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  • Austin Hill clinches first Championship 4 berth with dominant victory at Homestead

    Austin Hill clinches first Championship 4 berth with dominant victory at Homestead

    Austin Hill spent the previous four of five seasons falling one Playoff round short of reaching the Championship 4 round between two of NASCAR’s top three national touring series. But he is now bound for the Xfinity Series championship battle in 2024 after capping off a dominant run with a victory in the Credit One NASCAR AMEX Credit 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday, October 26.

    The 30-year-old Hill from Winston, Georgia, led three times for a race-high 82 of 200-scheduled laps in an event where he started 16th but quickly carved his way through the field. After assuming the lead for the first time on Lap 41, Hill captured the first stage victory on Lap 45. He retained the lead for the entire second stage period and racked up an additional 10 crucial stage points towards his quest to remain above the top-four cutline in the Playoff standings by claiming another stage victory of the day.

    Then after flirting between challenging Playoff contender Cole Custer for the lead to trying to remain within sight of the lead for the majority of the final stage period, Hill executed his race-winning pass on Custer with 12 laps remaining following a late cycle of green flag pit stops that started with 43 laps remaining. With the clean air to his advantage, Hill proceeded to muscle away from Custer and lead the rest of the way before he emerged triumphant for his fourth Xfinity Series victory of the 2024 season to earn a one-way ticket to his first opportunity to contend for his first Xfinity title in this year’s finale.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, October 25, Playoff contender Chandler Smith notched his third Xfinity pole position of the 2024 season with a pole-winning lap at 163.305 mph in 33.067 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate Sheldon Creed, who clocked in his best qualifying lap at 162.822 mph in 33.165 seconds.

    Prior to the event, the following names that include Anthony Alfredo, Jeremy Clements, Matt DiBenedetto and rookie Shane van Gisbergen dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries. In addition, DiBenedetto was assessed a pass-through penalty through pit road on the first lap due to his RSS Racing encountering multiple inspection failures.

    When the green flag waved and the race started, the field slowly fanned out through the frontstretch as teammates Chandler Smith and Sheldon Creed dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. With the outside lane to his advantage, Smith would muscle his No. 81 QuickTie Toyota Supra ahead with the lead entering Turn 3 and he would proceed to lead the first lap while Playoff contender Cole Custer and Aric Almirola challenged Creed for the runner-up spot.

    Over the next four laps and amid a series of early on-track battles, Chandler Smith extended his advantage to one second over teammate Almirola, who prevailed in his early three-car battle for the runner-up spot, while Custer prevailed in his early battle with Creed to move his No. 00 NXT Ford Mustang into third place. Behind, Playoff contender AJ Allmendinger was in fifth place ahead of Riley Herbst while Playoff contenders Sam Mayer, rookie Jesse Love and Justin Allgaier followed suit in the top nine. Behind, Parker Kligerman occupied 10th place as he was ahead of Playoff contenders Austin Hill and Sammy Smith while newcomer, William Sawalich, Ryan Sieg and Connor Zilisch were in the top 15.

    Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Chandler Smith retained his early advantage to more than a second over Custer and Almirola as Allmendinger and Herbst were in the top five. Behind, Mayer, Love, Hill and Allgaier followed suit while Creed had dropped to 10th place and was prepared to lose the spot to Kligerman for the following lap. Meanwhile, Sammy Smith was the lowest-running Playoff contender in 13th place.

    Ten laps later, Chandler Smith stabilized his advantage to a second over Custer while Allmendinger, who carved his way up to third place, trailed by two seconds. Behind, Almirola settled in fourth place ahead of Mayer, Herbst and Hill while Love, Allgaier and Creed followed suit in the top 10 ahead of Kligerman, Ryan Sieg, Sawalich, Zilisch and Sammy Smith.

    Another 10 laps later, Chandler Smith’s advantage decreased to a tenth of a second over Custer, with the latter intimidating the former through every turn and straightaway. This left Smith to navigate through various lanes around Homestead to try to defend the top spot and as he was navigating through lapped traffic.

    A lap later, however, Custer used the outside lane to duel with Smith as he led a lap for himself by 0.001 seconds. He then muscled ahead through the first two turns and the backstretch from the outside lane to clear Smith and pull away from the latter, where he would proceed to lead the next lap. As Allmendinger started to close in on Smith for the runner-up spot, Custer retained the lead by eight-tenths of a second at the Lap 35 mark. Custer’s advantage then slightly decreased to two-tenths of a second over the new runner-up competitor Allmendinger as both were navigating through lapped traffic. Behind, Almirola would make his way into third place while Chandler Smith dropped to fourth place.

    Shortly after, Playoff contender Sammy Smith pitted his No. 8 Pilot Flying J Chevrolet Camaro after he made contact with the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2, where he then sustained a flat tire. Back on the track and as the leaders were mired in heavy lapped traffic, Almirola charged his No. 20 Samaritan’s Purse Toyota Supra into the lead on Lap 41. A three-wide battle for the lead then ensued between Custer, Almirola and Hill through the frontstretch for the following lap until Almirola briefly muscled back ahead through the first two turns. Hill then overtook and slid his No. 21 Bennett Chevrolet Camaro in front of Almirola’s Toyota entering the frontstretch to assume the lead on Lap 43 while Custer tried to challenge Almirola for the runner-up spot.

    When the first stage period concluded on Lap 45, Hill, who came into Homestead eight points below the top-four cutline to make the Championship 4 field, captured his fifth Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Almirola settled in second ahead of Creed, Allgaier and Custer while Mayer, Allmendinger, Herbst, Chandler Smith and Ryan Sieg were scored in the top 10. With six of eight Playoff contenders racking up the event’s first round of stage points by finishing in the top 10, the remaining Playoff contenders that include Love and Sammy Smith were mired in 11th and 36th, respectively.

    Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Hill pitted for a first round of pit service. Following the pit stops, Hill retained the lead as he exited pit road first ahead of Almirola, Custer, Creed and Herbst while Allmendinger, Mayer, Allgaier, Love, Ryan Sieg and Chandler Smith followed suit. Amid the pit stops, Parker Retzlaff was penalized for speeding while exiting pit road.

    The second stage period started on Lap 52 as Hill and Almirola occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out through the frontstretch as Almirola and Hill dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch in front of Custer. Hill would then use the inside lane to muscle ahead of Almirola through Turns 3 and 4, where he would lead the following lap. Hill would maintain a reasonable lead over Almirola just past the Lap 55 mark while Custer, Allmendinger and Ryan Sieg followed suit in the top five.

    At the Lap 60 mark, Hill was leading by four-tenths of a second over Custer while Almirola, Allmendinger and Ryan Sieg continued to race in the top five. Behind, Love was in sixth place ahead of Chandler Smith, Creed, Allgaier and Kligerman as Herbst, Zilisch, Mayer, Brandon Jones and Sawalich were in the top 15. As Josh Williams, Ryan Truex, Kyle Weatherman, Jeb Burton and Kyle Sieg were mired in the top 20, Sammy Smith was scored in 27th place and on the lead lap.

    Six laps later, Herbst pitted his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang from 10th place after he scrubbed the outside wall and sustained right-side damage to his car. By then, Hill had fended off Custer to retain the lead. Hill’s advantage over Custer would stand to be at seven-tenths of a second at the Lap 70 mark while third-place Allmendinger trailed by a second. Meanwhile, as Almirola and Ryan Sieg were in the top five, teammates Chandler Smith and Creed battled for sixth place while Allgaier, who scrubbed the outside wall through Turns 3 and 4, was being pressured by Love for eighth place.

    By Lap 80, Hill extended his advantage to nearly two seconds over Custer while third-place Allmendinger trailed by two seconds and by three-tenths of a second to Custer. As Ryan Sieg and Almirola were in the top five, Creed retained sixth ahead of Allgaier, Chandler Smith, Love and Sawalich.

    Six laps later, the caution flew as Nick Leitz, who was racing within the top-25 mark, spun his No. 92 DGM Racing Chevrolet Camaro in Turn 2. The incident occurred not long after Leland Honeyman pitted due to hitting the wall. Leitz’s incident was enough for the second stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 90 to officially conclude under caution as Hill captured his sixth Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season and second of the day. Allmendinger muscled his way into second place ahead of Custer, Ryan Sieg and Almirola while Creed, Allgaier, Chandler Smith, Love and Sawalich were scored in the top 10. With six of eight Playoff contenders racking up the event’s second round of stage points, the remaining Playoff contenders that included Mayer and Sammy Smith were mired in 14th and 26th, respectively.

    During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Hill returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Hill retained the lead after he exited pit road first as he was followed by Custer, Almirola, Allmendinger, Love, Ryan Sieg, Creed, Chandler Smith, Sawalich and Allgaier. Amid the pit stops, Kyle Weatherman was penalized for speeding on pit road while Dylan Lupton was also penalized for pitting outside of his pit box.

    With 105 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced under green as Hill and Custer occupied the front row. At the start, Hill and Custer dueled for the lead in front of Almirola and Allmendinger as Hill assumed a brief lead entering the first turn. Custer then used the outside lane to regain the ground and draw even with Hill through the backstretch and the frontstretch, with Hill leading the next lap. Custer then tried to muscle ahead through the first two turns and the backstretch, but Hill pulled ahead of Custer. Custer then pulled a crossover move on Hill during the next lap and he moved his No. 00 NXT Ford into the lead while Hill was being challenged by Almirola for the runner-up spot. With Allmendinger, Ryan Sieg, Love and Chandler Smtih all closing ground towards the battle for the lead, Custer retained the lead with 102 laps remaining. Custer would proceed to lead the halfway mark with 100 laps remaining as Almirola, Hill, Sieg and Allmendinger followed suit.

    With 90 laps remaining, the battle for the lead between Custer and Hill that occurred a few laps earlier continued as the former maintained the preferred outside lane towards the outside wall to retain the top spot over the latter, who was trying to use the inside lane to gain a run through all corners. As Custer maintained a reasonable lead of two-tenths of a second over Hill, Almirola trailed in third place while Allmendinger was battling Love for fourth place. As Ryan Sieg, Allgaier, Chandler Smith, Mayer and Kligerman followed suit in the top 10, Sammy Smith was mired in 28th place and scored a lap down.

    Two laps later, Hill used the inside lane to execute another move beneath Custer and he managed to muscle ahead and reassume the lead. Hill proceeded to pull away with the lead by more than two seconds over Custer with 80 laps remaining while Almirola, Allmendinger and Love were scored in the top five.

    Then with 79 laps remaining, the caution flew when Josh Williams, who was racing in the top 15, blew a right-front tire entering Turn 1 and ran dead straight into Ryan Truex as Truex spun the No. 26 Toyota Genuine Parts Supra below the track. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Hill returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Hill retained the lead after he exited pit road first and was followed by teammate Love, who gained three spots following a quick pit service from the No. 2 team. Custer, Almirola, Ryan Sieg, Creed, Chandler Smith, Allgaier, Mayer and Sawalich followed suit in the top 10. In the midst of the caution period, Sammy Smith received the free pass due to being the first competitor scored a lap down.

    The start of the next restart period with 73 laps remaining featured Hill muscling away from the field to retain the lead while Custer challenged Love for the runner-up spot through the backstretch. As the field behind fanned out to multiple lanes, Custer then proceeded to make a move beneath Hill through Turns 3 and 4 as he returned atop the leaderboard for the following lap. As the event reached its final 70-lap stretch, Custer retained the lead by four-tenths of a second over Hill before teammate Love overtook him for the spot a lap later. Ryan Sieg would overtake Hill for third place during the next lap as Love started to slowly close in on Custer for the lead.

    With 55 laps remaining, Custer stretched his advantage to two-and-a-half seconds over Love while third-place Ryan Sieg trailed by three-and-a-half seconds. Meanwhile, Hill retained fourth place ahead of Almirola and Allmendinger while Creed, Chandler Smith, Allgaier and Mayer were in the top 10 ahead of Herbst, Kligerman, Brandon Jones, Sawalich, Zilisch and Shane van Gisbergen. In the process, Sammy Smith was mired in 23rd place. A few laps later, Sawalich pitted under green with a flat tire after he slapped the outside wall.

    Ten laps later, Custer added another second to his lead as he was leading by three seconds over Love and he would grow his lead to four seconds for the following lap. Meanwhile, Hill trailed by more than four seconds in third place as Creed and Almirola were in the top five ahead of Allmendinger, Ryan Sieg, Allgaier, Mayer and Herbst.

    With 43 laps remaining, a cycle of green flag pit stops commenced as Almirola pitted from the top five. The leader Custer along with Hill, Love, Ryan Sieg, Zilisch, Ryan Truex and Jeb Burton pitted during the following lap before Sammy Smith pitted with 40 laps remaining. Shortly after and with more names pitting, Chandler Smith endured a slow pit service due to a jack issue during his green flag pit stop as teammate Creed, who was among several who had yet to pit, was leading.

    Down to the final 30 laps of the event, Creed continued to lead by two seconds over Allmendinger as Mayer, Kligerman, Jones and van Gisbergen, all of whom had yet to pit, were racing in the top six. Meanwhile, Custer, the first competitor who pitted, trailed the lead by 17 seconds in seventh place as Hill, Almirola and Love were in the top 10. Creed and Mayer, the latter of whom scraped the outside wall in Turns 1 and 2, then pitted during the following lap as Allmendinger cycled into the lead. With Kligerman then pitting not long after, Custer cycled his way up to third place as Allmendinger retained the lead.

    Five laps later, Custer overtook Jones for the runner-up spot as he trailed Allmendinger for the lead by nine seconds. Soon after, Hill would make his way up to third place as he trailed Custer for two seconds on the track while Allmendinger remained in the lead by seven seconds.

    Then with 21 laps remaining, Allmendinger pitted his No. 16 Modern Day Garage Chevrolet Camaro from the lead. This allowed Custer to cycle back into the lead, where he was ahead of Hill by more than a second while Almirola, Love and Jones were in the top five. Over the next six laps, Hill would steadily decrease Custer’s advantage as he was trailing Custer by seven-tenths of a second with 15 laps remaining.

    With 12 laps remaining and the leaders mired in lapped traffic, Hill, who gained a big run on Custer through the frontstretch and had been gaining ground using the inside lane, went to the outside lane entering Turns 1 and 2 as he battled dead even with Custer through the backstretch. Hill then used the outside lane to shoot his No. 21 Bennett Chevrolet into the lead through Turns 3 and 4, where he led the following lap. Hill would proceed to extend his advantage to a second over Custer with 10 laps remaining while third-place Almirola trailed by four seconds.

    Down to the final five laps of the event, Hill continued to extend his late advantage as he was leading by two-and-a-half seconds over Custer. Meanwhile, third-place Almirola trailed by four seconds while Love and Herbst were mired in the top five ahead of Ryan Sieg, Creed, Allgaier, Mayer and Zilisch.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Hill remained as the leader by more than three seconds over Custer. Navigating his way through a pair of lapped competitors, Hill was able to smoothly navigate his No. 21 Chevrolet around the Homestead circuit for a final time before he cycled back to the frontstretch victorious and for his fourth Xfinity checkered flag of the 2024 season.

    With the victory, Hill, who is in his third consecutive season as a full-time competitor of the No. 21 Chevrolet Camaro entry for Richard Childress Racing, achieved his 10th career win in his 112th career start in the Xfinity Series, his first in the series at Homestead-Miami Speedway and his first since winning at Atlanta Motor Speedway in early September. Hill also recorded his first NASCAR national touring series victory at Homestead since winning the Craftsman Truck Series finale in 2019 as he delivered the 18th Xfinity victory of the 2024 season for the Chevrolet nameplate and the fifth for Richard Childress Racing.

    Above all, Hill, who spent four of the last five seasons having his Playoff berth end following the Round of 8 between the Truck and Xfinity divisions, clinched a berth into the Championship 4 round for the first time in his career. As a result, he joins AJ Allmendinger as the second competitor who will officially contend for the 2024 Xfinity Series championship at Phoenix Raceway two weeks from now.

    “I worked so hard at this,” Hill, who was emotional, said on the frontstretch on the CW Network. “A lot of people doubted me, but I wake up every day to prove everyone wrong, that I deserve to be here. I deserve to race for a championship. This No. 21 team deserves it just as much as I do. They work their asses off each and every day just like I do. I got to give up to those guys. They just gave me a hell of a car. I didn’t have to go run the wall. I could run, really, wherever I wanted to. I can honestly say I’ve never cried coming to the start/finish line. I couldn’t even get my emotions together going into Turn 1 after the checkered.”

    “I just had to be on it,” Hill added. “I made some mistakes today, but we rebounded. Pit crew was badass like they always are. I knew once we got off pit road and we were in touch with [Custer], I just had to go to work and not burn my right front or right rear [tires] up and just save it for the long run. As soon as I saw him start backing up to me, it was game on. This is amazing. To be able to go to the Final Four, I’ve worked so hard for this. My dreams came true.”

    Cole Custer, who led 67 laps, settled in second place as he ended up one spot short of clinching his early spot into the Championship 4 round. Nonetheless, Custer, who earned a total of 14 stage points at Homestead, currently occupies the fourth and final transfer spot to the Championship 4 by 28 points over Chandler Smith entering next weekend’s Round of 8 finale at Martinsville Speedway as he continues his pursuit to defend his series title.

    “Man, I thought that second-to-last run, we had it,” Custer said. “That last run, for whatever reason, we got pretty free and [Hill] seemed like they got way better than what they were the second-to-last run. Sold points day. We’ll move into Martinsville. We’ve had good runs there before. Just got to bring everything we got there because you never know who’s going to win.”

    Aric Almirola settled in third place while rookie Jesse Love and Sheldon Creed finished in the top five. Riley Herbst, Ryan Sieg, Justin Allgaier, Sam Mayer and AJ Allmendinger completed the top-10 final running order.

    With six of eight Playoff contenders finishing in the top 10, the remaining two Playoff contenders that include pole-sitter Chandler Smith and Sammy Smith ended up 13th and 22nd, respectively. As a result, Allgaier is above the top-four cutline by 35 points while Chandler Smith, Love, Mayer and Sammy Smith are below the cutline.

    There were 10 lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured three cautions for 19 laps. In addition, 16 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Results.

    1. Austin Hill, 82 laps led, Stages 1 & 2 winner

    2. Cole Custer, 67 laps led

    3. Aric Almirola, one lap led

    4. Jesse Love

    5. Sheldon Creed, 12 laps led

    6. Riley Herbst

    7. Ryan Sieg

    8. Justin Allgaier

    9. Sam Mayer

    10. AJ Allmendinger, nine laps led

    11. Parker Kligerman

    12. Connor Zilisch

    13. Chandler Smith, 29 laps led

    14. Kyle Weatherman

    15. Anthony Alfredo

    16. Jeremy Clements

    17. Shane van Gisbergen, one lap down

    18. Brennan Poole, one lap down

    19. Brandon Jones, one lap down

    20. Jeb Burton, one lap down

    21. Ryan Truex, one lap down

    22. Sammy Smith, one lap down

    23. Parker Retzlaff, one lap down

    24. William Sawalich, one lap down

    25. Ryan Ellis, one lap down

    26. Kyle Sieg, one lap down

    27. Josh Williams, three laps down

    28. Brad Perez, three laps down

    29. Austin Green, three laps down

    30. Leland Honeyman, three laps down

    31. Mason Maggio, three laps down

    32. Dylan Lupton, four laps down

    33. Dawson Cram, four laps down

    34. Blaine Perkins, five laps down

    35. Armani Williams, seven laps down

    36. Thomas Annunziata – OUT, Ignition

    37. Nick Leitz – OUT, Suspension

    38. Matt DiBenedetto – OUT, Overheating

    *Bold indicates Playoff competitors

    Playoff standings

    1. AJ Allmendinger – Advanced

    2. Austin Hill – Advanced

    3. Justin Allgaier +35

    4. Cole Custer +28

    5. Chandler Smith -28

    6. Jesse Love -35

    7. Sam Mayer -47

    8. Sammy Smith -95

    The Round of 8 in the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs is set to conclude at Martinsville Speedway for the National Debt Relief 250, which will determine this year’s Championship 4 field. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, November 2, and air at 4 p.m. ET on the CW Network.

  • Custer rallies to win regular-season finale at Bristol, claim 2024 Xfinity Series Regular Season Championship

    Custer rallies to win regular-season finale at Bristol, claim 2024 Xfinity Series Regular Season Championship

    In a war of attrition-type event under the lights, Cole Custer muscled his way from early adversity to claim the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series Regular Season Championship by winning the Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday, September 20.

    The reigning Xfinity Series champion from Ladera Ranch, California, led three times for a race-high 104 of 300-scheduled laps in an event where he started on the front row but had his race hit an early roadblock when he cut a tire and hit the backstretch’s outside wall that resulted with him dropping off the pace and plummeting below the leaderboard. After managing to continue and remain on the lead lap amid slight cosmetic damage, Custer carved his way back into the top-10 mark when the first stage period concluded.

    Then after leading for the first time just past the event’s halfway mark before proceeding to finish second in the second stage period amid mixed pit strategies, Custer’s charge to win the regular-season title ignited as his title rival Justin Allgaier was involved in three separate incidents that both dropped him out of race-winning contention and off of the lead lap category. Despite regaining the lead prior to the start of the final stage period before losing it to Sheldon Creed a few laps later, Custer dropped the hammer by sliding in front of Creed with a bold move from the inside lane to reassume the top spot with 91 laps remaining.

    For the remainder of the event, Custer was able to weave his way through lapped traffic and maintain a steady margin to within a second over Creed as he triumphed for the second time in the 2024 Xfinity Series season and captured the regular-season title by a narrow margin over Allgaier.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, Chandler Smith notched his second Xfinity Series pole position and the fifth of his career after he posted a pole-winning lap at 121.366 mph in 15.810 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Cole Custer, who clocked in his best qualifying lap at 120.490 mph in 15.925 seconds.

    Prior to the event, the following names that included Sam Mayer, Josh Williams, Parker Retzlaff and Leland Honeyman dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries. Stefan Parsons also dropped to the rear of the field due to an engine change to his entry. Parsons, however, was unable to roll off the starting grid with the field and was pinned multiple laps down due to the engine changes being made.

    When the green flag waved and the race started, Chandler Smith muscled his No. 81 Mobil 1 Toyota Supra ahead of Cole Custer with a strong start from the outside lane and he maintained the lead while transitioning to the inside lane through the backstretch. Exiting the backstretch, however, Justin Allgaier used the outside lane to draw even with Smith and muscle ahead entering the frontstretch to lead the first lap.

    On the following lap, Custer, who was battling Anthony Alfredo for third place, hit the outside wall entering the backstretch after he cut a tire and he dropped off the pace, which drew the event’s first caution period. During the caution period, Custer pitted for repairs and fresh tires to his No. 00 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang. Another competitor who pitted was Dale Earnhardt Jr., who pitted to address a radio issue inside of his cockpit and was penalized for speeding on pit road.

    When the race restarted under green on the ninth lap, Allgaier used the outside lane to launch his No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro ahead through the first two turns and proceeded to lead the following lap ahead of Chandler Smith and Anthony Alfredo. Jeffrey Earnhardt and AJ Allmendinger followed suit in front of a stacked field. By Lap 12, Chandler Smith challenged Allgaier for the lead through every turn and straightaway, but the latter was able to fend off the former through the Lap 15 mark.

    Through the first 20-scheduled laps, Allgaier was leading by two-tenths of a second over Chandler Smith followed by Alfredo, Jeffrey Earnhardt and Allmendinger while rookie Jesse Love, Brandon Jones, Jeremy Clements, Sheldon Creed and Ryan Truex were scored in the top 10. Behind, Riley Herbst, Ryan Sieg, Kyle Weatherman, Austin Hill and Parker Kligerman trailed in the top 15 ahead of Joe Graf Jr., Sammy Smith, Matt DiBenedetto, Chad Finchum and Josh Bilicki while Jeb Burton, Brennan Poole, Sam Mayer, Cole Custer and Austin Green were racing in the top-25 mark. Meanwhile, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was still having radio issues, was mired back in 31st place behind rookie Shane van Gisbergen.

    Ten laps later, Allgaier, who was slowly approaching the rear end of the field, stabilized his advantage to two-tenths of a second over Chandler Smith as Alfredo, Jese Love and Jeffrey Earnhardt battled in the top five ahead of Allmendinger, Brandon Jones, Creed, Ryan Truex and Clements.

    Another 10 laps later, Allgaier slightly grew his lead to half a second over Chandler Smith while third-place Alfredo trailed by two seconds. With Love fending off Jeffrey Earnhardt for fourth place, Allgaier, who lapped van Gisbergen, extended his advantage to a second over Smith by Lap 45 while Allmendinger was trying to fend off Creed for sixth place.

    At the Lap 50 mark, Allgaier continued to lead by more than a second over Chandler Smith as Alfredo, Love and Jeffrey Earnhardt remained in the top-five mark. Meanwhile, Earnhardt Jr. was in 24th place and trying to remain ahead of his driver and leader Allgaier on the lead lap category.

    A lap later, the event’s second caution flew when Austin Green slapped the outside wall in Turn 2 and barely clipped Allgaier, who was lapping Green. The contact caused Allgaier’s rear bumper to come loose as Green, whose damaged car continued to steer down the track, made contact with Parker Retzlaff as both spun and wrecked against the inside wall.

    During the caution period, Earnhardt Jr. made another trip to pit road to change his helmet as part of his effort to have his radio communication with his team restored. Soon after, select names led by Allgaier, who pitted to have his rear bumper removed, pitted while the rest led by Chandler Smith remained on the track. Among those who pitted included teammate Brandon Jones, Sammy Smith, Sam Mayer, Matt DiBenedetto, Josh Bilicki, Jeb Burton and the Sieg brothers of Ryan and Kyle.

    The start of the next restart period on Lap 65 featured Chandler Smith rocketing ahead with the lead from the outside lane, where he led the following lap, while Love overtook Alfredo for second place. In addition, Allmendinger was battling Alfredo for third place in front of Creed. By then, Earnhardt Jr., who remained on the lead lap despite having to pit again to have his wire harness changed as part of his radio communication with his team restored, was mired within the top-30 mark on the track while Allgaier, who was racing without a rear bumper, was marching his way towards the top-20 mark.

    By Lap 75, Chandler Smith stretched his advantage to more than a second over Love while Allmendinger, Creed and Alfredo were scored in the top five ahead of Clements, Custer, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Ryan Truex and Joe Graf Jr. Smith would then add another second to his advantage by the Lap 80 mark.

    When the first stage period concluded on Lap 85, Chandler Smith thundered his way to his sixth Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Love settled in second ahead of Creed, Allmendinger and Alfredo while Clements, Custer, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Truex and Graf were scored in the top 10, with Ryan Sieg settling in 11th place. By then, Allgaier muscled his way up to 18th place behind Kligerman, Mayer and Sammy Smith while Earnhardt Jr., who had his radio communication with his team restored after four attempts and despite making earlier contact with Leland Honeyman, managed to drive up to 20th place.

    Under the stage break, a majority of the front-runners led by Chandler Smith pitted while the rest led by Ryan Sieg and including Brandon Jones, Mayer, Sammy Smith, Allgaier, Earnhardt Jr., Jeb Burton, Matt DiBenedetto, Josh Bilicki and Sheldon Creed remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Kligerman was penalized for equipment interference. In addition, Kyle Weatherman was penalized for a safety violation while Graf was penalized for speeding on pit road.

    The second stage period started on Lap 95 as Ryan Sieg and Brandon Jones occupied the front row. At the start, Mayer launched a three-wide battle on both Sieg and Jones for the lead through the first two turns before Mayer launched his No. 1 Carolina Carports Chevrolet Camaro ahead and assumed the lead, where he led the following lap. As the field behind fanned out and scrambled for positions, Mayer proceeded to lead the Lap 100 mark while Sieg and Allgaier battled for second place in front of Jones, Jeb Burton and Earnhardt Jr., with Creed, Custer, Sammy Smith and Chandler Smith trailing in the top 10.

    Through the Lap 110 mark, Mayer extended his lead to eight-tenths of a second over teammate Allgaier while teammate Jones trailed by more than a second. Behind, Ryan Sieg retained fourth place ahead of Custer, Creed, Chandler Smith and Riley Herbst while Earnhardt Jr., who was battling Sieg for fourth place a few laps later, had dropped to ninth place ahead of Love. By then, DiBenedetto pitted under green after he briefly fell off the pace due to losing power.

    Ten laps later, the caution flew due to Kligerman spinning his No. 48 Big Machine Spiked Coolers Chevrolet Camaro from the inside lane and back across the middle of the track and towards the outside wall, starting from the backstretch to Turn 2, as he managed to continue without sustaining any significant damage to his entry.

    As the event restarted under green on Lap 126, Mayer rocketed ahead of teammate Jones from the outside lane as he brought teammate Allgaier, Custer and Creed with him while Jones, who struggled to launch from the inside, was trying to remain in the top-five mark. Mayer would proceed to lead the following lap as the field behind jostled for spots. With Mayer proceeding to lead up to the Lap 130 mark, Custer challenged Allgaier for second place while Chandler Smith overtook Jones for fifth place. Meanwhile, Earnhardt Jr. was up to eighth place in front of Ryan Sieg and Love while Sammy Smith was mired in 14th place.

    Just past the Lap 140 mark, Mayer extended his advantage to more than two seconds over a fierce battle between Custer and Allgaier for the runner-up spot as Creed fended off teammate Chandler Smith for fourth place. Custer would then proceed to challenge Mayer for the lead towards the Lap 145 mark while Creed tried to close in from third place.

    At the halfway mark on Lap 150, Mayer retained the lead by a narrow margin over Custer, who managed to draw even and assume the lead for himself during the following lap as Creed tried to challenge Mayer for the runner-up spot. Creed then made contact with Mayer through Turn 1 on Lap 152 before he turned left and made contact with Allgaier, sending the latter for a spin through the backstretch. Allgaier would then hit the inside wall head-on before he slid back across the racetrack and managed to continue without getting hit by the field.

    During the caution period, a majority of the leaders led by Custer pitted while the rest led by Clements remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Allgaier, who pitted to have his No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro repaired, was penalized for dragging a saw block out of his pit box and on the track, which caused sparks to flame out of the front of Allgaier’s entry as he was dragging the tool towards his front splitter.

    With the race restarting with nine laps remaining in the second stage period, where Clements and Sammy Smith occupied the front row, Clements fended off both Sammy Smith and Kligerman to retain the lead as he led the following lap. With Kligerman trying to challenge Clements for the lead, Jones carved his way to third place ahead of Creed and Custer, who hit the wall for a second time, while the field behind scrambled and jostled for spots between competitors who pitted and those who remained on the track. Amid the on-track chaos, Clements maintained the lead ahead of a side-by-side battle involving Kligerman and Jones with five laps remaining.

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 170, Clements notched his first Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Custer carved his way to second ahead of Truex, Creed and Chandler Smith while Love, Herbst, Mayer, Earnhardt Jr. and Kligerman, who hit the wall amid contact with Custer a few laps earlier, were scored in the top 10. Despite recording a single point during the event’s two stage periods, Kligerman was able to officially secure his spot into the 2024 Xfinity Series Playoffs based on points. By then, Ryan Sieg was mired in 12th place and running seven spots ahead of Sammy Smith while Allgaier, who was pinned a lap down, was down in 30th place.

    During the stage break, select names including the leader Clements, Kligerman, Allmendinger, Sammy Smith and Allgaier pitted while the rest led by Custer remained on the track.

    With 121 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Custer and Creed occupied the front row. At the start, Custer rocketed away from both Creed and Truex and he proceeded to lead the following lap in front of a stacked field. Creed then overtook Custer for the lead during the next lap period as the latter was battling handling issues while Chandler Smith and Love trailed in the top five. With Herbst, Mayer, Earnhardt Jr., Ryan Sieg and Jones battling within the top 10, Creed proceeded to lead with 115 laps remaining.

    Then with 101 laps remaining, the caution returned due to Allgaier, who was three laps down, spinning his damaged car in Turn 2 and blowing a right-rear tire as he kept his car from spinning back above the track and towards oncoming traffic. At the moment of caution, Creed had maintained a narrow lead over a hard-charging Custer, who was within striking distance of toppling Allgaier atop the regular-season standings, while Chandler Smith, Love, Truex and Mayer were scored in the top six, with Earnhardt Jr. up to seventh place despite having his radio communication issues returning. During the caution period, select names including Herbst, Josh Williams and Kyle Weatherman pitted while the rest led by Creed remained on the track.

    The start of the next restart period with 94 laps remaining featured teammates Creed and Chandler Smith occupying the front row as Creed, who restarted on the outside lane, managed to fend off teammate Smith and lead the following lap while muscling ahead. Custer then battled and slid in front of Creed’s No. 18 Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Toyota Supra to move back into the lead with 91 laps remaining as he had the preferred outside lane while Creed followed suit in second ahead of Chandler Smith, Love and Truex. Meanwhile, Earnhardt Jr., who made slight contact with Truex, occupied sixth place as Jones, Mayer, Ryan Sieg and Hill were trailing in the top 10 while Sammy Smith was back in 16th place.

    Down to the final 80 laps of the event, Custer stretched his advantage to eight-tenths of a second over Creed while Chandler Smith, Love and Truex continued to run in the top five. Behind, Earnhardt Jr. was still trying to challenge Truex for fifth place along with Jones as Mayer, Ryan Sieg and Hill remained in the top 10. Meanwhile, Sammy Smith gained two spots and was up to 14th place as Custer continued to stretch his lead to a second-and-a-half over Creed with 70 laps remaining.

    With 60 laps remaining, Custer, who was mired in lapped traffic, had his advantage slightly decrease to eight-tenths of a second over Creed as Chandler Smith, Love and Truex continued to follow suit in the top five. With Earnhardt Jr., Jones, Mayer, Ryan Sieg and Hill retaining their respective spots in the top 10, Allmendinger, Clements, Sammy Smith, Kligerman, Alfredo and Herbst followed suit in the top 16 while Brennan Poole, Graf, van Gisbergen and Josh Bilicki were mired in the top 20.

    Ten laps later and with the front-runners mired in lapped traffic, Custer stretched his advantage back up to a second over Creed and Chandler Smith while Love and Truex trailed by as far back as three seconds in the top five. Meanwhile, Earnhardt Jr. retained sixth place in his No. 88 Hellmann’s Chevrolet Camaro ahead of teammates Jones and Mayer while Ryan Sieg and Allmendinger were in the top 10. By then, Sammy Smith remained in 13th place while Allgaier was scored eight laps down in 30th place.

    Another 15 laps later, Custer, who continued to weave his way through lapped traffic, continued to lead by more than a second over Creed while Chandler Smith and Love remained in third and fourth, respectively. Meanwhile, Truex was fending off repeated challenges from Earnhardt Jr. for fifth place as Jones also tried to navigate his way past both while Mayer, Ryan Sieg, Allmendinger, Clements, Hill and Sammy Smith followed suit in the top 13.

    Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Custer, who was currently scored atop the regular-season standings by a narrow margin over Allgaier and had made contact with Graf while trying to lap him, retained the lead by within a second over both Creed and Chandler Smith while fourth-place Love trailed by three seconds. Behind, Truex, racing in his No. 20 Toyota Genuine Parts Supra, was being pressured by Jones’ No. 9 Menards Chevrolet Camaro for fifth place while Earnhardt Jr. dropped to seventh place ahead of Mayer, Ryan Sieg and Allmendinger as Sammy Smith was back in 15th place ahead of Kligerman.

    With 10 laps remaining, Custer, who lapped 18th-place van Gisbergen a few laps earlier before van Gisbergen made light contact with Custer to express his displeasure over receiving a bump from Custer while being lapped, stabilized his lead to a second over both Creed and Chandler Smith as Love and Truex remained in the top five ahead of Jones, Earnhardt Jr., Ryan Sieg, Mayer and Allmendinger.

    Down to the final five laps of the event, Custer kept leading in his No. 00 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang by a second as Chandler Smith started to challenge teammate Creed for the runner-up spot through every corner and straightaway. In the process, Creed retained the spot by a narrow margin while Love retained fourth place by two seconds over both Truex and Jones as Earnhardt Jr. trailed by another two seconds.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Custer remained as the leader by more than a second over both Creed and Chandler Smith. With the latter two unable to narrow the deficit amid their late battle on one another, Custer was able to smoothly navigate his way around Bristol for a final time before he cycled back to the frontstretch and claimed the checkered flag for both his second Xfinity victory of the 2024 season and to capture the regular-season championship by three points over Allgaier, who capped off his long night in 30th place.

    With the victory, Custer notched his 15th career win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series division, his first at Bristol Motor Speedway and his first race victory since he won at Pocono Raceway in July. The victory was also the third of the season overall for both the Ford nameplate and Stewart-Haas Racing.

    As an added bonus, Custer, who came into the regular-season finale at Bristol trailing Justin Allgaier in the regular-season standings by 43 points but took advantage of Allgaier’s triple misfortunes, became the seventh competitor overall to win a regular-season championship in the Xfinity circuit and the first Ford competitor to do so since Austin Cindric made the last accomplishment in 2020. With the title and the bonus points, Custer will commence the 2024 Xfinity Series Playoffs to defend his series title before moving back up to the Cup Series with Haas Factory Team in 2025.

    “Man, it’s unbelievable,” Custer said on the frontstretch on the CW Network. “Just a testament to these [No. 00] guys. A really hard month, but everybody at the shop really kept their heads in it. All the guys did such a great job. Unbelievable car all night. Ready to get to the Playoffs. It’s huge, huge to get this momentum because our confidence was going down this last month. To get this win really means a lot.”

    Behind Custer, Sheldon Creed fended off teammate Chandler Smith to claim his record-setting 13th runner-up result in the Xfinity Series while rookie Jesse Love and Ryan Truex finished in the top five.

    Meanwhile, Brandon Jones, who missed the 2024 Xfinity Series Playoffs, came home in sixth place while team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. battled through adversity from his radio communication issues to finish seventh in his 147th career start in the Xfinity Series. Ryan Sieg, Sam Mayer and AJ Allmendinger completed the top 10 on the track.

    Sieg’s eighth-place result was not enough for the Tucker, Georgia, native to launch himself back into the top-12 mark in the regular-season standings as Sammy Smith claimed the 12th and final berth into the 2024 Xfinity Series Playoffs with a 15th-place result at Bristol.

    “It’s been a real grind the last couple of months, just kind of struggled here and there,” Smith said. “We’ve hit it a couple of times, but that was one of those nights again. Just really struggled and I just feel like we got to dig deep and figure something out. It’s cool to make the Playoffs. We just got to keep getting better.”

    “There were a few races where we led some points slip,” Sieg said. “All in all, a great year. Nothing to hang our heads on. We still got some races to go win and that’s the goal. That was our goal this year. We’ve been in shots to do it. Just got to execute everything.”

    Sammy Smith along with race winner Cole Custer join Justin Allgaier, AJ Allmendinger, Austin Hill, Sam Mayer, Parker Kligerman, Chandler Smith, Sheldon Creed and Riley Herbst along with rookies Jesse Love and Shane van Gisbergen as the 12 competitors who have qualified for the 2024 Xfinity Series Playoffs. All 12 competitors will now embark on a seven-race Playoff stretch for this year’s championship.

    There were 11 lead changes for nine different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 57 laps. In addition, 16 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Results.

    1. Cole Custer, 104 laps led

    2. Sheldon Creed, 28 laps led

    3. Chandler Smith, 29 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    4. Jesse Love, one lap led

    5. Ryan Truex

    6. Brandon Jones

    7. Dale Earnhardt Jr., one lap led

    8. Ryan Sieg, five laps led

    9. Sam Mayer, 55 laps led

    10. AJ Allmendinger

    11. Anthony Alfredo

    12. Jeremy Clements, 17 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    13. Riley Herbst

    14. Austin Hill

    15. Sammy Smith

    16. Parker Kligerman

    17. Brennan Poole, one lap down

    18. Shane van Gisbergen, one lap down

    19. Joe Graf Jr., one lap down

    20. Josh Bilicki, one lap down

    21. Josh Williams, one lap down

    22. Blaine Perkins, one lap down

    23. Kyle Sieg, one lap down

    24. Ryan Ellis, one lap down

    25. Jeb Burton, one lap down

    26. Kyle Weatherman, two laps down

    27. Logan Bearden, two laps down

    28. Carson Ware, five laps down

    29. Greg Van Alst, eight laps down

    30. Justin Allgaier, 10 laps down, 60 laps led

    31. Leland Honeyman, 10 laps down

    32. Chad Finchum, 20 laps down

    33. Stefan Parsons, 24 laps down

    34. Matt DiBenedetto, 25 laps down

    35. Jeffrey Earnhardt – OUT, Accident

    36. Garrett Smithley – OUT, Rear Gear

    37. Parker Retzlaff – OUT, Accident

    38. Austin Green – OUT, Accident

    The 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs are set to commence next Saturday, September 28, at Kansas Speedway for the Kansas Lottery 300 and the Round of 12 opener. The event’s broadcast time is slated to occur at 4 p.m. ET on the CW Network.

  • Ryan Truex to make 100th Xfinity start at Bristol

    Ryan Truex to make 100th Xfinity start at Bristol

    Ryan Truex is set to achieve a milestone start in his ninth season with at least one start in the NACAR Xfinity Series division. By taking the green flag in this weekend’s event at Bristol Motor Speedway, the part-time competitor for Joe Gibbs Racing will make his 100th career start in the Xfinity circuit.

    A native of Mayetta, New Jersey, Truex made his inaugural presence in the Xfinity Series at World Wide Technology Raceway in July 2010. By then, he had achieved the 2009 ARCA Menards Series East championship and was still contending in the series full-time to defend his title. Driving the No. 00 Toyota Camry for Diamond Waltrip Racing, Truex started 19th and finished 28th in his Xfinity debut after being involved in a single-car incident with nearly 20 laps remaining.

    Following his Xfinity debut, Truex would make six additional starts in the Xfinity circuit throughout the remaining 16 events on the schedule. During the schedule, he split driving duties between Diamond-Waltrip Racing’s Nos. 00 and 99 Toyota entries. Within the six-race stretch, Truex notched a season-best 12th-place finish at Michigan International Speedway in August. He also recorded two 15th-place results at Kansas Speedway and at Gateway in October.

    The following season, Truex, who had claimed his second consecutive ARCA East title in 2010 and was initially attempting to campaign for the 2011 Xfinity Rookie-of-the-Year title with Pastrana-Waltrip Racing, ended up competing in 10 of the 14-scheduled events with the team, where he piloted the No. 99 entry to eight top-20 results, including an eighth-place run at Richmond Raceway in late April. Then after finishing 20th at Chicagoland Speedway in June, he was released by Pastrana-Waltrip Racing due to a lack of sponsorship.

    Three months later, he returned at Atlanta Motor Speedway behind the wheel of Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20 Toyota Camry, where he finished 11th before notching a strong fourth-place result at Richmond during the following event. He would proceed to finish 13th, eighth and 10th, respectively, during his next three starts with the Gibbs organization before making a brief return to Diamond-Waltrip Racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway in October, where he ended up in 34th place after being involved in an accident during the second half of the event. Truex’s 17th and final Xfinity start of the season occurred at Phoenix Raceway in November with Joe Gibbs Racing, where he ended up in eighth place. In total, Truex notched a total of five top-10 results throughout his 17-race schedule.

    The 2012 Xfinity season was an eventful one for Truex, who made a total of 11 Xfinity starts in five entries between three organizations. He commenced the season by making his first series start at Daytona International Speedway with Tommy Baldwin Racing in February, where he ended up in 31st place after being involved in a late multi-car wreck. He then finished in the top 11 in two starts with Joe Gibbs Racing and ended up in 32nd place with RAB Racing at Texas Motor Speedway in April during his next three series starts.

    Then at Dover Motor Speedway in June, Truex, who started on the pole for the first time in his career and had led 43 of 200 laps, was within striking distance of achieving his first Xfinity career victory. However, he was pinned behind the lapped competitors of Jamie Dick and Brad Teague, allowing teammate Joey Logano to quickly narrow the deficit and overtake Truex with five laps remaining, thus resulting in the latter settling in a career-best runner-up result. Making six additional starts in the remaining 19 events on the schedule between Joe Gibbs Racing and RAB Racing, Truex racked up two additional top-10 results before the season’s conclusion.

    After qualifying the No. 9 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford Mustang entry for Marcos Ambrose at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in August 2013 while being a development competitor for the Petty organization, Truex, who did not compete in a single Xfinity event during the 2013 and 2014 seasons, returned to the Xfinity circuit for four events in 2015. Driving the No. 98 Ford Mustang for Biagi-DenBeste Racing, he managed to secure a season-best 17th-place result at Charlotte Motor Speedway in October.

    In 2018, Truex inked a full-time ride in the Xfinity circuit for the first time in his career as he joined forces to pilot Kaulig Racing’s No. 11 Chevrolet Camaro entry. He commenced the season by finishing seventh at Daytona after contending for the victory amid five overtime shootouts before finishing in the top 15 during his next seven starts. Despite ending up in 38th place at Talladega in May after being involved in an early multi-car wreck, the New Jersey native proceeded to finish in the top 10 during his next 10 events before notching his first top-five result of the season at Mid-Ohio in August.

    Despite finishing no higher than eighth during the final four regular-season events on the schedule, he managed to secure a spot in the 2018 Xfinity Series Playoffs. After finishing 11th, 16th and 10th, respectively, throughout the Round of 12, he was eliminated from title contention. Managing three top-15 runs during the final four events on the schedule, Truex settled in 12th place in the final driver’s standings. Overall, he racked up a total of 11 top-10 results, 26 top-15 results and an average-finishing result of 14.0 in his first full-time campaign in the Xfinity Series.

    After losing his Kaulig Racing ride to Justin Haley following the 2018 season, Truex inked a part-time Xfinity campaign with JR Motorsports for the 2019 season. He commenced his part-time campaign on a strong note by finishing in the runner-up spot for the second time in his career at Phoenix Raceway in March behind Kyle Busch. He proceeded to finish eighth at Kentucky Speedway and seventh at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in July before settling in 14th at Las Vegas in September and 10th at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course in October. He then ended up in 38th place in his sixth and final Xfinity start of the season at Kansas Speedway in October following an early retirement due to an engine issue.

    Three years later, Truex returned to the Xfinity Series for another part-time campaign, this time for the season opener at Daytona with Sam Hunt Racing before returning to Joe Gibbs Racing for a five-race campaign in the No. 18 Toyota Supra. He commenced the season by finishing 12th at Daytona with SHR before ending up in 30th place at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after being involved in a late accident during his first start of the season with Gibbs. He would then proceed to finish seventh at Martinsville Speedway in April, 30th at Darlington Raceway in May and sixth at Texas Motor Speedway in June before capping off the season with a strong third-place run at Atlanta Motor Speedway in July.

    This past season, Truex achieved a breakthrough moment in his eventful career that started when he returned for a six-race campaign with Joe Gibbs Racing and in the team’s No. 19 Toyota Supra entry. He commenced his part-time campaign by finishing in the runner-up spot for the third time in his career at Phoenix in March before notching a third-place result at Atlanta the following weekend after avoiding a final lap accident.

    Then after finishing within the top 20 during his next two starts at Martinsville and Talladega, Truex achieved his first elusive career victory both in the Xfinity Series and across NASCAR’s top three national touring series at Dover in April. The victory occurred in an event where he led a race-high 124 of 200 laps, swept both stages and beat runner-up Josh Berry by more than four seconds. He also got to cherish the victory with his older brother and former Cup Series champion, Martin Truex Jr. Ryan Truex would then end up in 35th place in his sixth and final Xfinity start of the season at Darlington after being swept up in an early multi-car wreck.

    Returning for a third consecutive part-time Xfinity campaign with Joe Gibbs Racing in 2024, both in the organization’s Nos. 19 and 20 Toyota Supra entries, Truex commenced the season by finishing 21st at Daytona after getting collected in a final lap incident. He would proceed to finish ninth during the following weekend at Atlanta before finishing seventh and 34th, respectively, during his next two starts in April. 

    Then in the series’ return at Dover in late April, Truex persevered through two overtime attempts, including the last one as he muscled away from newcomer Carson Kvapil, to snatch his second Xfinity career win and his second in a row at the Monster Mile, this time while driving the No. 20 Toyota entry. Despite finishing no higher than 19th during his next two starts, the New Jersey native then elevated his racing status to a new height by scoring his third series victory at Daytona after fending off the field during an overtime attempt and claiming the checkered flag under caution. As a result, he notched the first Xfinity victory for both Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota at Daytona since Matt Kenseth made the last accomplishment in July 2013. During Truex’s recent Xfinity start at Atlanta, he finished 10th.

    Truex’s upcoming Xfinity Series start at Bristol Motor Speedway is set to mark his 10th start of the 2024 season and eighth in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing entry, which is set to contend for this year’s Xfinity owners’ championship on the strength of seven victories, two of which were made by Truex, and 17 top-10 results through 25 events. Meanwhile, Truex’s plans for the 2025 season remain to be determined despite his continuous goal to return to full-time NASCAR competition and contend for more victories and a championship.

    Through 99 career starts in the Xfinity Series, Truex has achieved three victories, one pole, 10 top-five results, 35 top-10 results, 222 laps led and an average-finishing result of 15.6.

    Ryan Truex is scheduled to make his 100th Xfinity Series career start at Bristol Motor Speedway for the Food City 300. The event is scheduled to occur this upcoming Friday, September 20, and air at 7:30 p.m. ET on the CW Network.

  • Ryan Truex muscles to second Xfinity victory of 2024 at Daytona

    Ryan Truex muscles to second Xfinity victory of 2024 at Daytona

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Results.

    1. Ryan Truex, 28 laps led

    2. Chandler Smith, 15 laps led

    3. Parker Kligerman

    4. Riley Herbst, one lap led

    5. Ryan Sieg

    6. Jordan Anderson

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

    8. Sheldon Creed

    9. Leland Honeyman

    10. Kyle Weatherman

    11. Josh Williams

    12. Joe Graf Jr.

    13. Sam Mayer, seven laps led

    14. Blaine Perkins

    15. Kyle Sieg

    16. Brennan Poole

    17. Jeb Burton

    18. Patrick Emerling

    19. CJ McLaughlin

    20. Joey Gase

    21. Jesse Love

    22. Brandon Jones

    23. Sammy Smith

    24. AJ Allmendinger, 35 laps led

    25. Shane van Gisbergen, one lap down

    26. Anthony Alfredo, one lap down

    27. Jeremy Clements, one lap down

    28. Jeffrey Earnhardt, three laps down

    29. Caesar Bacarella – OUT, Accident

    30. Josh Bilicki – OUT, Accident

    31. Austin Hill, 23 laps down

    32. Cole Custer – OUT, DVP

    33. Matt DiBenedetto – OUT, Accident

    34. Parker Retzlaff – OUT, Accident

    35. Tim Viens – OUT, Engine

    36. Gus Dean – OUT, Accident

    37. Ryan Ellis – OUT, Accident

    38. Akinori Ogata – OUT, Accident

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

  • Shane van Gisbergen scores first Xfinity career victory at Portland

    Shane van Gisbergen scores first Xfinity career victory at Portland

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Results.

    1. Shane van Gisbergen, 12 laps led

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

    3. Sammy Smith

    4. AJ Allmendinger

    5. Ed Jones

    6. Cole Custer

    7. Josh Williams

    8. Parker Kligerman

    9. Parker Retzlaff

    10. Riley Herbst, 15 laps led

    11. Austin Hill

    12. Josh Bilicki

    13. Sheldon Creed, two laps led

    14. Ryan Sieg

    15. Austin Green

    16. Brennan Poole

    17. Ryan Ellis

    18. Kyle Sieg

    19. Jesse Love

    20. Blaine Perkins

    21. Nathan Byrd

    22. Garrett Smithley

    23. Andre Castro

    24. Patrick Gallagher

    25. Kyle Weatherman

    26. Leland Honeyman

    27. Ryan Truex

    28. Sam Mayer, one lap down

    29. Logan Bearden, one lap down

    30. Jeremy Clements, two laps down

    31. Matt DiBenedetto, two laps down

    32. Anthony Alfredo, three laps down

    33. Hailie Deegan, four laps down

    34. Sage Karam, six laps down

    35. Chandler Smith – OUT, Accident

    36. Brandon Jones – OUT, Accident

    37. Jeb Burton, 14 laps down

    38. Preston Pardus – OUT, Track Bar

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

  • Ryan Truex scores second consecutive Xfinity victory at Dover

    Ryan Truex scores second consecutive Xfinity victory at Dover

    A year after achieving his first elusive victory across NASCAR’s top three national touring series at the Monster Mile, Ryan Truex etched himself as a two-time race winner in the NASCAR Xfinity Series level after prevailing through two overtime shootouts and a late challenge from Carson Kvapil to win the BetRivers 200 at Dover Motor Speedway on Saturday, April 27. 

    The 32-year-old Truex from Mayetta, New Jersey, led the final two of 208 over-scheduled laps in an event where he started 12th and ran a consistent event, where he racked up a handful of stage points and dodged a series of late-race caution periods to line up alongside Carson Kvapil at the start of the second of two overtime shootouts. After muscling past Kvapil during the start of the second overtime shootout, Truex then took the white flag to start the final lap of the event and retained the lead just before the event’s race-ending caution flew after front-runner Justin Allgaier wrecked on the frontstretch. The incident resulted in Truex claiming the checkered flag to win at Dover for a second consecutive season and to collect his second career win in the Xfinity Series.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup on Friday, April 26, Brandon Jones notched his second Xfinity pole position of the 2024 season and the 10th of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 156.683 mph in 22.950 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Riley Herbst, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 156.781 mph in 22.962 seconds. 

    Before the event, the following names that included Anthony Alfredo, Jeb Burton, Blaine Perkins, Garrett Smithley, Josh Williams and JJ Yeley 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, Brandon Jones motored his No. 9 Menards Chevrolet Camaro ahead with the lead from the outside lane through the first two turns. As the field behind jostled for early spots, Jones proceeded to lead the first lap as teammate Justin Allgaier overtook Riley Herbst to move into the runner-up spot as Joe Gibbs Racing’s Sheldon Creed and Chandler Smith followed suit in the top five ahead of Austin Hill, Kyle Weatherman and a side-by-side battle between Taylor Gray and rookie Jesse Love. 

    On the fourth lap, the event’s first caution flew after Hailie Deegan and JJ Yeley, both of whom were racing towards the rear of the field, made contact through the frontstretch that resulted with Yeley spinning and slapping the outside wall in Turn 1 as his event came to an early end. 

    As the event restarted under green on Lap 13, Allgaier launched his No. 7 Jarrett Logistics Chevrolet Camaro ahead of teammate Jones through the first two turns as he muscled ahead to assume the lead while the rest of the field jostled for early spots. Allgaier would power ahead by more than a second by the Lap 15 mark while Jones, Herbst, Creed and Hill followed suit in the top five. Meanwhile, Chandler Smith, Gray, AJ Allmendinger, Cole Custer and Love were racing in the top 10 ahead of Kyle Weatherman, Ryan Sieg, Ryan Truex, Parker Kligerman and Sammy Smith as Allgaier continued to lead by more than a second by the Lap 20 mark. 

    Through the first 25 scheduled laps, Allgaier led by more than a second over teammate Jones while third-place Herbst trailed by five seconds. Creed and Hill followed suit in the top five while Chandler Smith, Gray, Custer, Allmendinger and Love were racing in the top 10 ahead of Ryan Sieg, Truex, Sammy Smith, Parker Retzlaff, Weatherman, Kligerman, Matt DiBenedetto, Sam Mayer, Carson Kvapil and Kaden Honeycut. 

    Shortly after, the event’s second caution period flew after Ryan Sieg, winner of the third Dash 4 Cash bonus from last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway and who was running in the top 15, came to a stop below the track in Turn 2 after his No. 39 Sci Aps Ford Mustang went up in flames, with the driver able to quickly escape his burned car.  

    During the caution period, some including Love, Parker Retzlaff and rookie Shane van Gisbergen pitted while the rest led by Allgaier remained on the track. 

    With the event restarting under green on Lap 32, Allgaier retained the lead after muscling ahead on the inside lane while teammate Jones was trying to fend off Creed for the runner-up spot. Behind, Herbst trailed in fourth ahead of Hill and Custer while Chandler Smith, Gray, Allmendinger and Truex occupied the top 10.  

    Just past the Lap 35 mark, Allgaier was leading by a second over teammate Jones with Creed following suit in third while Herbst and Hill battled in the top five ahead of Custer and Chandler Smith. The deficit for Creed, Custer, Herbst, Hill and Chandler Smith would increase to four seconds as Allgaier retained the lead by the Lap 40 mark. 

    When the first stage period concluded on Lap 45, Allgaier captured his fourth Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Teammates Jones settled in second followed by Custer, Creed and Herbst while Hill, Chandler Smith, Allmendinger, Truex and Sam Mayer were scored in the top 10.  

    Under the stage break, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Allgaier pitted while the rest led by Retzlaff and Love, including those who pitted during the previous caution period, remained on the track. Towards the end of the first stage’s break period, Blaine Perkins stopped on the track in Turn 2 after his car ended up on fire. 

    The second stage period started on Lap 51 as Retzlaff and Love occupied the front row. At the start, Retzlaff and Love battled dead even for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch as Jeb Burton followed suit in third. Love would prevail and take over the top spot during the following lap while the rest of the field behind scrambled and jostled for positions by the Lap 55 mark. 

    At the Lap 60 mark, Love was leading by half a second over Retzlaff followed by Custer, Jeb Burton and Hill while Creed, Herbst, Kaden Honeycutt, Chandler Smith and Allgaier were running in the top 10 as Allmendinger, Sammy Smith, Shane van Gisbergen, Truex and Jones trailed in the top 15. 

    Ten laps later, Love retained the lead by nine-tenths of a second over Retzlaff as third-place Custer, who was the first competitor who exited pit road during the first stage’s break period, trailed by a second as he was racing ahead of Creed and Herbst. 

    Another two laps later, Custer motored his No. 00 Haas Ford Mustang past Love’s No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Camaro through the first two turns as he assumed the lead. Custer extended his advantage to a second over Love by the Lap 75 mark and to two seconds over Love just past the Lap 80 mark. 

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 90, Custer captured his second Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Hill charged his way into the runner-up spot followed by Love, Retzlaff and Creed while Allgaier, Herbst, Chandler Smith, Sammy Smith and Truex were scored in the top 10. 

    During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Custer pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Custer retained the lead after exiting pit road first followed by Hill, Allgaier, Herbst, Love, Sammy Smith, Creed, Truex, Chandler Smith and Allmendinger. 

    With 102 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Custer and Hill occupied the front row. At the start, Custer fended off Hill to retain the lead as Allgaier muscled his way past Hill for the runner-up spot. Allgaier and Hill would battle for the runner-up spot ahead of Herbst and Love while Custer led with 100 laps remaining. Not long after, Love made an unscheduled pit stop under green to address a cut left-rear tire after making contact with Ryan Truex. 

    With 85 laps remaining, Custer stretched his advantage to three seconds over Allgaier while Herbst, Sammy Smith and Hill trailed in the top five ahead of Carson Kvapil, Creed, Truex, Allmendinger and Anthony Alfredo. 

    Ten laps later, Custer stabilized his advantage to two seconds over Allgaier as Herbst, Sammy Smith and Hill continued to run in the top five ahead of Kvapil, Creed, Truex, Allmendinger and Chandler Smith. 

    Down to the final 50 laps of the event, Custer continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over Allgaier as Herbst, Sammy Smith and Hill trailed by five seconds. Behind, Kvapil retained sixth ahead of Creed and Chandler Smith, who gained two spots, as Allmendinger and Truex trailed in the top 10 ahead of Jones, Mayer, Kligerman, Alfredo and Jeb Burton. 

    Eight laps later, the caution flew due to rain reported around the venue. During the caution period, some led by Herbst pitted while the rest led by Custer, who missed the pit road entrance line and did not pit when reported to do so, remained on the track.  

    With the caution period being extended due to the rain, the field led by Custer was directed to pit road with 33 laps remaining and the event was placed in a weather delay that spanned more than 12 minutes. Once the red flag period was lifted and the field returned to the track under a cautious pace, select names including Custer pitted while the rest led by Allgaier remained on the track. 

    When the race restarted under green flag conditions with 28 laps remaining, Allgaier and Hill battled closely against one another for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch until Allgaier went wide and up the track in Turn 3. This allowed Hill to muscle ahead with the lead as Kvapil moved into the runner-up spot while Allgaier was left to battle Creed and Mayer to retain third place. 

    Another lap later, the caution returned after Jones, who was racing in the top 10, made contact with Allmendinger in Turn 2 that resulted in Allmendinger bumping into Jones and sending Jones for a spin towards the inside wall on the backstretch, but Jones managed to keep his car off the wall. 

    The start of the following restart period with 21 laps remaining featured Hill retaining the lead ahead of Creed, Kvapil and Gray. Four laps later, however, the caution returned after Mayer, who was battling Gray for a top-five spot, got loose underneath Gray and clipped Gray which resulted in Gray slamming into the outside wall in Turn 2. 

    During the start of the next restart period with 11 laps remaining, Hill and Creed battled dead even for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch before Creed muscled ahead from the inside lane. With 10 laps remaining, however, Hill would battle back against Creed for the top spot as.  

    Then with eight laps remaining, Kvapil drew himself beneath a side-by-side action between Hill and Creed through the frontstretch. This generated a three-wide action for the lead as Kvapil moved his No. 88 Chevy Truck Season Chevrolet Camaro into the lead. The caution, however, returned a lap later after Herbst got turned sideways in Turn 4, which triggered a multi-car wreck that collected Kyle Sieg, Sammy Smith, Leland Honeyman, Brennan Poole, Daniel Dye and Allgaier. The incident was enough to sent the event into overtime. 

    The first overtime period did not last long as Hill got loose underneath Kvapil while battling him for the lead through the first two turns, which resulted in Hill spinning his No. 21 Nuthin Fancy Collection Chevrolet Camaro below the apron. 

    The second overtime attempt generated a different outcome as Ryan Truex, who restarted alongside Kvapil on the inside lane, battled dead even with Kvapil for nearly a full lap until Truex muscled ahead with the lead through Turns 3 and 4. 

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Truex was leading by two-tenths of a second over Kvapil as Mayer, Creed and Custer battled for third place. Not long after, the caution flew, which ended the race as Allgaier wrecked on the frontstretch. With the checkered flag being displayed alongside the caution flag, Truex was able to coast his No. 20 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota Supra back to the frontstretch victorious for a second consecutive season at the Monster Mile. 

    With the victory, Truex, who previously recorded two top-10 results in four starts thus far of the season, achieved his second career win in his 95th start in the Xfinity circuit and fifth of the 2024 season. He also recorded the fifth victory of the season for both Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing as he became the third different competitor to pilot JGR’s No. 20 Toyota Supra entry to an Xfinity race victory in 2024.

    “I can’t believe it,” Truex said on FS1. “Our car was just good at the end when it mattered. I was so loose all day. Shout out to Carson [Kvapil]. What an amazing run for what, his second race. I felt a little bad running him up the hill, but you’ve got to take these things when you can. I’m out of breath. I think I held my breath the last two laps. Love these fans. Love this track. Just can’t believe it.”

    Meanwhile, Kvapil, a full-time CARS Late Model Stock Tour competitor for JR Motorsports and the son of former NASCAR Truck Series champion Travis Kvapil, was left with mixed reactions on pit road despite achieving a career-best runner-up result in his second Xfinity Series career start. He finished in fourth place during his first Xfinity career start at Martinsville Speedway in early April.

    “It sucks, right? You get that close [to winning],” Kvapil said. “I really don’t even know what to say. I think we had a really fast Chevrolet here. JR Motorsports brought me a really good piece. I’m just really fortunate to be in the spot that I am. I’m happy that I have a shot to win a race at the end there. We had a good car. I just couldn’t really get up through the restarts really good…[Truex] just barely got us there at the end.”

    Sam Mayer ended up in third place followed by Sheldon Creed and Cole Custer. AJ Allmendinger, Chandler Smith, Kyle Weatherman, Anthony Alfredo and Parker Retzlaff finished in the top 10.

    For the fourth and final Dash 4 Cash bonus of the 2024 season, the honors belonged to Anthony Alfredo, who achieved his first bonus of the initiative of his career as he also collected his fifth top-10 result of the season.

    There were 11 lead changes for 10 different leaders. The race featured 10 cautions for 61 laps. In addition, 20 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap. 

    Following the 10th event of the 2024 Xfinity Series season, Chandler Smith leads the regular-season standings by a single point over Cole Custer, 17 over Austin Hill, 57 over rookie Jesse Love and 81 over Justin Allgaier.

    Results. 

    1.  Ryan Truex, two laps led

    2. Carson Kvapil, 14 laps led

    3. Sam Mayer

    4. Sheldon Creed, three laps led

    5. Cole Custer, 95 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    6. AJ Allmendinger

    7. Chandler Smith

    8. Kyle Weatherman

    9. Anthony Alfredo

    10. Parker Retzlaff, three laps led

    11. Jeb Burton

    12. Parker Kligerman

    13. Ryan Ellis

    14. Jeremy Clements

    15. Austin Hill, 17 laps led

    16. Riley Herbst

    17. Justin Allgaier, 39 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    18. Shane van Gisbergen

    19. Brandon Jones, 13 laps led

    20. Daniel Dye

    21. Leland Honeyman, one lap down

    22. Brennan Poole, one lap down

    23. Kaden Honeycutt, two laps down

    24. Jesse Love, two laps down, 21 laps led

    25. Josh Williams, two laps down

    26. David Starr, two laps down

    27. Kyle Sieg, two laps down, one lap led

    28. Patrick Emerling, three laps down

    29. Dawson Cram, three laps down

    30. Garrett Smithley, six laps down

    31. Hailie Deegan, eight laps down

    32.  Matt DiBenedetto, 12 laps down

    33. Sammy Smith – OUT, Accident

    34. Taylor Gray – OUT, Accident

    35. Corey Heim – OUT, Engine

    36. Blaine Perkins – OUT, Electrical

    37. Ryan Sieg – OUT, Engine

    38. JJ Yeley – OUT, Accident

    With the completion of the 2024 Xfinity Series’ Dash 4 Cash initiative, the next event on the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina, for the Crown Royal Purple Bag Project 200. The event is scheduled for May 11 and will air at 1:30 p.m. ET on FS1. 

  • Mayer edges Sieg in photo finish for first Xfinity victory of 2024 at Texas

    Mayer edges Sieg in photo finish for first Xfinity victory of 2024 at Texas

    Sam Mayer erased his difficult start to the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season by edging Ryan Sieg in a photo finish to score a breakthrough victory in the Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday, April 13. 

    The 20-year-old Mayer from Franklin, Wisconsin, led four times for five of the 200 scheduled laps after starting in 10th place and spending the early portions of the event mired outside of the top 10. After recording a single stage point following the second stage’s mark, Mayer ran steadily within the top 10 during the final stage period. He persevered through a late cycle of green flag pit stops and a series of late-race restarts amid on-track carnages, including the final restart with 11 laps remaining, to ignite his charge to the front. He then squared off against Ryan Sieg, who was trying to capture his first elusive victory in the Xfinity circuit.  

    After gaining a run on Sieg at the start of the final lap, Mayer overtook him for the lead through the backstretch before he nearly went up the track entering Turns 3 and 4. This allowed Sieg to draw even with Mayer as both hit fenders while continuing to run side by side to the finish line. Despite running on the outside lane, Mayer had enough momentum to beat Sieg by 0.002 seconds to claim his first elusive Xfinity victory of the 2024 season and cash in on the series’ second Dash 4 Cash bonus. 

    On-track qualifying to determine the starting lineup occurred on Friday, April 12 with rookie Jesse Love notching his third Xfinity pole position after posting a pole-winning lap at 185.612 mph in 29.093 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Cole Custer, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying time at 185.471 mph in 29.115 seconds. 

    Before the event, the following drivers including Jeremy Clements, Matt DiBenedetto, Parker Retzlaff and Kyle Sieg dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to their respective entries. 

    When the green flag waved and the race started, Jesse Love muscled his No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Camaro ahead from the inside lane through the first two turns while Chandler Smith followed suit in second as he overtook Cole Custer for the position. Love led the first lap ahead of Chandler Smith and Custer while Justin Allgaier, Taylor Gray and Riley Herbst followed suit in the top six. 

    During the following lap, Gray, who was running fifth, got sideways entering the backstretch but managed to keep his No. 19 Operation 300/Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Supra straight without spinning, but lost three spots in the process. With the field scattering to avoid hitting Gray, teammate Chandler Smith overtook Love for the lead through the frontstretch while Custer followed suit in the runner-up spot. Chandler Smith would proceed to lead the fifth lap mark. 

    Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Chandler Smith was leading by four-tenths of a second over Custer followed by Allgaier, Herbst and Love while Ryan Truex, AJ Allmendinger, Brandon Jones, Taylor Gray and Ryan Sieg were running in the top 10. Behind, Austin Hill was mired in 11th ahead of Sammy Smith, Sam Mayer, Anthony Alfredo and Sheldon Creed as Parker Kligerman, Corey Heim, Kyle Weatherman, Jeb Burton and Hailie Deegan occupied the top 20 ahead of Daniel Dye, Josh Williams, Blaine Perkins, Josh Bilicki and Leland Honeyman.  

    A lap later, the event’s first caution flew after Daniel Dye spun his No. 10 BPro Auto Parts/Kaulig Racing entry in front of teammate Josh Williams in Turn 2. 

    When the event restarted under green on Lap 16, Chandler Smith rocketed away with the lead after restarting on the inside lane. Allgaier, who assumed the runner-up spot, then tried to launch a side-by-side battle with Smith for the lead through the backstretch and from the outside lane. Smith would prevail on the inside lane during the following lap while Custer, Ryan Truex and Herbst followed suit in the top five. Smith would lead by a tenth of a second over Allgaier by the Lap 20 mark. 

    At the Lap 25 mark, Chandler Smith was leading by two-tenths of a second over Allgaier while Custer, Truex and Herbst continued to run in the top five. Three laps later, however, Allgaier would overtake Smith for the lead through the backstretch. Allgaier stretched his advantage to a second over Smith by the Lap 30 mark as Custer, Truex and Herbst trailed in the top five. Behind, Austin Hill moved up to sixth place while Ryan Sieg, Brandon Jones, Allmendinger and Mayer occupied the top 10 on the track. 

    Just past the Lap 35 mark, Allgaier stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Chandler Smith while third-place Custer trailed the lead by three seconds. Truex and Herbst would retain fourth and fifth, respectively, on the track as Allgaier then extended his lead to two seconds by Lap 40. 

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

    Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Allgaier pitted for a first round of service. Following the pit stops, Corey Heim, who missed his pit stall, exited first followed by Allgaier while Herbst, Custer, Chandler Smith, Hill and Truex followed suit. Heim would then be penalized for speeding on pit road as Allgaier cycled back into the lead. Amid the pit stops, AJ Allmendinger lost a bevy of spots after he too missed his pit box while trying to pit. 

    The second stage period started on Lap 52 as Allgaier and Herbst occupied the front row. At the start, Allgaier and Herbst briefly battled for the lead exiting the frontstretch until Allgaier muscled his No. 7 BRANDT/TradeMark Nitrogen Chevrolet Camaro ahead through the first two turns. As Allgaier started to pull away from the field through the backstretch, Custer overtook teammate Herbst for the runner-up spot while Chandler Smith followed suit in third place. Hill, Sheldon Creed, Truex, Jeb Burton, Kligerman and Jones followed suit in the top 10 as Allgaier led by seven-tenths of a second by Lap 55. 

    Just past the Lap 60 mark, Allgaier extended his advantage to more than a second over Custer while third-place Chandler Smith also trailed by more than a second. Behind, Herbst and Truex were running in the top five followed by Hill, Jones, Creed, Burton and Sammy Smith while Sam Mayer, Kligerman, Love and Hailie Deegan occupied the top 15 on the track. 

    Through the Lap 70 mark, Allgaier continued to stretch his advantage as he was leading by more than two seconds over Custer while Chandler Smith, Herbst and Truex were racing in the top five ahead of Hill, Jones, Creed, Burton and Sammy Smith.  

    Four laps later, Kligerman, who was running just outside the top 10, pitted his No. 48 Spiked Lite Coolers/Big Machine Racing Chevrolet Camaro under green to address a right-front tire issue. With Kligerman pinned a lap down, Allgaier stabilized his lead by more than two seconds over Chandler Smith by Lap 80 while Custer, Herbst and Truex were running in the top five.  

    Shortly after, the caution flew after Leland Honeyman spun through Turn 2. During the caution period, 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 Hill, Custer, Herbst, Chandler Smith, Truex, Creed, Jones, Sammy Smith and Mayer. 

    With six laps remaining in the second stage period, the event restarted under green. At the start, Hill launched a side-by-side battle against Allgaier for the lead through the first two turns, but Allgaier fended off the challenge to retain the lead. As the field navigated back to the frontstretch, Truex got loose in between Turns 3 and 4 as he went up the track and hit the outside wall, but the event remained under green flag conditions as Truex continued to proceed forward. With the field behind battling for positions, where Creed then got loose through the first two turns, Allgaier retained the lead by more than a second over Custer while Herbst, Jones and Hill trailed in the top five.  

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 90, Allgaier captured his second consecutive Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Custer trailed in second followed by teammate Herbst, Jones and Ryan Sieg while Sammy Smith, Hill, Love, Allmendinger and Mayer were scored in the top 10. 

    During the stage break, select names including Chandler Smith, Jeb Burton, rookie Shane van Gisbergen, Jeremy Clements, Taylor Gray and Truex pitted while the rest led by Allgaier remained on the track, despite Allgaier’s concerns about having a loose wheel on his entry. 

    With 103 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Allgaier and Custer occupied the front row. At the start, Allgaier launched ahead to retain the lead from the inside lane while Herbst tried to follow suit in second as he battled teammate Custer for the spot. As Chad Finchum pulled his car down to the apron with damage to his front end, all while the event remained under green flag conditions, Herbst would move into the runner-up spot followed by Sammy Smith while Custer dropped to fourth ahead of Jones, Hill and Ryan Sieg. Hill then got loose through Turns 1 and 2 as he dropped out of the top 10 on the track while Allgaier retained the lead by more than a second over Herbst at the halfway mark on Lap 100. 

    A lap later, the caution returned after Jeb Burton, who pitted during the second stage’s break period, spun his No. 27 State Water Heaters Chevrolet Camaro towards the frontstretch after slapping the outside wall as he was just dodged by oncoming traffic. During the caution period, some led by Hill and including Gray and Chandler Smith pitted while the rest led by Allgaier remained on the track. 

    As the event restarted under green with 94 laps remaining, Allgaier muscled away from the field to retain the lead ahead of Stewart-Haas Racing’s Custer and Herbst while Jones tried to challenge the latter two in fourth place followed by Ryan Sieg, Allmendinger and Sammy Smith. Allgaier would stretch his advantage to more than a second with 90 laps remaining while Custer, Jones, Herbst and Allmendinger followed suit in the top five. 

    With 75 laps remaining, Allgaier was leading by more than a second over teammate Jones followed by Herbst, Custer and Allmendinger while Mayer, Ryan Sieg, Sammy Smith, Creed and Love were running in the top 10. Behind, Kligerman trailed in 11th ahead of Anthony Alfredo, Parker Retzlaff, Kyle Sieg and Josh Williams while Hill, Truex, Gray, Clements and van Gisbergen followed suit in the top 20. 

    Fifteen laps later, Allgaier continued to lead by four-tenths of a second over Herbst as Jones, Allmendinger and Mayer trailed in the top five. By then, pit stops under green started to commence as Sammy Smith pitted. Custer, Ryan Sieg, Love, Heim and Kyle Sieg would pit during the proceeding laps before Allgaier led a group of front-runners, including Herbst and Jones, to pit road for service with 58 laps remaining.  

    With 50 laps remaining, Hill, who pitted earlier just past the halfway mark, was leading by nearly five seconds over Truex followed by van Gisbergen, Chandler Smith and Kyle Weatherman. Meanwhile, Allgaier trailed the lead in eighth place and Herbst was in 10th while Custer and Jones were mired in the top 15. By then, nearly the entire field made a pit stop, minus the top seven competitors, while Creed was mired towards the middle of the pack after he was penalized for a safety violation during his green flag pit stop. 

    Ten laps later, Hill continued to lead by more than nine seconds over both van Gisbergen and Chandler Smith while Allgaier carved his way up to fourth place as he trailed the lead by 18 seconds. Behind, Weatherman and Honeyman were running in the top six ahead of Herbst, Mayer, Custer, Jones, Allmendinger and Ryan Sieg, all of whom were scored on the lead lap. 

    Another 10 laps later, the leader Hill peeled off the track to pit his No. 21 Global Industrial Chevrolet Camaro for two fresh tires under green. Hill’s move enabled Allgaier to cycle back into the lead while Herbst, Mayer, Jones and Custer followed suit in the top five. By then, van Gisbergen, Chandler Smith, Weatherman and Honeyman had all pitted.  

    The caution would then fly with 28 laps remaining after Allgaier, who was trying to fend off Herbst, got loose while trying to lap Honeyman entering Turn 2, which resulted in Honeyman getting hit and spinning sideways into the outside wall in Turn 2. During the caution period, nearly the entire field led by Allgaier returned to pit road for service while Kligerman remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Jones exited pit road first ahead of Hill, both of whom only elected for two fresh tires while Allgaier, Mayer, Custer, Herbst, Allmendinger, Sammy Smith, Ryan Sieg and Love followed suit in the top 10. 

    Down to the final 21 laps of the event, the race restarted under green as Kligerman and Jones occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out as Jones and Hill challenged Kligerman for the lead through the first two turns. With the field still fanned out through the backstretch, Jones muscled ahead with the lead on the outside lane while teammate Mayer followed suit in second ahead of Hill, Herbst, Allmendinger and Ryan Sieg while Allgaier, who went up the track, dropped out of the top five as he was running in the top 10. 

    During the following lap, Jones retained the lead by a tenth of a second over teammate Mayer while Ryan Sieg challenged and overtook Herbst for third place. Mayer then overtook Jones for the lead with 19 laps remaining through the frontstretch before Sieg continued his late, strong charge to the front by overtaking Mayer entering Turns 3 and 4. With Sieg leading, Mayer trailed in second ahead of Herbst and Jones while Allgaier, who was trying to march his way back to the front, was in fifth. 

    Following another caution period with 17 laps remaining amid an incident involving Kyle Weatherman and Hailie Deegan through the frontstretch, the race restarted under green with 11 laps remaining. At the start, Sieg muscled ahead to retain the lead from Herbst, Mayer and Allgaier while the rest of the field behind jostled for late positions. Amid the battles and more on-track chaos within the field, Sieg was scored the leader by seven-tenths of a second with 10 laps remaining. Shortly after, Retzlaff made contact with the wall and Herbst pitted under green after making on-track contact with Jones, but the event remainded under green flag conditions. 

    Down to the final five laps of the event, Sieg retained the lead by more than a second over Mayer while Allgaier, Allmendinger and Custer followed suit in the top five. Despite having his advantage shaved off by a tenth during the ensuing laps, Sieg continued to lead by a steady margin over Mayer and Allgaier. 

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Sieg remained as the leader by two-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Mayer. Through the first two turns, Mayer gained a strong run on Sieg from the outside lane, where he then crossed his No. 1 Carolina Carports Chevrolet Camaro over to the inside lane, drew even with Sieg’s No. 39 Sci Aps Ford Mustang and overtook him for the lead through the backstretch. Mayer then got loose entering Turn 3, which allowed Sieg to draw back even beneath Sieg approaching the frontstretch. With neither giving an inch amid a side-by-side battle to the finish line and on-track contact, Mayer managed to edge Sieg on the outside lane by 0.002 seconds before getting squeezed into the outside wall to claim his first Xfinity checkered flag of the 2024 season in dramatic fashion. 

    With the victory, Mayer, who sustained three DNFs through three of the first four-scheduled events and is coming off a strong runner-up result at Martinsville Speedway, notched his fifth career win in the Xfinity Series, his first at Texas Motor Speedway and his first since winning at Homestead-Miami Speedway in October 2023. The victory was also the first of the season for JR Motorsports and the fourth for the Chevrolet nameplate. 

    As an added bonus, Mayer claimed the second Dash 4 Cash $100,000 bonus of the 2024 season. This marks his second time claiming the bonus since he achieved his first at Richmond Raceway in 2022. 

    “That’s absolutely unreal,” Mayer said on FS1. “This Carolina Carports Chevrolet was certainly as fast as Xfinity Internet. This team, the amount of adversity we had to fight this entire year so far and to come to a mile and a half that I want to say I’m good at, but it took every ounce for me to do that today. So proud of my team. [My spotter Kevin Hamlin] might have won that race because he told me [the] bottom of [Turns] 3 and 4 were better, so props to him.” 

    While Mayer was left jubilant and in disbelief on the frontstretch with his victory, Sieg was left disappointed on pit road after falling short of his first Xfinity victory by a hair, which occurred in his 342nd career start in the Xfinity circuit. The result marks the third time where Sieg ended up in the runner-up spot. 

    “Sucks, we had a really good car,” Sieg said. “I got tight and then tried to change my line to do different things. [I] Fell behind and I saw [Mayer] coming. I was doing all I could do and then at the end, I was just trying to run him into the wall, trying to win the race. We were so close. This sucks. I’ve been second before too many times, but this is a good thing. We’re running where we need to be in the top five. Just got to clean up a few things. [The first win]’ll come. We got to keep fighting. We’re right there. Just thought we had it there at the end.”  

    Allgaier and Allmendinger finished third and fourth, respectively, as they will compete for the third Dash 4 Cash bonus of the 2024 season next weekend at Talladega Superspeedway along with race winner Mayer and runner-up Ryan Sieg. 

    Cole Custer finished fifth while Austin Hill, Ryan Truex, Sammy Smith, rookie Jesse Love and Anthony Alfredo ended up in the top 10 on the track. 

    There were 16 lead changes for 10 different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 35 laps. In addition, 25 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap. 

    Following the eighth event of the 2024 Xfinity Series season, Chandler Smith continues to lead the regular-season standings by 19 points over Cole Custer, 33 points over Austin Hill, 56 over Justin Allgaier and 76 over Jesse Love. 

    Results. 

    1. Sam Mayer, five laps led 

    2. Ryan Sieg, 17 laps led 

    3. Justin Allgaier, 117 laps led, Stages 1 & 2 winner 

    4. AJ Allmendinger 

    5. Cole Custer, one lap led 

    6. Austin Hill, 25 laps led 

    7. Ryan Truex 

    8. Sammy Smith 

    9. Jesse Love, one lap led 

    10. Anthony Alfredo 

    11. Taylor Gray 

    12. Josh Williams 

    13. Brandon Jones, two laps led 

    14. Kyle Sieg 

    15. Chandler Smith, 26 laps led 

    16. Jeremy Clements 

    17. Corey Heim 

    18. Shane van Gisbergen 

    19. Sheldon Creed, two laps led 

    20. Matt DiBenedetto 

    21. Brennan Poole 

    22. Parker Retzlaff 

    23. Hailie Deegan 

    24. Daniel Dye 

    25. Parker Kligerman, four laps led 

    26. Ryan Ellis, one lap down 

    27. Riley Herbst, one lap down 

    28. David Starr, two laps down 

    29. Josh Bilicki, two laps down 

    30. Joey Gase, two laps down 

    31. Leland Honeyman, two laps down 

    32. Jeb Burton, three laps down 

    33. Patrick Emerling, three laps down 

    34. Garrett Smithley, three laps down 

    35. Blaine Perkins, three laps down 

    36. Kyle Weatherman – OUT, Accident 

    37. Dawson Cram, nine laps down 

    38. Chad Finchum – OUT, Suspension 

    Next on the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the Ag-Pro 300 at Talladega Superspeedway in Lincoln, Alabama, where the third Dash 4 Cash event will occur. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, April 20, and air at 4 p.m. ET on FOX. 

  • NASCAR reveals 2024 spring Atlanta penalty report

    NASCAR reveals 2024 spring Atlanta penalty report

    NASCAR released its penalty report following this past weekend’s triple-header feature at Atlanta Motor Speedway which includes two Cup Series teams from the same organization hit with an early points swing.

    Stewart-Haas Racing’s Nos. 10 and 41 Ford Mustang Dark Horse teams piloted by Noah Gragson and Ryan Preece, respectively, have each been docked 35 driver/owner points as a result of violating Section 14.5.6.1.a. of NASCAR’s Rule Book that highlights the specification compliance of roof rail deflectors.

    The news comes after NASCAR confiscated the roof rail deflectors of both Gragson and Preece’s entries following Friday’s pre-race inspection and before the Cup Series’ Ambetter Health 400 on Sunday.

    During the event, Preece finished 16th while Gragson, who was involved in a 16-car pileup on the second lap, retired in 36th.

    In addition, Joey Logano, a two-time Cup Series champion, was fined $10,000 for a competition infraction that involved failing to meet SFI-approved specifications with his protective gloves, where his left glove was discovered to be modified with webbings between his thumb and index finger, which would provide an aerodynamic advantage by creating drag and deflecting air from coming inside the car.

    Logano, who initially posted the second-fastest qualifying speed and was set to start alongside pole-sitter Michael McDowell on the front row, was instead forced to drop to the rear of the field and serve a pass-through penalty at the start of the main event. Despite rallying to lead 27 laps, Logano ended up 28th after getting collected in a multi-car wreck with Chris Buescher and Denny Hamlin prior to the second stage’s conclusion.

    In the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Seth Chavka, crew chief for Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 19 “all-star” Toyota Supra entry that was piloted by Ryan Truex, was fined $5,000 due to a single lug nut discovered to be unsecured on Truex’s entry following the series’ RAPTOR King of Tough 250 at Atlanta on Saturday. During the event, Truex finished ninth after he initially was in contention for the victory during an overtime shootout.

    In addition, Jason Miller, crew chief of the No. 14 SS Green Light Racing Chevrolet team piloted by JJ Yeley, was issued a two-race suspension, beginning for the next two upcoming weekends, for violating Section 4.4.D of the Xfinity Series’ Rule Book that highlights NASCAR member code of conduct. Miller was seen engaging in a physical confrontation with Kyle Weatherman following Saturday’s event. Their argument stems from where Weatherman sent Yeley for a spin entering Turn 1 nearing the Lap 60 mark. Yeley ended up 24th while Weatherman finished 17th.

    There were no penalties or fines issued from Saturday’s Craftsman Truck Series’ FR8 208 event at Atlanta.

    NASCAR is set to resume to action for its third triple-header feature of the 2024 season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The action commences with the Truck Series’ Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 on Friday, March 1, which will air at 9 p.m. ET on FS1 followed by the Xfinity Series’ The LiUNA! that will occur on Saturday, March 2, at 5 p.m. ET on FS1. The Cup Series’ Pennzoil 400 will conclude the weekend by occurring on Sunday, March 3, at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

  • Austin Hill snatches dramatic Xfinity victory at Atlanta in overtime

    Austin Hill snatches dramatic Xfinity victory at Atlanta in overtime

    In an event dominated by rookie Jesse Love, teammate Austin Hill captured the final spotlight by claiming a dramatic, overtime victory in the RAPTOR King of Tough 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday, February 24, for his second consecutive NASCAR Xfinity Series victory to commence the 2024 season.

    The 29-year-old Hill from Winston, Georgia, led the final two of 168 over-scheduled laps in an event where he was poised for a potential top-10 result while teammate Jesse Love dominated the event from pole position and had won the event’s two-stage periods. Following a caution period with two laps remaining that sent the event into overtime and with fuel becoming a concern for a multitude of front-runners, Love’s dominant quest to victory came to a halt at the start of overtime as he stumbled to keep up to pace. Love’s misfortune parted the seas for Hill to move into the lead. From there, Hill was able to fend off Chandler Smith for two laps to grab his second consecutive Xfinity victory to commence the 2024 season.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, February 23, rookie Jesse Love notched his second consecutive pole position of the 2024 season after posting a pole-winning lap at 173.935 mph in 31.874 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate Austin Hill, winner of this year’s season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway, after he clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 173.706 mph in 31.916 seconds.

    Prior to the event, the following names that included Brandon Jones, Patrick Emerling, Jeb Burton, Parker Retzlaff, Joey Gase, Ryan Ellis and Brennan Poole dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.

    When the green flag waved and the race started, teammates Love and Hill dueled for the lead for a full lap in front of two tight-packed lanes until Love managed to lead the first lap by a hair. By the conclusion of the second lap, Love had both lanes to his control with the lead while Riley Herbst was battling Hill for the runner-up spot.

    By the fourth lap, Josh Williams had fallen off the pace due to a flat tire on his Kaulig Racing entry. Amid Williams’ issues, the race remained under green flag conditions as Love also retained the lead followed by Herbst, Sam Mayer, Ryan Truex and John Hunter Nemechek while Chandler Smith, Sheldon Creed, Hill, Parker Kligerman and Sammy Smith occupied the top 10 by the fifth lap mark.

    Through the first 15 scheduled laps, Love continued to lead in front of a long single-file line of competitors that included Herbst, Mayer, Truex and Nemechek while Hill, Kligerman, AJ Allmendinger, Sammy Smith and Justin Allgaier trailed in the top 10.

    Fifteen laps later, Love retained the lead ahead of Herbst, Mayer, Kligerman and Truex in the draft while Allmendinger, Allgaier, Creed, Sammy Smith and Ryan Sieg were running in the top 10.

    When the first sage period concluded on Lap 40, Love, who has led every lap thus far, captured his second Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Herbst settled in second while Mayer, Truex, Kligerman, Allmendinger, Allgaier, Creed, Ryan Sieg and Sammy Sith were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, a majority of the field led by Love pitted. During the pit stops, Brandon Jones was penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation while Poole was also penalized due to his crew members being over the pit box too soon.

    The second stage period started on Lap 47 as Love and Kligerman occupied the front row. At the start, Love and Kligerman dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Love muscled the No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Camaro ahead with the lead with drafting help from Allgaier. Kligerman, however, would spend the next two laps battling dead even with Love for the top spot until Love muscled back ahead by the Lap 50 mark.

    Nearing the Lap 60 mark, the caution flew after JJ Yeley spun off the front nose of Kyle Weatherman exiting the frontstretch and entering the first turn. During the caution period, some drivers, including Shane van Gisbergen, Brandon Jones, Allmendinger and Kyle Sieg pitted while the rest led by Love remained on the track.

    During the next restart on Lap 63, Love battled against teammate Hill for nearly a lap until he muscled ahead from the outside lane as he was pursued by Allgaier and Herbst while Hill remained as the lead competitor on the inside lane. As the laps progressed, Nemechek made contact with the outside wall in Turn 3 and Hill drifted outside the top 10 while he continued to run the inside lane. Amid the events, Love continued to lead the race.

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 80, Love captured his second consecutive stage victory of the 2024 Xfinity season. Allgaier settled in second while Herbst, Truex, Sammy Smith, Chandler Smith, Cole Custer, Hill, Allmendinger and Creed were scored in the top 10.

    During the stage break, nearly the entire field led by Love pitted while Jeb Burton remained on the track. Shortly after, Burton would surrender the lead to pit, which gave the lead to Allmendinger, who only pitted for fuel.

    With 76 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Allmendinger and Love occupied the front row. At the start, Allmendinger and Love dueled for the lead in front of two packed lanes. Allmendinger and Love would then swap the lead during the next seven laps before Love assumed control of both lanes with the top spot with 67 laps remaining.

    With 50 laps remaining, Love was leading ahead of Allmendinger, Herbst, Truex and Kligerman while Hill, Brandon Jones, Custer, Mayer and Sammy Smith occupied the top 10 in front of Allgaier, van Gisbergen, Chandler Smith, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Ryan Sieg, Creed, Retzlaff, Anthony Alfredo, Leland Honeyman and Ryan Ellis.

    Fifteen laps later and with the majority of the field running in a long single-file line towards the outside lane, Love continued to lead ahead of Herbst, Truex, Kligerman and teammate Hill. By then, Allmendinger, who was stuck on the inside lane, had slipped within the top 15.

    Another 15 laps later, Love retained the lead as part of a 15-car breakaway followed by Herbst, Truex, Kligerman and Hill.

    Down to the final 10 laps of the event and with the leaders approaching lapped traffic, Love maintained the lead in front of Herbst while Truex, Kligerman and Hill remained in the top five, though fuel was becoming a concern for the front-runners.

    Then with three laps remaining, Custer, who was running in the top 10, fell off the pace through the frontstretch after he ran out of fuel. Teammate Herbst then met the same fate entering Turns 1 and 2, but the event remained under green flag conditions. With two laps remaining, however, the caution flew after Ryan Sieg came to a stop on the backstretch due to running out of fuel.

    During the caution period, some including Brandon Jones, Chandler Smith, van Gisbergen, Allmendinger, Creed, Retzlaff, Jeremy Clements and Alfredo pitted while the rest led by Love remained on the track. With the event sent into overtime, disaster struck for Allgaier, who was running toward the front but was forced to pit after he ran out of fuel prior to the start.

    At the start of overtime, Love along with Kligerman and Allmendinger fell off the pace after all three ran out of fuel through the frontstretch. With Love stumbling on gas, Austin Hill shoved Ryan Truex out of his path to assume the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch followed by a hard-charging Chandler Smith while Shane van Gisbergen followed suit in third.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Hill remained as the leader by a narrow margin over Chandler Smith and van Gisbergen. With Smith unable to gain enough momentum amid the draft to mount a final lap charge, Hill was able to maintain control of both lanes and cycle his way back to the frontstretch to claim his second consecutive checkered flag of the 2024 season.

    With the victory, Hill notched his eighth career win in the Xfinity Series, his sixth on a superspeedway venue and his third victory in his previous four starts at Atlanta, his home track. Hill also became the first competitor to win the first two events on the schedule since Tony Stewart made the last accomplishment in 2008.

    “I just gotta thank my guys, everyone on this No. 21 Bennett Chevrolet,” Hill said on FS1. “We all worked through it. I was really thinking we were down and out. I was thinking [Love] was going to go get ‘em, and hey, if I can’t win, let my teammate win. We were riding there in fourth or fifth, whatever it was. I was saving fuel. We came to the restart zone and I’m like sloshing it around and we go through the gears. When I went to shift from third to fourth [gear], I actually stumbled and [Chandler Smith] hit me really hard, and that woke it back up, and I had enough fuel to complete the lap.

    “But I’ve got to take this moment to congratulate, Jesse Love, my teammate. He ran an awesome race. To be a rookie and to lead that many laps, he should be sitting in Victory Lane right now. The No. 2 team did a hell of a job. So awesome to win here at my home track again for the third time. Man, what a race. I thought we were down and out. I really did. I thought we were just gonna run second or third and here we are in Victory Lane.”

    Chandler Smith settled in the runner-up spot followed by Shane van Gisbergen, who achieved his first top-three result in the Xfinity circuit. Sheldon Creed came home in fourth place followed by Retzlaff while Jeremy Clements, Alfredo, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Ryan Truex and Sammy Smith finished in the top 10.

    Jesse Love, who led a race-high 157 laps, ended up in 12th place ahead of Allmendinger after he came up two laps shy on his dry tank of fuel.

    There were 11 lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 23 laps.

    Following the second event of the 2024 Xfinity Series season, Austin Hill continues to lead the regular-season standings by 17 points over Sheldon Creed, 28 over Riley Herbst, 30 over both Chandler Smtih and Jesse Love, and 36 over Parker Retzlaff.

    Results.

    1. Austin Hill, two laps led

    2. Chandler Smith

    3. Shane van Gisbergen

    4. Sheldon Creed

    5. Parker Retzlaff

    6. Jeremy Clements

    7. Anthony Alfredo

    8. Jeffrey Earnhardt

    9. Ryan Truex

    10. Sammy Smith

    11. Sam Mayer

    12. Jesse Love, 157 laps, Stage 1 & 2 winner

    13. AJ Allmendinger, eight laps led

    14. Brandon Jones

    15. Riley Herbst

    16. Cole Custer

    17. Kyle Weatherman

    18. BJ McLeod

    19. Parker Kligerman, one lap led

    20. Brennan Poole, one lap down

    21. Leland Honeyman, one lap down

    22. Ryan Sieg, one lap down

    23. Jeb Burton, one lap down

    24. JJ Yeley, one lap down

    25. Ryan Ellis, one lap down

    26. Nick Leitz, one lap down

    27. Hailie Deegan, one lap down

    28. Justin Allgaier, one lap down

    29. Joey Gase, two laps down

    30. Blaine Perkins, two laps down

    31. Dawson Cram, two laps down

    32. John Hunter Nemechek, three laps down

    33. Patrick Emerling, three laps down

    34. Garrett Smithley, three laps down

    35. CJ McLaughlin, four laps down

    36. Kyle Sieg, four laps down, one lap led

    37. Josh Williams, nine laps down

    38. Jordan Anderson – OUT, Steering

    Next on the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is The LiUNA! At Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, March 2, at 5 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Austin Hill rallies to notch third consecutive Xfinity opener victory at Daytona

    Austin Hill rallies to notch third consecutive Xfinity opener victory at Daytona

    Austin Hill rallied from three different circumstances that sent him to the rear of the field to commence a new season of NASCAR Xfinity Series competition on a victorious note three years in a row by winning the rain-postponed United Rentals 300 at Daytona International Speedway on Monday, February 19.

    The 29-year-old Hill from Winston, Georgia, led nine of 120 scheduled laps in an event where he shared the front row with new teammate and series newcomer Jesse Love. After being edged by Love at the conclusion of the first stage period, Hill was involved in a multi-car wreck at the start of the second stage period that sent him to the rear of the field. He would rally with cosmetic damage to his No. 21 Richard Childress Racing entry by winning the second stage but would hit another obstacle by being nabbed with a speeding penalty on pit road during the stage’s break period that sent him to the rear of the field for a second time. After rallying from that, he would hit a third obstacle by pitting during a late caution period with approximately 20 laps remaining to address a flat tire to his entry.

    Amid the three issues that sent him to the rear of the field, Hill capitalized on two late-race caution periods and late-race carnages to draft Jordan Anderson to the lead during the final restart with three laps remaining before he assumed the lead. He would then fend off late challenges from Sheldon Creed, Chandler Smith and Brandon Jones to muscle away from the field and notch his third consecutive victory in the Xfinity Series’ opener at Daytona.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, February 17, newcomer Jesse Love secured his first Xfinity career pole position after posting a pole-winning lap at 181.079 mph in 49.702 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate Austin Hill, who clocked in the second-best qualifying lap at 181.068 mph in 49.705 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Dawson Cram and BJ McLeod were sent to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries. In addition, Sage Karam would start at the rear of the field due to an engine change to his No. 26 Sam Hunt Racing entry.

    When the green flag waved and the 2024 Xfinity Series commenced, Love muscled his No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Camaro ahead with the lead from the outside lane and ahead of teammate Hill entering the first two turns. With the field stacked amid two tight-packed lanes through the backstretch, Love, who transitioned from the inside to the outside lane to keep Hill behind him, proceeded to lead the first lap. He would proceed to lead the ensuing laps while keeping teammate Hill behind him amid the draft. By then, a majority of the field migrated to a long single-file line towards the outside wall while some led by AJ Allmendinger raced on the inside lane.

    Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Love was leading a bevy of competitors running in a long single-file line towards the outside wall while teammate Hill, Parker Kligerman, Justin Allgaier, Anthony Alfredo, Sammy Smith, John Hunter Nemechek, Sheldon Creed, Jeb Burton and Daniel Suarez were scored in the top 10. Behind, Ryan Truex was in 11th followed by Riley Herbst, Cole Custer, Brandon Jones and AJ Allmendinger while Sam Mayer, Daniel Dye, Parker Retzlaff, Shane van Gisbergen and Hailie Deegan rounded out the top 20.

    Just past the Lap 20 mark and with the majority of the field still running in a long single-file line on the outside lane, Love also continued to lead ahead of teammate Hill, Kligerman, Allgaier and Alfredo. By then, Sammy Smith, Nemechek, Creed, Burton and Truex were running in the top 10 ahead of Custer, Brandon Jones, Allmendinger, Dye and Retzlaff while van Gisbergen moved up to 16th as Herbst fell back to 17th.

    Then on Lap 22, the event’s first caution flew when Suarez, who stepped off the gas to avoid running into the rear of van Gisbergen, got bumped and turned into the outside wall entering Turn 1, where he then spun back across the track and clipped Sam Mayer as Mayer hit the outside wall head-on. Hailie Deegan and Kyle Weatherman would also be involved, with all four competitors being eliminated early from contention.

    During the event’s first caution period, some led by Love remained on the track while others led by Allgaier pitted for service.

    With the event restarting for a one-lap dash to the conclusion of the first stage period on Lap 29, teammates Love and Hill dueled for the lead in front of the field that was fanning out to three tight-packed lanes through the first two turns and the backstretch. When the field returned to the frontstretch to complete the first stage period on Lap 30, Love was able to edge Hill by a hair to claim the first stage victory. Hill ended up second followed by Kligerman, Alfredo and Burton while Creed, Nemechek, Allmendinger, Allgaier and Ryan Truex were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, some led by Love pitted while the rest led by Allmendinger remained on the track. During the pit stops, Alfredo was penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation.

    The second stage period started on Lap 35 as Allmendinger and Allgaier occupied the front row. At the start, Allmendinger received an early push from Herbst to muscle his No. 16 Celsius Chevrolet Camaro ahead with the lead through the backstretch until Allgaier muscled ahead from the inside lane entering Turns 3 and 4. He would be followed by Cole Custer and Blaine Perkins as the field behind fanned out to three lanes.

    Then during the following lap, where Allgaier was pinned in a tight three-wide battle for the lead against Custer and Perkins, the caution returned after Love, who was running in the top 10 but mired in the middle lane amid a stacked field, got loose in front of Nemechek, where he spun, clipped Allmendinger and triggered a multi-car wreck that collected van Gisbergen, Kligerman, Daniel Dye, Alfredo, Josh Williams, Frankie Muniz, Jeremy Clements and Hill, who spun towards the backstretch’s infield, but managed to keep his No. 21 Bennett Chevrolet Camaro away from the inside wall as he proceeded with cosmetic damage.

    Following the second carnage of the night, the event proceeded under green on Lap 42, where Allgaier muscled ahead on the outside lane from Stewart-Haas Racing’s Custer and Riley Herbst. Not long after, Custer and Herbst pinned Allgaier in a three-wide battle for the lead as Custer muscled ahead in his No. 00 Haas Ford Mustang from the inside lane. Custer would proceed to lead the next lap, Lap 44, as the field fanned out to three tight-packed lanes while Allgaier was trying to regain ground from the inside lane.

    On Lap 44, however, Allgaier, who attempted to draw even with Custer for the lead entering the backstretch, went up the track and bumped against Custer sending Allgaier’s No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro spinning towards the backstretch’s infield as Garrett Smithley also spun.

    When the race restarted on Lap 48, teammates Parker Retzlaff and Jeb Burton zipped by Custer from the inside lane through the first two turns as Clements tried to follow suit. Burton would then move his No. 27 Golden Corral Chevrolet Camaro in front of Clements to be drafted into the lead from Retzlaff during the next lap, with Retzlaff and Clements getting shuffled out of the lead draft while Hill muscled his way back to the front with a bandaged race car.

    Following another caution period on Lap 50, where Nemechek spun his No. 20 Pye Barker Toyota Supra across the frontstretch after losing a left-rear tire as Josh Bilicki also got bumped and spun, the event restarted under green on Lap 56, where Burton maintained a brief lead over Ryan Sieg and Hill before he would be pinned in a three-wide battle with Hill and Sheldon Creed for the lead. Following the battle, Hill was back atop the leaderboard during the following lap.

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 60, Hill fended off Sammy Smith and Creed to capture the stage victory. Sammy Smith edged Creed for the runner-up spot while Custer, Sieg, Ryan Truex, Herbst, Allgaier, Allmendinger and Brandon Jones were scored in the top 10.

    During the stage break, a bevy of names led by Hill pitted while the rest led by teammate Love remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Hill, who slid through his pit box, was penalized and sent to the rear of the field for speeding while entering pit road.

    With 54 laps remaining, the final stage commenced under green as Love and Sammy Smith occupied the front row. At the start, Sammy Smith muscled his No. 8 Pilot Flying J Chevrolet Camaro into the lead from the inside lane while Love was left to battle Creed for the runner-up spot in front of two stacked lanes. Smith would proceed to lead the next four laps until Herbst moved his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang into the lead from the outside lane, where he would lead the next four laps.

    With 45 laps remaining, select names led by Hill and including teammate Love, Leland Honeyman and Kligerman peeled off the racetrack to pit under green before more names led by Allmendinger and including Sammy Smith, Clements, Daniel Dye, van Gisbergen and Jordan Anderson pitted. Over the next several laps, more names pitted while three names led by Natalie Decker and including Ryan Ellis and Garrett Smithley remained on the track to inherit the top three spots with less than 40 laps remaining.

    With 33 laps remaining, Ellis assumed the lead followed by Smithley as Decker dropped to third, though all have yet to pit. Meanwhile, Herbst, the first competitor who pitted, was in fourth and leading a bevy of competitors that fanned out to three lanes.

    Then with 24 laps remaining, the caution flew after contact from van Gisbergen sent Jeb Burton spinning entering the frontstretch. By then, Ellis, Smithley and Decker remained on the track as the top-three leaders while Ryan Sieg was the lead competitor of those who pitted followed by Herbst, Custer, Chandler Smith, Hill and Truex. During the caution period, some led by Ellis, Smithley and Decker pitted while the rest, led by Sieg, remained on the track. Not long after, Hill would pit under caution due to a flat tire on his entry.

    During the next restart with 18 laps remaining, Sieg received a draft from Herbst to muscle away from Chandler Smith and retain the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. The caution, however, quickly returned after Retzlaff made contact with Clements exiting the backstretch and ignited another multi-car wreck that included Honeyman, Smithley, van Gisbergen and Burton.

    The start of the next restart with 11 laps remaining featured Herbst and Sieg dueling for the lead through the first two turns and through the backstretch as the field slowly started to fan out to three lanes by the time the front-runners returned to the frontstretch. Not long after, however, Herbst was penalized for a restart violation, where he was laying back prior to the restart zone.

    Two laps later and a three-wide battle between Herbst, Anderson and Chandler Smith ignited, the caution returned after Karam, who was being drafted at full speed by Allmendinger, bumped and sent Custer into the backstretch’s outside wall, where he then veered back to the left and clipped Karam into the wall as another multi-car wreck ensued that collected Poole, Daniel Dye, Allgaier and Custer, where all four were sent sliding and slamming into one another towards the infield’s grass before the former two slid back across the track. By then and with Herbst out of contention by falling back to the tail of the field, Anderson was scored the leader followed by Chandler Smith, Hill, Sieg and Retzlaff.

    As the event restarted with three laps remaining, Chandler Smith muscled into the lead on the inside lane followed by Sieg and Truex. Not long after, Anderson was drafted by Hill into the lead through the backstretch. Hill, however, seized an opportunity to veer to the right and overtake Anderson entering Turns 3 and 4 while Chandler Smith, Retzlaff and Truex followed suit amid the draft. Hill would maintain the lead over Chandler Smith, Truex and a hard-charging Brandon Jones during the next lap followed by Creed as the field began to fan out and scramble to the front.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Hill remained as the leader ahead of ex-teammate Creed, who muscled his way into the runner-up spot followed by Sieg and Sammy Smith while Chandler Smith was losing momentum on the outside lane. Then as the field navigated through the first two turns, Sammy Smith and Sieg made contact that resulted with both along with Truex wrecking. The race, however, remained under green flag conditions as Hill remained ahead of Creed and a scattered field with the lead. With Creed unable to gain any draft or momentum for one final turn, Hill was able to smoothly navigate his way around Turns 3 and 4 with a comfortable advantage at full speed before he returned to the frontstretch and claimed his third consecutive checkered flag at Daytona to commence a new season of competition.

    With the victory, Hill achieved his seventh NASCAR Xfinity Series career victory in his 82nd series’ start and his fifth on a superspeedway venue as he also became the first competitor to achieve three consecutive Xfinity Daytona opener victories since Tony Stewart made the last accomplishment from 2008-10, with Stewart proceeding to win a fourth consecutive opener in 2011. Compared to his two previous season-opening victories at Daytona that ended under caution, Hill earned this year’s victory under green flag conditions. The Daytona victory was also the ninth overall in the Xfinity circuit for Richard Childress Racing.

    “[Tonight’s victory] tops it all,” Hill said on FS1. “Three-peat. You know how hard it is to win at Daytona? God almighty! I don’t know what was going on with me on pit road today, but my guys just kept telling me, ‘Look, man, dig deep; you’re really good at these superspeedways.’ I tried to screw it up on pit road—sped on pit road, slid through the box, about slid through the box on the first stop, but man, this Bennett Chevrolet was fast as Xfinity 10G, that’s for damn sure. I don’t even know what time it is. I know it’s past my bedtime, but we’re about to party tonight, I can tell you that. I am so stoked. This is incredible…it can’t get any better.”

    Creed settled in the runner-up spot for the eighth time in his career and in his first event driving for Joe Gibbs Racing while Retzlaff, Jordan Anderson and Chandler Smith finished in the top five.

    Herbst rallied his way to finish sixth while Nemechek, Allgaier, Brandon Jones and Allmendinger completed the top-10 finishing order on the track.

    Notably, Ryan Ellis ended up 11th after leading 11 laps followed by newcomer Shane van Gisbergen, Cole Custer, Blaine Perkins and BJ McLeod. In addition, Natalie Decker settled in 18th and pole-sitter Jesse Love ended up 20th while Ryan Truex, Ryan Sieg and Sammy Smith ended up 21st through 23rd, respectively, following their last-lap accident.

    There were lead changes for different leaders. The race featured cautions for laps. In addition, 22 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Following the first event of the 2024 Xfinity Series season, Austin Hill leads the regular-season standings by 11 points over Sheldon Creed, 24 over Riley Herbst, 25 over both Parker Retzlaff and Justin Allgaier, and 26 over Jordan Anderson.

    Results.

    1. Austin Hill, nine laps led, Stage 2 winner

    2. Sheldon Creed, two laps led

    3. Parker Retzlaff, six laps led

    4. Jordan Anderson

    5. Chandler Smith, one lap led

    6. Riley Herbst, eight laps led

    7. John Hunter Nemechek

    8. Justin Allgaier, eight laps led

    9. Brandon Jones

    10. AJ Allmendinger, three laps led

    11. Ryan Ellis, 11 laps led

    12. Shane van Gisbergen

    13. Cole Custer, six laps led

    14. Blaine Perkins

    15. BJ McLeod

    16. Garrett Smithley

    17. Patrick Emerling

    18. Natalie Decker, seven laps led

    19. Brennan Poole

    20. Jesse Love, 34 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    21. Ryan Truex

    22. Ryan Sieg, 12 laps led

    23. Sammy Smith, one lap down, six laps led

    24. Anthony Alfredo, two laps down

    25. Parker Kligerman, two laps down

    26. Jeb Burton, two laps down, eight laps led

    27. Daniel Dye, three laps down

    28. Sage Karam – OUT, Accident

    29. Jeremy Clements – OUT, DVP

    30. Leland Honeyman – OUT, Accident

    31. Dawson Cram – OUT, Accident

    32. Josh Bilicki – OUT, Accident

    33. Frankie Muniz – OUT, DVP

    34. Josh Williams – OUT, Accident

    35. Daniel Suarez – OUT, Accident

    36. Sam Mayer – OUT, Accident

    37. Hailie Deegan – OUT, Accident

    38. Kyle Weatherman – OUT, Accident

    With the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season underway, the next event on the schedule is Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia, for the RAPTOR King of Tough 250. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, February 24, and air at 5 p.m. ET on FS1.