Creed muscled his way up to second while Berry came out late to overtake Hill and move his No. 8 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro to third. By then, Kligerman cracked the top five as he was in fifth in front of Kraus while Retzlaff, Ryan Ellis, Grala and Jeb Burton were in the top 10. In the process, Nemechek retained the lead by more than a second with 90 laps remaining.

    With 80 laps remaining, Nemechek extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Berry while Creed trailed in third place by more than four seconds. With Creed and Kligerman in the top five, Kraus, Retzlaff, Brandon Jones, Grala and Moffitt trailed in the top 10 while Herbst carved his way up to 12th. As Nemechek continued to extend his advantage to more than three seconds with 75 laps remaining, Herbst continued his march back to the front as he returned to the top 10 by moving up to 10th behind Grala.

    A few laps later, however, Herbst’s late rally from his early issues evaporated after he was forced to pit under green due to a flat right-front tire with smoke coming out of his car amid a tire rub. Mired back multiple laps once again, Herbst found himself strapped in 29th place while Kligerman continued to run in fifth as he was now scored 30 points above the cutline and in position to claim the final Playoff spot. Meanwhile, Nemechek extended his advantage to more than six seconds over Berry.

    With 63 laps remaining, the caution flew when Rajah Caruth was turned by Matt Mills and spun his No. 45 Circle Pay Chevrolet Camaro across the frontstretch grass and towards pit road before he looped his car straight and continued. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Nemechek peeled off the track to pit for service. Following the pit stops, Nemechek retained the lead after exiting first while Berry, Hill, Creed and Kligerman followed suit.

    As the race restarted with 57 laps remaining, Nemechek rocketed away from the field to retain the lead while Hill and Berry battled for second. As Berry rocketed away from Hill during the following lap with Nemechek out in front, Brandon Jones overtook both Kligerman and Creed through the backstretch just before the caution returned when Caruth slid his car sideways through Turns 3 and 4.

    When the race restarted with 50 laps remaining, Nemechek and Berry dueled for the lead through the frontstretch until Nemechek managed to muscle ahead with the lead entering the backstretch. Behind, Hill, Brandon Jones and Kligerman battled for third as Jones overtook both to move up to third before proceeding to catch teammate Berry for more. In the process, Hill and Kligerman kept battling for fourth place in front of Creed. Jones would then overtake teammate Berry for the runner-up spot with 47 laps remaining as he now set his sights on Nemechek for the lead and win to get into the Playoffs.

    With 35 laps remaining, Nemechek was leading by more than a second over Brandon Jones while Hill moved his No. 21 Bennett Transportation Chevrolet Camaro up to third place in front of Berry and Kligerman. Behind, Moffitt was in sixth while Creed, Kraus, Jeb Burton and Grala were scored in the top 10.

    Ten laps later, Nemechek stretched his advantage to more than three seconds over Brandon Jones while third-place Hill trailed by more than five seconds ahead of Berry and Kligerman. Nemechek would continue to extend his advantage to more than four seconds over Brandon Jones followed by Hill while Kligerman overtook Berry for fourth place with 20 laps remaining.

    Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Nemechek stabilized his advantage to nearly six seconds over Brandon Jones while Hill, Kligerman and Creed were trailing behind in the top five and by more than nine seconds. By then, Berry fell back to sixth while Moffitt, Kraus, Grala and Joe Graf Jr. were mired in the top 10.

    With five laps remaining, Nemechek continued to lead by more than six seconds over Brandon Jones as he continued to muscle away from the field while navigating his way through lapped traffic.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Nemechek remained as the leader by more than six seconds over Brandon Jones. With Jones too far back to mount a late charge, Nemechek, who continued to deal with lapped traffic, was able to cycle his way around the Kansas circuit for a final time smoothly and cross the finish line to claim his sixth checkered flag of the 2023 Xfinity season and by more than seven seconds over Jones.

    With the victory, Nemechek scored his eighth career victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, his sixth of the season, his second at Kansas and the 10th of the season for Joe Gibbs Racing. In addition, Nemechek recorded the milestone 200th Xfinity career win for the Toyota nameplate. Despite falling short of claiming the Xfinity Series regular-season title to Austin Hill by a mere margin, Nemechek enters the 2023 Xfinity Series Playoffs with momentum and with the top seed with 2,049 points as he prepares to embark on his quest to win his first Xfinity title.

    “I don’t if this [win] makes us the [championship] favorite or not, but super proud of this No. 20 team, Joe Gibbs Racing,” Nemechek said on NBC. “Man, it’s been a week. It’s been an exciting week, but I’m super pumped to get [the] Pye Barker Toyota GR Supra back in Victory Lane. [Crew chief] Ben [Beshore] and all the guys made the right adjustments all day. They brought a really fast hot rod. Overall, just super pumped, super ecstatic. I’m looking forward to getting in the Playoffs starting next weekend at Bristol [Motor Speedway]. We came in here today trying to get the regular-season championship. I said that we’re gonna have a 60-point day this weekend and that’s what we did. We controlled where we can control. We did everything that we could possibly do, so let’s get to the Playoffs. I’m ready.”

    Brandon Jones rallied from his pair of on-track spins by settling in second place, which marks his highest-finishing result of the season, but was not able to gain enough ground to make the Playoffs for himself and the No. 9 JR Motorsports team.

    Creed settled in third place followed by Parker Kligerman, who was able to clinch the 12th and final transfer spot into the Playoffs as both he and Big Machine Racing will make their inaugural presences in the Xfinity Series Playoffs as title contenders while seeded 12th in the Playoff standings with 2,002 points. With Kligerman in the Playoffs, Herbst, who came into Kansas a single point ahead of Kligerman, ended up dropping below the cutline amid his series of on-track issues and with a 23rd-place finish as he too missed the Playoffs.

    Photo by Simon Scoggins for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “That’s a very satisfying feeling,” Kligerman said. “I was definitely the biggest John Hunter [Nemechek] fan that last run there, seeing [Brandon Jones] be so fast that last run. I’m really proud of this whole Big Machine Racing team. They brought a really good Spiked Light Coolers Chevy as we showed throughout this race. We executed at a high level and that’s what I’m seeing us do for the last 12 weeks. I felt like if we could just get in the Playoffs and we bring this going forward, we’re gonna go racing for a championship. What an honor to get the first Playoff berth for this race team. Overall, just a really solid day where we executed on a high level. If we can do that in the next eight weeks, we got a chance at this thing.”

    “We just weren’t good enough today,” Herbst said. “I feel like we weren’t good enough, though, so that’s what’s frustrating. I just don’t think we executed on that restart [on Lap 64]. I don’t really know what happened. They all got stacked up. I don’t know if somebody missed a gear or spun the tires, but at that point, our day was kind of in a big hole. I feel like we can go now and try to win races. I don’t think we’re gonna quit working by any means and I think we’re gonna hopefully end up in Victory Lane by the year’s over.”

    Finishing behind Kligerman on the track was Austin Hill, who was able to lock up the Xfinity Series regular-season championship over Nemechek. As a result, Hill, who was awarded an additional 15 Playoff bonus points, will be seeded in second place behind Nemechek in the Playoff standings with 2,039 points as he prepares to contend for his first Xfinity title.

    “We just struggled all day with the balance of our Bennett Chevrolet,” Hill said. “We persevered, we dug deep. Not even sure how we finished in the top five there. Us getting the regular-season championship just shows that no matter how tough the battle is and how tough the uphill climb is, we never give up. We keep fighting. The guys did an awesome job on pit road on gaining me spots. That helped. We just had to go out there and just salvage what we could. Going into the Playoffs, we have a lot of work to do to catch up to [Nemechek]. He was class of the field today. We gotta be better come Bristol time.”

    Berry, Moffitt, Derek Kraus, Joe Graf Jr. and Kaz Grala finished in the top 10 on the track.

    John Hunter Nemechek, Austin Hill, Justin Allgaier, Cole Custer, Sam Mayer, rookie Chandler Smith, Josh Berry, Sheldon Creed, rookie Sammy Smith, Jeb Burton, Daniel Hemric and Parker Kligerman have made the 2023 Xfinity Series Playoffs and will embark on a seven-race stretch to battle for this year’s Xfinity Series championship.

    Riley Herbst, Brandon Jones, Brett Moffitt, rookie Parker Retzlaff, Kaz Grala, Ryan Sieg, Jeremy Clements, Anthony Alfredo, Joe Graf Jr., Kyle Sieg, Josh Williams, Brennan Poole, Ryan Ellis and Blaine Perkins are among the rest of the competitors who missed the Playoffs.

    There were seven lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured 10 cautions for 49 laps. In addition, 11 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Results.

    1. John Hunter Nemechek, 154 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

    2. Brandon Jones, two laps led

    3. Sheldon Creed

    4. Parker Kligerman

    5. Austin Hill

    6. Josh Berry

    7. Brett Moffitt

    8. Derek Kraus

    9. Joe Graf Jr.

    10. Kaz Grala

    11. Parker Retzlaff

    12. Jeb Burton, one lap down

    13. Josh Williams, one lap down

    14. Connor Mosack, one lap down

    15. Jeremy Clements, one lap down

    16. Mason Massey, one lap down

    17. Ryan Ellis, one lap down

    18. Justin Allgaier, one lap down, 40 laps led

    19. Matt Mills, two laps down

    20. Kyle Sieg, two laps down

    21. Dawson Cram, two laps down

    22. CJ McLaughlin, two laps down

    23. Riley Herbst, two laps down

    24. Joey Gase, two laps down

    25. Garrett Smithley, two laps down

    26. Leland Honeyman, three laps down

    27. Anthony Alfredo, three laps down

    28. Brennan Poole, three laps down

    29. Rajah Caruth, three laps down

    30. Ryan Sieg, four laps down

    31. Nick Leitz, six laps down

    32. Chandler Smith, 14 laps down

    33. Blaine Perkins – OUT, Brakes

    34. Daniel Hemric, 80 laps down

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

    36. Cole Custer – OUT, Accident, three laps led

    37. Sam Mayer – OUT, Accident

    38. Kyle Weatherman – OUT, Accident

    The 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs is set to commence next Friday, September 15, at Bristol Motor Speedway, with the event’s broadcast slated to occur at 7:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

  • Allgaier edges Creed in double overtime for thrilling Xfinity victory at Daytona

    Allgaier edges Creed in double overtime for thrilling Xfinity victory at Daytona

    Amid early adversity by dropping to the rear of the field and serving a pass-through penalty for multiple pre-qualifying technical failures to his No. 7 JR Motorsports entry, Justin Allgaier rallied in thrilling fashion by surviving two overtime attempts and late on-track chaos to edge Sheldon Creed in a photo finish and win the Wawa 250 at Daytona International Speedway on Friday, August 25.

    The 37-year-old Allgaier from Riverton, Illinois, led twice for 14 of 110 over-scheduled laps, including the final 12, in an event where he was one of five competitors who served a pass-through penalty through pit road following the opening lap and due to his entry failing pre-qualifying inspection three times. Being mired towards the rear of the field, Allgaier managed to methodically carve his way to the front amid the draft and tight-packed racing before he led for the first time with 15 laps remaining.

    Following a caution period due to a multi-car wreck with eight laps remaining, Allgaier, who was then running on fumes to have enough fuel to the finish, reclaimed the lead at the start of a two-lap shootout when another multi-car wreck sent the event into an overtime attempt. Amid another multi-car wreck that sent the field into a second overtime attempt, where he managed to retain the lead, Allgaier then fended off late challenges from Parker Kligerman and Daniel Hemric before Sheldon Creed launched a final side-by-side duel on the final lap. With both drag-racing to the finish, Allgaier managed to edge Creed by 0.005 seconds to claim his second checkered flag of the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series season and his first at Daytona.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, Austin Hill started on pole position after posting a pole-winning lap at 182.719 mph in 49.256 seconds. Joining him on the front row was his Richard Childress Racing teammate Sheldon Creed, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 181.620 mph in 49.554 seconds.

    Prior to the event, the following names that included Justin Allgaier, Jordan Anderson, Jeb Burton, rookie Parker Retzlaff and Ryan Sieg dropped to the rear of the field and were assessed pass-through penalties through pit road as a result of their respective entries failing pre-race technical inspection multiple times. Connor Mosack and Natalie Decker were also sent to the rear of the field for unapproved adjustments to their respective entries, but not assessed pass-through penalties.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, teammates Hill and Creed dueled for the lead entering the first turn until Hill muscled ahead from the outside lane. Hill then transitioned from the outside to the inside lane and back to the outside lane to defend his line and the lead while rookie Chandler Smith dueled and challenged rookie Sammy Smith for the lead. With the field running two by two and just as Allgaier, Anderson, Jeb Burton, Retzlaff and Ryan Sieg served their pass-through penalties, Hill proceeded to lead the first lap while Chandler Smith and Sammy Smith continued to duel for the runner-up spot.

    Just past the third lap mark, Hill maintained the lead as he was running on the outside lane while Sammy Smith tried to challenge Hill for the lead on the inside lane as he had Creed following him while Chandler Smith and Daniel Hemric remained on the outside lane to assist Hill amid the draft.

    Through the first five scheduled laps and with the field still running in two stacked lanes amid the draft, Hill was leading ahead of Chandler Smith, Sammy Smith, Hemric and Trevor Bayne while Creed, Sam Mayer, Parker Kligerman, Riley Herbst and Justin Haley were in the top 10. By then, Kaz Grala was in 11th ahead of Cole Custer, Anthony Alfredo, Josh Berry and John Hunter Nemechek while Brandon Jones, Brett Moffitt, Joe Graf Jr., Jeremy Clements and JJ Yeley occupied the top 20. In addition, the top 32 competitors were separated by three seconds.

    A lap later, Sammy Smith gained a run beneath Hill entering the frontstretch and started to inch ahead, but Hill managed to regain his momentum and retain the top spot by a hair towards the start/finish line mark. Hill and Smith continued to duel for the top spot during the proceeding laps until Smith managed to lead a lap for himself on the eighth lap.

    At the Lap 10 mark, Sammy Smith, who continued to duel against Hill for the lead, was leading by 0.003 seconds over Hill as the top-32 competitors were separated by five seconds amid the draft.

    Five laps later, Hill, who reassumed the lead on Lap 11, retained the lead ahead of teammate Creed followed by Chandler Smith, Hemric and Alfredo while Mayer, Moffitt, Clements, Custer and Kligerman were in the top 10, with a majority of the field migrating to the outside lane behind Hill. Meanwhile, Herbst, who was running 31st, reported a steering issue to his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang, though he continued to run at full pace.

    At Lap 20 and with nearly the entire field running in a long single file line on the outside lane, Hill, who had debris on his front grille, continued to lead ahead of Creed followed by Chandler Smith, Hemric and Alfredo while Moffitt, Clements, Mayer, Custer and Kligerman retained the top-10 spots in the running order. Shortly after, Mayer, who was running eighth, attempted to make a move to the front amid the draft as he transitioned from the outside to the inside lane, but he had no assistance from anyone as he dropped towards the top 15 on the track. With Kligerman also meeting the same fate as his move to the bottom lane did not prevail, Hill would retain the lead ahead of teammate Creed and Chandler Smith through the Lap 25 mark.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 30, Hill, who fended off a late surge from Chandler Smith through the backstretch as he maintained control of both lanes through Turns 3 and 4, claimed his fourth stage victory of the 2023 season. Creed edged Chandler Smith to settle in second while Moffitt, Alfredo, Brandon Jones, Hemric, Clements, Custer and Bayne were scored in the top 10. By then, Herbst blew a left-front tire and damaged his fender amid his steering issue as he limped his Ford back to pit road. The issue would place Herbst three laps behind the leaders despite continuing under full pace while his Playoff hopes were taking another hit amid on-track issues.

    Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Hill pitted. Following the pit stops and amid mixed strategies, Hill exited first ahead of Nemechek, Creed, Sammy Smith and Kligerman, all of whom took two tires, while sixth-place Chandler Smith was the first competitor to opt for four fresh tires ahead of teammate Hemric and Brandon Jones.

    The second stage started on Lap 36 as teammates Hill and Creed occupied the front row. At the start, Nemechek gave Hill a push to muscle ahead of Creed which enabled Hill to maintain the lead. Hill then continued to run the outside lane in front of Nemechek, Sammy Smith and Chandler Smith while Creed was trying to fight back on the inside lane with drafting help from Kligerman. As the field fanned out to three lanes entering the frontstretch, Hill retained the lead.

    By Lap 40, Creed gained a run on the inside lane with drafting help from Kligerman as he muscled ahead of Hill and led a lap for himself. A lap later and with the field fanned out to three lanes, the caution flew when Anthony Alfredo moved up the track and made contact with Brandon Jones who got loose and clipped Moffitt before both veered and collided against the outside wall towards the frontstretch. The incident triggered a multi-car wreck that involved Connor Mosack, Kyle Weatherman, Allgaier, Haley, Connor Mosack, Moffitt, Grala, Joe Graf Jr., Ryan Sieg, Natalie Decker and Alex Guenette. During the extensive caution period, some led by Berry pitted while the rest led by Creed remained on the track.

    When the race restarted on Lap 50, which marked the halfway mark of this event, Creed received a shove from teammate Hill to muscle ahead from the outside lane ahead of Kligerman. Despite Kligerman drawing even with Creed through the backstretch, Creed fired back on top through Turns 3 and 4 and back to the frontstretch before Kligerman fought back during the following lap in Turn 1. Kligerman then received a huge push from Nemechek and Bayne through the backstretch to rocket ahead with the lead as he led the Lap 52 mark.

    By Lap 53, however, Bayne, who was making his first of three Xfinity starts of the season while driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, powered past Kligerman and emerged as the new leader while Kligerman and Chandler Smith battled for second in front of Nemechek, Creed, Hill and Hemric. Bayne would proceed to lead through and past the Lap 55 mark as the field settled in a long single-file line behind Bayne and towards the outside wall amid the draft.

    Two laps later, Creed made his move beneath the inside lane and overtook Bayne to reassume the lead followed by teammate Hill and Kligerman. Hill then bailed on Creed as he assumed the lead. In the process, Bayne and Kligerman moved to second and third while Creed fell back to fourth in front of Sammy Smith and Hemric.

    When the second stage concluded on Lap 60, Creed, who threw a big block on Custer through the backstretch before drawing even against teammate Hill through Turns 3 and 4, edged Hill by a fender to claim the stage victory, which marked his fourth of the 2023 season. Hill settled in second ahead of Custer, Sammy Smith and Hemric while Nemechek, Bayne, Kligerman, Mayer and Chandler Smith were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Creed pitted. Following the pit stops and another cycle of mixed strategies, Mayer, who nearly spun his car upon exiting his pit stall, exited first after opting for no fresh tires followed by Creed, who pitted for two fresh tires, as Allgaier, Hill, Sammy Smith, Custer and Berry followed suit. By then, Bayne, who exited pit road in 10th, was the first competitor who opted for four fresh tires.

    With 34 laps remaining, the final stage started as Mayer and Creed occupied the front row. At the start, Mayer and Creed dueled for the lead entering the first turn until Creed muscled ahead from the inside lane with drafting help from teammate Hill while Mayer was trying to connect with teammate Allgaier from the outside lane. Creed and Hill, however, would prevail on the inside lane as they rocketed away from the field that fanned out to three stacked lanes through the frontstretch and during the proceeding lap.

    With 30 laps remaining, Creed and Sammy Smith dueled for the lead in front of two stacked lanes as Creed had teammate Hill assisting him amid the draft while Smith had teammates Bayne and Nemechek along with Kligerman assisting him on the inside lane. Smith would prevail through the backstretch as he led the following lap before Creed returned the favor and reassumed the lead. By then, Smith, who nearly got turned by Hill through the backstretch, was deadlocked against Bayne for the runner-up spot until Bayne muscled ahead and started to challenge Creed for the lead with drafting help from Nemechek.

    Five laps later, Bayne, who had been dueling against Creed during the previous few laps for the lead, had the top spot and both lanes to his control as he was ahead of teammates Nemechek and Sammy Smith amid two tight-packed lanes. Shortly after, Kligerman made a bold three-wide move on the backstretch to assume the runner-up spot as he settled behind Bayne while Creed dueled Sammy Smith for third in front of Nemechek and Hill. Teammates Sammy Smith and Nemechek would reclaim second and third during the following lap as they both settled behind Bayne amid the draft. Nemechek and Smith, however, would both get shuffled out of the draft with 22 laps remaining as Kligerman reclaimed second while Creed, Mayer, Hill and Allgaier were in the top six.

    With 20 laps remaining, Bayne, trying to block both lanes, was still leading ahead of Creed and Kligerman while Hill, Mayer and Allgaier joined the battle toward the front. Two laps later, Mayer muscled ahead beneath Bayne to lead a lap for himself before Bayne fought back on the outside lane. With Bayne having Creed pushing him from the outside lane, Mayer had teammate Allgaier assisting him on the inside lane as Jeb Burton charged his way into the top five along with Creed, Kligerman and Nemechek.

    Five laps later, Allgaier, who received a huge push from Bayne through the backstretch, managed to duel and overtake teammate Mayer to lead and muscle ahead of the pack that fanned out to three tight lanes. With Allgaier leading, he then blocked teammate Mayer to defend the spot and maintain control of both lanes as Bayne also tried to fight back with drafting help from Creed. Bayne would then draw even against Allgaier through Turns 3 and 4 before sliding in front of Allgaier and reassuming the lead with 13 laps remaining. With Bayne back out in front ahead of Allgaier and Creed, Hill pushed Kligerman to fourth while Mayer was getting shuffled out of the top five. With Hill cracking back in the top three, he gave teammate Creed the assistance needed to reassume a brief lead from Bayne with 12 laps remaining before Bayne fought back and dueled with Creed for the lead.

    Dow to the final 10 laps of the event, Bayne was leading by 0.027 seconds ahead of Creed with Allgaier, Hill and Kligerman running in the top five while Chandler Smith, Hemric, Mayer, Alfredo and Jeb Burton were battling in the top 10. By then, Sammy Smith and Nemechek were back in the top 12 while Custer and Berry were mired outside the top 15.

    Then two laps later, the caution flew when Jeb Burton, who was running in the top 10, veered sideways entering Turns 3 and 4 and despite trying to keep his car straight, he ended up spinning before making contact with the outside wall. Amid Burton’s wreck, more issues ensued behind the lead pack as Haley got hit by Caesar Bacarella as he spun while Ryan Ellis also spun and pounded the inside wall towards the pit road entrance head-on while Bacarella plowed his damaged car through the frontstretch grass. At the moment of caution, Bayne retained the lead after executing a bold block on Hill through Turns 3 and 4 as Allgaier, Hill, Kligerman and Chandler Smith were scored in the top five.

    During the caution period, some like Custer, Berry, Moffitt, Clements, Ryan Sieg, Garrett Smithley and Blaine Perkins pitted while the rest led by Bayne remained on the track.

    With the event restarting with two laps remaining, where Bayne and Allgaier occupied the front row front of Kligerman and Hill, Allgaier and Bayne dueled for the lead exiting the backstretch until Hill tried to make a move to the outside of Bayne. As Bayne tried to block Hill, his late move ended up being costly as Bayne got turned into the outside wall and ignited a chain reaction multi-car wreck with Chandler Smith getting bumped by teammate Hemric and turned into Nemechek and Mayer, who spun and clipped Bayne’s No. 19 He Gets Us Toyota Supra as Bayne then clipped teammate Nemechek in the process and destroyed his rear deck lid, as Sammy Smith, JJ Yeley and Jeffrey Earnhardt sustained damage to their respective entries. Amid the wreck that eliminated most of the front-runners, Allgaier escaped with the race lead followed by Kligerman, Retzlaff, Hemric and Creed. The wreck also sent the event into overtime.

    During the first overtime attempt, where Allgaier and Kligerman occupied the front row, Allgaier muscled ahead in his No. 7 Hellmann’s Chevrolet Camaro with a narrow lead over Kligerman’s No. 48 Spiked Coolers Chevrolet Camaro as the field started to fan out exiting the frontstretch and entering the first turn. Allgaier and Kligerman dueled for the top spot through Turns 1 and 2 before Allgaier started to inch ahead with drafting help from Creed on the inside lane. Then through the backstretch, the caution returned and the event was sent into a second overtime attempt when Blaine Perkins got loose and turned into Josh Williams, who spun and clipped Berry into a spin before he hit the outside wall head-on as his car briefly got airborne after then getting hit by Nemechek’s No. 20 Yahoo! Toyota Supra, whose event came to a fiery end. Bayne, Clements and Moffitt were also involved in the wreck as their runs came to a late end.

    For the second overtime attempt, Allgaier surged ahead on the inside lane while Hemric and Kligerman battled for the runner-up spot. As the field fanned out through the first two turns and the backstretch, Hemric and Kligerman appeared to have formed a two-car tandem behind Allgaier before Kligerman made a move to Hemric’s outside. This allowed Allgaier to maintain the lead as Creed drafted Kligerman away from Hemric with more momentum coming to the outside lane.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Allgaier remained as the leader over Kligerman, Creed and the field through the frontstretch. With the event remaining under green flag conditions as Kaz Grala spun towards the frontstretch, Creed made his move into the runner-up spot amid a tight battle with Kligerman while Allgaier was left to fend off both lanes by himself as he was pulling away from the field.

    Then through the backstretch, Creed gained a draft from Hemric to make his move to Allgaier’s outside as both dueled for the top spot through Turns 3 and 4. With the field approaching the frontstretch while Jordan Anderson and Berry wrecked behind, Allgaier managed to surge ahead and edge Creed’s No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Camaro by 0.005 seconds to claim his first victory at Daytona.

    With the victory, Allgaier scored his 21st career victory in the Xfinity Series, his first since winning at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May and his first at Daytona in his 26th series start as he became the fifth series regular to achieve multiple victories this season. The victory was the fourth of the season for JR Motorsports, the team’s eighth at Daytona and the 13th of the season for the Chevrolet nameplate.

    “I’ve been coming to this place for a long time,” Allgaier, who celebrated on the frontstretch with his team, said on USA Network. “I’ve wanted to win here so bad and we’ve been so close. This team, I just can’t say enough. [Crew chief] Jim Pohlman, everybody on this No. 7 team, everybody at JR Motorsports. Our Hellmann’s Camaro was awesome tonight. To come through the adversity we had to come through and to not really be sure what we were going to have there at the end. We did all the things we needed to do. The team never quit, never gave up and we rallied. Obviously, we put ourselves in good position. Man, it’s special. This is Daytona. This is one of the iconic places in the world and I’m just so thankful to be here.”

    Despite finishing in the runner-up spot for the fifth time in his Xfinity career and second in recent weeks after falling short a week ago at Watkins Glen International, Creed remained optimistic over his strong run throughout the night as he is 60 points above the top-12 cutline to make the 2023 Xfinity Series Playoffs with two regular-season events remaining on the schedule.

    “We have some momentum, finally,” Creed said. “Back-to-back second places. I’m cleaning it up and doing better myself. Just putting races together. I thought we killed it tonight. [Finished] second [in] Stage 1, won Stage 2…Just an amazing night for us. Good points night for us, so we’re gonna make the Playoffs this year and we’re gonna keep fighting for these good finishes. It’s a good time to be heating up.”

    Hemric came home in third place for his fifth top-five finish of the season followed by Kligerman, who nabbed his sixth top-five result of the season and coming off the announcement that he will be remaining at Big Machine Racing for the 2024 season. Hemric’s run currently places him 57 points above the top-12 cutline to make the 2023 Xfinity Playoffs while Kligerman was able to crack the top-12 cutline and be 20 points within the cutline amid Herbst’s issues as Herbst ended up 24th, two laps down.

    Cole Custer finished fifth while Ryan Sieg, Parker Retzlaff, Alfredo, Gray Gaulding and Haley completed the top 10 on the track.

    There were 20 lead changes for nine different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 32 laps. In addition, 19 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    With two Xfinity regular-season events remaining on the schedule, Austin Hill continues to lead the regular-season standings by 27 points over Justin Allgaier and 28 over John Hunter Nemechek.

    Results.

    1. Justin Allgaier, 14 laps led

    2. Sheldon Creed, 21 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    3. Daniel Hemric

    4. Parker Kligerman, one lap led

    5. Cole Custer, one lap led

    6. Ryan Sieg

    7. Parker Retzlaff

    8. Anthony Alfredo

    9. Gray Gaulding

    10. Justin Haley

    11. Jeffrey Earnhardt

    12. Jeb Burton

    13. Kyle Sieg

    14. Joey Gase

    15. Jordan Anderson

    16. Garrett Smithley

    17. Josh Berry

    18. Brett Moffitt

    19. Sam Mayer, six laps led

    20. Kaz Grala, one lap down

    21. Sammy Smith, one lap down, four laps led

    22. Chandler Smith, one lap down, one lap led

    23. Austin Hill, one lap down, 36 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    24. Riley Herbst, two laps down

    25. Blaine Perkins, two laps down

    26. Jeremy Clements – OUT, Accident

    27. Josh Williams – OUT, Accident

    28. John Hunter Nemechek – OUT, Accident

    29. Trevor Bayne – OUT, Accident, 26 laps led

    30. JJ Yeley – OUT, Accident

    31. Caesar Bacarella – OUT, Accident

    32. Ryan Ellis – OUT, Accident

    33. Kyle Weatherman – OUT, Dvp

    34. Joe Graf Jr. – OUT, Dvp

    35. Natalie Decker – OUT, Accident

    36. Brandon Jones – OUT, Accident

    37. Connor Mosack – OUT, Accident

    38. Alex Guenette – OUT, Accident

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the series’ second and final visit of this season to Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, September 2, during Labor Day weekend at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

  • Mayer spins Gibbs, rallies for wild Xfinity victory at Watkins Glen

    Mayer spins Gibbs, rallies for wild Xfinity victory at Watkins Glen

    From conserving the low fuel needed to finish to spinning dominant Ty Gibbs out of the lead during an overtime shootout, Sam Mayer raced his way to an overwhelming victory in the Shriners Children’s 200 at The Glen on Saturday, August 19.

    The 20-year-old Mayer from Franklin, Wisconsin, led twice for eight of 86 over-scheduled laps in an event where he started fifth and assumed the lead for the first time with 10 laps remaining amid a late gamble to stretch his low fuel tank to the distance ahead of teammate Justin Allgaier and pole-sitter Ty Gibbs. During a late caution period with seven laps remaining, where Mayer elected to remain on the track with the lead ahead of Allgaier and Gibbs, Mayer was quickly overtaken by Gibbs while trying to block him through the frontstretch. Despite falling back to third, Mayer received another opportunity to win amid another caution period for a wreck that involved Allgaier and sent the event into overtime.

    Then, at the start of overtime, Mayer bumped and ran into the rear of Gibbs which sent Gibbs spinning. With Gibbs out of contention, Mayer, who despite sustained minor fender damage to his car while running on fumes with his low fuel tank, moved up to second as Sheldon Creed assumed the lead. Then after Creed missed the final turn approaching the start of the final lap, Mayer capitalized on Creed’s misfortune to assume the lead for good as he methodically navigated his way around the circuit for a final time before zipping back to the frontstretch and claiming the second checkered flag of this season and of his NASCAR Xfinity Series career.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Ty Gibbs, winner of last weekend’s Xfinity event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, notched his first pole position of the season after posting a pole-winning lap at 125.019 mph in 70.549 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Alex Bowman, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 124.721 mph in 70.718 seconds.

    Prior to the event, however, Bowman joined Cole Custer, Brett Moffitt and rookie Parker Retzlaff as competitors who dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments and mechanical repairs to their respective entries. Bowman’s move enabled Daniel Hemric to move up and start alongside Ty Gibbs on the front row.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Ty Gibbs jumped ahead with an early advantage as the field fanned out entering the first turn. As Gibbs led through the first four turns before entering a brief backstretch approaching the Inner Loop, Justin Allgaier made his way into the runner-up spot while Hemric retained third in front of teammate Kyle Busch, Sam Mayer and Josh Berry. With the field navigating through the Inner and Outer Loop turns before entering the final set of turns to Turn 7 and back to the frontstretch at The Glen, Gibbs proceeded to lead the first lap.

    Through the second lap, Gibbs retained the lead by four-tenths of a second over Allgaier. By then, Busch and Mayer moved up to third and fourth while Hemric fell back to fifth as the field jostled and bumped for early positions around the circuit.

    Through the first five scheduled laps, Ty Gibbs was leading by more than two seconds over Allgaier followed by Mayer, Kyle Busch and Berry while Hemric, rookie Sammy Smith, Riley Herbst, Austin Hill and John Hunter Nemechek were in the top 10. Behind, Sheldon Creed was in 11th ahead of Parker Kligerman, Kaz Grala, Jeremy Clements and rookie Chandler Smith while Ross Chastain, Brandon Jones, Alex Labbe, Jeb Burton and Sage Karam occupied the top 20. Meanwhile, Custer was back in 21st and Bowman was mired in 25th behind Ryan Sieg. In addition, Brennan Poole plummeted to 37th after spinning through the Inner Loop Bus Stop corner amid contact with Max McLaughlin a lap prior.

    At the Lap 10 mark, Ty Gibbs continued to lead by more than three seconds over Allgaier while Mayer retained third. By then, Berry moved up to fourth while Busch fell back to fifth in front of Austin Hill, Nemechek, Sammy Smith, Herbst and Creed. In the midst of the early racing, the event remained under green flag conditions amid an on-track condition in the Bus Stop corner when Jeremy Clements blew a right-front tire and clipped Chandler Smith as both went off the course with Smith spinning backward. A few laps earlier, Connor Mosack encountered on-track issues of his own after spinning in the Bus Stop corner.

    Not long after, Kyle Busch pitted his No. 10 LA Golf Chevrolet Camaro under green to address debris on his front grille that affected his brakes. With Busch losing spots amid his pit stops, Ty Gibbs extended his advantage to more than three seconds over Allgaier. Gibbs would stabilize his advantage to nearly four seconds over Allgaier just past the Lap 15 mark. By then, Herbst, who was running seventh, was reporting the transmission popping out of gear in his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang, though he continued to run under full pace around the circuit.

    At the conclusion of the first stage period on Lap 20, Ty Gibbs claimed his fourth Xfinity stage victory of the 2023 season after retaining the lead from the drop of the green flag. Allgaier settled in second followed by teammates Mayer and Berry while Austin Hill, Nemechek, Creed, Herbst, Custer and Kligerman were scored in the top 10.

    With the event proceeding under green just past the Lap 20 mark to start the second stage, the event’s first caution period shortly flew when Ryan Ellis came to a stop on the course. By then, select names that included Bowman and Chandler Smith pitted for service. Smith, however, would be penalized for driving his No. 16 Quick Tie Products Chevrolet Camaro through too many pit boxes while exiting his upon his completed service.

    During the first caution period, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Ty Gibbs pitted while Bowman remained on the track to inherit the race lead. Following the pit stops, Gibbs exited first followed by Allgaier, Hill, Berry, Creed and Nemechek.

    Just as the event was set to restart under green on Lap 24, the caution period continued to stand when Josh Williams sustained heavy front nose damage to his No. 92 Nordic Logistics Chevrolet Camaro. At the same time, Moffitt took his car to the garage due to a rear-end issue while the on-track safety crew proceeded to address any debris or fluid leaking on the course near the carnage scene.

    Following a lengthy caution period, the race restarted under green on Lap 26 as Bowman and Ty Gibbs occupied the front row. At the start, Bowman and Ty Gibbs dueled for the lead entering the first turn until Gibbs used the outside lane to his advantage as he muscled ahead of Bowman prior to entering Turns 2 to 4 to reassume the lead. With Gibbs leading Bowman and Allgaier through the Inner Loop Bus Stop corner, Hill was in fourth ahead of Berry, Creed and Custer while Nemechek was in eighth ahead of Herbst and Kligerman. As the field continued to jostle and scramble for positions for a full lap around the circuit, with even mechanical debris flying around the circuit, Gibbs stretched his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over Bowman while third-place Allgaier trailed by more than a second.

    During the following lap, Grala and Sammy Smith rubbed fenders through the Bus Stop corner as Grala moved up to 12th over Smith followed by Hemric. In the process, Ty Gibbs extended his advantage to a second over Bowman while Allgaier, Austin Hill and Berry remained in the top five. By then, Custer moved his No. 00 HighPoint Ford Mustang up to sixth in front of Creed, Mayer, Herbst and Kligerman while Gibbs continued to lead at the Lap 30 mark.

    On Lap 31, the event’s second caution period flew when Grala, who was running 12th, was bumped by Sammy Smith entering the Bus Stop corner as he went off the course and plowed his No. 26 Island Coastal Lager Toyota Supra through the course’s grass and Go Bowling sign before returning back onto the racing surface while sending debris on the track. During the caution period, Grala, who ended with a clogged front grille full of grass, ran into the rear of Smith’s No. 18 Pilot Flying J Toyota Supra, which sustained front nose damage, to express his displeasure over the contact.

    During the caution period, select names that included Sammy Smith, Grala, Retzlaff, Joe Graf Jr., Chandler Smith and Kyle Sieg pitted while the rest led by Ty Gibbs remained on the track.

    During the event’s restart on Lap 33, Gibbs retained the lead after a strong restart while Allgaier and Bowman battled and bumped for the runner-up spot as Allgaier claimed the spot through Turns 2 to 4. In the process, Austin Hill closed in on Allgaier and Bowman from fourth place while Custer and Berry battled for fifth. With the field battling, jostling and kicking up dust through the Bus Stop corner, Ty Gibbs stretched his advantage to more than a second over Allgaier.

    A lap later, Bowman reclaimed the runner-up spot over Allgaier, who went wide and off the course through Turn 1 after barely scrubbing the wall through the frontstretch, while Hill moved his No. 21 Bennett Transporation Chevrolet Camaro up to third. Custer and Mayer would pursue Allgaier within close quarters amid the racing while Ty Gibbs continued to lead by more than a second at the Lap 35 mark.

    Then with three laps remaining in the second stage period, Herbst, who was in ninth, pitted under green due to a track bar issue to his car. With the track bar broken on his car, Herbst, who returned on the course only to have a trail of smoke billowing out of his car due to his mechanical issue, took his car to the garage and eventually retired as Ty Gibbs retained the lead ahead of Bowman and Austin Hill.

    At the conclusion of the second stage period on Lap 40, Ty Gibbs claimed his second consecutive stage victory of the day. Bowman trailed in second along with Hill, Allgaier and Custer while Mayer, Berry, Nemechek, Creed and Kligerman were scored in the top 10. By then, Mosack was down in 26th after running his No. 24 Toyota Genuine Parts Supra off the course in Turn 10 while battling Stanton Barrett for position.

    With the event commencing under a continuous green flag period with 42 laps remaining, Ty Gibbs was leading by more than two seconds over Bowman while Hill, Allgaier and Custer remained in the top five. A few laps later, Hill and Custer moved up to third and fourth while Allgaier settled in fifth in front of teammate Mayer. By then, Ty Gibbs extended his advantage to more than four seconds over Bowman.

    Then with 37 laps remaining, the caution flew when Max McLaughlin slipped and collided into the outside wall in Turn 7 as he emerged with significant rear-end damage to his No. 96 Randco Chevrolet Camaro. During the caution period, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Ty Gibbs pitted for service while Kyle Weatherman remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Hill exited first over Gibbs while Bowman, Custer, Creed, Nemechek and Mayer followed in pursuit.

    With 32 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Gibbs launched a bold three-wide move on both Weatherman and Hill to assume the lead entering the first turn as the field fanned out. With Gibbs retaining the lead from Turns 2 to 4, Hill pursued in second while Bowman followed suit in third along with Custer, Creed and Allgaier as Weatherman started to go backward.

    During the following lap and as the field continued to jostle for late positions with nearly 30 laps remaining, Ty Gibbs stretched his advantage to more than a second over Austin Hill while third-place Bowman also trailed by more than a second, though Bowman started to close in on Hill for second along with Custer and Allgaier. By then, Weatherman fell out of the top 10 while Sammy Smith and Grala, amid their on-track contact, were in ninth and 10th ahead of Kyle Busch and Hemric.

    With 28 laps remaining, Nemechek, who was running ninth, pitted his No. 20 Mobil 1 Toyota Supra to ensure that he would have enough fuel to the scheduled distance. Teammate Sammy Smith would also pit for fuel during the following lap while the rest of the field led by Ty Gibbs remained on the track, with a majority uncertain if they would have enough to finish the race.

    Three laps later, Ty Gibbs extended his advantage to more than three seconds over Austin Hill while third-place Bowman trailed by nearly four seconds. Custer and Allgaier remained in the top five while Mayer, Creed, Grala, Kyle Busch and Hemric trailed in the top 10. By then, Kligerman, Berry, Sage Karam, Brandon Jones and Ryan Sieg were in the top 15 while teammates Nemechek and Sammy Smith were in 25th and 26th.

    Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Ty Gibbs stabilized his advantage to more than three seconds over Austin Hill while Bowman, Custer and Allgaier remained in the top five. Behind, Mayer, Creed, Grala, Kyle Busch and Hemric continued to run in the top 10 amid continuous concerns of fuel shortages for the front-runners.

    A lap later, trouble struck for third- and fourth-place runners Bowman and Custer after Custer, who tried to make a move beneath Bowman, bumped the curb and made contact with Bowman in Turn 1 as both spun together in the turn. Both continued to run without drawing a caution as Mayer and Allgaier moved up the leaderboard. Bowman managed to fall back to fifth in his No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro while Custer was back in eighth. A lap later, Custer’s event that went from good to bad became worse when he got loose and spun off the course and up the hill in Turn 3 as he continued to plummet below the leaderboard.

    With 15 laps remaining, Ty Gibbs retained the lead by more than three seconds over Austin Hill while Mayer, Allgaier and Bowman remained in the top five ahead of Creed, Grala, Hemric, Kligerman and Kyle Busch.

    Three laps later, Austin Hill surrendered the runner-up spot to pit for four fresh tires and fuel. Ryan Sieg would also pit not long after while Ty Gibbs continued to lead over runner-up Mayer and Allgaier. Another two laps later, however, Ty Gibbs pitted his No. 19 He Gets Us Toyota Supra from the lead for fuel as Mayer assumed the lead. Upon exiting pit road, Gibbs blended back onto the racetrack in sixth place behind Creed while Grala and Hemric would pit with eight laps remaining while Mayer and Allgaier continued to run first and second on the track.

    Then with seven laps remaining, the caution flew when Parker Retzlaff went off the course and spun sideways before he got his No. 31 Funkaway Chevrolet Camaro stuck in the gravel trap in Turn 6. By then, Hemric, who endured a slow pit stop, took his car to the garage due to a mechanical issue to his car. During the caution period, a majority of the field led by Bowman pitted while the rest led by Mayer, Allgaier and Ty Gibbs remained on the track amid mixed strategies.

    Down to the final four laps of the event, the race restarted under green as teammates Mayer and Allgaier occupied the front row in front of Ty Gibbs and Kyle Busch. At the start, the field fanned out as Mayer tried to block Ty Gibbs through the frontstretch. Gibbs, though, managed to rocket ahead and overtake Mayer before overtaking Allgaier through the first turn when Allgaier went wide. With the entire field also going wide and off the course through the first turn while Kyle Busch fell off the pace, Gibbs and Mayer dueled for the lead through Turns 2 to 4 until Gibbs rocketed away. Mayer was then left to fend off teammate Allgaier and Hill for the runner-up spot until Hill bumped and overtook the spot from Mayer through the Bus Stop Corner.

    Then exiting the Bus Stop Corner, trouble struck when Allgaier made contact with Custer and was sent spinning. In the ensuing chaos, Sammy Smith bumped and turned Bowman into the path of Connor Mosack while Brandon Jones and Grala collided into Allgaier, causing a caution as debris was left scattered across the Outer Loop Corner. The on-track carnage was enough to send the event into overtime.

    During the first overtime attempt, where Ty Gibbs and Austin Hill occupied the front row, Gibbs muscled ahead of the field that was stacked in two lanes entering the first turn. Then in Turn 1, Mayer collided with Gibbs and sent Gibbs for a spin. In the ensuing chaos, Hill got hit by Custer as he spun while the rest of the field muscled away exiting Turn 1. With the field navigating through Turns 2 to 4, Sheldon Creed emerged with the lead followed by Mayer and Berry. Creed would continue to lead through the Inner and Outer Loop corners while Mayer trailed in second. Then exiting the Outer Loop, Berry got loose and spun his No. 8 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro from third place as he fell out of contention while the event remained under green. Not long after, Creed, who nearly got loose while trying to fend off Mayer in Turn 6, slipped again in Turn 7 and missed the turn, which allowed Mayer to assume the lead in his No. 1 Accelerate Pros Talent Chevrolet Camaro.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Mayer remained as the leader by six-tenths of a second over Creed while Sammy Smith spun behind in the middle of the field. With the event remaining under green flag, Mayer, who continued to run under full pace amid concerns of running low on fuel, managed to cycle his way around the circuit for a final time and beat Creed by nine-tenths of a second to grab his second checkered flag in four weeks at Watkins Glen.

    With the victory, Mayer notched his second NASCAR Xfinity Series career victory in his 74th series start, all occurring on road course events, and he became the fourth Xfinity regular to notch multiple victories in this year’s Xfinity season. In addition to becoming the first full-time Xfinity competitor to win at Watkins Glen since Austin Cindric made the last accomplishment in 2019, Mayer notched the third victory of the season for JR Motorsports and the 12th of the season for the Chevrolet nameplate.

    “The first [restart], I got used up,” Mayer said on USA Network. “I thought I had a good [restart] there, but all glory to God for this one because we had to work our tails off for it. [Crew chief] Mardy [Lindley] on top of the [pit] box, everyone on pit road. We earned this one, for sure. It feels good to have a car as fast as Xfinity 10G, no matter where you go and no matter what the situation is. It feels really, really good. I wheel-hopped [the car]. That’s unfortunate. I feel bad for [spinning Gibbs]. Obviously, you don’t want to take out a [Joe] Gibbs car like that or any car like that. Just trying to get another win in the Xfinity Series. I got a lot of catching up to do. I was in there. I put my nose in there and that’s part of it. Fenders are fenders. That’s an accident, but I think everyone can agree that it’s OK for an Xfinity Series regular to win this race.”

    While Mayer celebrated the victory in front of the stands, Gibbs was left disappointed on pit road after leading a race-high 70 laps and ended up 17th in the final running order.

    “It just really sucks,” Gibbs said. “Definitely sucks to get cleaned out there. I had a good time running these things this year. I think it’s just a part of life and it’s part of racing. You just get over it. When stuff like that happens and desperate moves like that happen, it’s just part of it and you just got to keep going. I don’t really know how much of a conversation you can really have with [Mayer] in that situation. We, kind of, grew up around racing each other. He has more starts than I do and this is his second win. So, congratulations to him on his second win. Definitely wished I could’ve gotten my 13th [win] there.”

    Creed, who was a lap away from claiming his first Xfinity victory, settled in the runner-up spot for the fourth time of his career while Parker Kligerman finished third for his fifth top-five result of the season as he is only three points below the top-12 cutline to make the 2023 Xfinity Series Playoffs.

    Ross Chastain and Connor Mosack finished in the top five while Nemechek, Custer, Chandler Smith, Bowman and Jeb Burton completed the top 10 on the track. Notably, Austin Hill ended up 14th, Allgaier settled in 16th in front of Ty Gibbs and Sammy Smith, Berry fell back to 20th upon his late spin and Hemric ended up 23rd. In addition, Kyle Busch ended up 27th after retiring due to a late transmission issue.

    There were nine lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 18 laps. In addition, 21 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    With three Xfinity regular-season events remaining on the schedule, Austin Hill leads the regular-season standings by nine points over John Hunter Nemechek and 34 over Justin Allgaier.

    Results.

    1. Sam Mayer, eight laps led

    2. Sheldon Creed

    3. Parker Kligerman

    4. Ross Chastain

    5. Connor Mosack

    6. John Hunter Nemechek

    7. Cole Custer, one lap led

    8. Chandler Smith

    9. Alex Bowman, four laps led

    10. Jeb Burton

    11. Brandon Jones

    12. Brennan Poole

    13. Kyle Weatherman, two laps led

    14. Austin Hill

    15. Sage Karam

    16. Justin Allgaier, one lap led

    17. Ty Gibbs, 70 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

    18. Sammy Smith

    19. Kyle Sieg

    20. Josh Berry

    21. Ryan Sieg

    22. Joe Graf Jr., one lap down

    23. Daniel Hemric, two laps down

    24. Alex Labbe, three laps down

    25. Josh Bilicki, three laps down

    26. Parker Retzlaff, four laps down

    27. Kyle Busch – OUT, Transmission

    28. Kaz Grala – OUT, Accident

    29. Brett Moffitt – OUT, Suspension

    30. Ryan Ellis, 21 laps down

    31. Anthony Alfredo – OUT, Axle

    32. Stanton Barrett – OUT, Suspension

    33. Stefan Parsons – OUT, Brakes

    34. Max McMaughlin – OUT, Accident

    35. Riley Herbst – OUT, Suspension

    36. Josh Williams – OUT, Accident

    37. Jeremy Clements – OUT, Suspension

    38. Blaine Perkins – OUT, Transmission

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the series’s second and final visit of the season to Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. The event is scheduled to occur next Friday, August 25, at 7:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

  • Ty Gibbs aces Indianapolis Road Course for first Xfinity victory of 2023

    Ty Gibbs aces Indianapolis Road Course for first Xfinity victory of 2023

    A late strategic move by exiting pit road ahead of AJ Allmendinger enabled Ty Gibbs to assume the lead and muscle away from the field during a 16-lap dash to the finish to win the fourth annual running of the Pennzoil 150 at the Brickyard on Saturday, August 12.

    The reigning NASCAR Xfinity Series champion from Charlotte, North Carolina, led twice for a race-high 28 of 62-scheduled laps in an event where he started on the front row alongside Allmendinger before he made his presence known early after assuming the lead on the third lap. Despite losing the lead by Lap 13 to pit for slick tires amid an early lightning delay followed by a brief round of precipitation, Gibbs remained within striking distance of the front-runners throughout the event.

    Then with 19 laps remaining, an opportunity struck for Gibbs, who managed to exit pit road ahead of Allmendinger amid a late cycle of green flag pit stops just as the caution flew for a stalled car off the course in Turn 1. Once a handful of competitors who had not yet pitted did so, Gibbs cycled into the lead. He then managed to fend off Allmendinger before distancing himself from the field during a restart with 16 laps remaining to cruise to his first Xfinity victory in his seventh start of the season and his first at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, AJ Allmendinger notched his third pole position of the 2023 Xfinity season and the 11th of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 92.985 mph in 94.428 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Ty Gibbs, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 92.352 mph in 95.075 seconds.

    Prior to the event, the following competitors that included Brennan Poole, Jeremy Clements, Brad Perez and Blaine Perkins dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries. Joe Graf Jr. also dropped to the rear of the field for missing driver introductions.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Allmendinger rocketed away from the field while entering the new restart zone in between Turns 13 and 14 as he also fended off Ty Gibbs through the frontstretch entering the first braking turn. Gibbs then tried to pull a crossover move on Allmendinger through Turns 1 and 2, but Allmendinger retained the lead as the field navigated its way from Turns 2 to 6 before entering a long straightaway prior to another braking zone in Turn 7. With the field behind fanning out and jostling for early positions, Allmendinger continued to lead from Turns 7 to 14 before he returned to the frontstretch and led the first lap. By then, Ty Gibbs kept Allmendinger within his sights and within close margins while Josh Berry, Austin Hill and Daniel Hemric were in the top five.

    Through the second lap, Gibbs drew himself alongside Allmendinger entering Turns 3 and 4 in a bid for the lead, but Allmendinger gained the upper advantage and the preferred lane through Turn 5 as he retained the lead while Gibbs settled in second. Allmendinger would proceed to lead the second lap while continuing to fend off Gibbs’ early challenge. By the third lap, however, Ty Gibbs gained a run on Allmendinger exiting the frontstretch and assumed the lead in his No. 19 He Gets Us Toyota Supra through the first braking turn.

    Through the first five scheduled laps, Ty Gibbs was leading by nearly two seconds over Allmendinger while Berry, Cole Custer and Austin Hill were in the top five. Behind, John Hunter Nemechek, Hemric, Sheldon Creed, Riley Herbst and Justin Allgaier were in the top 10 while Ross Chastain, Parker Kligerman, rookie Sammy Smith, Sam Mayer and Connor Mosack occupied the top 15 on the track. With Brett Moffitt, Josh Bilicki, Kaz Grala, Miguel Paludo and rookie Chandler Smith running in the top 20, Sage Karam was mired in 21st ahead of Jeb Burton, rookie Parker Retzlaff, Brandon Jones and Alex Labbe.

    Another lap later, the first caution of the event flew due to lightning occurring near the speedway. By the seventh lap, the field led by Ty Gibbs was directed to pit road and the event was red-flagged amid the lightning strike and as light precipitation began to increase.

    When the red flag was lifted following a delay period spanning nearly 44 minutes, the competitors returned to the track’s racing surface under a cautious pace on the eighth lap in spite of the track conditions still being slightly wet from the precipitation. Prior to the red flag being lifted, the pit crews were given the option to change to wet tires for their respective entries.

    During the caution laps, however, some led by Allmendinger and including Sam Mayer, Chandler Smith, Retzlaff, Kyle Weatherman and Blaine Perkins pitted to change from wet to slick tires while the rest led by Ty Gibbs remained on the track.

    When the race resumed under green flag conditions on Lap 11 and amid a single-file restart formation, Ty Gibbs retained the lead through the frontstretch and entering Turn 1 followed by Custer as the field fanned out. Then as the field navigated its way from Turns 2 to 7, Ross Chastain spun after getting hit by Connor Mosack’s No. 24 Toyota Genuine Parts Supra in Turn 7, but the event remained under green flag conditions as he proceeded without getting hit by the field. Back at the front of the pack, Ty Gibbs stretched his advantage to more than two seconds over Custer during the proceeding laps while Berry, Nemechek and Austin Hill were in the top five ahead of Hemric.

    By Lap 14, Ty Gibbs surrendered the lead to pit for slick tires under green along with Custer, Moffitt, Kaz Grala, Chastain, Jeb Burton, Ryan Sieg, Brennan Poole and Josh Williams. More names that included Nemechek, Austin Hill, Miguel Paludo, Sage Karam and Josh Bilicki would then pit on Lap 15 as Berry cycled into the lead followed by Hemric and Creed, who would pit on Lap 16. Shortly after, however, Hemric overtook Berry for the lead as Parker Kligerman joined the battle. By Lap 17, more names that included Herbst, Sammy Smith and Alex Labbe pitted as Hemric continued to lead.

    Then on Lap 18, Allmendinger, who methodically carved his way through the field while on slick tires and from starting midfield since the restart, overtook teammate Hemric for the lead in Turn 13. Allmendinger would proceed to stretch his advantage to more than three seconds by the time he entered Turn 7 over teammate Hemric before Mayer, who also pitted prior to the restart, overtook Hemric for the runner-up spot.

    At the conclusion of the first stage period on Lap 20, Allmendinger captured his second Xfinity stage victory of the 2023 season. Mayer settled in second followed by Hemric, Kligerman and Allgaier while Ty Gibbs, Retzlaff, Chandler Smith, Berry and Custer were scored in the top 10.

    With the race remaining under green just past the Lap 20 mark to start the second stage period, Allmendinger continued to extend his advantage to more than five seconds over Mayer while third-place Hemric trailed by more than 14 seconds. Nearing the Lap 21 mark, the following names that included Hemric, Allgaier, Kligerman and Berry pitted for slick tires. By then, Josh Williams nursed his car to the garage amid smoke billowing out of his entry nearing the conclusion of the first stage period.

    By Lap 25 and with the entire field running on slick tires, Allmendinger was leading by more than six seconds over Mayer while Ty Gibbs was in third and trailing by more than 15 seconds. Behind, Custer and Retzlaff were in the top five while Chandler Smith, Creed, Austin Hill, Nemechek and Kyle Weatherman occupied the top 10 in front of Herbst, Moffitt, Grala, Paludo and Ryan Sieg. Meanwhile, Kligerman was mired back in 35th while a lap down after pitting a few laps earlier due to a flat left-front tire on his No. 48 Spiked Light Coolers Chevrolet Camaro stemming from a valve stem being knocked out.

    A lap later, the caution flew when Brad Perez came to a stop on the oval circuit near Turns 13 and 14 as smoke started to billow out of his No. 53 entry due to a mechanical issue. By then, Allmendinger was leading by more than six seconds over Mayer while Ty Gibbs, Custer and Retzlaff continued to run in the top five.

    During the caution period, nearly the entire field led by Allmendinger pitted while the rest led by Mayer and including Custer, Moffitt, Ryan Sieg, Allgaier and Berry remained on the track.

    As the event restarted under green and in double-file formation on Lap 30, Mayer muscled ahead from Custer with the lead as the field fanned out through the frontstretch and entering Turn 1. From Turn 2 to Turn 6, Mayer retained the lead as Custer also retained second in front of Allgaier while Allmendinger, who restarted eighth, had quickly carved his way up to fourth while on four fresh tires. With the field continuing to jostle for positions around each of the remaining 14 turns, Mayer would lead the following lap, Lap 31, as the event reached its halfway mark.

    By Lap 34, Allmendinger battled and reassumed the lead from Mayer through the first three turns. Allmendinger would proceed to increase his advantage to more than a second over Mayer during the following lap while Ty Gibbs, who overtook Custer for third place the lap prior, trailed by more than two seconds.

    Then on Lap 36, Custer, who was battling Allgaier for fourth, made slight contact with Allgaier in Turn 13. Allgaier then ran over the curb entering Turn 14 and made contact again with Custer as Custer ran off the circuit and into the grass before he spun back onto the course while trying to straighten his car. Custer would manage to proceed without sustaining significant damage to his No. 00 Haas Ford Mustang and without drawing a caution while Creed, Herbst and Hill managed to overtake Allgaier for positions fourth through sixth amid the chaos. Another lap later, Allgaier pitted under green along with teammate Paludo, Moffitt, Custer and Andre Castro while Allmendinger retained the lead over Ty Gibbs and Mayer.

    At the conclusion of the second stage period on Lap 40, Allmendinger captured his third Xfinity stage victory of the 2023 season and second of the day as he was leading by more than three seconds over Ty Gibbs. Gibbs settled in second while Mayer, Creed, Herbst, Austin Hill, Chandler Smith, Nemechek, Hemric and Jeremy Clements were scored in the top 10.

    With the final stage commencing under a continuous green flag period with 22 laps remaining, Allmendinger retained the lead by more than two seconds over Ty Gibbs. Another lap later, names including Nemechek, Mayer, Hemric and Chandler Smith pitted under green. Herbst would pit from fourth place with 20 laps remaining while Allmendinger continued to lead by nearly three seconds over Ty Gibbs with 20 laps remaining. By then, Nemechek and Herbst were penalized for speeding on pit road.

    A lap later, Allmendinger surrendered the lead to pit under green followed by Ty Gibbs, Austin Hill, Grala, Brandon Jones while Creed cycled into the lead. Shortly after, however, the caution flew for Andre Castro parking his car off the course in Turn 1 due to a mechanical issue. By then, Creed had made a pit stop, but had failed to enter pit road in time just as the caution flew and was sent to the rear of the field for the proceeding restart.

    During the caution period, some led by Clements and including Josh Bilicki, Karam, Retzlaff, Jeb Burton, Preston Pardus, Paludo and Kligerman pitted while the rest led by Ty Gibbs, who had managed to overtake Allmendinger during the green flag pit stops, remained on the track.

    Down to the final 16 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Ty Gibbs fended off Allmendinger to retain the lead through the frontstretch as the field fanned out. Then in Turn 1, Allmendinger tried to draw even with Gibbs, but Gibbs muscled ahead on the inside lane in Turn 2. Gibbs would continue to lead during the proceeding turns as Brandon Jones spun in Turn 1 after getting bumped by Sammy Smith, but without drawing a caution. After fending off another charge from Allmendinger amid contact through Turn 7 while Hemric went off the course after getting hit by teammate Chandler Smith and an oncoming Connor Mosack, Gibbs continued to lead while Mayer pressured Allmendinger for the runner-up spot.

    Gibbs would proceed to lead with 15 laps remaining ahead of Allmendinger and Mayer while Allgaier and Austin Hill battled for fourth. By then, select competitors like teammates Chandler Smith and Hemric along with Sammy Smith pitted under green amid their contact and off-track incident in Turn 7. Gibbs would proceed to extend his advantage to more than two seconds over runner-up Allmendinger during the proceeding laps while Mayer trailed in third place by more than four seconds followed by Austin Hill and Allgaier. By then, Custer rallied to sixth while Grala, Nemechek, Moffitt and Kligerman were running in the top 10.

    With 10 laps remaining, Gibbs continued to lead by more than three seconds over Allmendinger while Mayer, Hill and Allgaier remained in the top five. Behind, Custer, Grala, Nemechek, Moffitt and Kligerman also remained in the top 10 while Creed, Labbe, Jeb Burton, Herbst and Berry were mired in the top 15. Meanwhile, Brandon Jones was down in 23rd, Hemric was in 28th ahead of Sammy Smith while a lap down and Chandler Smith was in 33rd.

    Down to the final five laps of the event, Ty Gibbs extended his advantage to more than four seconds over Allmendinger while third-place Mayer trailed by more than six seconds ahead of Austin Hill and Allgaier. By then, Blaine Perkins, who went off the course in between Turns 8 to 10 after making contact with Ryan Ellis, was mired in 33rd as he eventually pitted. Chandler Smith, who was two laps down in 32nd, locked up the front tires and went off the course in Turn 12 while earlier, Ryan Sieg was assessed a stop-and-go penalty after missing Turn 6 as he was currently running in 27th.

    Shortly after, trouble struck for Grala, who was running sixth before he went off the course entering Turn 1. Then as he tried to blend back into the racing surface, he clipped Nemechek and sent Nemechek’s No. 20 Mobil 1 Toyota Supra spinning in Turn 2 as Nemechek fell out of the top 10 on the track. Despite the incident, the race remained under green flag conditions as Ty Gibbs retained the lead by more than five seconds over Allmendinger.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Ty Gibbs remained as the leader by more than seven seconds over Mayer, who battled and overtook Allmendinger’s No. 10 LeafHome Water Solutions Chevrolet Camaro for the runner-up spot a lap prior. Amid the late on-track chaos and having a clear view in front of him, Gibbs was able to smoothly navigate his way around the 14-turn circuit for a final time and cruise back to the frontstretch to claim his first checkered flag of the 2023 NASCAR season and his first at Indianapolis.

    With the victory, Gibbs, who is currently competing in his first full-time season in the NASCAR Cup Series for Joe Gibbs Racing, notched his 12th career victory in the Xfinity Series and his first since winning both the 2022 season finale and championship at Phoenix Raceway this past November. In addition to winning at Indianapolis for the first time and becoming the fourth different winner in four Xfinity events on Indy’s road course venue, he achieved his fourth victory on a road course venue and the second of the season for Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 19 “all-star” entry led by veteran crew chief Jason Ratcliff while also becoming the 13th different winner of this year’s Xfinity season.

    Gibbs’ victory capped off an eventful IndyCar-NASCAR doubleheader feature at Indianapolis on Saturday as six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon fended off pole-sitter Graham Rahal amid a late battle to win the Gallagher Grand Prix at the Indy Road Course hours earlier.

    “It’s definitely about time [that I won],” Gibbs said on USA Network. “Really cool to get one here at the Brickyard. I grew up racing go-karts at New Castle right down the street, so really special to me. Awesome car! Great car. Thank you, Jason Ratcliff. This is the man right here. Jason does such a great job. This is just so special. We got the Brickyard! Let’s go!”

    Mayer, who led five laps in his No. 1 Huck’s Market Chevrolet Camaro, settled in the runner-up spot for the third time this season while Allmendinger, who led 21 laps and swept both stages, ended up third in his fifth Xfinity event of the season. Austin Hill and Allgaier finished in the top five while Custer, Kligerman, Creed, Grala and Moffitt came home in the top 10.

    Notably, Nemechek ended up 13th in between Herbst and Berry, Brandon Jones settled in 21st ahead of teammate Miguel Paludo, Hemric ended up 27th in front of Sammy Smith and Chandler Smith retired in 34th due to a suspension failure.

    There were 10 lead changes for eight different leaders. The race featured three cautions for nine laps. In addition, 26 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    With four Xfinity regular-season events remaining on the schedule, Austin Hill leads the regular-season standings by 11 points over John Hunter Nemechek and 34 over Justin Allgaier.

    Results.

    1. Ty Gibbs, 28 laps led

    2. Sam Mayer, five laps led

    3. AJ Allmendinger, 21 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

    4. Austin Hill

    5. Justin Allgaier

    6. Cole Custer

    7. Parker Kligerman

    8. Sheldon Creed, one lap led

    9. Kaz Grala

    10. Brett Moffitt

    11. Alex Labbe

    12. Riley Herbst

    13. John Hunter Nemechek

    14. Josh Berry, two laps led

    15. Sage Karam

    16. Jeb Burton

    17. Parker Retzlaff

    18. Josh Bilicki, one lap led

    19. Jeremy Clements, one lap led

    20. Kyle Weatherman

    21. Brandon Jones

    22. Miguel Paludo

    23. Anthony Alfredo

    24. Preston Pardus

    25. Brennan Poole

    26. Connor Mosack

    27. Daniel Hemric, one lap down, three laps down

    28. Sammy Smith, one lap down

    29. Ryan Ellis, one lap down

    30. Kyle Sieg, one lap down

    31. Blaine Perkins, two laps down

    32. Ryan Sieg, five laps down

    33. Josh Williams, five laps down

    34. Chandler Smith – OUT, Suspension

    35. Joe Graf Jr. – OUT, Axle

    36. Andre Castro – OUT, Suspension

    37. Ross Chastain – OUT, Suspension

    38. Brad Perez – OUT, Brakes

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is another road course event as the series travels east from Indiana to New York for Watkins Glen International. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, August 19, at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Results.

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

    2. Josh Berry

    3. Brandon Jones

    4. Ty Gibbs, 22 laps led

    5. Sam Mayer

    6. Riley Herbst, one lap led

    7. Ross Chastain

    8. Parker Kligerman

    9. Parker Retzlaff

    10. Jeb Burton

    11. Austin Hill

    12. Sheldon Creed

    13. Ryan Sieg

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

    15. Daniel Hemric

    16. Cole Custer

    17. Bret Moffitt, four laps led

    18. Anthony Alfredo

    19. Kyle Sieg

    20. Chandler Smith

    21. Kaz Grala, one lap down

    22. Josh Williams, one lap down

    23. Ryan Ellis, one lap down

    24. Jeffrey Earnhardt, one lap down

    25. Sage Karam, one lap down

    26. Jeremy Clements, one lap down

    27. Joe Graf Jr., one lap down

    28. Dawson Cram, one lap down

    29. Brennan Poole, two laps down

    30. Garrett Smithley, two laps down

    31. Stefan Parsons, two laps down

    32. Carson Hocevar, two laps down

    33. Blaine Perkins, two laps down

    34. Patrick Emerling, five laps down

    35. Kyle Weatherman – OUT, Electrical

    36. Connor Mosack – OUT, Accident

    37. Mason Maggio – OUT, Accident

    38. Sammy Smith – OUT, Accident

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