Kyle Larson kept polesitter Joey Logano at bay after a restart with four laps left in Saturday’s Service King 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Auto Club Speedway and held on to win by 0.127 seconds.
Larson and Logano had swapped the lead on three successive laps before Brandon Jones plowed into the outside wall on lap 142 to bring out the seventh and final caution of the afternoon. Continue reading
Justin Allgaier popped a tire during his celebratory burnout after Saturday’s DC Solar 200 at Phoenix International Raceway.
But you can forgive the driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet if he was a trifle rusty with his donuts—Allgaier hadn’t been to Victory Lane in the NASCAR XFINITY Series since August in 2012 at the road course in Montreal.
On a blistering afternoon that brought emotions to a boil at the one-mile race track in the Sonoran Desert, Allgaier sailed away with a magnificent restart with four laps left and finished 0.741 seconds ahead of runner-up Ryan Blaney, who started 33rd after inspection issues kept him off the grid during qualifying earlier in the day.
“You have no idea how proud I am of you,” Allgaier radioed to his team after he crossed the finish line and broke an 80-race drought.
After climbing from the car, Allgaier began to digest what he had just accomplished, not the least of which was claiming the $100,000 bonus in the first Dash 4 Cash race of the season. The victory was Allgaier’s fourth in the series.
“Last year was tough,” Allgaier said of a winless 2016, his first year with JRM. “We had really good runs all year but we weren’t able to get to Victory Lane. This was the same group of guys we had last year, and to be able to do it here in Phoenix and win the first Xfinity Dash 4 Cash race…
“This is a team effort. We had four really good JR Motorsports hot rods out there.”
In fact, with polesitter William Byron running fourth and series leader Elliott Sadler coming home fifth, JRM put three cars in the top-five and four in the top-nine (with Michael Annett finishing ninth).
With ten laps left, contact from Cole Custer’s Ford sent Austin Dillon’s No. 2 Chevrolet hard into the outside wall, collecting Ryan Sieg’s Chevrolet in the process. After caution flew on lap 191, Dillon rode Custer’s car into the outside wall, earning a summons to the NASCAR hauler for Dillon and crew chief Justin Alexander.
“He over-drove the corner and took us out with it,” Dillon said after exiting the infield care center.
Dillon wasn’t particularly apprehensive about the meeting with NASCAR.
“We’ll probably just have a Coke and discuss things,” he said optimistically.
Custer took full responsibility for the incident.
“It was 100-percent my fault,” said the Sunoco rookie driver. “I got in there too deep, got really loose going in and couldn’t put any wheel into it. That was pretty much it. Just all my fault. Something that won’t happen again. We had a great race leading up to that.
“We didn’t start out at all how we wanted to, but by the end we were probably a fifth- to eighth-place car. I thought that was a really good sign for us. I thought we had a really good Haas Automation Ford.
It’s unfortunate I cost us and the 2 car there.”
Under the circumstances, Custer wasn’t surprised at Dillon’s retaliation.
“It definitely sucks for us points-wise, but I guess you can kind of expect that when he gets taken out,” Custer said. “I can understand how frustrated he is about it. It is what it is. I will try not to have that happen again.”
Average Speed of Race Winner: 91.013 mph.
Time of Race: 02 Hrs, 11 Mins, 51 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.741 Seconds.
Caution Flags: nine for 55 laps.
Lead Changes: 13 among five drivers.
Lap Leaders: 0; E. Jones(i) 1-19; J. Allgaier 20-28; E. Jones(i) 29-64; A. Dillon(i) 65-81; J. Allgaier 82-109; R. Blaney(i) 110-124; A. Dillon(i) 125-138; J. Allgaier 139-159; M. Tifft # 160-163; E. Jones(i) 164; J. Allgaier 165-172; E. Jones(i) 173-181; J. Allgaier 182-200.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): J. Allgaier five times for 85 laps; E. Jones(i) four times for 65 laps; A. Dillon(i) two times for 31 laps; R. Blaney(i) one time for 15 laps; M. Tifft # one time for four laps.
Stage #1 Top-Ten: 20,2,9,22,1,7,6,42,21,11
Stage #2 Top-Ten: 22,7,2,1,20,42,6,48,9,11
NASCAR XFINITY Series teams will race 300 miles over 200 laps in the Kansas Lottery 300 on Saturday, October 15th at 3 pm ET at Kansas Speedway. Television coverage begins on NBC at 2:30 pm ET with radio coverage on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.
What to Watch For: The NASCAR XFINITY Series kicks off the Round of 8 of its inaugural Chase. The eight drivers remaining are Daniel Suarez, Elliott Sadler, Justin Allgaier, Erik Jones, Brendan Gaughan, Ryan Reed, Darrell Wallace Jr. and Blake Koch. Continue reading
If stealing a race were against the law, there would be an arrest warrant out for Joey Logano on Sunday night.
Grabbing the lead from Kyle Larson after a restart on lap 183 of 200, Logano held off a charging Elliott Sadler by 0.462 seconds to win the Drive for the Cure 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the event that trimmed the inaugural NASCAR XFINITY Chase field from 12 drivers to eight.
Larson, who led 165 laps and at one point had the lead lap to himself, closed on Logano with three circuits left but brushed the turn two wall on lap 197 and fell to fourth at the finish behind Sadler and Daniel Suarez. Continue reading
NASCAR XFINITY Series drivers will race 300 miles over 200 laps in the Drive for the Cure 300 on Sunday, October 9th. NBC Sports Network coverage begins at 4 pm ET (or immediately after the Sprint Cup race – whichever comes first) with radio coverage on PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.
What to Watch For: Daniel Suarez (6.6) and Elliott Sadler (8.9) – both of whom have advanced to the NASCAR XFINITY Series Chase Round of 8 via victories – lead all championship contenders in average finish at 1.5-mile tracks this year.
The Chase bubble is packed with ten drivers within 17 points of elimination. Here’s where the drivers who haven’t clinched berths in the Round of 8 stand: Justin Allgaier (17 points ahead of Ty Dillon on the cutoff line), Brendan Gaughan (+14), Ryan Reed (+11), Darrell Wallace Jr. (+10), Blake Koch (+4), Brennan Poole (+3), Dillon (-3 points below Brennan Poole on the cutoff line), Erik Jones (-4), Ryan Sieg (-10) and Brandon Jones (-18). Continue reading