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Ryan Truex muscles to second Xfinity victory of 2024 at Daytona

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results.

1. Ryan Truex, 28 laps led

2. Chandler Smith, 15 laps led

3. Parker Kligerman

4. Riley Herbst, one lap led

5. Ryan Sieg

6. Jordan Anderson

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

8. Sheldon Creed

9. Leland Honeyman

10. Kyle Weatherman

11. Josh Williams

12. Joe Graf Jr.

13. Sam Mayer, seven laps led

14. Blaine Perkins

15. Kyle Sieg

16. Brennan Poole

17. Jeb Burton

18. Patrick Emerling

19. CJ McLaughlin

20. Joey Gase

21. Jesse Love

22. Brandon Jones

23. Sammy Smith

24. AJ Allmendinger, 35 laps led

25. Shane van Gisbergen, one lap down

26. Anthony Alfredo, one lap down

27. Jeremy Clements, one lap down

28. Jeffrey Earnhardt, three laps down

29. Caesar Bacarella – OUT, Accident

30. Josh Bilicki – OUT, Accident

31. Austin Hill, 23 laps down

32. Cole Custer – OUT, DVP

33. Matt DiBenedetto – OUT, Accident

34. Parker Retzlaff – OUT, Accident

35. Tim Viens – OUT, Engine

36. Gus Dean – OUT, Accident

37. Ryan Ellis – OUT, Accident

38. Akinori Ogata – OUT, Accident

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photo by Tim Jarrold for SpeedwayMedia.com.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results.

1. Justin Allgaier, 37 laps led

2. Sheldon Creed, 23 laps led

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

4. Anthony Alfredo

5. Sammy Smith

6. Noah Gragson

7. Matt DiBenedetto

8. Taylor Gray

9. Caesar Bacarella

10. AJ Allmendinger

11. Parker Kligerman

12. Leland Honeyman

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

14. Ryan Ellis

15. Jeremy Clements

16. Jeb Burton

17. Shane van Gisbergen

18. Austin Hill

19. Josh Williams

20. Parker Retzlaff

21. Jeffrey Earnhardt

22. Patrick Emerling

23. Blaine Perkins

24. Josh Bilicki

25. Logan Bearden

26. Carson Kvapil, 25 laps led

27. Chandler Smith

28. Kyle Sieg, one lap down

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

30. Cole Custer – OUT, Suspension

31. Joey Gase – OUT, Fuel Pump

32. Kyle Weatherman – OUT, Accident

33. Brennan Poole – OUT, Oil Pump

34. Daniel Dye – OUT, Accident

35. Lawless Alan – OUT, Accident

36. Brandon Jones – OUT, Accident

37. Sam Mayer – OUT, Accident

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photo by Adam Lovelace for SpeedwayMedia.com.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results.

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

2. Cole Custer, 47 laps led

3. Aric Almirola, five laps led

4. Shane van Gisbergen

5. Sheldon Creed

6. Austin Hill

7. Daniel Dye

8. AJ Allmendinger, four laps led

9. Justin Allgaier

10. Carson Kvapil

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

12. Parker Kligerman

13. Jesse Love

14. Conor Daly

15. Brandon Jones, 10 laps led

16. Matt DiBenedetto

17. Joe Graf Jr.

18. Sammy Smith

19. Jeb Burton

20. Leland Honeyman

21. Brennan Poole

22. Kyle Sieg

23. Ryan Ellis

24. Joey Gase

25. Kyle Weatherman

26. David Starr

27. Josh Bilicki

28. BJ McLeod

29. Blaine Perkins

30. Jeremy Clements, one lap down

31. Garrett Smithley, three laps down

32. Greg Van Alst – OUT, Ignition

33. Chandler Smith, 14 laps down

34. Anthony Alfredo – OUT, Accident

35. Parker Retzlaff – OUT, Accident

36. Josh Williams – OUT, Accident

37. Sam Mayer – OUT, Accident

38. Josh Berry – OUT, Accident

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

July 20, 2024
Shane van Gisbergen dominates at Chicago for third Xfinity career victory

Rookie Shane van Gisbergen left very little room to doubt his road-course expertise Saturday afternoon as he repeated the success that launched him to NASCAR stardom on the streets of Downtown Chicago a year ago, after winning the second annual The Loop 110 at the Chicago Street Course on Saturday, July 6. It was his third NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of the 2024 season and his career.

The three-time Supercars champion from Auckland, New Zealand, led a race-high 14 of 50 scheduled laps after starting on the pole position and withstanding a series of on-track challenges from Kyle Larson to claim the first stage victory.

Despite losing the lead to Larson at the start of the second stage period before getting shuffled before the following restart period on Lap 25 amid pit strategy, van Gisbergen methodically carved his way back to the front. He then capitalized during a three-lap shootout to overtake rookie Jesse Love and return atop the leaderboard. Once in the lead, he muscled away from runner-up Ty Gibbs to score the third Xfinity career victory in his rookie campaign.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup, rookie van Gisbergen scored his second career Xfinity pole position after posting a pole-winning lap of 88.543 mph in 89.448 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Kyle Larson, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 88.530 mph in 89.461 seconds.

Before the event, Justin Allgaier and Sage Karam dropped to the rear of the field in backup cars. The following drivers, including Sheldon Creed, John Hunter Nemechek, Kyle Sieg and Parker Kligerman also dropped to the rear of the field due to engine changes made to their entries. Daniel Suarez and Ryan Sieg also started at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.

When the green flag waved and the race started, van Gisbergen rocketed ahead of Kyle Larson through the frontstretch and entering the first turn to lead. Larson then tried to make a move beneath van Gisbergen entering Turn 2 and he managed to pull even with van Gisbergen through Turns 3 to 5, just past DuSable Lake Shore Drive, before he muscled ahead with the top spot entering South Columbus Drive.

After trailing Larson through the drive, van Gisbergen pulled his No. 97 WeatherTech Chevrolet Camaro back even and reassumed the lead from Larson in Turn 6 while Ty Gibbs tried to challenge Larson for the runner-up spot. With Larson fending off Gibbs and Connor Mosack through the following six turns, van Gisbergen managed to pull away and lead the first lap.

After van Gisbergen led the second lap, Larson made an aggressive move beneath the former while almost forcing him towards the wall entering the first turn to snatch the lead. Van Gisbergen fought back through the following five turns amid a side-by-side battle, but Larson withstood the advantageous lane and retained the lead through South Columbus Drive. Despite van Gisbergen intimidating him through a series of tight turns between South Michigan Avenue and the East Congress Plaza Drive, Larson led the third lap and would continue to fend off van Gisbergen through the fifth lap mark.

Just past the fifth lap mark, van Gisbergen returned the favor as he overtook Larson entering the first turn before fending him off to retain the top spot prior to Turn 2. With van Gisbergen leading and stretching his advantage by more than a second over Larson by the seventh lap, Matt DiBenedetto was trying to rally from spinning in Turn 4 while Chandler Smith retired due to an engine issue in his No. 81 Smith General Contracting Toyota Supra.

With the event’s first caution period flying on the seventh lap due to debris spotted on the course, some of the drivers, including Josh Williams, Daniel Suarez, Jeremy Clements and Andre Castro pitted, while the rest, led by van Gisbergen remained on the track.

The start of the restart period on Lap 10 featured a tight side-by-side battle for the lead between Larson and van Gisbergen as Larson tried to make a move beneath van Gisbergen entering the first turn. Van Gisbergen, however, fended off Larson entering Turn 2 to retain the top spot momentarily before they both dueled for the lead through the following three turns and South Columbus Drive. Larson muscled ahead in Turn 6 as Gibbs, Mosack and Cole Custer trailed in the top five. With the race remaining under green flag conditions despite Josh Bilicki spinning in Turn 11 and Clements nursing a damaged No. 51 Impel Union Chevrolet Camaro to his pit stall, Larson continued to lead ahead of van Gisbergen and Gibbs.

Shortly after, notables, including Justin Allgaier, Riley Herbst and Sheldon Creed ran into issues, with Allgaier pitting under green and spinning while trying to enter pit road amid contact with Ryan Sieg while Herbst ran Creed into the Turn 2 wall as both made contact before Herbst spun his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang in the following turn. Amid the on-track chaos, Larson was leading by a slim margin over a hard-charging van Gisbergen.

Then on the final lap of the first stage period, van Gisbergen, who spent the previous five laps trailing Larson through every turn, pulled even with Larson through South Columbus Drive and through Turn 6 before he muscled ahead through Turns 7 and 8. With the clean air to his advantage for four final turns, van Gisbergen proceeded to claim his second Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season on Lap 15. Larson settled in second as they were followed by Gibbs, Mosack, Custer, AJ Allmendinger, rookie Jesse Love, Austin Hill, Sam Mayer and Parker Kligerman.

Under the stage break, some of the drivers, led by Gibbs, pitted while the rest, led by van Gisbergen and Larson, remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Custer was penalized for passing and bumping Gibbs’ No. 19 He Gets Us Toyota Supra on pit road and before entering his pit stall

The second stage period started on Lap 18 as van Gisbergen and Larson occupied the front row. At the start, van Gisbergen and Larson dueled for the lead through the frontstretch until Larson muscled his No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro clear with the lead entering Turn 2. As the field behind jostled for spots, Larson also stretched his advantage over van Gisbergen and Allmendinger through the next 10 series of turns as he would lead the ensuing lap.

Then on Lap 20, van Gisbergen launched another side-by-side attack on Larson for the lead through the frontstretch and just past the first turn, but Larson would fend him off in Turn 2. With van Gisbergen attempting another side-by-side battle through South Columbus Drive, Allmendinger tried to close in from third place while Mosack and Austin Green trailed in the top five. Despite van Gisbergen’s challenges through every turn and straightaway within Chicago’s avenues, Larson was not to be denied as he continued to lead.

Then on Lap 22, the caution returned when Allmendinger, who was running in third place, wheel-hopped entering Turn 6 just exiting S. Columbus Drive, slid sideways and pounded the tire barriers, which damaged the rear and right side of the No. 16 Celsius Chevrolet Camaro as Allmendinger limped his car to his pit stall. At the time of caution, Larson had fended off van Gisbergen to retain the lead while Mosack, Sammy Smith and Hill trailed in the top five.

During the caution period, which surpassed the event’s halfway mark, some led by Larson, van Gisbergen and Mosack pitted while the rest led by Sammy Smith remained on the track.

With the race restarting with five laps remaining in the second stage period, Hill overtook Sammy Smith through the frontstretch to assume the lead in his No. 21 Dow Coatings Chevrolet Camaro entering the first turn. He proceeded to lead during the following four turns while Sammy Smith, Love, Allgaier and Mayer followed suit in the top five.

With Larson and van Gisbergen mired outside the top 15 due to the mixed pit strategies, Hill retained the lead for the following lap. Larson would then return to the top-10 mark by the following lap while van Gisbergen was mired in 12th behind Joey Logano while Hill maintained the advantage by a second over Sammy Smith and teammate Love.

When the second stage period concluded on Lap 30, Hill captured his third Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Sammy Smith followed suit in second along with Love, Allgaier and Creed while Gibbs, Kligerman, Mayer, Nemechek and van Gisbergen scored in the top 10 as Larson ended up in 11th place. During the stage’s conclusion, Custer, who was running in 14th place, spun his No. 00 Andy’s Frozen Custard Ford Mustang in Turn 12 and plummeted to 26th place.

During the stage break, select drivers, including Sammy Smith, Allgaier, Parker Retzlaff, Jeb Burton, Josh Bilicki, Andre Castro, Custer and DiBenedetto pitted while the rest, led by Hill, remained on the track.

With 16 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as teammates Hill and Love occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out entering Turn 1 as Love assumed the lead in his No. 2 WAT Chevrolet Camaro. He would fend off teammate Hill and Gibbs entering Turn 2 and navigating through Turns 3 to 5 before he made his way onto South Columbus Drive. Behind, Gibbs moved up to second over Hill while Creed and Mayer were in the top five ahead of van Gisbergen and Kligerman. Meanwhile, Larson was mired in ninth behind Mosack while Nemechek, Logano, Herbst, Brandon Jones, Green and Brennan Poole were in the top 15.

Another lap later, the caution quickly returned due to on-track calamity that struck in Turn 12 when Sage Karam ran into the rear of Josh Bilicki, who also made contact with Kyle Sieg as Andre Castro and Parker Retzlaff, whose hood came flying up, were all involved.

The start of the next restart period with 11 laps remaining did not last long due to Preston Pardus stalling his car in the middle of Turn 11. Prior to the caution period, Brandon Jones spun in Turn 2 after Allmendinger collided with Leland Honeyman, who then collided and sent Jones’ No. 9 Menards Chevrolet Camaro spinning in a cloud of smoke. Amid the chaos, Love had retained the lead over Gibbs and teammate, Hill. Meanwhile, van Gisbergen was up to fifth place behind Creed while Larson was still mired in ninth place behind Mosack.

Down to the final eight laps of the event, the event restarted under green. At the start, Love mirrored his start from the previous restart period to retain the lead while Gibbs navigated his way to second place. Creed and van Gisbergen would all overtake Hill through South Columbus Drive and prior to entering Turn 6 before van Gisbergen made a bold move beneath Creed to claim third place in Turn 11.

With van Gisbergen trying to fend off Mayer and Creed through the frontstretch, Gibbs then started to challenge Love for the lead during the following lap. He tried to bump and move Love out of the way in Turn 5, but Love maintained the lead through South Columbus Drive. The battle between Love and Gibbs, however, allowed van Gisbergen to close in on both entering Turn 6 as the top-five competitors on the track trailed the lead by under a second for the next six turns.

Amid the late battles, the caution returned due to Leland Honeyman locking up his front tires and slamming his No. 42 Klean Freak Chevrolet Camaro head-on into the tire barriers in Turn 1. Before Honeyman’s wreck, van Gisbergen made a bold save entering the frontstretch sliding sideways and making light contact with the wall in front of Mayer and Creed.

With the event restarting with three laps remaining, Creed muscled ahead to retain the lead while van Gisbergen bolted his way past Gibbs to move into second place. With Mayer spinning in Turn 1, the race remained under green flag conditions as van Gisbergen quickly closed in on Love’s rear bumper for the following four turns and through South Columbus Drive. Van Gisbergen then forced his way beneath Love to cycle back into the lead in Turn 7 as Gibbs capitalized on the battle to move into second entering Turn 8.

During the proceeding lap and with Creed spinning in Turn 12 amid contact with Kligerman while running in the top five, Larson navigated his way past Love and into third place through Turn 5. Meanwhile, van Gisbergen stretched his advantage to a comfortable advantage over Gibbs through South Columbus Drive and he would continue to do so entering Turn 6 and through East Balbo Drive, East Congress Plaza Drive, South Michigan Avenue and East Jackson Drive.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, van Gisbergen remained as the leader by a second over Gibbs while Larson, Kligerman and Love trailed in the top five by under five seconds. With Gibbs unable to close the deficit for a final lap and through 12 sets of turns, van Gisbergen smoothly navigated his No. 97 WeatherTech Chevrolet Camaro through each turn before he made a hard right-hand turn to the frontstretch victorious for the third time of his career and of the 2024 season.

With the victory, van Gisbergen joined Terry Labonte and AJ Allmendinger as the only competitors to notch their first three career Xfinity Series victories on road-course events, with the New Zealander winning for the first time since Sonoma Raceway in June.

Van Gisbergen’s victory at Chicago also made him the first three-time Xfinity race winner of the 2024 season and the first competitor to win two NASCAR national touring series events on the streets of Chicago as he will attempt to sweep the weekend with Sunday’s Cup Series action at Chicago. Van Gisbergen won the inaugural Cup Series’ Chicago Street Race event in his premier series debut while driving for Trackhouse Racing.

While van Gisbergen’s victory marks the third win of the season for Kaulig Racing and the team’s No. 97 Chevrolet entry led by crew chief Bruce Schlicker, the win was the 11th of the season for the Chevrolet nameplate.

“That’s awesome! What a great race. It was pretty wild there at the end,” van Gisbergen, who kicked another rugby football into the frontstretch’s crowd, said on NBC. “I can’t thank [the] Kaulig Racing guys enough. [The] WeatherTech Camaro was amazing. Great race at the start with Kyle [Larson]. He was really good on the restarts and we made our car better for the second set of tires. That was fun at the end, passing all those guys. I had some great racing with everyone. [It was] Really cool. [I] Learnt a lot. [Larson] probably learned a lot off me, but hope to race him again for the win tomorrow [for the Cup Series event.

“It’s a privilege to race here [at Chicago],” van Gisbergen added. “This event is amazing. What NASCAR’s done here, what a show. Pretty cool feelings. Hopefully, we can repeat tomorrow.”

Ty Gibbs settled in second place for his first top-two result of the 2024 season, which occurred in his fifth start of the season, while Kyle Larson, who led 12 laps, ended up in third place for his second top-three result of the season and his first since winning at Circuit of the Americas in March.

Despite setting in third place in his second and final Xfinity Series start of the 2024 season, Larson noted the on-track benefits he gained amid his battles with van Gisbergen that would place him in an advantage to be competitive for Sunday’s Cup Series event at Chicago.

“[van Gisbergen] was obviously way faster than me and I think he was having fun, just playing with me,” Larson said. “I wanted to use this race to learn…That was big on my agenda and I felt like I learned quite a bit battling [van Gisbergen] and create different angles and all that. I think today was a success. Obviously, [I] would like to win, but our car just wasn’t quite as good as his.”

Parker Kligerman came home in fourth place while Jesse Love, who also led a race-high 14 laps with van Gisbergen, settled in fifth place for his fifth top-five result in his Xfinity rookie campaign.

Connor Mosack, Austin Hill, Joey Logano, Justin Allgaier and Austin Green completed the top 10 in the final running order.

There were nine lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 16 laps. In addition, 27 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

Following the 18th event of the 2024 Xfinity Series season, Cole Custer leads the regular-season standings by 38 points over Justin Allgaier, 39 over Chandler Smith, 60 over Austin Hill and 109 over rookie Jesse Love.

Results.

1. Shane van Gisbergen, 14 laps led, Stage 1 winner

2. Ty Gibbs

3. Kyle Larson, 12 laps led

4. Parker Kligerman

5. Jesse Love, 14 laps led

6. Connor Mosack

7. Austin Hill, eight laps led, Stage 2 winner

8. Joey Logano

9. Justin Allgaier

10. Austin Green

11. AJ Allmendinger

12. Josh Williams

13. Sammy Smith, two laps led

14. Kyle Weatherman

15. Jeb Burton

16. Ryan Sieg

17. Brandon Jones

18. Cole Custer

19. Sam Mayer

20. Brennan Poole

21. Ryan Ellis

22. Kyle Sieg

23. Matt DiBenedetto

24. Blaine Perkins

25. John Hunter Nemechek

26. Sheldon Creed

27. Daniel Suarez

28. Riley Herbst – OUT, Overheating

29. Alex Labbe, five laps down

30. Anthony Alfredo, five laps down

31. Leland Honeyman – OUT, Accident

32. Preston Pardus – OUT, Electrical

33. Sage Karam – OUT, Accident

34. Parker Retzlaff – OUT, Accident

35. Andre Castro – OUT, Accident

36. Josh Bilicki – OUT, Accident

37. Jeremy Clements – OUT, Accident

38. Chandler Smith – OUT, Engine

Next on the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania, for the Explore the Pocono Mountains 225. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, July 13, and air at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network.

July 6, 2024
Bell survives overtime shootout for fourth consecutive Xfinity victory at New Hampshire

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results.

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

2. Sheldon Creed, one lap led

3. Cole Custer, 114 laps led

4. Justin Allgaier

5. Carson Kvapil, 24 laps led

6. Ryan Sieg

7. Parker Kligerman

8. Riley Herbst

9. Alex Bowman

10. Corey Heim

11. AJ Allmendinger

12. Sammy Smith, three laps led

13. Jesse Love, three laps led

14. Brandon Jones

15. Chandler Smith, one lap led

16. Brennan Poole

17. Jeb Burton

18. Shane van Gisbergen

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

20. Anthony Alfredo

21. Jeremy Clements

22. Justin Bonsignore, three laps led

23. Josh Williams

24. Austin Hill, two laps led

25. Kyle Weatherman

26. Parker Retzlaff

27. Blaine Perkins

28. Glen Reen

29. Garrett Smithley, one lap down

30. Mason Massey, one lap down

31. Kyle Sieg, two laps down

32. Hailie Deegan, two laps down

33. Armani Williams, five laps down

34. Patrick Emerling, six laps down

35. Ryan Ellis – OUT, DVP

36. Nathan Byrd – OUT, Accident

37. Leland Honeyman – OUT, Accident

38. Matt DiBenedetto – Disqualified

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

June 22, 2024
Sam Mayer to make 100th Xfinity career start at New Hampshire

Coming off his second NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of the 2024 season at Iowa Speedway, Sam Mayer is primed to achieve a milestone start. By competing in this weekend’s Xfinity event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the driver of the No. 1 Chevrolet Camaro for JR Motorsports. will reach 100 career starts in the Xfinity circuit.

Mayer, a native of Franklin, Wisconsin, and a two-time consecutive ARCA Menards Series East champion made his inaugural start in the Xfinity circuit at Pocono Raceway in June 2021. By then, he had inked a deal to compete with JR Motorsports for the second half of the current Xfinity season before graduating to a full-time driving role with the organization for the 2022 season.

Driving the No. 8 JRM Chevrolet Camaro, Mayer started 20th and finished 18th in his series debut. For the remaining 17 events on the schedule, the Wisconsin native nabbed six top-10s and 10 top-15 results. His best on-track result was a fourth-place finish at Martinsville Speedway in late October. In the end, Mayer contributed to JR Motorsports’ No. 8 entry settling in 12th place in the final owner’s standings.

Piloting the No. 1 JRM Chevrolet Camaro as a full-time Xfinity competitor for the 2022 season, Mayer commenced the season by finishing 30th at Daytona International Speedway. After recording four top-six results during his next eight starts, he then notched five top-five results during his next six starts. During the stretch, he achieved his first Xfinity career pole position at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May and claimed the first Xfinity Dash 4 Cash $100,000 bonus by finishing in third place at Richmond Raceway in April.

For the remaining 11 regular-season events, Mayer earned five additional top-10 results, which were enough for him and the No. 1 JRM team to make the 2022 Xfinity Series Playoffs. He transferred to the Round of 8 after finishing no lower than 11th during the Round of 12 but did not make the Championship 4 round despite achieving three consecutive top-seven results during the Round of 8.

Concluding the season with a 34th-place result during the season-finale event at Phoenix Raceway, Mayer capped off his first full-time campaign in the Xfinity Series with a seventh-place result in the final standings. By then, he had accumulated 11 top-five results, 19 top-10 results and an average-finishing result of 13.8 throughout the 33-race schedule.

Remaining at JRM for the 2023 campaign, Mayer’s season started on a rough note after he was involved in a rollover accident on the final lap at Daytona while contending for the victory. He rallied the following weekend at Auto Club Speedway by finishing second before finishing no lower than 11th during his next four starts.

During the next 13 events, Mayer notched four top-fives and seven top-10 results, including a runner-up finish at Pocono Raceway in late July. Then in his 71st series start, Mayer notched his first career victory at Road America amid a wild overtime shootout as he assumed the lead prior to the final lap and fended off a late charge from Parker Kligerman. Three races later, he achieved his second Xfinity career win at Watkins Glen International amid another wild overtime shootout, where he spun leader Ty Gibbs during the start and overtook Sheldon Creed before the final lap. Despite finishing no higher than 11th during the final three regular-season events, Mayer had already secured his spot in the 2023 Xfinity Series Playoffs.

Then amid back-to-back DNFs during the first two Round of 12 events at Bristol Motor Speedway and at Texas Motor Speedway due to on-track incidents, Mayer capitalized on a “must-win” situation to transfer into the Round of 8 after claiming a dominant victory in the Round of 12 finale at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course, where he led a race-high 50 laps from pole position. Two races later, Mayer raced his way into the Championship 4 round for the first time in his career after scoring a late victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway in October, which marked his fourth career win in the series.

Contending for his first Xfinity title, Mayer ended up in fifth place during the finale at Phoenix and in third place in the final standings. Despite falling short of winning the title, Mayer tied his total number of top-10s collected in a season compared to his previous season at 19. He had also accumulated two extra top-five results to 11, led 177 laps and achieved a new average-finishing result of 13.2.

Mayer commenced the 2024 season by finishing no higher than ninth and being strapped with four results of 30th or worse through the first six scheduled events. Then after finishing in second place at Martinsville in early April, he edged Ryan Sieg by 0.002 seconds to win for the fifth time in his career at Texas, which automatically made him eligible to make the 2024 Xfinity Series Playoffs. Since the Texas victory, Mayer proceeded to finish in the top four during his next four of six starts before he recently won at Iowa Speedway amid an overtime shootout and a late battle against Riley Herbst.

Through 99 previous Xfinity starts, Mayer has achieved six victories, two poles, 32 top-five results, 52 top-10 results, 396 laps led and an average-finishing result of 15.1 as he continues his pursuit for his first Xfinity Series championship.

Sam Mayer is scheduled to make his 100th Xfinity Series career start at New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the Sci Aps 200 this upcoming Saturday, June 22, as the event’s air time will commence at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

June 19, 2024
Mayer survives overtime shootout for dramatic Xfinity victory at Iowa

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results.

1. Sam Mayer, 47 laps led

2. Riley Herbst, seven laps led

3. Corey Heim

4. Sammy Smith

5. Sheldon Creed

6. Cole Custer

7. Matt DiBenedetto

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

9. Ross Chastain

10. Daniel Dye

11. Parker Kligerman

12. Ryan Sieg, eight laps led

13. Leland Honeyman

14. Ryan Ellis

15. Anthony Alfredo

16. Joey Gase

17. David Starr

18. Brett Moffitt, one lap down

19. Kyle Sieg, one lap down

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

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

22. Dawson Cram, one lap down

23. Patrick Emerling, one lap down

24. Jeb Burton, three laps down

25. Hailie Deegan, three laps down

26. Garrett Smithley, three laps down

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

28. Brennan Poole – OUT, Oil Line

29. Austin Hill – OUT, Accident

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

31. Jesse Love – OUT, Accident

32. Parker Retzlaff – OUT, Electrical

33. Kyle Weatherman – OUT, Accident

34. Shane van Gisbergen – OUT, Accident

35. Blaine Perkins – OUT, Accident

36. Brandon Jones – OUT, Engine

37. AJ Allmendinger – OUT, Accident

38. Glen Reen – OUT, Carburetor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results.

1. Shane van Gisbergen, 12 laps led

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

3. Sammy Smith

4. AJ Allmendinger

5. Ed Jones

6. Cole Custer

7. Josh Williams

8. Parker Kligerman

9. Parker Retzlaff

10. Riley Herbst, 15 laps led

11. Austin Hill

12. Josh Bilicki

13. Sheldon Creed, two laps led

14. Ryan Sieg

15. Austin Green

16. Brennan Poole

17. Ryan Ellis

18. Kyle Sieg

19. Jesse Love

20. Blaine Perkins

21. Nathan Byrd

22. Garrett Smithley

23. Andre Castro

24. Patrick Gallagher

25. Kyle Weatherman

26. Leland Honeyman

27. Ryan Truex

28. Sam Mayer, one lap down

29. Logan Bearden, one lap down

30. Jeremy Clements, two laps down

31. Matt DiBenedetto, two laps down

32. Anthony Alfredo, three laps down

33. Hailie Deegan, four laps down

34. Sage Karam, six laps down

35. Chandler Smith – OUT, Accident

36. Brandon Jones – OUT, Accident

37. Jeb Burton, 14 laps down

38. Preston Pardus – OUT, Track Bar

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

June 1, 2024
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.

April 13, 2024
Almirola cashes in for thrilling Xfinity victory at Martinsville

Seventeen years after being credited a NASCAR Xfinity Series victory driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, Aric Almirola earned an Xfinity victory with JGR in the DUDE Wipes 250 at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday, April 6, following a dramatic, overtime shootout to the finish.

The 40-year-old Almirola from Tampa, Florida, led six times for a race-high 148 of 251 over-scheduled laps in an event where he qualified in sixth place. He quickly made his name known at the front by assuming the lead for the first time on Lap 28, where he would win the first stage period on Lap 50.

Amid a series of war of attrition and on-track chaotic moments, including a series of late-race restarts, Almirola, who spent the majority of the event battling with his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates towards the front, capitalized on an overtime shootout period to muscle away from Sam Mayer and retain the lead on the final lap amid a race-ending caution to achieve both his first race-winning checkered flag and first Dash 4 Cash bonus of the 2024 season.

On-track qualifying on Friday, April 5 determined the starting lineup with Brandon Jones initially recording his first Xfinity pole position of the 2024 season with a pole-winning lap at 96.15 mph in 19.694 seconds. Jones, however, was forced to start at the rear of the field due to an unapproved adjustment to change brake rotors on his pole-winning car along with teammates Allgaier and Sammy Smith. Akinori Ogata, Leland Honeyman, Ryan Ellis and Chandler Smith also dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to their respective entries.

As a result, Cole Custer, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 95.845 mph in 19.757 seconds, led the field to the green flag as he started alongside Sheldon Creed, who posted the third-fastest qualifying lap at 95.840 mph in 19.758 seconds, on the front row.

When the green flag waved and the race started, Custer and Creed battled for the lead through the first two turns until Custer muscled his No. 00 Haas Ford Mustang ahead on the outside lane through the backstretch. Custer would then move in front of Creed’s front nose entering Turns 3 and 4 and proceed to lead the first lap.

Through the second to fifth lap mark, Custer retained the lead by within three-tenths of a second over Creed while Jeb Burton trailed in third place ahead of Aric Almirola and Alfredo Alfredo, all of whom were racing in the top five. Behind, Sam Mayer occupied sixth place ahead of rookie Jesse Love, Parker Retzlaff, Ryan Sieg and AJ Allmendinger while Austin Hill was scored in 11th ahead of newcomer Carson Kvapil, Matt DiBenedetto, Taylor Gray and rookie Shane van Gisbergen.

On the ninth lap, the event’s first caution period flew after Sammy Smith, who attempted to throw a dive-bomb move underneath Garrett Smithley and Dexter Bean, made contact with both entering Turns 3 and 4 resulting in Bean spinning.

When the event restarted under green on Lap 14, Custer managed to fend off Creed for a full lap to retain the lead. As Custer muscled ahead during the Lap 15 mark, Almirola challenged teammate Creed for the runner-up spot while Burton and Mayer remained within close distance.

Through the first 20 scheduled laps, Custer was leading by half a second over Almirola followed by Creed, Burton and Mayer while Alfredo, Retzlaff, Love, Allmendinger and Ryan Sieg were scored in the top 10 ahead of Hill, Kvapil, Jeremy Clements, Corey Heim and Riley Herbst. Meanwhile, Brandon Jones was running in 23rd place behind teammate Sammy Smith and Hailie Deegan while Gray, DiBenedetto, van Gisbergen, Parker Kligerman and Josh Williams were running in the top 20. In addition, Chandler Smith, winner of last weekend’s Xfinity event at Richmond Raceway, was mired back in 25th.

Seven laps later, Almirola challenged and overtook Custer for the lead through the first two turns. Almirola would proceed to stretch his advantage to half a second by the Lap 30 mark while teammate Creed tried to close in on Custer for the runner-up spot.

On Lap 35, the event’s second caution period flew after Brennan Poole tapped and sent Hailie Deegan for a spin in Turn 2, where she was then hit by Kyle Weatherman and sustained damage to her No. 15 AM Racing entry. During the caution period, some including the JR Motorsports’ competitors Kvapil, Sammy Smith, Justin Allgaier and Brandon Jones pitted as part of a strategic plan while the rest led by Almirola remained on the track.

During the following restart on Lap 42, Almirola muscled his No. 20 He Gets Us Toyota Supra ahead to retain the lead on the inside lane ahead of teammate Creed and Custer. Almirola would continue to lead through the Lap 50 mark as Creed and Custer followed suit in second and third, respectively. Behind, Mayer occupied fourth place while Allmendinger trailed in fifth as he was ahead of Alfredo, Burton, Ryan Sieg, Retzlaff, Hill, Love, Herbst and Gray.

When the first stage period concluded on Lap 60, Almirola fended off a late challenge and bump from teammate Creed to capture his third Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Creed settled in second followed by Custer, Mayer and Allmendinger while Alfredo, Ryan Sieg, Hill, Burton and Retzlaff were scored in the top 10.

Under the stage break, all five JR Motorsports competitors led by Sam Mayer and including teammates Sammy Smith, Allgaier, Jones and Kvapil, remained on the track while the rest led by Almirola pitted for service. Amid the pit stops, Herbst was penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation while Kligerman was also penalized for speeding on pit road.

The second stage period started on Lap 70 as teammates Mayer and Sammy Smith occupied the front row. At the start, however, the caution quickly returned after Jones, who struggled to launch from the second row on the outside lane, ignited a stack-up that resulted in Logan Bearden, Deegan, Allmendinger, Hill, Heim, Retzlaff, Leland Honeyman, Herbst, Burton, Bean, Kyle Sieg and Alfredo all wrecking and sustaining damage to their respective entries entering the first turn. The incident was enough to send the event in a red flag period for more than nine minutes.

When the red flag lifted and the field resumed under a cautious pace, the competitors who wrecked, including Herbst, pitted while the rest led by Sammy Smith remained on the track. By then, top names that included Retzlaff, Heim, Hill and Allmendinger were ruled out of the event.

As the event restarted under green on Lap 80, Sammy Smith and Mayer battled for the lead through the first two turns until Smith muscled ahead with the lead through the backstretch while Almirola fanned out to three lanes in his drive back to the front. As Smith retained the lead during the following lap ahead of teammate Mayer, Creed was in third ahead of a tight side-by-side battle between Allgaier and Custer while Kvapil and Almirola followed suit.

Following another caution period that occurred on Lap 84 after Kligerman spun his No. 48 Spiked Lite Coolers Chevrolet Camaro from 29th place in Turn 2 due to cutting a left-front tire, the start of the following restart period on Lap 90 featured a brief side-by-side battle between teammates Sammy Smith and Mayer through the first two turns. With Smith muscling ahead through the backstretch and entering Turns 3 and 4, Mayer then got loose after he hit the curbs exiting Turn 4, which allowed teammate Allgaier and Creed to move into second and third while Mayer, who got his car stuck on the outside lane but resumed under full pace, dropped to 10th place.

At the Lap 100 mark, Sammy Smith continued to lead by a second in his No. 8 TMC Transportation Chevrolet Camaro over teammates Allgaier and Kvapil as Almirola and Custer trailed in the top five. Behind, Creed occupied sixth place ahead of Jones, Burton, Ryan Sieg and Josh Williams while Mayer, Chandler Smith, Love, Alfredo and Taylor Gray were running in the top 15 ahead of a battle between Herbst and van Gisbergen.

Ten laps later, Sammy Smith retained the lead by a tenth of a second over teammate Allgaier, who was using the front bumper to pressure his JR Motorsports teammate for the top spot through the turns, while teammate Kvapil trailed by within eight-tenths of a second. Another lap, however, Allgaier managed to draw even with Smith on the inside lane through the frontstretch until he muscled his No. 7 Jarrett Logistics Chevrolet Camaro ahead with the lead through the backstretch. With Allgaier leading, Smith retained second while Almirola challenged Kvapil for third place.

When the second stage period concluded on Lap 120, Allgaier, who stretched his advantage, captured his first Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Almirola settled in second followed by Sammy Smith, Kvapil and Custer while Creed, Jones, Chandler Smith, Burton and Ryan Sieg were scored in the top 10. By then, 29 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.

During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Allgaier pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Almirola assumed the lead after he exited pit road first ahead of Sammy Smith while Creed, Custer, Chandler Smith, Allgaier, Jones, Herbst, Ryan Sieg and van Gisbergen followed suit in the top 10. Amid the pit stops, Allgaier lost 14 spots due to an issue while having his left-rear tire changed while Taylor Gray was penalized for his pit crew jumping over the pit wall too early.

With 120 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Almirola and Sammy Smith occupied the front row. At the start, Almirola muscled ahead from Smith amid contact to retain the lead while teammate Creed moved into the runner-up spot through Turns 3 and 4. Teammate Chandler Smith would grab third place from Smith during the following lap, thus placing all three Joe Gibbs Racing entries in the top three spots, while Custer followed suit and overtook Smith for fourth place.

Not long after, the battle for the lead between Almirola and Creed ignited as the latter gave the former a bump through Turns 3 and 4, but Almirola retained the top spot during the proceeding laps. Behind, Custer and Jones were racing in the top five while Allgaier, Herbst, Smith, Kvapil and Ryan Sieg occupied the top 10, with a series of bumps and jostles for spots ensuing in the middle of the pack.

With 110 laps remaining, Almirola stretched his advantage to more than a second over teammate Creed as Custer intimidated Chandler Smith for third place. Almirola would stabilize his advantage to more than a second over teammate Chandler Smith as teammate Creed dropped to third with 100 laps remaining.

Down to the final 85 laps of the event, Almirola continued to lead by nearly a second over teammate Chandler Smith while third-place/teammate Creed trailed by two seconds ahead of Custer, Allgaier and Kvapil.

Four laps later, the caution flew due to a metal debris reported in Turn 3. During the caution period, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Almirola returned to pit road for service while Kligerman, who did not have any fresh tires in his pit box, remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Almirola exited first ahead of teammate Creed, Custer and teammate Chandler Smith while Allgaier, Sammy Smith and Herbst followed suit.

When the event restarted under green with 73 laps remaining, Kligerman and Almirola battled for the lead through the first two turns until Almirola managed to muscle ahead through the backstretch and move in front of Kligerman, who made contact with Custer through Turns 3 and 4. The contact allowed Creed and Custer to move ahead in second and third, with Chandler Smith following suit in fourth. As Kligerman began to lose ground on old tires while also trapped on the outside lane, Chandler Smith made contact with teammate Creed amid a tight three-wide battle during the following lap in Turn 3, though Creed managed to bump and fend off Smith for second place while Custer and Sammy Smith bumped and battled for fourth place. Amid the bumps and late battles, Almirola stretched his advantage to eight-tenths of a second with 70 laps remaining.

Down to the final 60 laps of the event, Almirola was leading by seven-tenths of a second over teammate Creed while teammate Chandler Smith trailed by nearly a second while Sammy Smith and Custer were racing in the top five. Behind, Herbst occupied sixth place ahead of Mayer, Kvapil, Love and Allgaier while Taylor Gray, Ryan Sieg, Alfredo, Jones and Burton were scored in the top 15.

Following another caution period with 55 laps remaining after Garrett Smithley spun in Turn 1, the start of the following restart period with 46 laps remaining featured a tight side-by-side battle between teammates Almirola and Chandler Smith, which ensued for the next four laps until Almirola managed to clear Smith and move in front of him to have both lanes to his control with the lead. Smith then got loose as he tried to re-challenge Almirola for the lead, which allowed teammate Creed to battle and overtake Smith for the runner-up spot while Custer and Sammy Smith followed suit in the top five. With a series of bumps and late battles igniting in the middle of the field, Almirola slightly stretched his lead to four-tenths of a second with less than 40 laps remaining.

With 30 laps remaining, Almirola was leading by six-tenths of a second over teammate Creed while teammate Chandler Smith trailed by less than a second as he was trying to mount a charge on Creed for the runner-up spot. By then, Mayer carved his way back to fourth as he was ahead of Custer while Sammy Smith, Allgaier, Herbst, Alfredo and Kvapil were running in the top 10. Meanwhile, Love occupied 11th place while Jones, Gray, van Gisbergen and Ryan Sieg were in the top 15.

Ten laps later, Almirola extended his advantage to two seconds over teammate Chandler Smith, who bumped into the side of teammate Creed three laps earlier, to move into the runner-up spot. Behind, Creed, who slipped up the track in Turn 1 with 22 laps remaining while giving teammate Smith a bump back following their contact, was battling Mayer for third while Allgaier trailed by more than four seconds in fifth place.

Another three laps later, the caution flew after Ryan Sieg, who was running in the top 15, spun and hit the outside wall in Turn 1 after he over-drove his No. 39 Sci Aps Ford Mustang entering the turn, which evaporated Almirola’s reasonable advantage over teammate Chandler Smith.

Down to the final 11 laps of the event, the event restarted under green. At the start, teammates Almirola and Chandler Smith battled dead even and rubbed fenders for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. Then in Turns 3 and 4, Smith bumped Almirola and muscled his No. 81 Wheelers Toyota Supra into the lead. A lap later, however, Almirola bumped and sent Smith up the track in Turns 3 and 4. This allowed Almirola to reassume the lead followed by Mayer while Smith was left to battle teammate Creed for third place.

Then with a series of battles and on-track contact ensuing within the field in the closing laps, Mayer bumped and made his move beneath Almirola for the lead through the backstretch with eight laps remaining. Amid a tight side-by-side battle, Mayer then motored his No. 1 10X Health Chevrolet Camaro ahead to lead the proceeding lap ahead of Almirola before the caution returned due to a multi-car wreck that erupted when Jeb Burton got turned sideways along with Myatt Snider and resulted with both, including Clements, Kyle Sieg and DiBenedetto all wrecking and sustaining significant damage to their respective entries. The incident was enough to send the event into overtime.

At the start of the overtime period, Mayer and Almirola briefly battled dead even for the lead in Turn 1 until Creed attempted to stretch the battle to three lanes through the turn, which he got Mayer sideways amid contact. This allowed Almirola to muscle ahead on the outside lane as he reassumed the lead from Mayer while the field fanned out through the backstretch.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Almirola remained as the leader by four-tenths of a second over Mayer. Not long after, the caution returned and the event was deemed official after Herbst, who was racing in the top 10, got sideways entering Turn 1 and backed his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang hard against the outside wall as Ryan Ellis and Brandon Jones also piled into the carnage. With the event concluding under caution, Almirola was able to coast his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing entry around the Martinsville circuit smoothly for a final time before returning to the frontstretch and claiming his first checkered flag of the 2024 Xfinity season.

With the victory, Almirola, who was making his fourth Xfinity start of the 2024 season, recorded his fifth NASCAR Xfinity Series career win in his 108th series start. He also achieved his first victory at Martinsville Speedway and his first series win since winning at Sonoma Raceway in June 2023 while driving for RSS Racing. As a bonus, Almirola claimed the first Dash 4 Cash’s $100,000 bonus of this season, which marked his first time achieving the award. The victory was the fourth of the season for both Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota.

The Martinsville victory with Joe Gibbs Racing was extremely meaningful for the veteran Almirola, whose first career start across NASCAR’s top three national touring series occurred in a JGR car in the Xfinity Series at Richmond Raceway in May 2006. In addition, Almirola was credited with his first Xfinity career victory with JGR at the Milwaukee Mile in June 2007.

The victory occurred after Almirola, who had started on pole position and was dominating early, was forced to relinquish his seat to Denny Hamlin, who was initially set to compete in the entry but was not able to arrive at the track in time for the event’s start, due to sponsorship obligations. In the end, Hamlin proceeded to win as a relief competitor while Almirola, who did not participate in the team’s celebration, was credited the victory due to starting the event.

For tonight, Almirola, who retired from full-time Cup Series competition at the conclusion of the 2023 season and rejoined Joe Gibbs Racing for a part-time campaign in the Xfinity Series, was not to be denied of earning an Xfinity victory driving for JGR while completing all of the event’s miles from start to finish behind the steering wheel.

Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.

“Man, this is so awesome,” Almirola said on FS1. “To win for Joe Gibbs Racing, I’ve had an asterisk next to a win for Coach [Gibbs] for 17 years and this is so awesome to finally put a real win banner up inside the shop at Joe Gibbs Racing. Man, this GR Supra was fast. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Coach, for calling me and giving me this opportunity to come and have some fun and still scratch the itch of racing, but still to get to spend a lot of time with my family. I’ve had so much pressure to win. I think everybody expected me to just get in [the No. 20 car] and go win.

“The reality is it’s really hard to jump in these cars and race against the guys that do it week in and week out. This just feels really good. I’ve won a lot of races in my career, through the late model ranks and stuff to get me that opportunity to go to work for Coach. And then from there, it’s been a lot of ups and downs and a lot of struggles over 20 years in NASCAR. To cap off my career doing it the way I want to do it with Coach, with this whole organization at Joe Gibbs Racing, it feels amazing. We’re gonna celebrate this one.”

Mayer, who led 11 laps and has finished no higher than ninth during the first six events on the schedule, posted a strong runner-up result followed by Chandler Smith, who led three laps and rallied from starting at the rear of the field without posting a qualifying lap to finish third.

“The way this year’s gone, I’m happy with P2 at the end of the day,” Mayer said. “We finished the race. The car’s pretty much in one piece. Man, those restarts here are just ruthless and painful. Obviously, [Almirola] was really, really good today, and it was good that I was able to keep up and be as fast as them and pass all those [Joe Gibbs Racing] cars there at the end and march up to the front, for real. That’s the first time I’ve done that here. Super proud of [the No. 1] guys. We’re digging ourselves out of a whole little by little. At the end of the day, we needed a [win] and got one, I feel like, stolen from me there a little bit. We’re gonna go and try to haul the mail [at Texas Motor Speedway].”

Newcomer Carson Kvapil achieved a solid fourth-place finish in his Xfinity Series debut while Allgaier ended up in fifth place. Sheldon Creed, Sammy Smith, Cole Custer, rookie Jesse Love and Josh Williams finished in the top 10.

With Almirola not scheduled to compete in next weekend’s event on the schedule at Texas Motor Speedway, the next four competitors who will contend for the second Dash 4 Cash bonus of this season will be Sam Mayer, Chandler Smith, Justin Allgaier and Sheldon Creed.

There were 15 lead changes for eight different leaders. The race featured 11 cautions for 68 laps. In addition, 24 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

Following the seventh event of the 2024 Xfinity Series season, Chandler Smith continues to lead the regular-season standings by 35 points over Cole Custer, 41 over Austin Hill, 76 over Jesse Love and 79 over Justin Allgaier.

Results.

1. Aric Almirola, 148 laps led, Stage 1 winner

2. Sam Mayer, 11 laps led

3. Chandler Smith, three laps led

4. Carson Kvapil

5. Justin Allgaier, 14 laps led, Stage 2 winner

6. Sheldon Creed

7. Sammy Smith, 42 laps led

8. Cole Custer, 27 laps led

9. Jesse Love

10. Josh Williams

11. Shane van Gisbergen

12. Parker Kligerman, five laps led

13. Taylor Gray

14. Brennan Poole

15. Anthony Alfredo

16. Blaine Perkins

17. Ryan Sieg

18. Hailie Deegan

19. Myatt Snider

20. Dexter Bean

21. Matt DiBenedetto

22. Jeremy Clements

23. Kyle Sieg

24. Dawson Cram

25. Riley Herbst – OUT, Accident

26. Ryan Ellis – OUT, Accident

27. Brandon Jones – OUT, Accident

28. Joey Gase, one lap down, one lap led

29. Garrett Smithley, two laps down

30. Logan Bearden, four laps down

31. Leland Honeyman, seven laps down

32. Jeb Burton – OUT, Accident

33. Kyle Weatherman – OUT, Accident

34. Austin Hill – OUT, Accident

35. Corey Heim – OUT, Accident

36. AJ Allmendinger – OUT, Accident

37. Parker Retzlaff – OUT, Accident

38. Akinori Ogata – OUT, Brakes

Next on the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas, for the Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 and where the second Dash 4 Cash event will occur. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, April 13, at 1:30 p.m. ET on FS1.

April 7, 2024