Ryan Truex claimed his second NASCAR Xfinity Series win of the season – the second of his career – leading the field to the yellow and checkered flags on the final lap of overtime in Saturday night’s Wawa 250 Powered by Coca-Cola at Daytona International Speedway.
With very limited green flag runs and the pace interrupted all night with incidents, ultimately it was an accident among the front-running cars that ended the overtime period with Truex out front as he was so frequently through the night.
Running among that front group of cars, Parker Kligerman’s No. 48 Big Machine Racing Chevrolet hit the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet driven by A.J. Allmendinger from behind, sending Allmendinger’s Chevy hard into the wall bringing out the final caution and ending the night.
Truex, 32, the younger brother of NASCAR Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr., crossed the line just ahead of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chandler Smith in the No. 81 JGR Toyota. Kligerman finished in third place. Stewart-Haas Racing’s Riley Herbst and RSS Racing’s Ryan Sieg rounded out the top five.
“Oh my gosh, thanks to these fans, it’s so amazing to race here,’’ said Truex, who is racing part-time this season but now has two wins in eight starts this season.
“Just thanks to these guys,’’ Truex, driver of the No. 20 JGR Toyota, said of his team. “I don’t get to race that often and I don’t know what I’m going to do next year. It’s all a work in progress. Just a great car [tonight].”
The veteran Allmendinger, who was running second at the time of his last lap accident, finished 24th. A frustrated Kligerman insisted he did not mean to wreck Allmendinger especially because the pair had worked well together throughout the race.
“I just had a run and I had to go. I felt it was the run I had to take to put myself on the bottom if I was going to win this race,’’ Kligerman added. “I love him like a brother; he and I have been in this a long time together.”
In many ways, the ending was indicative of the whole evening – hard racing followed by the kind of contact so common at the famous 2.5-mile Daytona high banks.
Driver-owner Jordan Anderson, who competes part-time in the series and was making only his fourth start of year, finished sixth answering a fourth-place effort in the Daytona season-opener.
Justin Allgaier, who led a race best 35 laps, was seventh, followed by Sheldon Creed, Leland Honeyman and Kyle Weatherman.
The points standings were majorly affected with season-long leader, the defending NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Cole Custer losing the points lead to JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier, who won both stages.
Custer had a rough night, colliding with his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Herbst on pit road on the first pit stop – his No. 00 SHR Ford suffering damage that required attention the rest of the race and relegated him to a 32nd place finish. Custer, who held a 50-point advantage over Allgaier in the championship just two races ago, now trails Allgaier by 33 points with five races remaining to decide the regular season champion.
The other end of the current 12-driver Playoff field also featured a lot of important action. JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith dropped out of the last Playoff position after being collected in a seven-car accident on lap 26. Meanwhile, Sieg’s fifth place finish vaulted him inside the Playoff standings and he sits in that all-important 12th place position now – 15 points up on Smith.
Another championship favorite, Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill also took a big hit in the standings – his night began tough even before the green flag flew to start the race. His No. 21 RCR Chevrolet had to pit for attention as cars were making pace laps and instead of starting on the outside of the front row where he qualified, he started from the rear of the field.
The precarious position ended up costing Hill immediately as he was collected in a multi-car accident on the very first lap of racing. After pitting throughout the night for repairs he ultimately parked the car, finishing 34th. Now Hill, who won the opening two races of the season, is ranked fourth – more than 100 points behind Allgaier — heading into the final summer stretch before the Playoffs start.
The Xfinity Series will be heading to Darlington Raceway for the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 on Sept. 7 (USA Network, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Denny Hamlin is the defending winner of the race. Justin Allgaier is the most recent winner at the track.
