The NASCAR Xfinity Series returned after a two-week break Friday night at Martinsville Speedway. The last time the Xfinity Series raced at Martinsville was back on Halloween night when Harrison Burton won the race. Speaking of Harrison Burton, he won the pole for this race by a metric qualifying system, and Justin Allgaier qualified second.
The “Choose Cone Rule” returned for this race. The rule allows the drivers to pick a lane before the race starts. Just as the cars were leaving pit road, Matt Mills stalled on pit road. NASCAR put in a competition caution for lap 25.
Burton got a good jump on the opening lap to keep the lead. Five laps later, Jade Buford spun at turn one to bring out the first caution. No one went to pit road, and the race resumed on the eleventh lap. A lap later, A.J. Allmendinger thought he had a flat left rear tire going down. But, thirteen laps later, he brought the car to pit road, and his crew lifted the hood and found out that something had broke in the front suspension.
Two laps later, the competition caution came out. No one went to pit road during the caution, and the race resumed on lap 33. Five laps into the restart, Noah Gragson made his way to second after passing Justin Allgaier. A spin by Stefan Parsons brought out the third caution on lap 43. Before the race resumed, Jeb Burton and David Starr were sent to the back for an infraction during lane choice. The race restarted on lap 48.
Two laps into the restart, Michael Annett wheel hopped after making contact with Myatt Snider and spun at turn one to bring out the race’s fourth caution. Some drivers went to pit road during the caution, including the leader Harrison Burton, Justin Allgaier, Ryan Sieg, Josh Berry, and five others. Noah Gragson was the leader when the race resumed with five laps to go in stage one.
Three laps into the restart, Alex Labbe tagged Riley Herbst, sending him around to bring out the fifth caution and end stage one that went to Noah Gragson. The drivers who did not pit in the last caution went in for their stops. Brett Moffitt was the leader when the race resumed on lap 68 to start stage two. Four laps into the restart, Brandon Jones took the lead away from Moffitt while Josh Berry took second place.
Moffitt would lose one more position to Daniel Hemric to drop to fourth place. On lap 78, Josh Berry used the inside lane in turn four to take the lead. Shortly after taking the lead, the caution would come for rain. The rain did stop at times, allowing the jet dryers to attempt to dry the track. Still, it started to rain again, and at midnight, NASCAR postponed the race to Sunday afternoon.
The skies were bright blue when the race finally restarted under caution on lap 92 Sunday morning. Brandon Jones was the leader when the race resumed on lap 97. Jones would lose the lead to Daniel Hemric on the same lap. Nine laps into the restart, Josh Williams and Myatt Snider were battling for the tenth position. Williams made contact with Snider’s back and spun at turn four. Williams ended up with a flat left rear tire as the caution was out of the eighth time. NASCAR held and penalized Williams for intentionally bringing out the caution.
Some drivers went to pit road during the caution that included Harrison Burton, Justin Allgaier, Brett Moffitt, and Justin Haley. Hemric was the leader when the race resumed with nine laps to go in stage two. Hemric led the last nine laps to win stage two.
Some of the drivers who did not pit under the last caution went to pit road. JJ Yeley took fuel only and beat both Gragson and Hemric off pit road. Tommy Joe Martins was the new leader when the race resumed on lap 132. Josh Berry would quickly get the lead from Martins on the same lap. A lap into the restart, Hemric made contact with Michael Annett damaging his nose. Seven laps later, Kyle Weatherman turned Colby Howard around to bring out the race’s tenth caution.
No one went to pit road during the caution, and the race resumed on lap 146. Seven laps later, the tenth caution came out on lap 153 when Brandon Gdovic spun after making contact with Jeremy Clements. Colby Howard was the only driver to pit under the caution to repair the rear bumper. The race resumed on lap 160, with Berry still leading the race.
Five laps into the restart, Riley Herbst cut a left rear tire after making contact with Myatt Snider and went to pit road. On lap 176, Blaine Perkins and Joe Graf Jr. got together at turn three to bring out the race’s eleventh caution. Some teams went to pit road during the caution, with Josh Berry beating out Austin Cindric. Bayley Currey and Jade Buford stayed out, and we’re both on the front row for the restart on lap 184.
Three laps into the restart, Josh Berry got the lead back while Ty Gibbs followed him for second place. Gibbs was on the back bumper of Berry, and on lap 194, he moved to the inside lane of turn one to take the lead. Nine laps later, Myatt Snider, Harrison Burton, and Alex Labbe went three-wide when Labbe spun in between turns three and four to bring out the twelfth caution of the day.
No one went to pit road during the caution, and the race resumed with 41 laps to go. Josh Berry spun the tires on the restart but managed to keep second place. He spent eleven laps behind Gibbs before making his move on lap 222 on the inside of turn one for the lead. Noah Gragson followed Berry to take second place while Gibbs settled for third. Gibbs would lose one spot to Daniel Hemric and settled for fourth place.
Meanwhile, Josh Berry was pulling away from Gragson when they approached lapped traffic. Towards the end of the race, Hemric caught Gragson and battled him for second place. He even hit Gragson’s bumper. Upfront, Josh Berry led the last 29 laps to score his first career victory at Martinsville by .590 seconds over his teammate Noah Gragson. Gragson would win the Dash 4 Cash worth a hundred thousand dollars.
It was the 53rd career win for JR Motorsports and the second win of the season. The rest of the top ten finishers were Daniel Hemic third, Ty Gibbs fourth, Brandon Jones fifth, Austin Cindric sixth, Harrison Burton seventh, Justin Haley eighth, Justin Allgaier ninth, and Michael Annett tenth. Josh Berry led 95 laps, the most in the race. There were thirteen lead changes and twelve cautions for 75 laps.
The Xfinity Series will be off next weekend before heading to Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday, April 24th, at 4 pm on FOX.
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