JR Motorsports (JRM) took to social media to reveal its crew chief lineup for the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series season which features the return of four familiar names and one new name calling the shots atop their respective numbered pit boxes and paired drivers.
Beginning next season, Cory Shea will be serving as an Xfinity crew chief for JRM’s No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro entry which will be fielded as the “all-star” entry. Shea makes his move atop the pit box as a crew chief after recently serving as a car chief for veteran Justin Allgaier and the No. 7 JRM team that achieved the 2024 Xfinity Series championship. Thus far, Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen, both of whom compete in the Cup Series for Trackhouse Racing, have been confirmed to pilot the No. 9 “all-star” entry for select events (nine total combined).
Speaking of JRM’s No. 7 team, Jim Pohlman, the reigning Xfinity championship-winning crew chief, will remain both atop the pit box of the No. 7 Chevrolet team and paired up with Allgaier as both strive to defend their title for the 2025 season. Pohlman first joined JRM as an Xfinity crew chief in 2023, where he navigated Allgaier and the No. 7 team to four victories and a runner-up result in the final standings. This past season, the duo captured two regular-season victories, made the Championship 4 round and outdueled the competition during the finale at Phoenix Raceway to win the title, which marked Allgaier’s first in the series after 14 previous attempts and during his seventh appearance as a Championship 4 contender.
Currently, Pohlman, who first served as a crew chief for Sheldon Creed at Richard Childress Racing for four Xfinity events in 2022, has achieved six victories, three poles, 25 top-five results and 41 top-10 results as a crew chief in the series.
Like Pohlman, Phillip Bell will be returning as a crew chief for JRM’s No. 8 Chevrolet Camaro team which will be piloted by Sammy Smith, the latter of whom returns for a second consecutive driving campaign at JRM in 2025. Bell, who embarked in his first season as a NASCAR crew chief last year, initially spent the first 23 scheduled events working atop the pit box of JRM’s No. 9 team and driver Brandon Jones. Then starting at Atlanta Motor Speedway in September, he shifted to JRM’s No. 8 team and was paired with Sammy Smith for the final 10 scheduled events. During the span, Bell notched his first victory as a crew chief after Smith won at Talladega Superspeedway in October, which enabled the duo to transfer to the Playoff’s Round of 8 and settle in 11th place in the final driver’s standings.
Through his first full-time season as an Xfinity crew chief (33 races total), Bell notched one victory, two poles, three top-five results and nine top-10 results as he prepares to lead the No. 8 JRM Chevrolet team and Smith on a full-time basis in 2025.
Meanwhile, Andrew Overstreet will be paired up with incoming Xfinity rookie Carson Kvapil, the latter of whom will be driving the No. 1 JRM Chevrolet entry for his first full-time campaign in the division amid a successful campaign in late model competition. Previously, Kvapil achieved the 2021 CARS Super Late Model Tour title and back-to-back CARS Late Model Stock Tour titles between 2022 and 2023. This past season, Kvapil also won the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 and the Icebreaker 125.
Overstreet, who first served as an Xfinity crew chief for driver Sam Mayer for three events in 2022, was a crew chief for JRM’s No. 88 “all-star” Chevrolet team that appeared in a total of 17 events in 2024. At Watkins Glen International this past August, Overstreet achieved his first Xfinity career victory as a crew chief after he navigated Zilisch to his first career victory in his series’ debut from pole position. In addition to Zilisch, Overstreet spent the 2024 season working with Kvapil, team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr., Connor Mosack and Bubba Pollard with the No. 88 team. He also served as a crew chief for JRM’s No. 1 team and Mayer for a single event this past season.
Through 21 appearances as an Xfinity crew chief, Overstreet has achieved one victory, two poles, 10 top-five results and 14 top-10 results as he strives to lead Kvapil to both his first victory and Playoff berth.
Like teammate Overstreet, Mardy Lindley will be paired with another incoming Xfinity rookie, that being Connor Zilisch as he will be piloting the No. 88 JRM Chevrolet for his first full-time campaign in the series. Lindley became an Xfinity crew chief for JRM for the first time in 2023 after spending the previous two seasons as a Craftsman Truck Series crew chief at Kyle Busch Motorsports. Paired with Sam Mayer and the No. 1 team, Lindley led both the driver and team to four victories and a Championship 4 berth, where they settled in third place in the final standings. This past season, Lindley and Mayer notched three victories and ended up in ninth place in the final standings after both fell short of reaching the Championship 4 round for a second consecutive season.
Through 62 appearances as an Xfinity crew chief, Lindley has achieved seven victories, one pole, 19 top-five results and 30 top-10 results as he strives to navigate Zilisch to additional victories and his first Playoff berth in 2025.
The 2025 season is scheduled to mark JR Motorsports’ 20th consecutive season as a full-time team in the Xfinity Series division. Since its inception, the organization has accumulated a total of 88 victories and four championships. The organization has also notched a combined 35 poles, 534 top-five results, 1,045 top-10 results and 14,308 laps led through a 19-year span as they strive for more on-track success for the upcoming racing season.
With the crew chief lineup set, JR Motorsports’ 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series season is scheduled to commence at Daytona International Speedway on February 15. The event’s broadcast time is slated to commence at 5 p.m. ET on the CW Network.
Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen will both be piloting the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro entry for JR Motorsports (JRM) for select events throughout the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series season.
Chastain, a native of Alva, Florida, will make his first Xfinity start of the upcoming season at Circuit of the Americas (March 1) before he then competes at Darlington Raceway (April 5), Nashville Superspeedway (May 31), Dover Motor Speedway (July 19) and at Iowa Speedway (August 2).
Meanwhile, teammate van Gisbergen, a three-time Supercars champion from Auckland, New Zealand, will make his first Xfinity start with JRM in the series’ inaugural event at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City (June 14) before he returns to drive the No. 9 entry for the following road-course events at the Chicago Street Course (July 5), Sonoma Raceway (July 12) and at Watkins Glen International (August 9).
The news comes as both Chastain and van Gisbergen are scheduled to compete as full-time Cup Series competitors for Trackhouse Racing in 2025. It will be Chastain’s fourth consecutive season at Trackhouse while van Gisbergen will embark on his first full-time campaign in NASCAR’s premier series.
This past season, Chastain, a five-time Cup Series race winner who won at Kansas Speedway in September, competed in four Xfinity events with DGM Racing, where he recorded two top-10 results and a season-best sixth-place finish at Watkins Glen this past August.
Through 208 current Xfinity starts, Chastain has recorded two victories, one pole, 24 top-five results, 53 top-10 results, 961 laps led and an average-finishing result of 16.6. The 2025 season will mark the Floridian’s 12th year with at least one start in the Xfinity circuit. JRM will become the 11th team Chastain has driven for as he strives to utilize the extra seat time in the Xfinity circuit to gain a competitive edge in the Cup competition.
“I think there is a lot of benefit to getting seat time on Saturdays in the Xfinity Series,” Chastain said. “Getting an opportunity to do it with JR Motorsports is too good an opportunity to pass up. I know every time I climb in their Chevrolets, we will have a chance to win.”
Compared to Chastain, teammate van Gisbergen campaigned in his first full-time stint in the Xfinity Series at Kaulig Racing this past season. Throughout the 33-race schedule, he notched his first three career victories at Portland International Raceway, Sonoma and Chicago, respectively, between June and July. Despite settling in the runner-up spot in the final Rookie-of-the-Year standings, van Gisbergen tallied a total of three poles, seven top-five results, 10 top-10 results, 100 laps led and an average-finishing result of 16.5, which was also enough to finish in 12th place in the final standings.
Previously, van Gisbergen won in his Cup Series debut at Chicago while driving Trackhouse Racing’s PROJECT91 entry in 2023. Amid the excitement of being named a full-time Cup competitor for the 2025 season, the New Zealander also values the extra seat time gained within NASCAR’s lower series to be competitive and be a frequent front-runner among NASCAR’s elite.
“I’m trying to get as much experience as I can,” van Gisbergen said. “JR Motorsports is one of the top teams and won the championship with Justin Allgaier. I can’t wait to get started.”
With JRM’s No. 9 Chevrolet entry serving as the organization’s “all-star” entry, both Chastain and van Gisbergen will compete alongside JRM’s full-time Xfinity competitors that include the reigning champion Justin Allgaier, junior driver Sammy Smith and rookies Carson Kvapil and Connor Zilisch in 2025.
Additional details for the JRM’s No. 9 “all-star” entry for the 2025 Xfinity Series have not been determined.
With their part-time Xfinity Series campaigns in 2025 set, Ross Chastain will make his first series start with JRM at Circuit of the Americas on March 1 at 2:30 p.m. ET on the CW Network while van Gisbergen will make his first start at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on June 14 at 4:30 p.m. ET on the CW Network.
With two vacant spots to this year’s Championship 4 round on the line amongst eight NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff contenders, Aric Almirola motored his way to a dominant victory for his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team in the National Debt Relief 250 at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday, November 2.
The 40-year-old Almirola from Tampa, Florida, led five times for a race-high 150 of 250-scheduled laps in an event where he started in ninth place and muscled through four early caution periods to claim the first stage victory in a photo finish over Playoff contender Cole Custer. Then after racing his way to win the second stage period, Almirola survived a bevy of caution periods and ensuing restart periods, including the final one with 16 laps remaining where he was leading, to fend off Playoff contenders Sammy Smith and Chandler Smith to capture his third Xfinity victory of the 2024 season and clinch a spot to this year’s Xfinity owner’s championship battle for Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20 team for next weekend’s finale at Phoenix Raceway.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, November 1, Parker Retzlaff notched his second Xfinity pole position of the 2024 season and his career with a pole-winning lap at 95.151 mph in 19.901 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Anthony Alfredo, who clocked in his best qualifying lap at 95.094 mph in 19.913 seconds.
Prior to the event, the following names that include Parker Kligerman, William Sawalich and Kyle Sieg 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, Parker Retzlaff and Anthony Alfredo briefly dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Retzlaff muscled his No. 31 The Visual Pak Companies Chevrolet Camaro ahead with both lanes under his control through the backstretch. As the field slowly began to fan out to three lanes, Retzlaff led the first lap as Playoff contender Chandler Smith overtook Alfredo for the runner-up spot. Behind, Aric Almirola made a bold three-wide move beneath Playoff contenders Sammy Smith and Austin Hill as he made his way up to sixth place.
Over the next four laps, Retzlaff would proceed to stabilize his early advantage to four-tenths of a second over Chandler Smith as Playoff contender Justin Allgaier, Alfredo and Playoff rookie Jesse Love followed suit in the top five. Behind, Almirola retained sixth place ahead of Playoff contender Austin Hill and Sheldon Creed while Playoff contenders AJ Allmendinger and Sammy Smith pursued in the top 10.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps and amid a series of early jostling for spots within the field, Retzlaff retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over Chandler Smith while Allgaier and Alfredo followed suit. Behind, Almirola made his way into fifth place over Love and Hill while Creed, Allmendinger and Playoff contender Cole Custer were in the top 10. As both Custer and Allmendinger bumped one another while battling for 10th place, Riley Herbst, Playoff contender Sam Mayer, Sammy Smith, Brandon Jones and Bubba Pollard were in the top 15.
On Lap 12, the event’s first caution flew after Allmendinger, who had fiercely bumped and rubbed with Custer for a top-10 spot over the last few laps, blew a right-front tire amid another round of contact with Custer entering the backstretch and went dead straight into the outside wall in Turn 3. The incident was enough to end Allmendinger’s event early, but it did not affect his secured spot to this year’s Championship 4 round after he had won the Playoff’s Round of 8 opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway two weeks earlier.
When the race restarted under green on Lap 18, Chandler Smith dueled with Retzlaff for the lead through the first two turns before he muscled ahead and cleared Retzlaff through the backstretch. Smith would proceed to lead the following lap as Allgaier followed suit in third place. Behind, Almirola muscled his way up to fourth place while Alfredo was pinned in a tight three-wide battle for a top-10 spot that involved Herbst and Creed as both Custer and Sammy Smith joined the battle. With Love and Hill moving up to fifth and sixth on the track, Chandler Smith retained the lead just past the Lap 20 mark.
At the Lap 25 mark, Chandler Smith was leading by six-tenths of a second over Retzlaff while Allgaier, Almirola and Love followed suit in the top five ahead of Hill, Herbst, Custer, Alfredo, and Creed. Over the next five laps, Allgaier and Almirola dueled fiercely for third place while Stewart-Haas Racing’s Herbst and Custer battled for seventh place in front of Sam Mayer. In the process, Almirola stabilized his lead to nearly eight-tenths of a second.
On Lap 36, the event’s second caution flew after Myatt Snider, who was racing in 18th place, was bumped and sent for a spin by Ryan Sieg entering Turns 3 and 4. During the caution period, some led by Chandler Smith and including Allgaier, Hill, Love and Sammy Smith pitted while the rest led by Retzlaff and including Custer and Sam Mayer remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Ryan Ellis was penalized for vehicle interference while Hill endured a slow pit service after he had to reverse to avoid hitting Dawson Cram while exiting his pit stall.
As the event restarted under green on Lap 43, Retzlaff and Custer dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Custer used the outside lane to assume the lead through the backstretch. Behind, Retzlaff fended off rookie Shane van Gisbergen through Turns 3 and 4 to retain second place before the latter crossed over and reignited his challenge for the spot. Behind, a series of jostles for spots between competitors with fresh tires versus those with worn tires ensued as Custer continued to lead. The caution, however, would return on Lap 47 after Leland Honeyman spun in Turn 2 from the top 20 after getting hit by Blaine Perkins.
The start of the next restart period on Lap 53 did not last long as Retzlaff, who restarted on the front row with Custer, was shoved dead straight into the outside wall in Turn 1 by Mayer as Retzlaff emerged with significant front-end damage to his pole-winning car. The incident was enough to knock Retzlaff out of contention while Mayer continued.
With the event restarting under green with a single lap remaining to the first stage period, Custer and Almirola dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. They continued to battle dead even against one another through Turns 3 and 4 as they crossed the start/finish line in a photo finish to complete the first stage. At the line, Almirola emerged with the stage victory by a nose for the fifth time in the 2024 Xfinity Series season. Custer settled in second followed by Allgaier, Chandler Smith, Love, Herbst, Josh Williams, Sammy Smith, Creed and Jeb Burton. By then, five of seven remaining Playoff contenders on the track recorded the event’s first round of stage points as the list did not include Mayer or Hill.
Under the stage break, some led by Custer and including Williams, Jeremy Clements, Patrick Emerling, Mason Maggio and Logan Bearden pitted while the rest led by Almirola remained on the track.
The second stage period started on Lap 70 as teammates Almirola and Chandler Smith started on the front row. At the start, Almirola gained the advantage from the inside lane as he muscled away with the lead entering the backstretch. Almirola proceeded to lead the following lap while Chandler Smith fended off Allgaier for the runner-up spot. Allgaier would then be challenged by Love and Herbst for third place as Smith started to close in on Almirola for the lead.
Towards the Lap 80 mark, Almirola retained a steady advantage over teammate Chandler Smith, with the latter bumping and intimidating his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota teammate through every corner and straightaway. Smith would then make his way beneath Almirola’s No. 20 He Gets Us Toyota Supra through the first two turns and muscle his No. 81 QuickTie Toyota Supra into the lead through the backstretch on Lap 81. With Smith leading, Allgaier trailed in third place by six-tenths of a second while Love, Sammy Smith and Herbst trailed by more than two seconds.
On Lap 85, Herbst bumped and nearly turned Love’s No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Camaro in a fierce battle for fifth place in Turn 3. The contact dropped Love to ninth place as Herbst proceeded to fend off Sheldon Creed for fifth place. In the process, Chandler Smith continued to lead by within a tenth of a second over teammate Almirola. Almirola, however, would gain a run beneath Smith through the first two turns and reassume the lead on Lap 94.
At the Lap 100 mark, Almirola stretched his advantage to a second over teammate Chandler Smith as Sammy Smith would proceed to overtake Chandler Smith for the runner-up spot during the following lap. Behind, Allgaier trailed in fourth place by two seconds while Herbst, Creed, Sawalich, Ryan Sieg, Alfredo and Jeb Burton followed suit in the top 10.
Following a caution period on Lap 102 as Mason Maggio spun in Turn 1 just in front of the leaders, some led by Ryan Sieg and including Myatt Snider, Brennan Poole and Garrett Smithley remained on the track while the rest led by Almirola pitted. Amid the pit stops, Chandler Smtih endured a slow pit service.
When the race restarted under green on Lap 110, Ryan Sieg and Poole dueled for the lead in front of a stacked field as Sieg proceeded to muscle ahead through the backstretch. By the following lap, Almirola, who was racing on fresh tires, had carved his way up to third place. Almirola would proceed to duel and overtake Poole for the runner-up spot during the next lap as teammate Sheldon Creed was also muscling his way towards the top five.
Then with three laps remaining in the second stage period, Almirola caught and made his move beneath Ryan Sieg for the lead entering the first two turns. Almirola and Sieg would then duel for the lead through the backstretch as Sieg refused to surrender the spot. With both continuing to battle dead even for the lead during the following lap, Almirola would muscle ahead of Sieg through Turns 3 and 4 on Lap 118.
During the final lap of the second stage period, Ryan Sieg tried to execute a crossover move beneath Almirola through the frontstretch, but Almirola muscled away with his fresh tires and teammate Creed began to challenge Sieg for the runner-up spot. Amid the battles within the field, Almirola proceeded to capture his sixth Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season and second of the day. Sieg fended off Creed for the runner-up spot while Sammy Smith, Allgaier, Chandler Smith, Custer, Herbst, Sawalich and Poole were scored in the top 10. With four of seven Playoff contenders on the track racking up the event’s second round of stage points, the remaining Playoff contenders including Mayer and Hill did not achieve points.
During the stage break, Logan Bearden was the only competitor who pitted as the rest led by Almirola remained on the track.
With 120 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as teammates Almirola and Creed occupied the front row. At the start, Almirola rocketed away with the lead through the first two turns and he would retain the lead for the following lap. Behind, a series of on-track battles ensued as Allgaier made his way to fourth place behind Ryan Sieg while Custer fended off Sammy Smith and Chandler Smith for fifth place. The caution would return with 117 laps remaining as William Sawalich spun and slapped into the outside wall in Turn 1 amid contact with Alfredo.
During the start of the next restart period with 110 laps remaining, Almirola dueled with teammate Creed for the lead for a full lap as Creed managed to lead the first lap by a hair from the outside lane. Creed would then clear Almirola to have both lanes under his control entering the first two turns while Allgaier was trying to fend off Custer and Ryan Sieg for third place. Shortly after, Custer moved his No. 00 Haas Ford Mustang into third place over Allgaier and Chandler Smith followed in close pursuit in fifth place.
Down to the final 100 laps of the event, Creed continued to lead by a tenth of a second over teammate Almirola, who spent the last several laps dueling and challenging Creed for the top spot through every corner. Almirola would then prevail in the heated battle with teammate Creed with 96 laps remaining as he bumped and muscled ahead of the latter with the top spot. Meanwhile, third-place Custer trailed by a second. Creed then went wide entering Turn 1 during the following lap, which allowed Custer to battle him for the runner-up spot as Almirola stretched his advantage to more than a second.
With 85 laps remaining, Almirola retained the lead over both Custer and Creed as Logan Bearden pitted with his right-front hub on fire. Amid Bearden’s incident, the event remained under green flag conditions. The caution would then fly with 77 laps remaining due to Preston Pardus spinning in Turn 3. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Almirola pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Almirola retained the lead after he exited pit road first as he was followed by Creed, Custer, Allgaier, Herbst, Chandler Smith, Mayer, Burton, Alfredo and Sammy Smith. Amid the pit stops, Creed was penalized for speeding on pit road.
The start of the next restart period with 68 laps remaining featured Almirola fending off Custer through the first two turns to lead the field through the backstretch. Just before Almirola could reach the start/finish line to lead the following lap, the caution returned when Dawson Cram, who was racing outside the top 20, received a bump from Love that sent him spinning and backing into the outside wall in Turn 3.
As the race restarted under green with 60 laps remaining, Almirola used the inside lane to fend off Custer through the first two turns as he retained a steady lead through the backstretch, Despite getting bumped in the rear by Custer through Turns 3 and 4, Almirola led the following lap ahead of Custer as he had Allgaier, Herbst, Chandler Smith and Jeb Burton all following in close pursuit. With the latter four bumping and dueling against one another for position, Allgaier would retain third place ahead of Chandler Smith and Burton over the next four laps while Mayer and Sammy Smith made their way past Herbst for sixth and seventh, respectively. The caution would then return with 54 laps remaining as Creed bumped Blaine Perkins into Josh Williams, all of whom were battling for a top-15 spot, which sent the latter for a spin towards the outside wall in Turn 2.
The start of the next restart period with 48 laps remaining featured Almirola muscling ahead with a slight advantage over Custer as he proceeded to motor past him through the first two turns and retain the top spot through the backstretch. With Almirola leading the following lap, Custer retained second as Allgaier and Chandler Smith dueled for third place in front of Burton. Behind, teammates Mayer and Sammy Smith dueled for sixth place in front of Herbst, Alfredo and Kligerman as Almirola proceeded to lead with 45 laps remaining.
With less than 40 laps remaining, Almirola stretched his advantage to more than a second over Custer, who had Chandler Smith and Allgaier pressuring him for the runner-up spot through every corner and straightaway. Custer would retain the runner-up spot from both Smith and Allgaier over the next five laps as Almirola’s advantage also stabilized to more than a second.
Not long after, the caution returned with 31 laps remaining when Brandon Jones slid and wrecked his No. 9 Menards Chevrolet Camaro against the Turn 1 outside wall from 13th place after he got bumped by Creed entering the turn. The incident occurred shortly after Chandler Smith had bumped Custer out of the racing groove for the runner-up spot in Turn 1.
Just as the event was restarting under green with 24 laps remaining, a stack-up ensued from the front of the field that left Mayer, who restarted in seventh place, with a dented hood and Burton attempting to fan out beneath Mayer. Then entering Turns 1 and 2, Custer returned the favor to Chandler Smith by bumping the latter into the turn as both went up the racetrack through the first two turns. Despite Smith managing to remain in front of Custer, both dropped to fifth and seventh, respectively, through the backstretch. In the process, Mayer, who had a tire rub, continued in sixth place with a dented hood while Almirola pulled away with the lead ahead of Allgaier, Sammy Smith and Herbst.
On the following lap, the caution returned as both Ryan Sieg and van Gisbergen wrecked in Turn 4. During the caution period, Mayer, who pitted to have the damage addressed, had his No. 1 10X Health Chevrolet Camaro pushed behind the wall as his event came to a late end. Mayer’s retirement also ended his hopes of returning to the Championship 4 round for a second consecutive season.
Down to the final 16 laps remaining, the race restarted under green as Almirola and Sammy Smith occupied the front row. At the start, Almirola muscled away from Smith’s No. 8 Pilot Flying J Chevrolet Camaro and the field to lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. As Almirola led the following lap, Smith followed suit in second while Allgaier was trying to fend off Herbst, Chandler Smith, Custer and Jeb Burton for third place. During the following lap, Chandler Smith got Herbst loose entering Turn 3, which allowed Smith to draw himself alongside Allgaier for third place as Custer tried to follow suit. Custer would then grab fifth place from teammate Herbst while Almirola continued to lead over Sammy Smith with 14 laps remaining.
With 10 laps remaining, Almirola retained the lead by four-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Sammy Smith while Chandler Smith trailed the lead by more than a second. By then, both of the Smith competitors were placed in “must-win” situations to maintain their Playoff hopes. Behind, Custer, who currently occupied the fourth and transfer spot to the Championship 4 round, made his way up to fourth place over Allgaier, who held the other vacant spot to the final Playoff round, while Creed was up to sixth place.
Down to the final five laps of the event, Almirola continued to lead by four-tenths of a second over Sammy Smith as third-place Chandler Smith followed suit by a second. Over the next four laps, Almirola would stabilize his advantage over both Sammy Smith and Chandler Smith, with the latter two unable to close in despite charging their respective cars through every corner and straightaway.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Almirola remained in the lead by half a second over Sammy Smith and by more than a second over Chandler Smith. With the two Smiths unable to narrow the deficit for a final lap charge, Almirola coasted his No. 20 Toyota smoothly around the Martinsville circuit for a final time before he cycled back to the frontstretch and for his third Xfinity checkered flag of the 2024 season.
With the victory, Almirola, who won at Martinsville in April, notched his seventh career win in his 117th start in the Xfinity circuit and 13th of the 2024 season. The victory was the 11th of the season for both the Toyota nameplate and Joe Gibbs Racing, with the organization’s No. 20 team winning for the ninth time overall.
As a result of the victory, Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20 Toyota team will contend for the 2024 Xfinity Series owner’s championship as Almirola will compete against Austin Hill, AJ Allmendinger and Justin Allgaier for the title during next weekend’s season-finale event at Phoenix Raceway.
Photo by Patrick Sue-Chan for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“Wow, what an amazing race car,” Almirola said on the CW Network. “So proud of [crew chief] Tyler [Allen] and all the guys on this team. We had an amazing car here in the spring. We made a few tweaks to it because I wasn’t totally happy with it, honestly, in the spring. We showed up yesterday and we were awful. I was like, ‘Oh no. What did we do?’ [The team] went to work last night and came up with a lot of changes to make to the car. It was so hooked up today. It would just do everything I wanted it to. Man, this is such a special place, This is, by far, my favorite racetrack and I’m just so thankful to Coach [Gibbs], everybody at Toyota. There’s so much more to it than just me and this race team. I’m just so lucky and blessed to have this opportunity with so many great partners. What an amazing race car. Just so proud, so, so proud and we’re going to go race for an owner’s championship in Phoenix.”
As Almirola celebrated the Martinsville race victory, teammate Chandler Smith, who settled in third place on the track was left heated over Custer, who finished fourth, following their pair of bumps and on-track contact that took them both out of contention for the race victory as Smith also failed to make the Championship 4 field by 28 points. Once Smith parked his car on pit road at the event’s conclusion, he confronted Custer and both exchanged words before Smith attempted to throw a punch across Custer’s face before both were separated by NASCAR officials and their respective crew members.
Ironically, this marks the second run-in and post-race confrontation between Custer and Chandler Smith after the former had confronted the latter during the Playoff opener at Kansas Speedway in late September, where he criticized Smith for costing both the victory from Almirola following a late duel on the track.
“I was planning to do a lot more than [throwing a punch], to be completely frank with you,” Smith, whose racing status for 2025 remains unknown, said. “I was extremely pissed off. I gave him five laps before that caution came out and beat his bumper off and never shipped him or anything like that. Then finally, it’s like all right, the laps are winding down, I’m in a must-win [situation]. [Almirola]’s starting to drive away. He was really good all day. I can’t waste any more time with [Custer], so I finally had a good enough run and pushed him up the racetrack and went on our way, but I gave him a chance for five laps before that…He didn’t even give me a chance to make the corner when we got to Turn 1. It is what it is. He can think we’re even and all, but he’s the one that’s got more stakes than I do next weekend.”
Meanwhile, Custer, who was initially left frustrated with Smith, was also left pleased on pit road as he claimed a Championship 4 berth to next weekend’s finale at Phoenix as he will attempt to defend his title before moving back up to the Cup Series with the rebranded Haas Factory Team in 2025.
“[Chandler Smith]’s not happy, but at the end of the day, he’s put us in the wall a few times this year and his mistakes caught up with him,” Custer said. “He used the bumper on me, I used the bumper on him. What comes around goes around in this deal. I’m so proud of this team. We brought out everything we had today. [The team] Kept us in the fight, but [crew chief Jonathan Toney] and the guys did a great job all year maximizing everything we had. [I] Can’t wait to go to Phoenix now and see what we can do.”
Overall, Custer joins AJ Allmendinger, Austin Hill and Justin Allgaier, the latter of whom finished fifth at Martinsville, as the four Playoff contenders who will contend for the 2024 Xfinity Series championship next weekend at Phoenix. Meanwhile, Chandler Smith joins Martinsville runner-up finisher Sammy Smith, rookie Jesse Love and Sam Mayer as the bottom four Playoff contenders in the standings who did not make the Championship 4 round.
There were 12 lead changes for seven different leaders. The race featured 13 cautions for 84 laps. In addition, 26 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
The 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season is set to conclude at Phoenix Raceway, where a champion will be crowned. The finale is set to occur next Saturday, November 9, and air at 7:30 p.m. ET on the CW Network.
In a season mired with a multitude of on-track frustrations and a long winless drought, AJ Allmendinger cashed back in an emphatic style and became the first competitor to be guaranteed a championship berth in the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series finale by winning the Alsco Uniforms 302 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday, October 19.
The 42-year-old Allmendinger from Los Gatos, California, led three times for a race-high 102 of 201 scheduled laps in an event where he started in sixth place and racked up 16 stage points with two top-five results recorded during the event’s two stage periods. Then after cycling his way into the lead for the first time at the start of the final stage period with 105 laps remaining, Allmendinger proceeded to dominate as he led the following 52 laps before navigating his way through a late cycle of green flag pit stops that enabled him to reassume the lead with 50 laps remaining.
Amid two late-race caution periods and ensuing restarts, Allmendinger fended off late charges from Ryan Sieg, including the final one during a two-lap shootout to the finish, to score his first Xfinity Series victory of the 2024 season and race his way into the Championship 4 round, where he will be one of four Playoff contenders to contend for this year’s series championship.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, October 18, Brandon Jones notched his fourth Xfinity pole position of the 2024 season after he posted a pole-winning lap at 183.430 mph in 29.439 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff contender Cole Custer, who clocked in his best qualifying lap at 183.187 mph in 29.478 seconds.
Prior to the event, Sheldon Creed dropped to the rear of the field due to an engine change made to his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota entry. Kyle Weatherman also dropped to the rear of the field for unapproved adjustments made to his No. 91 DGM Racing Chevrolet entry.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Brandon Jones gained the early upper hand from the inside lane as he muscled his No. 9 Menards Chevrolet Camaro away from Cole Custer with a push from Playoff contender Chandler Smith entering the first two turns. With Chandler Smith following suit in second ahead of Custer and Playoff contenders Sammy Smith and Sam Mayer for the following two turns, Jones proceeded to lead the first lap.
Over the next three laps, Jones retained his advantage as high as three-tenths of a second while Custer reassumed second place from Chandler Smith. Sammy Smith and Mayer would continue to follow suit in the top five ahead of Riley Herbst while Playoff contender AJ Allmendinger retained seventh place ahead of Taylor Gray, Playoff contender Jesse Love, Playoff contender Justin Allgaier, Parker Kligerman and Ryan Sieg.
Then on the fourth lap, the event’s first caution flew due to an incident involving Leland Honeyman and JJ Yeley, when they collided with one another against the backstretch’s outside wall. During the event’s first caution period, select names including Daniel Dye and Joey Gase pitted while the rest led by Jones remained on the track
When the race restarted under green on the eighth lap, Sammy Smith made a three-wide move beneath teammate Jones and Custer through the frontstretch and he would muscle ahead with the lead through the first two turns. As Smith led a side-by-side duel between Custer and Jones through the backstretch, the field behind fanned out to multiple lanes as Chandler Smith muscled his way up to fourth place. Through the frontstretch, Allgaier would make a bold four-wide move towards the frontstretch’s apron in his bid to move up the leaderboard.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps and amid a series of on-track battles, Sammy Smith retained the lead by a tenth of a second over Custer while Jones followed suit in third place by nine-tenths of a second. Behind, Allmendinger and Chandler Smith would battle for fourth place in front of Herbst and Allgaier as Sammy Smith retained a narrow advantage over Custer. Chandler Smith then nearly got loose in front of Allgaier through Turns 3 and 4 during the following lap, but he kept his car straight despite dropping to seventh place. With Allmendinger, Herbst and Allgaier all moving in front of Chandler Smith, Custer would then overtake Sammy Smith for the lead on Lap 13 and Custer would proceed to lead by nearly half a second by Lap 15.
By Lap 20, Custer stretched his advantage to a second over Sammy Smith as third-place Jones also trailed by a second. Behind, Allgaier trailed by two seconds in fourth place along with fifth-place Allmendinger while Herbst, Chandler Smith, Aric Almirola, Ryan Sieg and Taylor Gray were in the top 10 ahead of Jesse Love, Austin Hill, Sam Mayer, Parker Kligerman and Parker Retzlaff.
Ten laps later, Custer continued to lead by nine-tenths of a second over Jones followed by Allgaier, who trailed in third place by a second, while Herbst and Sammy Smith followed suit in the top five. As Shane van Gisbergen pitted under green due to an engine issue and eventually was taken to the garage, Custer retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Jones while Allgaier trailed by eight-tenths of a second over the next four laps.
On Lap 34, however, the caution returned due to an incident involving Dylan Lupton towards the outside wall in Turn 2. During the caution period, some led by Custer and including Allgaier, Love, Hill and Mayer pitted while the rest led by Jones remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Anthony Alfredo was penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation.
The start of the next restart period on Lap 39 featured Herbst briefly muscling ahead of Jones with the lead from the inside lane ahead of Allmendinger and Chandler Smith before Allmendinger made his move beneath Herbst entering the first two turns. Allmendinger, however, almost slid up into Herbst through the turns, which also caused Chandler Smith to briefly step out of the gas to avoid hitting Allmendinger as he was pinned in a four-wide battle with Jones, Sammy Smith, Taylor Gray and a bevy of competitors through the backstretch. With Allmendinger battling Jones for the runner-up spot and Chandler Smith retaining fourth ahead of teammate Almirola and the rest of the field, Herbst proceeded to lead the following lap.
In the midst of the battles within the field, Custer used the four fresh tires to charge his way from the top 14 to back into the top five and he would proceed to battle Allmendinger and Jones for the runner-up spot by Lap 42 as Herbst retained the lead. Custer would then reassume the lead by Lap 43 and Allgaier would follow suit on his four fresh tires while Herbst dropped to third place in front of Allmendinger.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 45, Custer fended off a hard-charging Allgaier to claim his fourth Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Allgaier settled in second ahead of Herbst, Allmendinger and Creed while Ryan Sieg, Love, Hill, Jones and Mayer were scored in the top 10. With six of eight Playoff contenders accumulating the event’s first round of stage points, the remaining Playoff contenders including Chandler Smith and Sammy Smith were scored in 15th and 16th, respectively, while Almirola fell back to 12th place.
Under the stage break, some led by Herbst and including Allmendinger pitted while the rest led by Custer and Allgaier remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Almirola was penalized for a vehicle interference.
The second stage period started on Lap 51 as Custer and Allgaier occupied the front row. At the start, Custer and Allgaier dueled for the lead through the first two turns as the field fanned out from the frontstretch through the backstretch. After dueling with Custer through the backstretch, Allgaier would proceed to muscle his No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro ahead with the lead through Turns 3 and 4, where he would lead the following lap. As Allgaier led Custer, Creed was trying to fend off Ryan Sieg for third place while Mayer, Love, Allmendinger, Chandler Smith, Hill and Retzlaff followed suit in the top 10.
Just past the Lap 55 mark, Allgaier stretched his advantage to more than a second over Custer while Creed, Ryan Sieg and Mayer followed suit in the top five. Behind, Allmendinger, who pitted during the first stage break period, was up to sixth place on four fresh tires as Herbst, Hill and Sammy Smith battled fiercely for 10th place. Amid the battles, Allgaier would add another second to his advantage as he led by more than two seconds by Lap 60.
At the Lap 70 mark, Allgaier continued to extend his advantage as he was leading by more than three seconds over Custer while Allmendinger also trailed by more than three seconds in third place. As Ryan Sieg and Chandler Smith were racing in the top five, Jones would challenge Smith for fifth place as Love, Herbst, Creed and Sammy Smith all trailed in the top 10 by 10 seconds. Meanwhile, Mayer had fallen to 11th place while Hill was mired back in 17th place.
Ten laps later, Allgaier stabilized his advantage to three seconds over Allmendinger while Ryan Sieg trailed in third place by nearly five seconds. With Jones and Chandler Smith up into the top five, Custer dropped to sixth place ahead of Love while Almirola occupied eighth place ahead of Herbst and Sammy Smith.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 90, Allgaier, who was mired behind lapped traffic, cruised to his 16th Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Allmendinger followed suit in second place by three-tenths of a second while Ryan Sieg, Jones, Chandler Smith, Custer, Almirola, Love, Herbst and Taylor Gray were scored in the top 10. With five of eight Playoff contenders racking up the event’s second round of stage points, the remaining Playoff contenders that include Sammy Smith, Mayer and Hill were mired back in 12th, 13th and 15th, respectively.
During the stage break, the entire lead lap field led by Allgaier pitted. Following the pit stops, Allmendinger exited pit road first ahead of Allgaier, Custer, Chandler Smith and Herbst while Almirola, Ryan Sieg, Creed, Love and Jones followed suit in the top 10.
With 105 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced under green as Allmendinger and Allgaier occupied the front row. At the start, however, the caution quickly returned due to Taylor Gray, who restarted in 11th place, getting hit by Sammy Smith and spinning his No. 19 Operation 300 Toyota Supra towards the middle of the frontstretch amid an accordion effect towards the front of the field. In the process of the spin, Gray’s sliding Toyota barely avoided the Chevrolet entries of Kligerman and Hill before it came to a rest backward across the outside wall as the rest of the field scattered to avoid hitting Gray.
During the caution period, select names including Richard Childress Racing’s Love and Hill pitted while the rest led by Allmendinger remained on the track.
The start of the next restart period with 99 laps remaining featured Allmendinger fending off Allgaier to lead the field through the first two turns as Chandler Smith challenged Allgaier for the runner-up spot. The latter would fend off the former for the runner-up spot as Allmendinger led the ensuing lap. With Allmendinger leading, Custer and Almirola battled for fourth place in front of Ryan Sieg, Jones and Herbst before Custer, Sieg and Jones all blew past Almirola for fourth through sixth, respectively, with 96 laps remaining.
With 90 laps remaining, Allmendinger was leading by two-tenths of a second over Allgaier while third-place Chandler Smith trailed by one-and-a-half seconds. Behind, Ryan Sieg and Custer trailed by two seconds in the top five while Jones, Almirola, Herbst, Creed and Kligerman were racing in the top 10 ahead of Mayer. In addition, Love was mired in 16th place and racing two spots ahead of teammate Hill while Sammy Smith was down in 22nd place.
Ten laps later, Allmendinger retained the lead by four-tenths of a second over Allgaier despite the latter attempting to have the former slow down and help remove debris from Allgaier’s front grille while Allmendinger declined the offer to help. Meanwhile, third-place Chandler Smith trailed in third place by nearly two seconds as Ryan Sieg and Almirola were in the top five.
Soon after, Allgaier, who was trying to use lapped competitors to remove debris, radioed concerning an alternator issue with his car. Amid the issues, Allgaier used the lapped competitor of Akinori Ogata to remove the debris off his front grille. With the debris gone, Allgaier trailed the leader Allmendinger by more than a second with less than 75 laps remaining. In the process, Chandler Smith continued to trail the lead in his No. 81 QuickTie Toyota Supra by two seconds in third place.
With 60 laps remaining, Allmendinger stretched his advantage to more than two seconds over Allgaier while Ryan Sieg was up to third place and trailing the lead by four seconds. As Chandler Smith dropped to fourth place in front of Kligerman, Almirola was in sixth place and racing ahead of Custer, Herbst, Jones and Love.
A few laps later, green flag pit stops commenced as a bevy of names including Chandler Smith, Custer, Herbst and Corey Heim pitted. More names including Allgaier, Almirola, Mayer and Jeb Burton would also pit as the leader Allmendinger would then pit with 55 laps remaining. Gray, Jones, Hill and Anthony Alfredo would also pit as Kligerman, who inherited a brief lead, pitted under green with nearly 53 laps remaining. As more names including Ryan Sieg, Creed, Daniel Dye, Jeremy Clements, Matt DiBenedetto and Kyle Weatherman pitted, Gray was penalized for speeding on pit road.
Back on the track, Love, who inherited a brief lead, pitted under green with 51 laps remaining along with Josh Williams, whose fueler had a bevy of fuel spilling out of the fuel can and in the pit box while trying to fuel the car. This allowed Allmendinger to cycle back into the lead with 50 laps remaining as he was leading by more than two seconds over Allgaier. In the ensuing pit cycle, Chandler Smith, Sammy Smith and Sieg cycled into the top five ahead of Custer.
With less than 40 laps remaining, Allmendinger continued to lead by nearly three seconds over Allgaier while Ryan Sieg, Chandler Smith and Herbst were scored in the top five ahead of Custer, Kligerman, Jones, Almirola and Love. With five of eight Playoff contenders racing in the top 10 on the track, Mayer and Hill were mired in 12th and 13th, respectively, while Sammy Smith, who pitted under green, was down in 27th place and scored multiple laps down.
Then with 31 laps remaining, the caution flew due to Kyle Sieg spinning his No. 39 The Thomas Group Ford Mustang entering the frontstretch. At the moment of caution, Allmendinger was leading by four seconds over Ryan Sieg while 14 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Allmendinger pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Allmendinger retained the lead after he exited pit road first ahead of Sieg, Chandler Smith, Herbst, Allgaier and Kligerman.
At the start of the ensuing restart period with 25 laps remaining, Allmendinger muscled ahead with the lead from the inside lane as Chandler Smith followed suit. With Smith assuming the runner-up spot, Sieg dueled with Kligerman for third place as Herbst tried to throw a three-wide move beneath both for the spot. Amid the battles, Sieg muscled his No. 28 Sci Aps Ford Mustang ahead of both to retain the spot as Allmendinger led the following lap. During the next lap, Sieg tried to close in on Chandler Smith for the runner-up spot and Kligerman was challenged by Allgaier and Herbst for fourth place while Allmendinger retained the lead.
With 20 laps remaining, Allmendinger continued to lead by eight-tenths of a second over Ryan Sieg, who reassumed the runner-up spot by Chandler Smith a few laps earlier, as Allgaier moved up to fourth place in front of Kligerman and Herbst. Behind, Custer, Jones, Love and Creed were racing in the top 10 as Sieg trimmed Allmendinger’s advantage to four-tenths of a second over the next three laps. Sieg would then trail Allmendinger by two-tenths of a second with 15 laps remaining.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Allmendinger led by a tenth of a second over a hard-charging Ryan Sieg. Sieg then drew himself into a side-by-side battle with Allmendinger through the frontstretch for the following lap, which was led by Sieg by a hair. Sieg, however, got loose through the first two turns, which allowed Allmendinger to muscle back ahead with a reasonable gap. Amid his slip-up, Sieg retained the runner-up spot as he trailed Allmendinger by half a second over the next lap while Allgaier trailed in third place by a second.
Then with seven laps remaining, the caution flew due to Sammy Smith stalling his No. 8 Pilot Flying J Chevrolet Camaro due to a power issue in the backstretch. By then, Allmendinger was leading by three-tenths of a second over Ryan Sieg while Allgaier was trailing the lead by less than a second.
The start of the next restart period with two laps remaining featured Allmendinger receiving a push from Allgaier from the inside lane as he muscled his No. 16 Modern Day Garage Chevrolet Camaro ahead and retained the lead through the frontstretch. Allmendinger would proceed to lead through the first two turns and the backstretch while Ryan Sieg, Allgaier, Chandler Smith and the rest of the field followed suit.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Allmendinger remained in the lead by a tenth of a second over Ryan Sieg while Allgaier followed suit by three-tenths of a second. Sieg would slightly close in to Allmendinger’s rear bumper between the first two turns and the backstretch despite the latter retaining the top spot. Sieg then tried to reduce the gap even more for a final charge through Turns 3 and 4, but it would not be enough as Allmendinger cycled back to the frontstretch and claimed his first elusive checkered flag of the 2024 Xfinity Series season by a tenth of a second over Sieg.
With the victory, AJ Allmendinger, who is set to return to the NASCAR Cup Series division with Kaulig Racing in 2025, notched his 18th career win in the Xfinity Series, his second at Las Vegas and his first since winning at Nashville Superspeedway in June 2023. He also recorded the 17th Xfinity victory of the season for the Chevrolet nameplate, the fourth for Kaulig Racing and the first for the organization’s No. 16 entry led by crew chief Alex Yontz.
Above all, Allmendinger became the first Playoff contender to secure one of four berths into this year’s Championship 4 round, where he will contend for his first Xfinity Series championship at Phoenix Raceway in three weeks.
“I absolutely love these guys and girls at Kaulig Racing,” Allmendinger, who made the Championship 4 round for the second time in his career, said on the CW Network. “It’s been such an up and down [season], but what I love about them is we stick together. We keep fighting. First of all, happy birthday, [team owner] Matt Kaulig! The boss’ birthday! I told you I was getting you a trophy! Let’s go, man! I love you! [My family] see how much I care and I put it on myself. What a way to get to Phoenix after a year that we’ve had. Let’s go win a championship! Let’s go!”
As Allmendinger celebrated both a victory and a championship berth in Victory Lane with his team, Ryan Sieg, who made his 364th career start in the Xfinity Series at Las Vegas, was left disappointed on pit road after settling in a career-best second place for the fifth time in his career and for a second week in a row.
“[It] Just sucks to finish second again with a great car like we had earlier in Texas,” Sieg said. “One of these days, it’s gonna go our way. We brought a car as fast as Xfinity Internet, but we didn’t get in Victory Lane.”
Justin Allgaier, who led 42 laps and won the second stage period, came home in third place ahead of Playoff contender Chandler Smith and Parker Kligerman. Playoff rookie Jesse Love finished in sixth place while Riley Herbst, Stage 1 winner Cole Custer, Sheldon Creed and Austin Hill finished in the top 10.
With six of eight Playoff contenders finishing in the top 10 on the track, the remaining Playoff contenders that included Sam Mayer and Sammy Smith settled in 14th and 32nd, respectively.
There were 13 lead changes for nine different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 31 laps. In addition, 24 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. AJ Allmendinger, 102 laps led
2. Ryan Sieg, two laps led
3. Justin Allgaier, 42 laps led, Stage 2 winner
4. Chandler Smith
5. Parker Kligerman, one lap led
6. Jesse Love, three laps led
7. Riley Herbst, four laps led
8. Cole Custer, 31 laps led, Stage 1 winner
9. Sheldon Creed
10. Austin Hill
11. Corey Heim
12. Daniel Dye
13. Aric Almirola
14. Sam Mayer
15. Josh Williams
16. Matt DiBenedetto
17. Brandon Jones, 11 laps led
18. Jeremy Clements
19. Anthony Alfredo
20. Kyle Weatherman
21. Brennan Poole
22. Parker Retzlaff
23. Myatt Snider
24. Jeb Burton
25. JJ Yeley, two laps down
26. Kyle Sieg, two laps down
27. Dylan Lupton, three laps down
28. Ryan Ellis, three laps down
29. Garrett Smithley, three laps down
30. Joey Gase, three laps down
31. Blaine Perkins, three laps down
32. Sammy Smith, four laps down, five laps led
33. Taylor Gray, four laps down
34. Ryan Vargas, four laps down
35. Akinori Ogata, five laps down
36. Dawson Cram, eight laps down
37. Leland Honeyman – OUT, Electrical
38. Shane van Gisbergen – OUT, Fuel Pump
*Bold indicates Playoff competitors
Playoff standings
1. AJ Allmendinger – Advanced
2. Justin Allgaier +32
3. Cole Custer +16
4. Chandler Smith +8
5. Austin Hill -8
6. Jesse Love -13
7. Sam Mayer -23
8. Sammy Smith -53
The second Round of 8 event in the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs is set to occur at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida, for the Credit One NASCAR Amex Credit Card 300. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, October 26, and air at 4 p.m. ET on the CW Network.
With no points pressure mounted up his sleeves, Kyle Larson cruised to a dominant victory in the seventh annual running of the Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course on Sunday, October 13.
The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion from Elk Grove, California, led a race-high 62 of 109-scheduled laps in an event where he started in sixth place and ran a consistent event while executing his pit strategy to perfection that kept him racing towards the front and also keeping his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet intact through every turn, straightaway, chicane and curbs.
After clinching his way into the Playoff’s Round of 8 by accumulating seven stage points between the event’s first two stage periods, Larson, who led twice earlier in the event, assumed the lead for the third and final time with 33 laps remaining during a late cycle of green flag pit stops. Then after muscling away from the field during a late-race restart with 26 laps remaining, the Californian maintained a reasonable advantage over the field and fellow Playoff rivals for the remainder of the event as he raced his way to his sixth Cup victory of the 2024 season.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, October 12, Shane van Gisbergen notched his first Cup Series career pole position with a pole-winning lap at 99.246 mph in 82.704 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff contender Tyler Reddick, who posted his best qualifying lap at 99.177 mph in 82.761 seconds.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Shane van Gisbergen muscled his No. 13 WeatherTech Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 ahead with the lead from the outside lane and he led the field through the infield turns, starting from Turn 1 to the newly configured Turns 5 and 6 zones that led to the new sharp left-hand turn to Turn 7 and back on Charlotte’s oval course. With the field navigating cleanly through the infield turns, van Gisbergen retained the lead through the oval turns and the chicane areas, from the backstretch to the frontstretch, as he led the first lap ahead of Playoff contenders Joey Logano and Kyle Larson while AJ Allmendinger and Playoff contender Tyler Reddick followed suit.
During the second lap, Logano was overtaken by Larson, Reddick and Allmendinger on the track, which dropped Logano to fifth place on the course. Behind Logano, Playoff teammate Austin Cindric followed suit in sixth place as he was ahead of Brad Keselowski, Playoff contender Chase Elliott and Bubba Wallace while William Byron, who is already guaranteed a spot in the Round of 8, was in 10th place ahead of Playoff rivals Christopher Bell, Daniel Suarez and Ryan Blaney. As Playoff contenders Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe were trying to navigate their way up the leaderboard while being mired outside the top-20 mark on the track, van Gisbergen stretched his advantage to over one second on Larson by the fifth lap mark. Meanwhile, Playoff contender Alex Bowman, whose No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 briefly came off the ground after he ran over the frontstretch’s chicane curbs earlier, was mired in 19th place ahead of rookie Carson Hocevar.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, van Gisbergen stabilized his advantage to more than one second ahead of Larson while Reddick, Allmendinger and Logano followed suit in the top five. Behind, Cindric and Elliott battled fiercely for sixth place ahead of Keselowski, Wallace and Byron while Bell, Blaney, Suarez, Kyle Busch and Todd Gilliland trailed in the top 15 ahead of Ross Chastain, Michael McDowell, Ty Gibbs, Alex Bowman and Carson Hocevar. Meanwhile, Hamlin was mired in 24th place behind Ricky Stenhouse Jr. while Briscoe was back in 26th place in between Martin Truex Jr. and Chris Buescher.
Another lap later, Ryan Preece spun his No. 41 United Rentals Ford Mustang Dark Horse in the backstretch chicane while running in the top-30 mark, which dropped him below the leaderboard. Then during the following lap, Wallace was penalized for cutting the course while navigating his No. 23 Leidos Toyota Camry XSE through the frontstretch chicane. This resulted in Wallace serving a “stop-and-go” penalty through the backstretch chicane, which dropped Wallace from eighth to 12th on the course. Martin Truex Jr., who was running within the top-25 mark, would also be penalized for cutting the frontstretch chicane by Lap 13, which dropped him towards the top-30 mark. With the race remaining under green flag conditions, van Gisbergen stretched his advantage to nearly two seconds over Larson while Reddick, Allmendinger and Logano continued to trail in the top five.
On Lap 18, the event’s first cycle of green flag pit stops slowly started to commence as Allmendinger pitted his No. 16 Celsius Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 from the top five. By then, Austin Dillon had pitted a lap earlier. Kyle Busch, Ross Chastain and Chris Buescher would all pit by the Lap 19 mark before Cindric, Keselowski, Byron, Bell, Wallace, Hamlin, Briscoe and Truex pitted during the following lap. Larson would then pit his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 from the runner-up spot on Lap 21 along with Todd Gilliland, Hocevar, Bowman, rookie Zane Smith, Stenhouse, Daniel Hemric, Noah Gragson, Harrison Burton before the leader van Gisbergen pitted during the next lap along with Daniel Suarez. With pit road closed on Lap 23 as the first stage period was coming to a conclusion, Reddick, who remained on the course, cycled his No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE into the lead.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 25, Reddick, who came into the event 14 points above the top-eight cutline in his hopes to advance into the Playoff’s Round of 8, recorded his fourth Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Playoff contenders Logano, Elliott, Blaney and Larson followed suit in the top five while van Gisbergen, Ty Gibbs, Allmendinger, Keselowski and Playoff contender Cindric were scored in the top 10. With half of the 12 Playoff contenders racking up the event’s first round of stage points, the remaining Playoff contenders that include Bell, Byron, Suarez, Bowman, Briscoe and Hamlin were scored in 11th, 13th, 19th, 22nd, 23rd and 27, respectively.
Under the stage break, some led by Reddick and including Logano, Elliott and Blaney pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track.
The second stage period started on Lap 29 as Larson and van Gisbergen occupied the front row. At the start, Larson muscled ahead of Kaulig Racing’s van Gisbergen and Allmendinger through the frontstretch and he retained the lead through the infield turns while van Gisbergen fended off Allmendinger for the runner-up spot. As the field navigated through the infield road course turns and the sharp left-hand turn from Turn 7 back on the oval turns, Larson retained the lead for the remaining turns and led the following lap while Playoff contenders Briscoe, Hamlin, Reddick, Logano, Elliott and Blaney were mired within a series of on-track bumps and contacts while stuck in the middle of the field.
Shortly after and during the Lap 30 mark, Reddick was collected in a jam-up and came to a full stop to avoid hitting Austin Dillon, who was sent for a spin in Turn 7 after he got bumped by Bowman. Despite sustaining little cosmetic damage to his car, Reddick, whose car briefly came off the ground after he hit both the Turn 7 curb and into team owner Denny Hamlin prior to avoiding Dillon, pitted under green to address a potential broken toe link to his No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE. With Hamlin remaining on the track despite getting hit in the left-side area and having a bent toe link to the rear end of his No. 11 Sport Clips Toyota Camry XSE, Larson retained the lead by nearly a second over van Gisbergen while Allmendinger, Bell and Keselowski were scored in the top five.
At the Lap 35 mark, Larson stretched his advantage to more than a second over van Gisbergen as both were followed by Allmendinger, Bell and Keselowski. With Cindric, Byron, Chastain, Suarez and Wallace following suit in the top 10, Bowman, Hocevar, Buescher, Stenhouse and Kyle Busch were mired in the top 15 ahead of Logano, Zane Smith, Justin Haley, Ty Gibbs and Elliott while Hamlin, Blaney, Truex, Gilliland and Harrison Burton were scored in the top 25.
Then while still on the Lap 35 mark, the caution returned due to Playoff contender Briscoe losing a right-rear tire as the tire came off of Briscoe’s No. 14 Ford Performance Racing School Mustang Dark Horse in Turn 14 just as Briscoe was pitting. During the caution period, Reddick and Gragson pitted, with the former having his bent right-rear toe link addressed. Soon after, more names led by Allmendinger and including Hamlin and Cindric pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track.
The start of the next restart period on Lap 38 featured Larson and van Gisbergen dueling for the lead through the first four turns until Larson muscled ahead. With Bell overtaking van Gisbergen for the runner-up spot entering Turn 5, a traffic jam ensued as Keselowski was bumped and sent for a spin by Suarez in Turn 7 while the field fanned out. With the race remaining under green flag conditions, Larson retained the lead for the following lap ahead of Bell, van Gisbergen, Byron and Bowman as Austin Dillon, who was running in 28th place, was penalized for cutting the frontstretch chicane despite getting hit by Briscoe before driving off the course.
Just past the Lap 40 mark, eight of 12 Playoff contenders were racing inside the top 10 on the track as Larson retained the lead ahead of Bell while Byron, Bowman, Suarez, Logano and Elliott followed suit from fourth to eighth, respectively, as Blaney was in 10th place. Meanwhile, Cindric and Hamlin were back in 17th and 19th, respectively, while Briscoe and Reddick were mired in 36th and 37th, respectively, with the former pitting multiple times for repairs following an on-track contact. As Erik Jones bumped Kaz Grala off the course through the frontstretch chicane as payback from an earlier contact that occurred in the backstretch chicane, Chastain was sent for a spin in Turn 7 after he got hit by Truex. Through both incidents, the race remained under green flag conditions.
By Lap 45, Larson retained the lead by more than a second over Bell as van Gisbergen, Byron, Bowman, Suarez, Logano, Allmendinger, Elliott and Blaney followed suit in the top 10 ahead of Wallace, McDowell, Cindric, Kyle Busch and Hamlin. With Reddick mired in 36th place, Briscoe’s Playoff run in 2024 came to an end as he took his car to the garage and retired in 37th place. Briscoe’s DNF also ended the final Cup Series Playoff run for Stewart-Haas Racing.
“It’s tough,” Briscoe said after being released from the infield care center. “To have all that momentum that we had to come to an end and to have it come to an end like it did is definitely unfortunate. [I] Wish we could have kept going for [the title]. Just unfortunate. We still have a lot to race for. We still can go win four more races and that’s what we’re certainly trying to do.”
Two laps later, Byron pitted from inside the top five under green along with Ty Gibbs, Hemric, Chastain, Austin Dillon, Keselowski and Justin Haley. By then, Zane Smith, Truex, Stenhouse, Harrison Burton and John Hunter Nemechek had pitted. The leader Larson along with Bell and van Gisbergen would pit during the following lap as Bowman cycled into the lead.
Amid the pit stops, Suarez, who was engaged in a fierce battle that included bumps with Logano a few laps earlier, was forced off the course in the backstretch chicane after being bumped by Wallace, where Suarez came to a full stop before continuing. In addition, Zane Smith was spared from being penalized for cutting the frontstretch chicane earlier after he got bumped by Buescher.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 50, Bowman, who came into the Roval 26 points above the top-eight cutline, notched his second Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Allmendinger followed suit along with Logano, Elliott and Wallace while Blaney, Cindric, Michael McDowell, Kyle Busch and Larson, who clinched his way into the Round of 8 by points, were scored in the top 10. With half of the remaining 11 Playoff contenders on the track racking up the second round of stage points, the remaining contenders including Hamlin, Bell, Suarez, Byron and Reddick were mired in 11th, 12th, 14th, 16th and 36th, respectively.
During the stage break, some led by Bowman and including teammate Elliott, Blaney and Suarez pitted while the rest led by Allmendinger remained on the track.
With 55 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced under green as Allmendinger and Logano occupied the front row. At the start, Allmendinger muscled ahead with the lead from the outside lane and led the field through the infield turns while Wallace overtook Logano for the runner-up spot. Cindric would track teammate Logano for third place as the field fanned out while navigating through Turn 7.
With the field navigating cleanly through the backstretch chicane, trouble occurred in the frontstretch chicane as Chastain, who was mired in the top 20, was hit by Keselowski as he spun his No. 1 Busch Light Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for a second time and collected Legacy Motor Club’s Nemechek and Erik Jones. Then as Ty Gibbs retired due to a transmission issue to his No. 54 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry XSE, the caution returned during the following lap due to debris that came off of Nemechek’s damaged No. 42 Mobil 1 Toyota Camry XSE in Turn 2.
During the caution period, Suarez, who was placed in a “must-win” situation to keep his Playoff hopes alive, pitted and the hood of his No. 99 Choice Privileges Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was lifted as his crew went to work to diagnose a brake issue. By then, Bell was officially ruled to be clinched into the Round of 8 based on points.
As the event restarted under green with 50 laps remaining, Allmendinger rocketed away from Wallace and Logano to retain the lead entering the first turn and through the infield turns. As Larson used the fresh tires to battle Cindric for fourth place, the field fanned out and was able to navigate through Turn 7 cleanly as Allmendinger maintained a reasonable gap between himself and Wallace through the oval turns and the backstretch chicane.
Allmendinger would proceed to lead the following lap while Reddick and Elliott battled for 23rd place and a spot into the Round of 8. Meanwhile, Hamlin, who struggled earlier in the event, was up to seventh place behind Playoff contenders Larson, Logano, Bell and Cindric as Reddick, who was in 23rd place, was tracking Elliott by five points in the current Playoff standings. As both Buescher and van Gisbergen were sent spinning separately in Turn 7 during the next lap, Allmendinger stretched his advantage to more than a second over Wallace before Larson overtook the latter with 47 laps remaining.
With 45 laps remaining, Allmendinger stabilized his advantage to a second over Larson as Bell trailed in third place by two seconds. With Wallace leading Playoff contenders Logano, Cindric, Byron and Hamlin on the track, McDowell and Kyle Busch rounded out the top 10 ahead of Hocevar, Truex, Keselowski, Gilliland and Stenhouse. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders Bowman, Blaney, Elliott, Reddick and Suarez were mired in 17th, 18th, 19th, 21st and 32nd, respectively, as Larson proceeded to cut Allmendinger’s advantage to four-tenths of a second during the next lap.
Then with 43 laps remaining, Larson used a bold move beneath Allmendinger while nearly getting sideways to move into the lead in Turn 7. Larson would proceed to lead Allmendinger through the ensuing oval turns, the backstretch chicane and the frontstretch chicane while Bell started to close in on Allmendinger from third place. Meanwhile, Reddick, who had regained his racing rhythm and was trying to carve his way back up the leaderboard since having his car repaired in the pits following his second stage incident in Turn 7, continued to trail Elliott in the Playoff standings by five points as he was mired in 19th place in front of Bowman while Elliott was just ahead of Reddick in 18th place.
With 38 laps remaining, Allmendinger pitted from the runner-up spot under green as he was followed by Cindric, Logano, Kyle Busch and Buescher. By then, McDowell had pitted a lap earlier as Larson was leading by more than three seconds over Bell. Wallace and his 23XI Racing teammate Reddick would then pit during the following lap along with Gragson before Byron, Hocevar, Elliott and Bowman pitted with 36 laps remaining. Despite enduring a slow pit service, Elliott managed to blend back on the track in front of Reddick as Reddick was separated from Elliott by four competitors.
As the field reached its final 34-lap mark, the leader Larson pitted under green along with Bell and Blaney. By then, Hamlin had pitted earlier as Larson exited pit road ahead of Bell, who endured a slow service. With nearly every competitor in the field having made a pit stop, Keselowski, who has yet to pit, was leading. Keselowski, however, would pit shortly after, which handed the lead back to Larson.
With 30 laps remaining, Larson was leading by more than six seconds over Austin Dillon as Bell, van Gisbergen and Allmendinger trailed in the top five. Meanwhile, Reddick, who was scored in 20th place, trailed the top-eight cutline by five points while Logano, who was in eighth place, occupied the final transfer spot. Meanwhile, Elliott was 12 points above the cutline as he was in 13th place while Hamlin, who was in 17th place, was ahead by nine points.
The following lap, the caution flew due to the left front wheel rolling off of Austin Dillon’s No. 3 BetMGM Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 just past Turn 4 and right after Dillon had pitted under green, which resulted in Dillon being assessed a two-lap penalty. By then, Reddick trailed Logano in the standings by four points while Larson was leading by six seconds over Bell. During the caution period, some including Allmendinger, van Gisbergen, Reddick, Haley and Buescher pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track.
The start of the following restart period with 26 laps remaining featured Larson rocketing away from Bell, Byron and Cindric entering the first turn as Logano also tried to join the battle. As Larson led the field through the first four turns before navigating his way through the final three sets of infield turns, Larson slightly stretched his advantage over Bell through the oval’s backstretch and the backstretch chicane. As Playoff contenders Blaney and Hamlin were trying to navigate their way back into the top 10 on the track, Larson led the following lap while Reddick, who was mired in 24th place after he pitted, trailed the cutline by 12 points.
Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Larson continued to lead by more than a second over Bell as Playoff contenders Byron, Cindric, Elliott and Logano followed suit in the top six. With Logano losing fifth place on the track to Elliott not long ago, Reddick, who overtook Bowman for 19th place, trailed Logano in the standings by six points. Not long after, Reddick nearly got sideways as he bumped and sent Daniel Hemric for a spin in Turn 7. Amid the incident, Reddick continued in 18th place as he now trailed Logano by five points. Reddick would gain another point during the following lap as he overtook Stenhouse for 17th place and was trying to track McDowell for more.
With 15 laps remaining, Larson added an extra second to his advantage as he was leading by two seconds over Bell. Meanwhile, Reddick carved his way up to 15th place on the track, which placed him only two points behind Logano, who was still running in sixth place on the track, in the standings as he was trying to battle Kyle Busch for 14th place. Another lap later, however, Reddick’s deficit was cut to a single point as he overtook Busch’s No. 8 Lenovo Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for 14th place while Logano was being pressured by Allmendinger for sixth place.
Down to the final 11 laps of the event, Logano and Reddick were tied for the final transfer spot to the Round of 8 as Allmendinger overtook Logano’s No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse for sixth place through the backstretch on the track. Meanwhile, Reddick was trying to track down team owner Hamlin, who is only seven points above the cutline, for 13th place on the track as Logano owned the tie-breaker over Reddick. Logano and Reddick would remain in seventh and 14th, respectively, on the track for the following lap as Larson stabilized his advantage to two seconds over Bell.
Then with nine laps remaining, Reddick overtook Logano in the Playoff standings as he was in the final transfer into the Round of 8 by two points after he overtook Toyota teammates Truex and Hamlin from Turns 5 to 7. Meanwhile, Logano was still mired in seventh place and racing ahead of van Gisbergen, Wallace and Blaney while Reddick was trying to track down Hocevar for 11th place. Despite dropping to 13th place, Hamlin remained seven points above the cutline.
With five laps remaining, Larson stabilized his advantage to more than two seconds over Bell as Byron, Cindric and Elliott followed suit in the top five. Meanwhile, Logano was scored outside the top-eight cutline in the Playoff standings by four points as he was overtaken by van Gisbergen for seventh place on the track a few laps earlier while Reddick was up to 11th place. By then, Blaney and Elliott were also above the cutline by 18 and 14 points, respectively, while Bowman and Hamlin followed suit by eight and four points, respectively.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Larson remained as the leader by more than a second over Bell. As Larson proceeded to lap Suarez through the infield turns while Bell tried to close in, Larson was able to smoothly navigate his way out of the infield turns and through the final set of road course turns on the oval circuit as he then navigated through the frontstretch chicane and streaked across the finish line to claim the checkered flag by one-and-a-half seconds over Bell.
With the victory, Larson, who continues his pursuit for his second Cup Series championship ahead of the Round of 8’s commencement, achieved his sixth NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2024 season. He also achieved the 29th Cup victory of his career, his second at the Charlotte Roval after winning his first in 2021 and his first victory since winning the Bristol Night Race three weeks ago.
The victory was also the 15th of the season for the Chevrolet nameplate and the 11th of the season for Hendrick Motorsports, with the organization notching its 25th Cup victory overall at Charlotte, as Larson racked up his 23rd victory while driving the No. 5 Chevrolet for team owner Rick Hendrick.
“It’s the first time in my Playoff career [that] I’ve not been like close to the [Playoff] cutline,” Larson, who celebrated with his daughter Audrey on the frontstretch, said on NBC. “It was good to kind of have a little bit of a stress-free of a weekend. I think the first time I’ve been here without crashing, maybe besides the other time we won. Good weekend. Obviously, we’re here at [owner Rick] Hendrick’s home and got so many of the people here from there, so [it’s] gonna be fun to celebrate with them. It’s known that I don’t really use the [simulator] much and I was in the Sim this week. Huge thank you, you guys. It really helped me get into a rhythm, I think, early on and help us fine-tune our car, too. Hats off to everybody there.”
As Larson continued his race-winning celebration in Victory Lane, Tyler Reddick, the 2024 Cup Series Regular Season Champion, was left relieved and smiling on pit road with his team owners Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin as he survived his roller coaster event by claiming the eighth and final transfer spot to the Round of 8 by four points with an 11th-place result at Charlotte. The result enabled Reddick and the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota team to maintain their championship hopes for another three weeks.
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“I thought I was going to flip [in Stage 2],” Reddick said. “This [car] was absolutely destroyed. Real hats off to everybody on this Monster Energy Toyota Camry [team]. This thing couldn’t go within four seconds of what the pace was and we just kept working on it, and we made it a lot better for Stage 3. This is how this place can be sometimes, but it’s really nice to pull this off. You just got to stay calm, got to stay focused. In those moments, man, it’s so easy to lose track of what you control. Either way, I was going to drive the car as fast as I could. It just worked out for us. This thing was able to get up back up through the field and get us to the good side of the cutline.”
Meanwhile, Logano, who recorded a race-high 17 stage points and came into Charlotte with a 13-point deficit to the cutline, was left disappointed as he fell four points shy of remaining in contention for a third Cup Series championship in 2024. This season marks the first time where Logano was eliminated from the Playoffs following the Round of 12 and it comes a year after he was eliminated following the Round of 16.
“We fought hard, for sure,” Logano said. “I think [crew chief] Paul [Wolfe] and the [No. 22] guys did a good job of executing the strategy and what we needed to do today. Just didn’t quite get enough there at the end. I fell off a little bit too much [on] that last run. Honestly, the No. 45 [team], Tyler [Reddick] and those guys did a good job [of] driving up through the field and scored more points. It’s hard not to think about Richmond a little bit right now. Just wasn’t meant to be. You can start looking back at different points in the season to gather four points pretty easily, but Talladega, we just didn’t do a good enough job there scoring stage points. It’s probably where a lot of it lies.”
Overall, Logano joins teammate Austin Cindric, Daniel Suarez and Chase Briscoe as the next wave of four Playoff contenders to officially be eliminated from the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs.
“We had the speed and that’s the encouraging thing, that’s the exciting thing,” Cindric said. “Today, we needed it all. We had a great car. We had a great finish. All the things that are hard to do in a Cup race, we did all those things and capable of doing all those things in the two races prior [to Charlotte]. That’s what this [Playoff] format is. It’s difficult and for us having a better regular season, having bit better of a buffer can definitely help, but proud of everyone. Looking forward to trying to spoil some races and support our teammates to the rest.”
“We worked very hard for the last two weeks to prepare for this race,” Suarez said. “Honestly, [it was] probably the hardest I ever worked for one specific race and unfortunately, we don’t have anything to show for. Just wasn’t our day, but I can tell you something. I’m very proud of this group because we put in the work. I guarantee you something, nobody works harder to prepare for this race. Unfortunately, we don’t have anything to show for, but we have four more races and we’re going to go out there and give our best.”
On the contrary, Larson and Reddick join Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney and Alex Bowman as the remaining eight Playoff contenders who will continue the Playoff battle in the Round of 8, beginning next weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Bell, Byron, Cindric and Elliott finished in the top five behind Larson at the Charlotte Roval while AJ Allmendinger, pole-sitter Shane van Gisbergen, Logano, Bubba Wallace and Blaney completed the top 10 in the final running order. As Reddick finished 11th, the remaining Playoff contenders that include Hamlin, Bowman, Suarez and Briscoe ended up 14th, 18th, 31st and 37th, respectively.
There were seven lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 13 laps. In addition, 30 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. Kyle Larson, 62 laps led
2. Christopher Bell, one lap led
3. William Byron
4. Austin Cindric
5. Chase Elliott
6. AJ Allmendinger, 14 laps led
7. Shane van Gisbergen, 21 laps led
8. Joey Logano
9. Bubba Wallace
10. Ryan Blaney
11. Tyler Reddick, six laps led, Stage 1 winner
12. Carson Hocevar
13. Kyle Busch
14. Denny Hamlin
15. Michael McDowell
16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
17. Chris Buescher
18. Alex Bowman, five laps led, Stage 2 winner
19. Todd Gilliland
20. Zane Smith
21. Harrison Burton
22. Martin Truex Jr.
23. Josh Berry
24. Brad Keselowski
25. Daniel Hemric
26. Ryan Preece
27. Justin Haley
28. Kaz Grala
29. Ross Chastain
30. Josh Bilicki
31. Daniel Suarez, one lap down
32. Noah Gragson, one lap down
33. Austin Dillon, two laps down
34. Erik Jones – OUT, Accident
35. John Hunter Nemechek – OUT, Accident
36. Ty Gibbs – OUT, Engine
37. Chase Briscoe – OUT, Accident
38. Corey LaJoie – OUT, Accident
*Bold indicates Playoff contenders
Playoff standings
1. Kyle Larson – Advanced
2. William Byron – Advanced
3. Christopher Bell – Advanced
4. Ryan Blaney – Advanced
5. Chase Elliott – Advanced
6. Alex Bowman – Advanced
7. Denny Hamlin – Advanced
8. Tyler Reddick – Advanced
9. Joey Logano – Eliminated
10. Austin Cindric – Eliminated
11. Daniel Suarez – Eliminated
12. Chase Briscoe – Eliminated
The Round of 8 in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set to occur next Sunday, October 20, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada, for the South Point 400. The event’s broadcast time is slated to occur at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
For a second consecutive season, Sam Mayer went from being scored below the cutline in the Playoff’s Round of 12 finale to leapfrogging his way into the Round of 8 by winning the Drive for the Cure 250 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course (Roval) on Saturday, October 12, amid an overtime shootout.
The 21-year-old Mayer from Franklin, Wisconsin, led three times for 13 of 72 over-scheduled laps in an event where he started on the front row alongside Playoff contender Shane van Gisbergen but was penalized for launching ahead of the latter prior to the start/finish line while not the control competitor. Despite serving a pass-through penalty through pit road during the second lap, Mayer blended back on the track inside the top-15 mark, carved his way back into the top 10 after pitting before the first stage’s conclusion, and settled in 11th place. Despite falling one spot short of accumulating crucial stage points following the first stage period, Mayer racked up eight points by settling in third place at the conclusion of the second stage period.
After restarting on the front row for the start of the final stage period with 24 laps remaining, Mayer assumed the lead during the following lap. Despite pitting for fresh tires during a late caution period that started with 15 laps remaining, the Wisconsin native would use the tires to carve his way back up the leaderboard and up to second place as he tried to challenge Playoff contender Parker Kligerman for the victory in the closing laps.
Initially poised to finish in second place behind Kligerman, which would have eliminated him from the Playoffs, Mayer was gifted an opportunity to reclaim the lead after Leland Honeyman wrecked in Turn 3. The caution occurred inches before Kligerman could start the final lap of the event and make the event official, and instead sent the field into overtime. During the overtime shootout, Mayer overtook Kligerman through the Roval’s newly configured Turn 7 and muscled away from the field for two laps to win and maintain his 2024 championship hopes for another three weeks.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Playoff rookie Shane van Gisbergen notched his third Xfinity Series pole position of the season and his career with a pole-winning lap at 97.110 mph in 84.523 seconds. Playoff contender Sam Mayer joined him on the front row was Playoff contender Sam Mayer, who clocked in his best qualifying lap at 96.871 mph in 84.731 seconds.
Prior to the event, Ed Jones and Thomas Annunziata 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 rocketed his No. 1 QPS Employment Chevrolet Camaro ahead of Shane van Gisbergen and AJ Allmendinger from the inside lane through the frontstretch as he proceeded to lead through the first turn before he navigated his way through the infield turns, starting in Turn 2. The field, led by Mayer, would then navigate through a pair of right-hand turns in Turns 3 and 4 before entering a brief straightaway to another right-hand turn in Turn 5. Mayer retained the lead through the Roval’s new design turns from Turns 6 and 7 before making a sharp left-hand turn to return back to the main Charlotte oval course.
As the field continued to jostle for early spots, Mayer proceeded to lead through the backstretch’s chicane before he was penalized by NASCAR for jumping the start while not the leader of the race. Amid the penalty, Mayer navigated his way through the final pair of turns before he returned to the frontstretch, drove through the chicane and led the first lap while being black-flagged by NASCAR.
During the second lap, Mayer served a drive-through penalty through pit road, which allowed van Gisbergen to assume the lead as he was followed by teammate AJ Allmendinger, Sheldon Creed, Josh Bilicki and Austin Hill. Despite being pressured by his Kaulig Racing teammate of Allmendinger, van Gisbergen would navigate his way through the 17-turn course and lead the following lap. By the fourth lap, however, Allmendinger navigated his way past van Gisbergen through the frontstretch’s chicane. With Allmendinger leading, van Gisbergen would fend off Creed for the runner-up spot as Bilicki and Hill followed suit.
Through the first five-scheduled laps, Allmendinger was leading by over teammate van Gisbergen as Creed, Bilicki and Austin Hill continued to trail in the top five ahead of rookie Jesse Love, Chandler Smith, Justin Allgaier, Connor Mosack and Riley Herbst. Behind, Aric Almirola trailed in 11th place ahead of Cole Custer, Parker Kligerman and Anthony Alfredo while Sam Mayer was mired in 15th place ahead of teammate Sammy Smith.
Two laps later, van Gisbergen missed the backstretch’s chicane, where he locked up the front tires and drove off the course while running in second place. The on-track misfortune dropped the New Zealander to sixth place, where he had to come to a full stop before proceeding back on the racing surface, as Bilicki, Creed, Hill and Jesse Love all moved up the leaderboard. By then, Allmendinger was leading by more than three seconds.
At the Lap 10 mark, eight of 12 Playoff contenders were racing inside the top 10 as Allmendinger continued to lead by more than two seconds over Bilicki. Behind, Creed, Hill and Love followed suit ahead of van Gisbergen, Allgaier, Chandler Smith and Almirola while Mayer carved his way back into the top 10. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders Kligerman, Herbst, Custer and Sammy Smith were racing inside the top 15 mark as Connor Mosack occupied 14th place.
By Lap 15, Allmendinger stabilized his advantage to nearly four seconds over Bilicki while third-place van Gisbergen carved his way back up to third place in front of Creed, Hill and Love. Behind, Allgaier, Chandler Smith, Almirola and Mayer remained in the top 10 ahead of Kligerman and Herbst while Custer and Sammy Smith dropped to 16th and 17th, respectively.
Not long after, Creed, who was racing in fourth place, spun in the Roval’s newly configured Turn 7 after he got hit by Love, who was trying to make a move beneath teammate Hill for a top-five spot. The incident dropped Creed out of the top-10 mark on the track as the event remained under green flag conditions.
By Lap 17, select names led by Bilicki and including Chandler Smith, Almirola, Mayer, Kligerman, Austin Green, Brandon Jones, Custer, Anthony Alfredo, Sammy Smith, Josh Williams, Ed Jones, Alex Labbe and Ryan Sieg pitted under green. Parker Retzlaff had pitted a lap earlier as Allmendinger retained the lead by more than six seconds over teammate van Gisbergen.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 20, Allmendinger cruised to his second Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Teammate van Gisbergen followed suit in second ahead of Allgaier, Hill and Love while Creed, Mosack, Herbst, Bilicki and Chandler Smith were scored in the top 10. With eight of 12 Playoff contenders racking up the event’s first round of stage points, the remaining Playoff contenders including Mayer, Kligerman, Custer and Sammy Smith were mired in 11th, 21st, 23rd and 26th, respectively.
Under the stage break, some led by Allmendinger and including Playoff contenders van Gisbergen, Creed, Herbst, Allgaier, Hill and Love pitted while the rest led by Bilicki and Chandler Smith remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Love exited pit road first, ahead of Allmendinger, Creed, Hill, Herbst, Allgaier, van Gisbergen, Jeb Burton, Mosack and Sage Karam.
The second stage period started on Lap 24 as teammates Bilicki and Chandler Smith occupied the front row. At the start, Bilicki and Chandler Smith both dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Bilicki muscled his No. 19 Insurance King Toyota Supra ahead through the infield turns. As the field behind jostled for spots, Bilicki retained the lead through the infield turns, including the tight, left-hand Turn 7, before returning to the main oval course. In the midst of the battles, van Gisbergen, who restarted outside the top 20, made contact with Creed in Turn 7 in his charge back to the front before Alex Labbe spun through the backstretch’s chicane amid contact with Ed Jones. Amid the on-track chaos, the race remained under green flag conditions as Bilicki led the following lap ahead of teammate Chandler Smith while Aric Almirola was up to third place.
During an ensuing caution period that started on Lap 26 due to debris spotted in Turn 2, select names led by Creed and including Thomas Annunziata, Leland Honeyman and Blaine Perkins pitted while the rest of the field led by Bilicki remained on the track. Creed’s pit service was due to the driver reporting a shifter issue to his No. 18 Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Toyota Supra.
With the field restarting under green on Lap 29, Bilicki fended off teammate Chandler Smith through the first two turns to retain the lead. Bilicki retained a steady advantage over Smith, Mayer, Almirola and Kligerman through the infield turns from Turns 3 to 7 as the field fanned out while navigating back onto Charlotte’s oval course. Then as the field navigated through the backstretch’s chicane before returning to the frontstretch, the caution returned due to Matt DiBenedetto crashing into the tire barriers just past Turn 6 and struggling to restart from his carnage scene.
The start of the next restart period on Lap 32 featured Bilicki and Mayer occupying the front row, where both dueled for the lead through the first three turns before Mayer muscled ahead entering Turn 4. As the field behind fanned out, Mayer fended off Bilicki through the following three sets of infield turns before he returned to the oval course and continued to lead through the backstretch chicane. With Chandler Smith, Kligerman and Allmendinger trailing in the top five, Mayer led the following lap.
Shortly after, the caution returned when Herbst, who was battling Alfredo amid close-quarters racing for 15th place, made contact with Alfredo through the frontstretch chicane that resulted in Herbst getting turned sideways off the front nose of Alfredo as both went straight into the outside wall and igniting a pileup that involved Josh Williams, Mosack, Ed Jones, Parker Retzlaff, Ryan Sieg, Dylan Lupton, Preston Pardus, Blaine Perkins, Brad Perez, Jeremy Clements, Brennan Poole and Creed. Despite sustaining damage to their respective cars, Herbst and Creed continued and remained on the lead lap.
During the caution period and extensive cleanup period, a majority of the field led by Mayer pitted while the rest led by Allgaier remained on the track.
With the race restarting under green with three laps remaining in the second stage period, Allgaier and Sage Karam led the field to the restart zone, where Allgaier rocketed away from Karam and the field to lead through the infield turns as Leland Honeyman overtook Karam for second place. With Allgaier retaining the lead, the field fanned out while navigating through the infield turns, the oval turns and the backstretch’s chicane. As Allgaier proceeded to lead the following lap, more trouble struck for Creed, who was off the pace and limping his damaged car below the Charlotte oval’s apron. Creed would lose a lap as the field lapped him entering the backstretch.
As Herbst was also falling off the pace in his damaged No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang and with a broken trackbar, the caution would then fly on the final lap of the second stage period due to Creed coming to a halt in the backstretch. The caution would officially conclude the second stage period scheduled for Lap 40 as Allgaier claimed his 15th Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Teammates Mosack and Mayer would follow suit in second and third, respectively, while Almirola, Honeyman, Allmendinger, van Gisbergen, Chandler Smith, Karam and Bilicki were scored in the top 10. With five of 12 Playoff contenders racking up a second round of stage points and both Herbst and Creed out of contention, the remaining Playoff contenders that included Kligerman, Love, Hill, Sammy Smith and Custer were mired inside the top 20.
During the stage break, select names including Allgaier, Karam, Clements, Retzlaff and Honeyman pitted while the rest led by Mosack remained on the track.
With 24 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced under green as teammates Mosack and Mayer occupied the front row. At the start, Mosack muscled ahead and cleared teammate Mayer through the first turn. As Mosack proceeded to lead in his No. 88 Apollo Pex Chevrolet Camaro through the ensuing infield turns, Mayer fended off Allmendinger to retain second while Almirola, van Gisbergen and Chandler Smith followed suit in the top six. With van Gisbergen diving his way up to fourth place through Turn 7, Mosack fended off teammate Mayer through both the backstretch and frontstretch chicanes to lead the following lap while teammates Hill and Love battled for ninth place.
Then, as Almirola and Clements spun in Turn 7, Mayer overtook teammate Mosack through Turns 8 and 9 to assume the lead. Mayer would retain the lead for the following lap as teammate Mosack, Allmendinger, van Gisbergen and Chandler Smith followed suit in the top five.
Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Mayer was leading by more than a second over teammate Mosack as Playoff contenders Allmendinger, van Gisbergen, Chandler Smith, Kligerman and Hill followed suit in the top seven ahead of Bilicki, Austin Green and Love. Behind, Sammy Smith, Custer and Allgaier were scored in the top 15 along with Brandon Jones and DiBenedetto as 31 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.
Five laps later, Mayer continued to lead by more than a second over Allmendinger as van Gisbergen, Chandler Smith and Mosack followed suit in the top five. With Mayer, who came into the event scored below the top-eight cutline in the Playoff standings, leading, van Gisbergen currently occupied the eighth and final transfer spot to the top-eight cutline by two points over Allgaier, who overtook Custer for 12th place.
Shortly after, the caution flew due to Thomas Annunziata driving his No. 35 NFPA Toyota entry head-on into the barriers entering Turn 1 due to a brake failure. During the caution period, a majority of the field led by Mayer and including Playoff contenders Allmendinger, Hill, Kligerman, Allgaier, Custer and Sammy Smith pitted while the rest led by van Gisbergen remained on the track. In addition to van Gisbergen, Austin Green, Love, Preston Pardus and Nathan Byrd remained on the track.
The start of the ensuing restart period with 11 laps remaining featured van Gisbergen rocketing his No. 97 WeatherTech Chevrolet Camaro away with the lead as the field fanned out entering the first turn. With van Gisbergen leading Love, Green, Mayer and Kligerman through the infield turns and back on the oval turns, the New Zealander retained the lead by a steady margin through the backstretch chicane as Kligerman battled and overtook Love for the runner-up spot.
With 10 laps remaining, several competitors including Mosack and Alfredo spun through the frontstretch chicane while more including Sammy Smith served an on-track stop-and-go penalty in the frontstretch. At the front, van Gisbergen retained the lead over a hard-charging Kligerman while Mayer carved his way up to third place. Kligerman would cut van Gisbergen’s deficit through the infield turns before the former retained the advantage for the remaining turns.
The following lap, Kligerman, who pitted for fresh tires during the previous caution period and is placed in a “must-win” situation to advance into the Playoff’s Round of 8, closed in to van Gisbergen’s rear bumper through the infield turns. Kligerman then made his move beneath van Gisbergen in Turn 7 to move his No. 48 Big Machine Spiked Coolers Chevrolet Camaro into the lead and he would retain the top spot through the oval turns and the following set of chicanes as Mayer overtook van Gisbergen for the runner-up spot. Van Gisbergen, whose tires were beginning to wear out, would then yield third place to teammate Allmendinger through the infield turns during the following lap as Kligerman retained the lead over Mayer.
Down to the final five laps of the event, Kligerman kept his lead to three-tenths of a second over Mayer, with the latter keeping pace and remaining within a striking zone of the former while Allmendinger tried to close in on the two leaders. Behind, van Gisbergen trailed by more than two seconds in fourth place ahead of Hill while Chandler Smith, Allgaier, Brandon Jones, Bilicki and Love were racing in the top 10.
Then with four laps remaining, Mayer seized an opportunity and made his move beneath Kligerman entering the frontstretch chicane to assume the lead. With Mayer lightly bumping into Kligerman and retaining the lead through the chicane, Kligerman then executed a crossover move of his own as he made his move beneath Mayer and reassumed the lead through the frontstretch. With Kligerman fending off Mayer through the first three turns, Allmendinger joined the battle and van Gisbergen also tried to close in from fourth place. During the following lap, Mayer briefly lost his momentum through the oval’s backstretch, which allowed Allmendinger and van Gisbergen to challenge him for the runner-up spot. Mayer, however, defended his spot as Kligerman muscled away with the lead through every turn and straightaway.
For the following lap, Kligerman’s steady advantage grew to nine-tenths of a second over Mayer as Allmendinger and van Gisbergen followed suit by less than two seconds. Despite Mayer trimming the gap to half a second towards the frontstretch, Kligerman remained in the lead.
Then as Kligerman was inches away from crossing the start/finish line to take the white flag and start the final lap of the event, the caution flew and the event was sent into overtime due to Leland Honeyman wrecking and getting buried beneath the tire barriers in Turn 3. During the caution period, some including Love pitted while the rest led by Kligerman remained on the track
The start of the first overtime attempt featured Kligerman and Mayer dueling for the lead through the first four turns before the former rubbed and fended his way back to the front to retain the lead. Kligerman would retain the lead for the following infield turns before Mayer pulled a crossover move beneath Kligerman in Turn 7 and assumed the lead entering the oval turns. Mayer would proceed to lead through the backstretch chicane while Kligerman was trying to fend off Allmendinger and van Gisbergen for the runner-up spot.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Mayer remained as the leader by a second over Allmendinger and van Gisbergen, who overtook Kligerman for second and third. By then, van Gisbergen was tied with Love for the final transfer spot to the Round of 8. As Love was trying to gain a spot within the middle of the pack, Mayer retained the lead from the infield turns to the backstretch. With both Allmendinger and van Gisbergen unable to close in from behind, Mayer would cycle back to the frontstretch and weave his way through the chicane before crossing the finish line in first place and notching his third Xfinity checkered flag of the 2024 season.
With the victory, Mayer, who came into the Charlotte Roval event 13 points below the cutline after being disqualified due to his car failing to meet the height requirements during the post-race inspection process last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, notched his seventh career win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series division, his third of the season and his first since winning at Iowa Speedway in June. The victory was also the 16th of the season for the Chevrolet nameplate, with the manufacturer racking its sixth consecutive win at the Charlotte Roval, and the 88th overall for JR Motorsports.
The second consecutive victory at the Charlotte Roval allowed Mayer and the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet team to automatically advance into the Round of 8, where the Wisconsin native continues his pursuit for his first Xfinity Series championship.
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“Man, it’s all thanks to the good Lord above,” Mayer said on the CW Network. “He’s blessed me with a lot of issues this year, learning moments. To come out here to the Charlotte Motor Speedway [Rova], go back to back [in wins] with a fast, fast car. To do it at home is something special. This No. 1 car was fast today. We certainly had to work for [the win] there. I knew that [passing in Turn 7] was my only shot if I got a good angle into that corner. [Kligerman] blocked the bottom [lane], which was good for me. It gave me a better angle up off the corner and this QPS Employment Chevrolet hooked up and we were gone from there. [It] Was something super special and now, I get to celebrate.”
As Mayer celebrated the race victory that enabled him to advance into the Round of 8, Jesse Love was also left smiling after he finished in 19th place, which was enough for him to claim the eighth and final spot to advance into the next round of the Playoffs by two points over rookie rival van Gisbergen, who ended up in third place. The result marks the second time where a driver of the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet entry claimed the final berth into the Round of 8 while van Gisbergen’s championship run in his first full-time NASCAR campaign came to a bittersweet end.
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“[The ending was] Just stressful,” Love said. “[My team] were telling me I needed one more [spot] and then one more. I was like, ‘When is [the race] gonna end?’ At the end of the day, I got to be loyal to my guys and they busted their ass really hard, so I got to put a sack over my shoulder and man up and drive forward. Just proud of my whole Whelen No. 2 team. We’re good enough to go race for a championship and we just got to go show it in the next three weeks.”
“It is what it is,” van Gisbergen said. “It probably comes down to last week [at Talladega] having the dramas we had and the DNF there, so that’s probably it. I’m proud of the Kaulig Racing guys. We’ve had an amazing year, my first year in NASCAR. I’ve loved it. I’m happy, but I’m also not. I’d love to keep going [in the Playoffs]. [I] Did what I could.”
Compared to van Gisbergen, teammate AJ Allmendinger advanced into the Round of 8 by finishing in second place. Playoff contenders Austin Hill, Chandler Smith and Justin Allgaier all advanced by finishing fourth, fifth and seventh, respectively, on the track as they joined Sammy Smith, who advanced by winning last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, for the Round of 8 battle.
Meanwhile, Kligerman did not transfer despite capping off his strong run in sixth place. Kligerman’s sixth-place result left the Connecticut native with mixed emotions and fighting off tears as he was initially within inches of both achieving his first elusive Xfinity victory and advancing into the Round of 8 during the event’s regulation period. Nonetheless, Kligerman remained humble and remained optimistic in pursuing his victory before he retires from NASCAR competition at this season’s conclusion.
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“I might have teared up when I thought we got it there with the white flag and the caution comes out and then had to refocus,” Kligerman said. “I thought I’d cut off Turn 7 enough, but [Mayer] somehow got below me and then, it was on from there. I said I want to cry. I’m not gonna cry, but I really love this game. I just really, really wanted that. It would have meant the world, but you know what? It meant the world to be in that position. Thank you to [owner] Scott Borchetta and everyone at Spiked Coolers. Everyone who made this possible. Big Machine Racing. I don’t know how to process this. It’s going to take a while, but just really thankful to have the opportunity. God, I love this game. I want to get a trophy.”
Ultimately, Kligerman and van Gisbergen join Riley Herbst and Sheldon Creed as the bottom four competitors in the Playoff standings to not advance into the Round of 8.
There were 12 lead changes for eight different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 20 laps. In addition, 26 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. Sam Mayer, 13 laps led
2. AJ Allmendinger, 18 laps led, Stage 1 winner
3. Shane van Gisbergen, seven laps led
4. Austin Hill
5. Chandler Smith, one lap led
6. Parker Kligerman, 12 laps led
7. Justin Allgaier, six laps led, Stage 2 winner
8. Josh Bilicki, 10 laps led
9. Aric Almirola
10. Sammy Smith
11. Brandon Jones
12. Parker Retzlaff
13. Cole Custer
14. Alex Labbe
15. Jeb Burton
16. Anthony Alfredo
17. Ryan Sieg
18. Connor Mosack, five laps led
19. Jesse Love
20. Jeremy Clements
21. Preston Pardus
22. Matt DiBenedetto
23. Kyle Sieg
24. Dawson Cram
25. Nathan Byrd
26. Brad Perez
27. Dylan Lupton, one lap down
28. Leland Honeyman – OUT, Accident
29. Sage Karam – OUT, Brakes
30. Austin Green – OUT, Engine
31. Ryan Ellis, 14 laps down
32. Riley Herbst – OUT, Driveshaft
33. Blaine Perkins, 16 laps down
34. Thomas Annunziata – OUT, Accident
35. Sheldon Creed – OUT, Accident
36. Josh Williams – OUT, Accident
37. Ed Jones – OUT, Accident
38. Brennan Poole – OUT, Accident
*Bold indicates Playoff competitors
Playoff standings
1. Sam Mayer – Advanced
2. Sammy Smith – Advanced
3. Chandler Smith – Advanced
4. Austin Hill – Advanced
5. Cole Custer – Advanced
6. AJ Allmendinger – Advanced
7. Justin Allgaier – Advanced
8. Jesse Love – Advanced
9. Shane van Gisbergen – Eliminated
10. Sheldon Creed – Eliminated
11. Riley Herbst – Eliminated
12. Parker Kligerman – Eliminated
The Round of 8 in the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs is set to commence at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada, for the Ambetter Health 302. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, October 19, and air at 7:30 p.m. ET on the CW Network.
Shane van Gisbergen doubled down with his second NASCAR national touring series pole position of the day at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course (Roval) by claiming the top-starting spot for this weekend’s Bank of America Roval 400 on Saturday, October 12.
The three-time SuperCars champion from Auckland, New Zealand, was one of 10 from a list of 38-entered competitors to transfer into the final round of qualifying, where the first phase of qualifying consisted of two 19-car groups (Group A and Group B) and the top-five fastest competitors from each group transferring into the final qualifying round.
After being the fastest qualifier from the Group B qualifying round and the fastest in practice, van Gisbergen would proceed to claim the pole position with his best lap occurring at 99.246 mph in 82.704 seconds, which was enough to edge Tyler Reddick by 0.057 seconds.
With his accomplishment, van Gisbergen, who was initially not registered to compete in this event but ended up being added in Kaulig Racing’s No. 13 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry, notched his first career pole position in the NASCAR Cup Series division. He also became the 242nd competitor overall to win a pole in NASCAR’s premier series and he delivered the first Cup pole for Kaulig Racing as he will make his 10th Cup start of the 2024 season at the Charlotte Roval on Sunday. The New Zealander’s previous best starting spot in the Cup Series was third, which occurred at the Chicago Street Course in July 2023 and Watkins Glen International this past August.
Van Gisbergen, who will also start on pole position for Saturday afternoon’s Xfinity Series Playoff event at the Roval in his quest to advance into the Round of 8, also joins Michael McDowell and Ross Chastain as non-Playoff contenders to record poles as he strives to become the sixth competitor to win a Cup event at the Roval.
“Man, thank you to this Kaulig Racing team,” van Gisbergen said on USA Network. “[It was a] Last minute deal to come and race here. Thanks to [team owner] Matt [Kaulig] and the guys for letting me run their car. What an amazing day. I’m lost for words. I have to respect [that] there’s a lot of Playoff guys around me. I have to race respectfully. We’re here to win the race. Hopefully, we have a good day.”
Reddick, who won the Charlotte Roval pole a year ago and who made a last-ditch effort to topple van Gisbergen off the top of the qualifying charts, will start in second place with his best lap occurring at 99.177 mph in 82.761 seconds. Ironically, Reddick, the highest-starting Playoff contender, also rallied from being involved in a spin during the event’s practice session.
AJ Allmendinger, van Gisbergen’s teammate at Kaulig Racing and the reigning Bank of America Roval 400 winner, will start in third place with his best qualifying lap occurring at 98.874 mph in 83.015 seconds. Joey Logano and Austin Cindric, Playoff contenders and teammates at Team Penske, will line up in the top five.
Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, Playoff contenders and teammates at Hendrick Motorsports, will follow suit in sixth and seventh, respectively, while Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace and Playoff contender William Byron complete the top-10 starting spots.
With six of the 12 Playoff contenders starting in the top 10 for Sunday’s main event, the remaining Playoff contenders that include Christopher Bell, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe will start 12th, 13th, 14th, 17th, 18th and 25th, respectively.
With Sunday’s main event at the Charlotte Roval serving as the final Round of 12 event of the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs, the following names that include Joey Logano, Daniel Suarez, Austin Cindric and Chase Briscoe enter the Roval below the top-eight cutline while Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott occupy the final two transfer spots by 14 and 13 points, respectively. William Byron is the only Playoff contender who is currently locked into the Round of 8 based on points while Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Alex Bowman and Ryan Blaney follow suit in the top six in the Playoff standings.
*All 38 competitors entered for Sunday’s event at Charlotte earned a starting spot.
Qualifying position, best speed, best time:
Shane van Gisbergen, 99.246 mph, 82.704 seconds
Tyler Reddick, 99.177 mph, 82.761 seconds
AJ Allmendinger, 98.874 mph, 83.015 seconds
Joey Logano, 98.694 mph, 83.166 seconds
Austin Cindric, 98.580 mph, 83.262 seconds
Kyle Larson, 98.500 mph, 83.330 seconds
Chase Elliott, 98.389 mph, 83.424 seconds
Brad Keselowski, 98.341 mph, 83.465 seconds
Bubba Wallace, 98.219 mph, 83.568 seconds
William Byron, 98.165 mph, 83.614 seconds
Kyle Busch, 98.637 mph, 83.214 seconds
Christopher Bell, 98.605 mph, 83.241 seconds
Daniel Suarez, 98.456 mph, 83.367 seconds
Ryan Blaney, 98.464 mph, 83.360 seconds
Todd Gilliland, 98.456 mph, 83.367 seconds
Ross Chastain, 98.277 mph, 83.519 seconds
Alex Bowman, 98.453 mph, 83.370 seconds
Denny Hamlin, 98.174 mph, 83.607 seconds
Ty Gibbs, 98.377 mph, 83.434 seconds
Carson Hocevar, 98.039 mph, 83.722 seconds
Michael McDowell, 98.305 mph, 83.495 seconds
Austin Dillon, 98.009 mph, 83.747 seconds
Zane Smith, 98.128 mph, 83.646 seconds
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 97.924 mph, 83.820 seconds
Chase Briscoe, 97.987 mph, 83.766 seconds
Harrison Burton, 97.834 mph, 83.897 seconds
Daniel Hemric, 97.921 mph, 83.823 seconds
Corey LaJoie, 97.756 mph, 83.964 seconds
Chris Buescher, 97.760 mph, 83.961 seconds
Martin Truex Jr., 97.647 mph, 84.058 seconds
Kaz Grala, 97.752 mph, 83.968 seconds
Noah Gragson, 97.560 mph, 84.133 seconds
Justin Haley, 97.718 mph, 83.997 seconds
Ryan Preece, 97..234 mph, 84.415 seconds
John Hunter Nemechek, 97.664 mph, 84.043 seconds
Josh Berry, 97.069 mph, 84.558 seconds
Erik Jones, 97.515 mph, 84.172 seconds
Josh Bilicki, 95.261 mph, 86.163 seconds
The 2024 Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course is scheduled to occur on Sunday, October 13, and air at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.
Rookie Shane van Gisbergen will start on the pole position for the 2024 Drive for the Cure 250 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course (Roval) on Saturday, October 12.
The three-time SuperCars champion from Auckland, New Zealand, was one of 10 from a list of 38-entered competitors to transfer into the final round of qualifying, where the first phase of qualifying consisted of two 19-car groups (Group A and Group B) and the top-five fastest competitors from each group transferring into the final qualifying round.
After being the fastest qualifier from the Group A qualifying round, van Gisbergen would proceed to post his best qualifying lap at 97.110 mph in 84.523 seconds during the final qualifying round, which was enough for him to claim the pole position for Saturday’s main event.
With the result, van Gisbergen, who is pulling double-duty roles between the Xfinity and Cup Series divisions, notched the third NASCAR Xfinity Series pole of the 2024 season and of his career. His previous poles of this season occurred at Sonoma Raceway in June and at the Chicago Street Course in July, both of which he proceeded to win the main events.
With Saturday’s main event at Charlotte serving as the Round of 12 finale in the 2024 Xfinity Series Playoffs, van Gisbergen’s pole position comes at a critical time. The New Zealander is currently ranked in 10th place in the Playoff standings and trails the top-eight cutline to the Round of 8 by 10 points. Having finished eighth and 35th, respectively, during the first two events of the Round of 12, van Gisbergen aims to race up front and contend for the victory that would enable him to the Round of 8 and remain in title contention.
“The WeatherTech Camaro was really good,” van Gisbergen said on USA Network. “Obviously, AJ’s [Allmendinger] fast as well, so that’s a credit to our Kaulig Racing guys. We struggled at Watkins [Glen] for pace, had to rethink and now, our cars are really, really good. Hopefully, we can both take [the competition] to’em. Hopefully, both of us get through to the second round of the Playoffs. We’re in a good spot. See how the race goes.”
Joining van Gisbergen on the front row will be Sam Mayer, a 2024 Xfinity Playoff contender who clocked in his best qualifying lap at 96.871 mph in 84.731 seconds. Like van Gisbergen, Mayer enters the Charlotte Roval below the cutline following a disqualification last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway due to his car failing to meet the height requirements during the post-race inspection process. Having won the Charlotte Roval in a “must-win” situation a year ago, Mayer, who trails the cutline by 13 points, strives to repeat his success at the Roval that would enable him to maintain his Playoff hopes for another round.
AJ Allmendinger, van Gisbergen’s teammate at Kaulig Racing and a five-time NASCAR national touring series race winner at the Charlotte Roval, will line up in third place with his best qualifying lap occurring at 96.776 mph in 84.814 seconds. Allmendinger, who currently occupies the eighth and final transfer spot into the Round of 8 by seven points, will be followed by Josh Bilicki and Playoff contender Sheldon Creed on the starting grid.
Playoff contenders Austin Hill, Chandler Smith, rookie Jesse Love and Justin Allgaier will start sixth to ninth, respectively, while Connor Mosack will occupy the 10th starting spot.
With eight of 12 Playoff contenders starting in the top 10, the remaining Playoff contenders that include Riley Herbst, Cole Custer, Sammy Smith and Parker Kligerman will start 12th, 14th, 16th, and 22nd, respectively.
*All 38 competitors entered for Saturday’s event at Charlotte earned a starting spot.
Qualifying position, best speed, best time:
Shane van Gisbergen, 97.110 mph, 84.523 seconds
Sam Mayer, 96.871 mph, 84.731 seconds
AJ Allmendinger, 96.776 mph, 84.814 seconds
Josh Bilicki, 96.256 mph, 85.273 seconds
Sheldon Creed, 96.248 mph, 85.280 seconds
Austin Hill, 96.183 mph, 85.337 seconds
Chandler Smith, 96.115 mph, 85.398 seconds
Jesse Love, 96.079 mph, 85.430 seconds
Justin Allgaier, 95.751 mph, 85.722 seconds
Connor Mosack, 95.636 mph, 85.825 seconds
Anthony Alfredo, 96.137 mph, 85.378 seconds
Riley Herbst, 95.775 mph, 85.701 seconds
Aric Almirola, 95.767 mph, 85.708 seconds
Cole Custer, 95.688 mph, 85.779 seconds
Brandon Jones, 95.675 mph, 85.790 seconds
Sammy Smith, 95.669 mph, 85.796 seconds
Austin Green, 95.562 mph, 85.892 seconds
Ed Jones, 95.543 mph, 85.909 seconds
Alex Labbe, 95.446 mph, 85.996 seconds
Parker Retzlaff, 95.385 mph, 86.051 seconds
Jeremy Clements, 95.335 mph, 86.096 seconds
Parker Kligerman, 95.319 mph, 86.111 seconds
Josh Williams, 95.215 mph, 86.205 seconds
Brennan Poole, 95.119 mph, 86.292 seconds
Ryan Sieg, 94.898 mph, 86.493 seconds
Matt DiBenedetto, 94.833 mph, 86.552 seconds
Jeb Burton, 94.777 mph, 86.603 seconds
Sage Karam, 94.549 mph, 86.812 seconds
Preston Pardus, 94.397 mph, 86.952 seconds
Ryan Ellis, 94.350 mph, 86.995 seconds
Brad Perez, 94.257 mph, 87.081 seconds
Thomas Annunziata, 94.160 mph, 87.171 seconds
Leland Honeyman, 93.877 mph, 87.434 seconds
Blaine Perkins, Owner Points
Kyle Sieg, Owner Points
Dylan Lupton, Owner Points
Dawson Cram, Owner Points
Nathan Byrd, Owner Points
The 2024 Drive for the Cure 250 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course is scheduled to occur Saturday afternoon, October 12, at 3:30 p.m. ET on the CW Network.
For the first time in 65 races, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. triumphantly drove his way to Victory Lane in the NASCAR Cup Series division after he edged Brad Keselowski in a photo finish during an overtime shootout to win the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, October 6.
The 2023 Daytona 500 champion from Olive Branch, Mississippi, led five times for 19 of 195 over-scheduled laps in an event where he qualified 32nd and used the draft to muscle his way to second place after the first stage period. After avoiding carnage after the second stage period that knocked out the reigning series champion Ryan Blaney, Stenhouse spent the majority of the final stage period mixing up the competition with his fellow competitors and Playoff contenders amid a series of three and four-wide action as the competitors raced in tight formation and aggressively at the front.
After barely dodging a track-record 28-car wreck on the backstretch with five laps remaining, where he got hit in the driver’s side by a spinning Austin Cindric but escaped with the lead, Stenhouse then outdueled and edged Brad Keselowski by 0.006 seconds amid an overtime shootout to claim his first elusive Cup Series victory of this year and become the third non-Playoff competitor to win throughout the 2024 Playoffs.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, October 5, Michael McDowell won his sixth Cup pole position this season and his career after he posted a pole-winning lap at 183.063 mph in 52.310 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff contender Austin Cindric, who clocked in his best qualifying lap at 182.424 mph in 52.493 seconds.
Before the event, Playoff contender Daniel Suarez dropped to the rear of the field and was assessed a drive-through penalty after taking the green flag due to an unapproved adjustment made to the roof area of Suarez’s No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet entry during the event’s pre-race inspection process. While no additional penalties were warranted, Suarez’s car chief was ejected from Sunday’s event.
Playoff contender Christopher Bell also dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota entry, but he was assessed no drive-through penalty.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Michael McDowell and Austin Cindric dueled for the lead in front of two stacks of competitors running in two drafted lanes. Through the first two turns, McDowell muscled ahead from the inside lane with drafting help from teammate Todd Gilliland, but Cindric fought back through the backstretch and on the outside lane with drafting help from Kyle Busch. As Suarez served his drive-through penalty while the field fanned out entering the frontstretch, McDowell led the first lap over Cindric and Gilliland.
Over the next four laps, the field fanned out to as wide as four lanes through every straightaway and corner before settling to three stacked lanes. At the front, McDowell, who transitioned from the inside to the outside lane, maintained the lead over Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher while Cindric and Ryan Preece followed suit ahead of Kyle Busch, Noah Gragson, Playoff contender Joey Logano, Todd Gilliland and Martin Truex Jr. By then, the top-39 competitors were separated by nearly two seconds while Suarez trailed the lead pack by 35 seconds. Meanwhile, Playoff contender Denny Hamlin, who started in the top 10 before he was shuffled out of the draft earlier, was mired in 37th place.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, the top-six spots were occupied by Ford competitors as McDowell retained the lead ahead of Keselowski, Gilliland, Playoff contender Ryan Blaney, Cindric and Buescher while Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch, Preece and Harrison Burton were racing in the top 10. Behind, Noah Gragson, Logano, Playoff contender Chase Elliott, Martin Truex Jr. and Playoff contender Kyle Larson were scored in the top 15 as Shane van Gisbergen, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Playoff contender Tyler Reddick, Corey LaJoie and Playoff contender Chase Briscoe were mired in the top 20. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders and Hendrick Motorsports teammates Alex Bowman and William Byron were back in the top-25 mark while Joe Gibbs Racing’s Bell and Hamlin were scored in 33rd and 37th, respectively as Suarez, who was still mired in 40th place, trailed by 49 seconds.
A lap later, the event’s first caution flew when Suarez, who was lapped by the leaders through the first two turns but opted to blend in with the lead and the draft, made contact with BJ McLeod while trying to move up in front of McLeod through the backstretch. The contact sent both into the outside wall before Suarez spun his No. 99 Tootsies Orchid Lounge Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 below the track and came to a rest with flat-spotted tires towards the Turns 3 and 4 apron as Byron barely dodged Suarez.
During the first caution period, where Suarez limped his damaged car to pit road, a majority of the lead lap field led by McDowell pitted while the rest led by McLeod and including Bell and Hamlin remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Keselowski exited pit road first ahead of McDowell and Cindric while Austin Dillon, Gragson, Buescher, Blaney, Truex, Stenhouse and Preece were scored in the top 10. The remaining competitors who did not pit during the first cycle led by McLeod pitted before the restart, which handed the lead back to Keselowski.
As the event restarted under green on Lap 16, Keselowski and McDowell dueled for the lead through the first two turns and in front of two stacked lanes. The field started to fan out through the backstretch as McDowell had Cindric drafting him on the outside lane while Keselowski had Austin Dillon drafting him on the inside lane. Through the frontstretch, McDowell reassumed the lead and he quickly transitioned his No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang Dark Horse in front of Keselowski’s No. 6 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse to gain a draft from him while Cindric was trying to regain momentum with drafting help from Buescher. This forced McDowell to go on defense through two lanes while Kyle Busch was charging from a third drafting lane toward the outside lane.
At the Lap 20 mark, the top 39 competitors were running within one second of one another and fanned out to three stacked lanes as McDowell held a slight advantage over Kyle Busch, Keselowski, Preece and Austin Dillon while Cindric, Gilliland, Gragson, Buescher and Justin Haley were racing in the top 10.
Two laps later, McDowell nearly lost the lead to Preece through the frontstretch, but teammate Gilliland shoved McDowell back out front of the pack from the middle lane, where both Front Row Motorsports competitors went on defense to fend off Kyle Busch on the outside lane and Preece on the inside lane. As McDowell proceeded to lead the Lap 25 mark ahead of Gilliland and Kyle Busch, the trio of Cindric, Bowman and Blaney were the only Playoff contenders scored in the top 10 on the track.
By Lap 30, the top 39 competitors were separated by one-and-a-half seconds as McDowell continued to lead while fending off teammate Gilliland, Cindric, Kyle Busch, Justin Haley and a bevy of competitors running in a stack of three drafted lanes. With Playoff contenders Cindric, Bowman and Blaney racing in the top 10, Hamlin, Logano, Larson and Reddick were mired inside the top-20 mark while Briscoe followed suit in 21st place. Meanwhile, Elliott and Bell were mired back in 25th and 28th, respectively, while Byron dropped to 33rd place.
Nearing the Lap 40 mark, the field started to aggressively fan out to four tight lanes through every corner and straightaway as McDowell was being challenged by Haley for the lead. Haley assumed the top spot on Lap 38 while Cindric and Ross Chastain challenged him for the top spot amid a tight stack of three lanes. By then, McDowell had Haley racing in front of him amid the draft while Larson drafted Chastain to the lead at the Lap 40 mark towards the outside wall.
Three laps later, a tight four-wide formation for the lead occurred as Chastain, Larson, Alex Bowman and Daniel Hemric all challenged one another for the lead in front of a bevy of competitors running in close-quarters racing amid the draft. Chastain would then muscle his No. 1 Busch Light Camo Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 ahead to lead at the Lap 45 mark while the rest of the field behind continued to duel against one another through four tight lanes. By then, 11 of 12 Playoff contenders were racing within the top-25 mark while five, including Larson, Bowman, Cindric, Bell and Hamlin were racing within the top-10 mark.
At the Lap 50 mark, Chastain retained a narrow lead over a hard-charging Hemric, who had Hamlin drafting him, as a majority of the front-runners remained in a tight four-wide formation for the lead. Chastain along with Ty Gibbs and Larson would then break away from the pack by four-tenths of a second during the following lap before the field caught back up through the backstretch. Hemric would then get shuffled out of the draft through Turns 3 and 4 as Larson assumed the lead from teammate Bowman and Chastain during the next lap period.
With the field fanned out to three tight-packed lanes, Chastain led the Lap 53 mark before Ty Gibbs aggressively made his move to the lead. With Chastain rocketing back ahead, Hamlin would then get briefly shuffled out of the lead draft as Larson, Bowman, Haley, Ty Gibbs, Cindric and others followed suit behind Chastain. By Lap 55, the aggressiveness of the front-runners intensified amid three lanes as Chastain remained on defense to fend off Larson, Cindric and Bowman at the front.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 60, Chris Buescher muscled his No. 17 Nexletol Ford Mustang Dark Horse to the front and fended off Stenhouse to claim his third Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Stenhouse followed suit in second as Byron, Larson, Bell, Reddick, Chastain, Briscoe, Cindric and Blaney were scored in the top 10 while the top 25 competitors were separated by less than two seconds. With seven of 12 Playoff contenders accumulating a first round of stage points, the remaining Playoff contenders that include Bowman, Logano, Elliott, Hamlin and Suarez ended up 11th, 17th, 19th, 23rd and 40th, respectively, with the latter pinned two laps behind.
Under the stage break, a majority of the field led by Buescher returned to pit road for service while select names including Shane van Gisbergen, Keselowski, rookie Zane Smith, Austin Dillon and Justin Haley remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Byron exited pit road first, followed by Buescher, Bell, Reddick, Stenhouse, Briscoe, Blaney, Cindric, Chastain and Ty Gibbs. Amid the pit stops, Gilliland was hit by Bubba Wallace and sent sliding towards his pit box while nearly dodging Byron in the process while Larson endured a slow pit stop after he had to reverse to exit his entry out of his pit box.
During the following lap, van Gisbergen, Keselowski, Zane Smith and Austin Dillon would pit their respective entries while Haley remained on the track to inherit the lead. A bevy of names led by Haley and Hemric would then pit to top off on fuel a lap prior to the second stage’s start.
The second stage period started on Lap 66 as Buescher and Reddick occupied the front row. At the start, Buescher and Reddick dueled for the lead in front of two stacked lanes running tightly as Chase Elliott was shoved out of the draft. With rookie Josh Berry trying to start a third drafting lane towards the outside wall, Reddick led the following lap by a hair over Buescher as both continued to duel for the top spot in front of Stenhouse, Bell, Briscoe and Blaney.
Just past the Lap 70 mark and with the field returning to three-wide formation Buescher was leading both the race and a lane running towards the outside wall while McDowell led the middle lane. Meanwhile, Corey LaJoie led the inside lane as Buescher had drafting help from Bell to remain ahead of McDowell for the following lap.
At the Lap 75 mark, LaJoie made his presence at the front known as he led ahead of John Hunter Nemechek, Buescher, Cody Ware and Bell while McDowell, Hamlin, Blaney, Ty Gibbs and Erik Jones were scored in the top 10 ahead of Cindric, Reddick, Logano, Stenhouse, Briscoe, Harrison Burton, Preece, Kyle Busch, AJ Allmendinger and rookie Carson Hocevar. With all four Hendrick Motorsports competitors mired back within the top-30 mark, McDowell, who reassumed the lead a lap earlier, dueled with Buescher for the lead as Burton, LaJoie, Briscoe and Bell followed suit while the top 26 competitors were separated under a second of one another.
Two laps later, seven Ford competitors, including all four Stewart-Haas Racing competitors and McDowell, pitted under green for fuel. Amid the pit stops, Blaney was leading ahead of van Gisbergen, Cindric, Logano and Chastain while Keselowski and Gilliland, both of whom missed their marks while trying to pit with the Ford competitors and were forced to cycle around the superspeedway venue an extra lap, pitted during the following lap. By Lap 86, however, nine Ford competitors led by Buescher, all of whom pitted, trailed the lead by nearly 36 seconds as Blaney retained the lead.
Within the Lap 90 mark, van Gisbergen, who assumed the lead two laps earlier, was leading as he was trying to fend off Blaney and Chastain through two stacked lanes while the top 27 competitors were separated within a second of one another.
At the halfway mark on Lap 94, the lead pack aggressively lapped Keselowski, Cody Ware and Gilliland through the backstretch as van Gisbergen assumed the lead from Blaney, who was getting stalled by his fellow Ford competitors and caused the field to scatter and fan out. Just then, Truex spun his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE as he locked up the brakes while he was trying to enter pit road along with his Toyota teammates from Joe Gibbs Racing, 23XI Racing and Legacy Motor Club. The race, however, remained under green flag conditions as the Toyota competitors pitted primarily for fuel. Soon after, Truex was lapped as van Gisbergen retained the lead ahead of Chastain, Blaney, Elliott, Byron and Cindric.
By Lap 100, van Gisbergen led the top-13 competitors to pit road for service under green as Hemric nearly ran into the rear of Kyle Busch while trying to reduce the speed of his car while Austin Dillon nearly missed his pit stall while pitting A lap earlier, more names including Chevrolet competitors Chastain, Byron, Bowman, Larson, Stenhouse and Suarez had pitted under green as Cindric cycled into the lead ahead of Elliott, van Gisbergen and Blaney. With the rest of the field, all of whom had pitted, slowly closing back in on the leaders amid the draft, the competitors within the field also started to scatter and fan out as Cindric retained the lead.
Within the Lap 105 mark, the top 30 competitors were separated by more than a second as the field started to fan out to two drafted lanes. In the process, Cindric retained the lead, where he blocked teammate Blaney exiting the backstretch as Blaney had Kyle Busch drafting him while Elliott led the inside lane ahead of van Gisbergen, Byron, Bubba Wallace and Hemric. The aggressiveness of the draft amongst the front-runners intensified shortly after as Cindric and Elliott dueled for the lead in front of two stacked lanes through every corner and straightaway.
On Lap 110, Cindric and Elliott continued to duel tightly against one another for the lead in front of two stacked lanes as the top-29 competitors were separated by two seconds. By then, five of 12 Playoff contenders were scored in the top 10, with 10 contenders racing within the top-20 mark.
Seven laps later, McDowell, who was running towards the rear of the lead pack, pitted under green for fuel. By then, AJ Allmendinger was lapped while both Cindric and Elliott fiercely dueled for the lead in front of the pack.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 120, Playoff contender Austin Cindric fended off the pack to score his fourth Cup stage victory of the 2024 season while teammate Blaney was bumped by Bowman’s No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 through the frontstretch. The contact resulted in Blaney getting loose and veering his No. 12 Pennzoil/Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse back across the path of Chastain, where both collided against one another and towards the outside wall while teammate Logano, Hamlin, Ty Gibbs, Reddick and LaJoie also sustained damage to their respective entries. Despite ending up eighth and 10th, respectively, Blaney and Chastain were knocked out of further contention, with the former concluding his event with a total of four stage points.
Amid the carnage, Elliott settled in second place ahead of Kyle Busch, van Gisbergen and Byron while Bowman, Wallace and Larson occupied the remaining top 10 spots on the track. By then, the remaining Playoff contenders including Reddick, Hamlin, Briscoe, Logano, Bell and Suarez did not rack up any points during the second stage’s conclusion while Allmendinger claimed the free pass spot by being the first competitor scored a lap down ahead of Suarez and Anthony Alfredo.
Under the stage break, a majority of the lead lap field led by Cindric returned to pit road, primarily for fuel, while others led by Reddick remained on the track. Following the pit stops and amid mixed strategies, Kyle Busch exited pit road first ahead of Cindric, Wallace, Elliott and Byron while Larson, van Gisbergen, Ty Gibbs, Bowman and Hemric followed suit in the top 10, with Bowman being penalized for removing equipment out of his pit box. Not long after, the remaining competitors who remained on the track led by Reddick pitted, which handed the lead to Busch.
With 61 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Kyle Busch and Wallace occupied the front row. At the start, Busch received a strong shove from Cindric from the outside lane, where he maintained a steady lead through the first two turns and managed to break ahead through the backstretch. Wallace, however, fought back from the inside lane through Turns 3 and 4, but Busch would lead the following lap by a hair over Wallace. By then, the field fanned out to three drafted lanes as Buescher tried to ignite a charge toward the outside lane. Meanwhile, Wallace had drafting help from Byron on the inside lane while Busch, who led the next lap, had Cindric drafting him on the outside lane.
Over the next four laps, Wallace managed to lead ahead of Busch as the front-runners returned to a three-wide formation. With 55 laps remaining, however, Buescher and Briscoe briefly rocketed away from the field through Turns 3 and 4 before the field caught back up through the frontstretch. As the field settled in by the following lap, a three-wide formation for the lead ensued as Allmendinger led both the race and the drafting lane toward the outside lane. With Allmendinger going on defense, he had Buescher, Briscoe and Cody Ware all closing in on him with Wallace, Kyle Busch, Gilliland, Byron, Logano and Cindric following suit.
With 50 laps remaining, Logano, who suffered front nose damage to the front of his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse after he got collected in the second stage’s wreck that involved teammate Blaney, emerged with the lead in front of a stack of three-wide competition from the field, with Allmendinger, Cody Ware, Kyle Busch and Briscoe scored in the top five. By then, six of the remaining 11 Playoff contenders on the track were racing within the top-10 mark while the remaining four that included Reddick, Byron, Bell and Hamlin were mired within the top-30 mark.
Ten laps later, Allmendinger, who spent the previous 10 laps trailing Logano before he overtook him amid the draft two laps earlier, was leading ahead of Logano, Briscoe, Gilliland and Buescher while Cindric, Stenhouse, Wallace, Austin Dillon and Elliott were scored in the top 10 as the top-34 competitors were separated by less than two seconds. By then, the field was locked in a three-wide formation at the front while Allmendinger had drafting help from Briscoe from the inside lane that enabled him to remain ahead of Logano and Cindric. The field then fanned out to four drafting lanes four laps later as both Logano and Cindric muscled ahead of Allmendinger.
Down to the final 30 laps of the event, a three-wide battle for the lead between Allmendinger, Logano and Cindric continued to ensue in front of three stacked lanes as the top-35 competitors were separated by more than a second. By then, Logano, Cindric and Briscoe were the only Playoff contenders racing in the top-10 mark while seven additional contenders were racing within the top-25 mark. Meanwhile, Suarez was still mired a lap down in 36th place.
Nine laps later, select names including Allmendinger, Hemric, van Gisbergen and Anthony Alfredo peeled off the track to pit for fuel under green. Back on the track, Cindric led with 20 laps remaining over Austin Dillon before Buescher, Wallace and Erik Jones pitted under green, with the former getting sideways and locking up his front tires while trying to reduce his pace before entering pit road.
With 17 laps remaining, nine competitors led by Stenhouse and including Byron, Elliott, Larson and Suarez all pitted under green before a bevy of competitors led by Gilliland pitted under green during the following lap. By then, Gilliland was penalized for speeding while entering pit road as he locked up the front tires of his No. 38 Georgia Peanuts Ford Mustang Dark Horse as more names led by McDowell pitted.
Back on the track and with a majority of the field, including those who pitted, settling in back within the racing groove, Cindric was leading ahead of Keselowski and Logano as the top 21 competitors were separated by less than two seconds with 15 laps remaining. In the ensuing laps, Cindric had Keselowski shoving him from the inside lane while Stenhouse launched a side-by-side duel from the outside lane with drafting help from Elliott.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, the top 29 competitors were separated by more than a second as both Cindric and Stenhouse continued to duel for the lead in front of two stacked lanes as Cindric and Stenhouse also continued to have drafting help from Keselowski and Stenhouse, respectively.
Five laps later, Cindric continued to lead ahead of Stenhouse, Keselowski and a bevy of competitors racing in two-wide formation while Austin Dillon, who was mired in 29th place, tried to ignite a third drafting lane towards the outside wall.
Shortly after, the caution flew when Keselowski gave the leader Cindric a huge bump in the rear, which got Cindric’s No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse loose and ramming into the left driver’s side of Stenhouse’s No. 47 Kroger/Palmolive Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 before he spun in the middle of the pack and scrambled the field, with nearly every competitor racing in the lead pack spinning and crashing into one another and towards the walls through the backstretch. Among those who were involved included Playoff contenders Elliott, Briscoe, Logano, Bowman, Bell and Reddick as pole-sitter McDowell was also left with a wrecked race car.
The incident that collected a track-record 28 competitors was enough for the event to be sent into overtime as Stenhouse, who was hit in the driver’s side, escaped with the lead followed by Keselowski, Byron, Larson and Kyle Busch. It also placed the event in a red flag period for more than eight minutes before the scattered field led by Stenhouse resumed under a cautious pace. By then, Briscoe and Elliott, both of whom had their respective cars towed back to their pit stalls and were given clearance by NASCAR to have their cars repaired, managed to continue despite dropping out of the lead lap category while teammates Logano and Cindric were ruled out of the race.
When the race returned under green flag conditions, the start of the first overtime attempt featured Stenhouse and Keselowski dueling for the lead while Hendrick Motorsports’ Byron and Larson followed suit ahead of Bell, Kyle Busch and Erik Jones. Stenhouse and Keselowski continued to battle dead even in front of two stacked lanes exiting the backstretch before they returned to Turns 3 and 4.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Stenhouse and Keselowski remained deadlocked against one another for the lead and in front of the field. Through Turns 1 and 2, Kyle Busch was shoved out of the draft by Erik Jones, which resulted in Busch drifting towards the rear of the field as both Stenhouse and Keselowski continued to duel while being drafted by Byron and Larson, respectively.
Then through Turns 3 and 4, Keselowski muscled ahead and had both lanes under his control. Stenhouse, however, came storming back to draw even with Keselowski with drafting help from Byron’s No. 24 RAPTOR Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entering the frontstretch while Keselowski had no drafting help from Larson and Bell. As the field fanned out approaching the start/finish line, Stenhouse edged Keselowski by 0.006 seconds to claim the checkered flag and be awarded his first Cup Series victory of the 2024 season.
With the victory, Stenhouse, whose margin of victory (0.006 seconds) marks the sixth-closest finish recorded in the history of the Cup Series, snapped a 65-race winless drought dating back to his previous victory in the 2023 Daytona 500 as he scored his fourth career win in the Cup Series, all occurring between Talladega Superspeedway or Daytona International Speedway. The victory was the 14th of the season for the Chevrolet nameplate and the third ever for JTG-Daugherty Racing. Stenhouse also became the second competitor to win the Playoff event at Talladega as a non-Playoff contender since the inception of the current Playoff elimination-style format in 2014.
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“Man, this team has put a lot of hard work in,” Stenhouse, who dedicated his victory to those affected by Hurricane Helene, said on NBC. “Obviously, we haven’t won since the [Daytona] 500 in ’23. It’s been an up-and-down season. It was a lot of hard work this season, just trying to find a little bit of speed, but we knew this track is one of ours to come get. This means a lot winning here. Man, what a day. Just proud of this group. I’m looking forward to seeing [co-owner Brad Daugherty]. This win’s really, really special.”
Brad Keselowski, who led two laps and just fell short of winning at Talladega in April earlier this season, settled in second place for the fourth time in 2024.
“[Larson] gave me a good push down the frontstretch, but [Byron] was able to really stick with [Stenhouse],” Keselowski said. “[I] Needed a tiny bit there, but good finish for us. We’ve been knocking on the door on these plate tracks. [I] Hate that we didn’t bust through with the win, but happy to be right there in contention.”
Meanwhile, Playoff competitors and teammates William Byron and Kyle Larson accomplished their goals of notching strong results at Talladega by finishing third and fourth, respectively. The third-place result was enough for Byron to clinch his spot into the Playoff’s Round of 8 based on points while Larson is scored 52 points above the top-eight cutline.
“Just proud of my team,” Byron said. “[They] Brought a good car here. Thanks to my spotter Branden [Lines]. He did a great job all day. We missed a couple wrecks early on that were sketchy, just when we were saving fuel and things like that. Really happy to advance on points [in the Playoffs]. We’ll be on attack [mode] going in the Round of 8 and next week. Next week’s my home track, so I look forward to that place. Hopefully, get a win there.”
“[This is my] Second top five of my career in general on speedways, so I’ll take that,” Larson added. “It’s really cool. Obviously, there’s a lot of luck that plays into just finishing these races. I feel like we do a great job and today just showed that. It’s cool to finally go into the [Charlotte] Roval with a 52-point gap. That race is stressful. It’s way more stressful to me than Talladega, so glad to not have to worry about it too much.”
Erik Jones logged in the first top-five result of the season for both himself and Legacy Motor Club by finishing fifth while Playoff contender Christopher Bell, Justin Haley, Austin Dillon, Bubba Wallace and Playoff contender Denny Hamlin completed the top 10 in the final running order.
With four of 12 Playoff contenders finishing in the top 10, the remaining Playoff contenders that include Alex Bowman, Tyler Reddick, Daniel Suarez, Chase Elliott, Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney ended up 16th, 20th, 26th, 29th, 30th, 32nd, 33rd and 39th, respectively.
With the results, the four Playoff contenders who enter next weekend’s Round of 8 finale at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course below the top-eight cutline in the Playoff standings are Logano, Suarez, Cindric and Briscoe. Meanwhile, Reddick and Elliott occupy the final two transfer spots by 14 and 13 points, respectively, while Ryan Blaney escapes with a 25-point advantage from the cutline amid his Stage 2 accident that resulted in him finishing in the next-to-last position in the leaderboard.
There were 66 lead changes for 24 different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 24 laps. In addition, 22 of 40 starters finished on the lead lap.
The Round of 12 in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set to conclude next Sunday, October 13, at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course in Concord, North Carolina, for the Bank of America ROVAL 400 and where the second of three elimination processes will occur. The event’s broadcast time is slated to occur at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.
Aric Almirola commenced the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs by spoiling the opening race with a resurgent victory in the Kansas Lottery 30 at Kansas Speedway on Saturday, September 28, leaving a bevy of Playoff contenders left with bruised feelings and an early axe to grind toward one another.
The 40-year-old Almirola from Tampa, Florida, led twice for 16 of 200-scheduled laps in an event where he started sixth and generated race-winning pace in the early portions of the race as he won the first stage period. Then, after settling in second place after the second stage period, Almirola’s event nearly went south when he pitted under green with less than 80 laps remaining due to scraping the outside wall entering the backstretch that cut his right-rear tire.
With a late-race caution flying with under 60 laps remaining due to a wheel rolling onto the frontstretch’s grass during a late cycle of green-flag pit stops, Almirola was able to methodically carve his way back to the front. Starting from the final restart period with 49 laps remaining, he overtook Playoff contender Cole Custer for the lead with three laps remaining. From there, Almirola was able to drive away from Custer and cruise to his second Xfinity Series victory of the 2024 season.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Brandon Jones notched his third Xfinity pole position of the 2024 season with a pole-winning lap at 175.553 mph in 30.760 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff contender Chandler Smith, who clocked in his best qualifying lap at 175.291 mph in 30.806 seconds.
Prior to the event, the following drivers, including Logan Bearden, Jeb Burton, Matt DiBenedetto, Brad Perez and Dawson Cram dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries. Leland Honeyman also dropped to the rear of the field for an engine change.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Chandler Smith jumped ahead with an early advantage from the inside lane as he led Brandon Jones and the field through the first two turns and the backstretch. With nearly the entire field running in two packed lanes, Smith muscled ahead and led the first lap as Connor Zilisch managed to keep his car running straight after he slid sideways through Turns 3 and 4 from fourth place.
Over the next four laps, Chandler Smith proceeded to lead as Jones, Playoff contender Cole Custer, Aric Almirola, Playoff contender Justin Allgaier and Playoff contender Jesse Love followed suit in the top six while Zilisch dropped to seventh. By then, Jeremy Clements was penalized for a restart violation, when he changed lanes before reaching the start/finish line to begin the race, as Zilisch continued to lose spots while being overtaken by Taylor Gray and Playoff contender Parker Kligerman.
Then on the sixth lap, the event’s first caution flew when Playoff contender Sammy Smith spun by himself on the backstretch after he got tagged into the frontstretch outside wall by Playoff contender AJ Allmendinger the lap prior. During the caution period, select names including Playoff contender Shane van Gisbergen, Dawson Cram, Joey Gase, Ryan Vargas, Patrick Emerling and Sammy Smith pitted while the rest, led by Chandler Smith, remained on the track.
The start of the following restart on Lap 11 featured a duel between Jones and Chandler Smith before teammate Aric Almirola shoved Smith back out in front from the inside lane entering the first two turns. Smith then proceeded to clear Jones through the backstretch as both Almirola and Custer challenged Jones for the runner-up spot. With Jones fending off Custer and Almirola for the runner-up spot, Chandler Smith proceeded to lead through the Lap 15 mark.
Through the first 20 scheduled laps, Chandler Smith was leading by a second over Jones as Custer, Almirola and Taylor Gray were racing in the top five. Behind, Playoff contenders Justin Allgaier, Sam Mayer, Austin Hill, Parker Kligerman and Sheldon Creed were scored in the top 10 as Playoff contenders Riley Herbst and Jesse Love followed suit in the top 12. Meanwhile, Chandler Smith added another second to his advantage and led by two seconds at the Lap 25 mark. By then, Custer and Almirola had navigated their way to second and third on the track while Jones fell to fourth in front of Gray.
At the Lap 30 mark, Chandler Smith maintained his early advantage by a second over Almirola, with Custer, Jones and Gray scored in the top five. With Playoff contenders Mayer, Allgaier, Hill, Creed, Herbst and Kligerman racing in the top 11, Love was back in 13th place, AJ Allmendinger was mired in 15th place, van Gisbergen was down in 26th place and Sammy Smith was trapped in 28th place.
Seven laps later, Almirola got to teammate Chandler Smith’s left-rear quarter panel and got him loose, then drag-raced him through the frontstretch to assume the lead for the first time. With the clean air to his advantage, Almirola proceeded to lead by more than a second over Smith by Lap 40 with Custer, Jones and Mayer racing in the top five.
Then on the final lap of the first stage period, the caution flew after Taylor Gray lost an engine and dropped oil across the frontstretch. The caution for Gray was enough for the first stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 45 to officially conclude under caution as Almirola cruised to his fourth Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Teammate Chandler Smith followed suit in second along with Custer, Jones and Mayer while Creed, Hill, Allgaier, Herbst and Kligerman were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Allmendinger, Love, van Gisbergen and Sammy Smith were mired in 13th, 16th, 23rd and 28th, respectively.
Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Almirola peeled off the racetrack to pit for service. Following the pit stops, Custer exited first with the lead, followed by Hill, Mayer, Creed, Chandler Smith and Jones while Almirola lost six spots amid a slow pit service and ended up exiting pit road in seventh place. Amid the pit stops, Allmendinger was penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation while JJ Yeley was also penalized for a safety violation. Jones then pitted again from sixth to tighten loose lug nuts
The second stage period started on Lap 53 as Custer and Hill occupied the front row. Custer gained a strong start from the outside lane to transition back to the inside lane in front of Hill entering the first two turns. As the field behind fanned out, Custer proceeded to lead the following lap while Mayer and Chandler Smith overtook Hill for second and third, respectively. As Smith and Hill dueled for third, Riley Herbst and Sheldon Creed battled for fifth in front of Almirola while Daniel Dye nearly spun after he made contact with Anthony Alfredo. Amid the early battles, Custer proceeded to lead by half a second just past the Lap 55 mark.
By Lap 60, Custer retained the lead by a second over Chandler Smith as Mayer, Herbst and Hill remained in the top five ahead of Creed, Allgaier, Almirola, Kligerman and Zilisch. Behind, Love and Allmendinger were mired back in 18th and 20th, respectively, while van Gisbergen and Sammy Smith were back in 25th and 28th, respectively. In addition, Jones was in 15th behind Matt DiBenedetto, Parker Retzlaff, Ryan Sieg and Corey Heim.
Three laps later, the caution returned due to Brad Perez falling off the pace below the backstretch’s apron and coming to a stop in Turn 3. During the caution period, select names including Love, van Gisbergen and Sammy Smith, who cycled back onto the lead lap, pitted while the rest, led by Custer, remained on the track.
The beginning of the next restart period on Lap 69 did not last long as Playoff contender Justin Allgaier got hit by Sheldon Creed entering the backstretch, sending Allgaier sliding and making head-on contact with the inside wall. During the incident, Custer, who received a strong shove from Chandler Smith during the previous restart’s start, maintained the lead over Mayer, Chandler Smith, Almirola and Hill.
At the beginning of the next restart period on Lap 75, Mayer and Custer dueled for the lead through the frontstretch. Then as Chandler Smith tried to make a move beneath Custer, Almirola launched a three-wide battle for the runner-up spot through the first two turns as Mayer surged ahead with the lead entering the backstretch. As Mayer led the field through the backstretch, more trouble struck for Allgaier, who blew a tire, hit the outside wall and retired from further competition. Amid his wreck that took an early hit in his Playoff bid, the race remained under green flag conditions as Mayer proceeded to lead the next four laps while Almirola overtook Custer for the runner-up spot.
At the Lap 80 mark, Mayer retained the lead by half a second over Almirola as Custer, Chandler Smith and Zilisch were racing in the top five. Mayer would slightly extend his advantage to eight-tenths of a second over Almirola by Lap 85.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 90, Mayer fended off Almirola to capture his second Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Almirola retained second while trailing Mayer at the start/finish line by three-tenths of a second while Custer, Chandler Smith and Zilisch were in the top five. “Behind, Hill made contact with Herbst entering the frontstretch and sent Herbst spinning through the frontstretch’s grass while Hill proceeded to finish sixth ahead of Creed, Jones, DiBenedetto and Ryan Sieg. Amid his spin, Herbst ended up in 16th place and joined Love, Kligerman, Allmendinger, van Gisbergen and Sammy Smith as Playoff contenders who did not record and stage points after the second stage period.
Under the stage break, the lead lap field, led by Mayer, pitted. Following the pit stops, Chandler Smith exited pit road first ahead of Custer, Almirola and Creed while Mayer dropped four spots. Not long after, Almirola pitted for a second time to have the lug nuts tightened.
With 103 laps remaining, the final stage commenced under green as Chandler Smith and Custer occupied the front row. At the start, Smith received a strong push from teammate Creed from the outside lane to rocket ahead and maintain the lead from Custer through the first two turns. With the field fanning out and jostling for late spots, Smith proceeded to lead at the event’s scheduled halfway distance on Lap 100.
With 90 laps remaining, Chandler Smith was leading by a second over Custer with Zilisch, Creed and Hill scored in the top five on the track. Behind, Jones, Ryan Sieg, Mayer, Allmendinger and Corey Heim were racing in the top 10 as Almirola was mired in 11th place ahead of Heim, Josh Williams, Love, Kligerman, Herbst and Retzlaff. Meanwhile, van Gisbergen was back in 21st and Sammy Smith was mired in the 29th.
Ten laps later, Chandler Smith continued to lead by eight-tenths of a second over Custer while Zilisch, Creed and Hill remained in the top five. Smith would proceed to lead by four-tenths of a second over Custer with 70 laps remaining. By then, Corey Heim pitted under green after he got loose through the first two turns and smacked the outside wall in front of Kligerman eight laps earlier. Almirola hit the outside wall entering the backstretch after marching his way back into the top 10 and pitted to change a flat right-rear tire nearly five laps earlier.
Then with 64 laps remaining, Custer, who spent the last several laps closing in and stalking Chandler Smith, used the inside lane from Turns 3 and 4 to muscle ahead of Smith and assume the lead. By then, Ryan Sieg pitted from the top 10 under green. As Herbst and Kligerman battled for ninth place behind Allmendinger, Custer maintained the lead by eight-tenths of a second over Chandler Smith as Hill pitted from the top five with 60 laps remaining.
With 59 laps remaining, Playoff contenders Mayer, Allmendinger and Herbst pitted along with Patrick Emerling and Zilisch before Kligerman, Parker Retzlaff, Chandler Smith and Creed pitted during the following lap. The leader Custer then pitted with 57 laps remaining before the caution flew due to a tire rolling out of Parker Retzlaff’s pit box and onto the frontstretch’s grass. By then, 15 competitors were scored on the lead lap, including Custer as he had exited pit road and returned to the track without being lapped, as Jones had cycled into the lead followed by Josh Williams. During the caution period, some of the drivers, led by Jones, pitted while the rest, led by Custer and including Chandler Smith, Hill and Creed, remained on the track.
With the race restarting under green with 49 laps remaining, Custer rocketed ahead from the outside lane and he maintained the lead from Hill and Chandler Smith while Almirola rocketed his way back up into the top five. As the field fanned out towards the top-10 mark, Custer proceeded to lead the following lap as Smith was up to second place ahead of Hill. Behind, Almirola barely slid in front of Zilisch entering the frontstretch to snatch fourth place before the latter fought back. While Zilisch and Almirola proceeded to battle for fourth place, Chandler Smith started to close in on Custer for the lead.
Then with 45 laps remaining, a heated side-by-side battle for the lead ignited between Custer and Chandler Smith that started with both dueling for the lead through the backstretch as they remained dead even through the frontstretch. Chandler Smith would prevail and return to the lead for the following lap while Custer followed suit in second.
Down to the final 30 laps of the event, Chandler Smith retained the lead by seven-tenths of a second over Custer as Almirola, Zilisch and Jones were scored in the top five. Behind, Hill dropped to sixth ahead of Creed, Love, Williams and Alfredo while Mayer, Herbst, van Gisbergen, DiBenedetto and Ryan Sieg were mired in the top 15 ahead of Allmendinger and Kligerman as Sammy Smith was back in 22nd place.
Five laps later, Chandler Smith’s advantage decreased to two-tenths of a second over Custer while Almirola, who was faster compared to the top-two competitors, trailed the lead from third place by two seconds. As Custer cut the deficit to a tenth of a second, he could not execute the final move to overtake Chandler Smith as the latter continued to lead while third-place Almirola cut his deficit to a second as he trailed both Chandler Smith and Custer by a second with 20 laps remaining.
Then with 18 laps remaining, Custer launched a side-by-side battle with Chandler Smith through the frontstretch, but he still could not execute the pass on Smith for the lead entering Turns 1 and 2. With Custer still trailing Chandler Smith for the lead, their early side-by-side battle allowed Almirola to close in to within eight-tenths of a second for the following lap. Custer then drove his car towards the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2 to regain ground on Smith with 16 laps remaining, but he remained behind Smith as Almirola trailed by a second in third place during the following lap.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Custer, who nearly got squeezed into the outside wall by Chandler Smith, used the outside lane amid a huge run gained towards the outside wall from Turns 3 and 4 to duel with Chandler Smith through the frontstretch. This time, he was able to rocket past Smith and assume the lead. As Custer rocketed away with the lead, Almirola, who had caught both Custer and Smith on the track, overtook Smith for the runner-up spot exiting the backstretch as he set his sights on Custer, who maintained a reasonable advantage, for the lead.
With five laps remaining, Custer, who was trying to weave his way through lapped traffic, maintained the lead by two-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Almirola while Chandler Smith trailed in third place by three seconds. A lap later, however, Almirola gained a run beneath Custer through the frontstretch and he proceeded to snatch the lead entering the first two turns with three laps remaining as Custer was unable to respond with a crossover move.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Almirola remained in the lead by nearly half a second over Custer. With Custer unable to regain ground to mount a final lap charge and reclaim the lead, Almirola was able to smoothly cycle his way around the Kansas circuit for a final time before he returned to the frontstretch and claimed the checkered flag by six-tenths of a second over Custer.
With the victory, Almirola, who will contest in the remaining six Playoff events in Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20 Toyota entry, notched his sixth career win in the Xfinity Series, his second of the season amid eight starts and his first at Kansas, a venue where he was involved in a harrowing accident during a 2017 Cup Series event that left him with a compression fracture to his T5 vertebra. The Kansas victory was the 10th of the season for both Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota, eight of which have been achieved from the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing entry as the entry earned an automatic pass into the Playoff’s Round of 8 for the owners’ championship battle.
“[I had to be] Really patient,” Almirola, who described his final overtake on Cole Custer, said on CW Network. “I, obviously, wasn’t patient earlier in the race. I’m wore out. That was a hard day at the office, especially for a guy who’s been sitting on the couch. I knew we had such a great He Gets Us Toyota GR Supra. I was able to get by everybody on the long run and I just pushed too hard there when we had the issue on pit road and I got into the fence and cut the right-rear tire down. I knew I had to put my head down and got to work after that. We got lucky to get the caution when we did and then, we were out of tires, so the fact that [the race] went green there to the end and then, that’s where we were strong. We were really strong on the long run. It just worked out.”
Meanwhile, as Almirola proceeded to celebrate in Victory Lane, Cole Custer and Chandler Smith, both of whom ended up second and third in the final running order, engaged in a brief post-race conversation on pit road. Custer, who was displeased with being raced hard and nearly getting squeezed into the outside wall by Smith, approached Smith, vocally expressed his displeasure and gestured a wave at Smith before walking away and not hearing Smith’s stance.
“[Chandler Smith] killed us,” Custer, who leads the Playoff standings by points said, said. “He definitely burned our stuff up [while I was] trying to get by him. It really made me mad when he put us in the fence on that restart. He’s gonna pay the consequences and I’m gonna race him like he races me. I think we could have gone back-to-back [in wins] pretty easily if things fall the right way, but we’ll move on to Talladega. I’m sure points-wise, we’re pretty good, so just got to keep chugging along.”
“I definitely understand [Custer’s] position,” Smith, who sits in second place behind Custer in the Playoff standings, said. “Last week, I was racing behind somebody for 80 laps and couldn’t find a way around him because we were running the same lane. Obviously, our car was really dominant on the short run. [I] Was able to build up a little bit of a gap and had to come up with a game plan of when [Custer] gets to me, what do I got to do because last time, I just kept running my lane and he just blew my doors off. This is for the race win, this is for advancing into the next round [of the Playoffs] and this is also the guy I’m racing for the championship. I’ve got to be a little more aggressive in a sense of just taking his air away, kind of Cup racing, Truck racing style. Just trying to do the best for my team. [Custer]’s got a very, very valid statement, I understand, but I also wouldn’t change what I did because I was giving myself the best shot to win.”
Custer and Chandler Smith were not the only pair of Playoff contenders to exchange words on pit road following the 2024 Xfinity Series Playoff opener. In addition, Austin Hill and Riley Herbst, both of whom finished seventh and 10th on the track, exchanged words, where Hill apologized for turning Herbst at the conclusion of the second stage period, while AJ Allmendinger and Sammy Smith, both of whom ended up 17th and 22nd on the track, exchanged words as Smith expressed his displeasure for nearly getting turned and having his car damaged by Allmendinger in the opening laps.
Meanwhile, Connor Zilisch came home in fourth place for his second consecutive top-five result in just his second Xfinity career start while Sheldon Creed finished fifth. Pole-sitter Brandon Jones settled in sixth place in front of Hill while Playoff rookies Shane van Gisbergen and Jesse Love rallied to finish eighth and ninth in front of Herbst.
There were 14 lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 33 laps. In addition, 16 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. Aric Almirola, 16 laps led, Stage 1 winner
2. Cole Custer, 48 laps led
3. Chandler Smith, 114 laps led
4. Connor Zilisch
5. Sheldon Creed
6. Brandon Jones, four laps led
7. Austin Hill
8. Shane van Gisbergen
9. Jesse Love
10. Riley Herbst
11. Josh Williams
12. Parker Kligerman
13. Sam Mayer, 18 laps led, Stage 2 winner
14. Matt DiBenedetto
15. Anthony Alfredo
16. Ryan Sieg
17. AJ Allmendinger, one lap down
18. Brennan Poole, one lap down
19. Ryan Ellis, one lap down
20. JJ Yeley, one lap down
21. Parker Retzlaff, one lap down
22. Sammy Smith, one lap down
23. Jeb Burton, two laps down
24. Kyle Sieg, two laps down
25. Leland Honeyman, two laps down
26. Kyle Weatherman, three laps down
27. Jeremy Clements, three laps down
28. Blaine Perkins, three laps down
29. Ryan Vargas, four laps down
30. Patrick Emerling, four laps down
31. Corey Heim, five laps down
32. Joey Gase, six laps down
33. Logan Bearden, 10 laps down
34. Daniel Dye, 11 laps down
35. Dawson Cram – OUT, Fuel Pressure
36. Justin Allgaier – OUT, Accident
37. Brad Perez – OUT, Oil Pump
38. Taylor Gray – OUT, Engine
*Bold indicates Playoff competitors
Playoff standings
1. Cole Custer +41
2. Chandler Smith +36
3. Austin Hill +26
4. Sam Mayer +13
5. Sheldon Creed +10
6. Shane van Gisbergen +8
7. Jesse Love +3
8. Riley Herbst +1
9. Justin Allgaier -1
10. AJ Allmendinger -13
11. Parker Kligerman -15
12. Sammy Smith -23
The second Round of 12 event in the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs is set to occur at Talladega Superspeedway for the United Rentals 250. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, October 5, and air at 4 p.m. ET on the CW Network.
