who won xfinity race?
The 25-year-old Nemechek, of Mooresville, North Carolina, took the lead for good on a race restart with 32 laps remaining after winning the first two stages of the race. He, Smith, and third place finisher Cole Custer were easily the class of the field running some version of 1-2-3 for most of the race.
Smith was able to nudge his way past Custer on the final lap for that runner-up showing.
As Nemechek took his No. 20 JGR Toyota to the front stretch to do a traditional burnout celebration, he literally set the track on fire briefly—perhaps a fitting finale to his hot night behind the wheel. Not only did he win the race, he won the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash incentive prize awarded by series sponsor Xfinity.
“I can’t say enough about this whole team. If you would have asked me yesterday if we would have won, I thought we were a 10th place car in practice,’’ said Nemechek, whose car was ironically sponsored by a fire extinguisher company (Pye Barker Fire & Safety). “Just grateful the guys made the right adjustments.
“Let’s celebrate.”
While Nemechek’s car was so good on the night, there was still a lot of compelling wheel-to-wheel competition behind him. Fourth place finisher Josh Berry, for example, led the next highest number of laps (27)—his No. 8 JR Motorsport Chevrolet looking especially strong until a tire situation forced a long pit stop midway through the race. He rallied back through the field, however, to take his seventh-consecutive top-10 finish on the year tying the the longest stretch of his career.
Berry’s JR Motorsports teammate Brandon Jones finished fifth—his first top 10 of the season in the No. 9 JRM Chevrolet—followed by another teammate, Justin Allgaier, who was able to keep his No. 7 JRM Chevy in the lead group of cars despite not feeling well himself and finishing the race on much older tires than the rest of the lead group.
Nemechek—who swept both stage wins—Smith, Custer, and Berry are now eligible for the next installment of the Xfinity Dash 4 Cash $100,000 award—next week at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. The top finishing driver from among that four gets the big check.
“Congrats to them, they were the best car all night,’’ Smith said.
Kaulig Racing teammates Daniel Hemric and Derek Kraus, AM Racing’s Brett Moffitt and Kaulig’s Chandler Smith rounded out the top 10.
Austin Hill—who leads all drivers with three wins this season—finished 16th and with Nemechek’s win the second-generation driver takes over the points lead by 21 points over Hill.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series moves from the shortest track in the sport to the largest track in the sport, Talladega Superspeedway, where it will race the Ag-Pro 300 (4 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
NASCAR Xfinity Series Race Results Call811.com Before You Dig. 250
Martinsville Speedway
Martinsville, Virginia
Saturday, April 15, 2023
1. (2) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 250.
2. (7) Sammy Smith #, Toyota, 250.
3. (1) Cole Custer, Ford, 250.
4. (6) Josh Berry, Chevrolet, 250.
5. (10) Brandon Jones, Chevrolet, 250.
6. (8) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 250.
7. (13) Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, 250.
8. (12) Derek Kraus, Chevrolet, 250.
9. (16) Brett Moffitt, Ford, 250.
10. (11) Chandler Smith #, Chevrolet, 250.
11. (4) Parker Retzlaff #, Chevrolet, 250.
12. (14) Ryan Truex, Toyota, 250.
13. (23) Blaine Perkins #, Chevrolet, 250.
14. (31) Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, 250.
15. (19) Kaz Grala, Toyota, 250.
16. (15) Austin Hill, Chevrolet, 250.
17. (21) Parker Kligerman, Chevrolet, 250.
18. (17) Ryan Sieg, Ford, 250.
19. (20) Josh Williams, Chevrolet, 250.
20. (25) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chevrolet, 250.
21. (36) Patrick Emerling, Toyota, 250.
22. (26) Matt Mills(i), Ford, 250.
23. (37) Gray Gaulding, Ford, 250.
24. (38) Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet, 250.
25. (30) Leland Honeyman, Chevrolet, 250.
26. (24) Alex Labbe, Chevrolet, 250.
27. (3) Sheldon Creed, Chevrolet, 250.
28. (35) Ryan Ellis, Chevrolet, 249.
29. (32) Brennan Poole, Chevrolet, 246.
30. (9) Riley Herbst, Ford, Accident, 222.
31. (5) Sam Mayer, Chevrolet, Accident, 221.
32. (22) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, Accident, 210.
33. (18) Connor Mosack, Toyota, 205.
34. (27) Kyle Weatherman, Chevrolet, Suspension, 198.
35. (28) Kyle Sieg, Ford, Accident, 145.
36. (29) Dawson Cram, Chevrolet, Accident, 143.
37. (34) Joe Graf Jr., Ford, Accident, 133.
38. (33) Kaden Honeycutt(i), Chevrolet, Engine, 83.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 59.398 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 12 Mins, 50 Secs. Margin of Victory: Caution Seconds.
Caution Flags: 10 for 82 laps.
Lead Changes: 7 among 6 drivers.
Lap Leaders: C. Custer 1-5;J. Nemechek 6-65;A. Hill 66-73;J. Berry 74-100;S. Smith # 101-106;J. Nemechek 107-211;J. Allgaier 212-217;J. Nemechek 218-250.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): John Hunter Nemechek 3 times for 198 laps; Josh Berry 1 time for 27 laps; Austin Hill 1 time for 8 laps; Justin Allgaier 1 time for 6 laps; Sammy Smith # 1 time for 6 laps; Cole Custer 1 time for 5 laps.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 20,18,00,1,98,7,11,16,31,9
Stage #2 Top Ten: 20,8,00,18,11,9,19,98,16,10
AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Sammy Smith won the Xfinity Series race at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday, the first victory for the 18-year-old high school student who is taking classes online so he can be a full-time driver.
Making his 13th start in the past two years for Joe Gibbs Racing, Smith led the final 52 laps and held off Cup Series star Kyle Busch on two restarts to take the checkered flag for the first time in a NASCAR national series event.
"It's amazing. It's a dream come true," Smith said. "It's awesome."
Ryan Truex finished second, followed by Sheldon Creed, Riley Herbst and Chandler Smith. Busch was second following a final restart with 15 laps to go, but he made contact with Chandler Smith on the final lap and ended up ninth.
Sammy Smith put JGR in Victory Lane in Phoenix for the 16th time in the second-tier series and for the sixth consecutive year -- with six different drivers. Christopher Bell (2018), Busch (2019), Brandon Jones (2020), Daniel Hemric (2021) and Ty Gibbs (2022) previously celebrated at the mile-long track in the desert.
Smith also became the youngest Xfinity Series winner at Phoenix. He did so with seemingly relative ease, leading 92 of 200 laps in the United Rentals 200 and not facing any significant challenges down the stretch.
What drivers said Monday during and after the NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover Motor Speedway:
Martin Truex Jr. — Winner: “Man, it feels incredible. It felt like we’ve been close a bunch of times, and we gave some away, that’s for sure. Thought today, man, late caution, what’s going to happen here? But just a great call by James (crew chief James Small) to take two and then was able to get a pretty good restart and get (Dave) Blaney there. He raced me hard but clean. I’m out of breath, I’m breathing so much Goodyear rubber. Thanks to everybody that stuck with us, all our fans, Bass Pro Shops, Auto Owners, Reser’s, Toyota, TRD, all my personal sponsors. We know we could do this. We’ve showed it. We’ve led laps. We’ve dominated races, and it just would never all come together. I kept saying that we’ve got to just keep doing what we’re doing and not overthink it. Tough day today with a few pit stops early and then obviously the guys got it going at the end, so really psyched and happy for everybody. Just thanks to everybody at JGR, as well. Awesome job.”
Ross Chastain — Finished 2nd: “Whoever got in the lead was going to have a shot at it. First, I want to say so sorry to Brennan Poole and everybody at Rick Ware Racing. I owe them a big apology and a bit more. I’ll head over there tomorrow and talk to those guys, and make some of that right. We were just so close again for our No. 1 Jockey Chevy team and everybody at Trackhouse Racing, Advent Health, Moose Fraternity, Worldwide Express. It’s surreal to continue to do this and get to race against my heroes. I guess I told him (Martin Truex Jr.) too many of my secrets last year after we went fishing.”
Ryan Blaney — Finished 3rd: “Either two (tires) or we’re staying out was the call, and we came in and took two. It got us on the front row. I think if we had taken four, we would have lined up fourth. So it really wouldn’t have been much different. But, being on the front row gave us a shot to win. I tried to send it into (turn) 3 to clear the No. 19, and he did the same thing and was able to get around us. It was a really smooth day for us, honestly. We ran third all day. Just didn’t have quite enough speed for those top-two guys at the end there. Overall, really great effort – especially for how we’ve been here in the past. It’s kind of been a struggle track for us, and I’m proud of the gains we made.”
William Byron — Finished 4th: “The middle section – I don’t know, I need to maybe do a little better job on the feedback, and then just us communicating the adjustments there. We took off, had clean air and the car was just too loose. I couldn’t load the rear tires, and we were just hanging on. That run was obviously really bad – we fell from first to seventh. We just had to work our way up from there. Proud of the effort. Getting a top five is great. The No. 24 RaptorTough.com Chevy was really good today. Definitely needed some more, but we’re having speed at all different kinds of tracks. In our history, this hasn’t been our best track. We came with something a little bit different to try and help that. I think it did for the majority of the race, but just got too loose.”
Denny Hamlin — Finished 5th: “Our car was really fast. Long run was pretty good. I’m proud of this FedEx team for bringing me a car capable of winning today, but sometimes you can’t get those last few spots. It is what it is. We will work hard and try to get better.”
Brad Keselowski — Finished 8th: “We had a good recovery. Had top five in the first stage, had a pit road issue, and we recovered from that. Solid top-10 day — drove back through. We’re not far off here. Just looking for a little more, and I felt like we were pretty close. Excited about that, proud of our day – especially Chris (Buescher) running well. Just a strong showing. It was just a big day for us. We’re just grinding. The whole company is just grinding and committed to taking us to the next level to get both these cars in the playoffs.”
Chris Buescher — Finished 9th: “It was a solid day. I’m really proud of our group. This Fastenal Mustang had good speed in it all day – probably fifth to 10th is probably where we were going to be. Ended up ninth with the late restart and had a lap-down car racing us pretty hard. Jacked us up there, but at the end of the day it was solid. Everyone did a good job on pit road, kept track position, worked hard on-track, and it’s a solid one. Just wanted to be a little more free on that last race restart to see if we could drive forward a little bit more, but it was good to stay up there all day and in contention. This was a really good day. Especially when it’s eight or nine cars on the lead lap at the end. We stayed in it that whole time. That’s strong. I think this was about the time we hit our stride last year. I feel like we’ve had a little bit of a stronger start to the season, but not always had the results. But we have speed, and we were able to work steadily today and be solid. We got the result we deserve and worked for.”
Josh Berry — Finished 10th: “Happy to get another top 10. I think it was a really solid day for the No. 48 Ally Chevy team. We needed a little bit more there to be a little bit better, but overall with the amount of experience I have in Cup cars, I feel like to run about where we did was really solid. Just proud of Blake (Harris, crew chief) and everybody on this team for a great job.”
Erik Jones — Finished 16th: “It’s a good day for our No. 43 Allegiant Chevy, you know, we were kind of back and forth on the balance throughout the day just trying to get some stuff better, but we came a long way from where we were in practice. Obviously, we were pretty off there from when we unloaded, but we got quite a bit better, quite a bit closer, but we just needed to get the balance. We missed one run and kind of got mired back and lost a lap, so we couldn’t really come back from it that late in the race. We’ll take it, move on and learn from it, and take it to Kansas next week!”
Austin Cindric — Finished 20th: “I definitely learned a lot today in the Menards/Great Stuff Ford Mustang. I feel like I could come back here tomorrow and make some good decisions. I got really loose during one of the early runs and went a lap down and just got trapped there. I felt like we had a car that could run in the top 10 at times, if not the majority of the race. I just got trapped and could never make it back up. We also had an issue on our green flag stop to end it. We’ll regroup and head to Kansas.”
Justin Haley — Finished 23rd: “We showed a lot of promise early on in our No. 31 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Camaro ZL1. We fired off so well and had a ton of speed. Unfortunately, as the track built up rubber and I got in dirty air, we just couldn’t find the grip we needed. The first five laps on tires we would be so good, but then we would lose grip and get super-free. By the end of the race I felt like we had improved and learned so much — we just couldn’t get the track position back. We will keep focusing to get back where we need to be starting next week in Kansas.”
Joey Logano — Finished 31st: “There was fire, so something broke. Something broke a long time ago, like halfway through the race. We were so slow and the car wouldn’t turn. Whatever it was, it finally broke.”
Brennan Poole — Finished 33rd: “I’m not exactly sure, but I feel like I just got ran over. As soon as he ran into me, I just kind of got shoved into the corner, like way too deep, and then I was just immediately turned around. So, I think it was the No. 1? Go figure. I mean, just a joke… 80-something laps into a race? No reason. I was side-by-side with the No. 3 (Austin Dillon), just got to the outside and it’s not like I can go anywhere or give him any more room than what I had. He just ran me over. So it’s kind of pathetic. I don’t know. It seems to be something he does a lot recently. Just uncalled for. It was my first time in a new Cup car, and 80 laps out… for what? I really wasn’t using a lot of brake at all. You’re kind of just rolling out of the gas. Maybe if you came in a little too hot in dirty air you would brake, but no. I just drove in side-by-side with No. 3, rolled out of the gas and just got ran over. It may have even been before I needed to roll out of the gas. I don’t know. I’ll have to look at the replay. I just feel like it’s not necessary. It just kind of sucks to tear up a car when you’re getting an opportunity to be here on Sunday. I’m grateful for this opportunity, grateful to be here. I got another shot next week to go prove myself again, and hopefully it turns into more.”
Noah Gragson — Finished 34th: “I don’t know what happened. I tried to get to the top and search for clean air. It was a mistake on my part. The air was tricky in the back of the pack. It was tight and it got loose. I don’t know, I need to go back and look at it. It’s just been a disappointing year overall. I’m thankful for all of the guys’ efforts on our No. 42 Legacy Motor Club team. We’ll take our Sunseeker Resorts Chevy off to Kansas next week and move on from here.”
Daniel Suarez — Finished 35th: “The conditions were perfect. I don’t think it had anything to do with the track. The track was good, the car was really good. For how quick I lost the car, I think I had a tire going down or something because it happened instantly. My car wasn’t loose, and I didn’t have a warning or anything. It’s unfortunate to be out of the race this early at a race track that we normally run very well at.”
