The NASCAR Xfinity Series made its first stop on the west coast at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Saturday afternoon. Last week’s winner Myatt Snider won the pole for this race, and next to him was Austin Cindric. For the second race in a row, the “Choose Cone Rule” returned to the race. The rule allows the drivers to pick which lane they want before the race starts. Garrett Smithley (driver change) and Jeffrey Earnhardt (unapproved adjustments) had to start the race at the back. A competition caution was set at lap 20.
On the second lap of the race, Austin Cindric passed Snider for the lead. The race was clean for the first sixteen laps before Stefan Parsons spun off turn four to bring out the race’s first caution. NASCAR officials decided to use that caution as a competition caution. Some teams from the back went to pit road. The race resumed on lap 25 with 20 laps to go in stage one.
Cindric was in control of stage one. He did get loose with three laps to go, allowing Justin Haley to close in on him. Cindric would win stage one. Myatt Snider was a victim during the caution when teams bunched up entering pit road. Snider ran into the back of Bayley Currey, and his car suffered significant hood damage. His team would put tape on it to hold it down. Meanwhile, Daniel Hemric beat Cindric off pit road for the lead. The race resumed on lap 53 to start stage two.
A lap into the restart, Cindric’s car had a flat left rear tire. He tried to get down to pit road, but there were too many cars on the bottom, and he missed it. Luckily for him, the third caution came out when Ty Dillon got loose entering turn one and was hit by Riley Herbst. Herbst had damage to the right side of the car and was the first causality of the race. Cindric only lost one lap and was able to get the free pass. He and Ty Dillon were the only drivers to pit. The race resumed on lap 63.
The restart only lasted three laps before Ryan Sieg, who had a tire rub on the left rear, cut the left rear tire and headed through the infield grass, ripping the splitter off to bring out the race’s fourth caution. His splitter ended up stuck in the infield grass. Once again, no one went to pit road during the caution. The race resumed on lap 76. Daniel Hemric was in control of the rest of stage two and won.
During the caution, teams went to pit road. Brandon Jones beat his teammate Daniel Hemric off pit road. The race resumed on lap 98 to start the final stage. Jones led eleven laps before Hemric passed him for the lead. Jones would also lose the second spot to A.J. Allmendinger. Hemric led an additional twenty-laps before Allmendinger used the low lane to pass him for the lead.
On lap 145, Justin Allgaier was the first car to pit road to start the green flag pit cycles. The pit cycles lasted ten laps before Allmendinger resumed the lead. Nineteen laps later, Harrison Burton went to block Austin Cindric. Cindric bumped him twice, causing Burton to spin at turn one, and out came the race’s seventh caution. Cindric said on the radio, “I can only be blocked by the same guy so many times.”
Some teams went to pit road except for Ty Dillon. He was the new leader when the race resumed with 21 laps to go. Daniel Hemric quickly got the lead on new tires, and Dillon fell back. Dillon would squeeze Brett Moffitt into the wall to bring out the eighth caution of the day. David Starr, Garrett Smithley, and Alex Labbe were also involved in the wreck. Dillon was being held for two laps for having too many men over the wall under the damaged vehicle policy.
No one went to pit road during that caution. The race resumed with thirteen laps to go. A.J. Allmendinger got the lead from Hemric on the same lap and started to pull away. He was taking away all momentum that Hemric had by sending dirty air his way. Allmendinger would go on to win the race by .978 seconds over Hemric. It was Allmendinger’s first win of the season and the sixth of his career. It was also Kaulig Racing’s eighth career win in the Xfinity Series.
The rest of the top ten finishers were Brandon Jones third, Austin Cindric fourth, Noah Gragson fifth, Michael Annett sixth, Josh Berry seventh, Justin Haley eighth, Harrison Burton ninth, and Jeb Burton tenth. There were 23 lead changes and eight cautions for 45 laps.
The Xfinity Series will now head to Phoenix Raceway next Saturday, March 13th, for the Call 811 Before You Dig 200 presented by Arizona 811 at 5:30 pm on FS1.
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