The NASCAR Xfinity Series kicked off the last weekend of August at Daytona International Speedway for the Wawa 250 Powered by Coca-Cola. Chase Briscoe won the pole by a metric system along with Ross Chastain to make up the front row. Only one car had to go to the rear of the field, and that was Riley Herbst for failing inspection. His crew chief was ejected, and he had to do a pass-through penalty.
Night racing on the high banks of @DISupdates — it doesn't get any better than this! 🤩 The #Wawa250 is live on NBCSN. pic.twitter.com/NylL1wZrfW — NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) August 28, 2020
Riley Herbst did his pass-through penalty once the green flag waved. The top ten cars broke away from the field. On the sixth lap, the first caution came out involving Jeffrey Earnhardt, Joe Graf Jr., and Caesar Bacarella on the front stretch. Graf Jr. had a flat right rear tire and went up the track making contact with the outside wall causing right-side damage. Caesar Bacarella tried to avoid Graf Jr. but would hit the outside wall hard and suffer right-side damage.
Oof.#NASCAR // #XfinitySeries // NBCSN pic.twitter.com/ckaR1TMtyd — NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) August 28, 2020
During the caution, Brett Moffitt, Chad Finchum, and four others pitted while everyone else stayed out. Chase Briscoe led the field from the outside lane as the race restarted on lap 12. Briscoe quickly dove to the bottom in front of Austin Cindric. The second caution of the night would come out on lap 14 for an incident at turn three involving Caesar Bacarella when his car sat parked in the grass with more damage. During the caution, Noah Gragson, Daniel Hemric, and five others pitted while everyone else stayed out.
Once again, Chase Briscoe led the field back to green from the outside lane on lap 18. He would quickly dive to the bottom in front of Cindric. On lap 25, the third caution would come out for an incident at turn one involving Jeffrey Earnhardt, BJ McLeod, and Kody Vanderwal. During the caution, Anthony Alfredo, Alex Labbe, Jesse Little, Myatt Snider, and four others pitted everyone else stayed out. The race restarted with one lap to go in stage one. Justin Haley took the lead from Chastain and would win stage one.
2019 July Daytona Cup winner @justin_haley_ wins Stage 1 at @DISUpdates!@XfinityRacing // #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/Hk8WDoVHRv — NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) August 29, 2020
During the caution, cars that pitted under the last caution stayed out everyone else came in for service. Ross Chastain, Chase Briscoe, Noah Gragson, and nine others took two tires. Anthony Alfredo and three others took four tires, and Mike Harmon took fuel only. Timmy Hill and Alex Labbe led the field to the restart on lap 35 to start stage two. A lap into the stage, AJ Allmendinger took the lead. On lap 40, Brandon Jones was entering turn four and made contact with Chase Briscoe, causing a huge wreck involving a total of thirteen cars.
BIG WRECK! Brandon Jones goes around and a bunch of drivers behind him get collected. @NASCAR @XfinityRacing on NBCSN. pic.twitter.com/WfeWxnPNMw — NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) August 29, 2020
During the caution, no one came to pit road as AJ Allmendinger led the field back to green on lap 46. The restart did not last a lap as another caution came out for the sixth time involving six cars at turn three. Among those involved was Justin Allgaier, Alex Labbe, Myatt Snider, Jeremey Clements, Joey Gase, and Brandon Brown. The red flag was displayed as track crews had to clean up the oil left from the wreck. The red flag lasted eleven minutes before racing could resume. During the caution, Chase Briscoe, Brandon Jones, and three others pitted while everyone else stayed out.
In the words of @djkhaled: Another one. 💥#Wawa250 | @DISupdates pic.twitter.com/jtfHcb4vt1 — NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) August 29, 2020
AJ Allmendinger led the field back to green with eleven laps to go in stage two. The restart lasted two laps until the seventh caution came out for debris on the backstretch. During the caution, AJ Allmendinger, Ross Chastain, along with nine others, came to pit road with everyone else staying out. Riley Herbst was the new leader when the race resumed on lap 56. Two laps into the restart, Greg Gaulding took the lead from Herbst. On the final lap of stage two, AJ Allmendinger passed Gaulding on the backstretch and would win stage two.
STAGE 2 CHECKERS: The Dinger dominates another stage for @KauligRacing!@AJDinger | #Wawa250 pic.twitter.com/g2AfaaGFk5 — NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) August 29, 2020
During the caution, AJ Allmendinger, Ross Chastain, Justin Haley, along with two other drivers stayed out while everyone else pitted. Chase Briscoe took fuel only while Austin Cindric, Michael Annett, Riley Herbst, Chad Finchum, and Timmy Hill all took two tires. AJ Allmendinger led the field back to green on lap 65 to start the final stage.
Kauling Racing AJ Almendinger, Ross Chastain, and Justin Haley were running in the top three positions with 18 laps to go on the outside lane in single file. Chase Briscoe and Austin Cindric were right behind them. With ten laps to go, both Chase Briscoe and Austin Cindric dove to the bottom of the track, when Chastain saw this, he dove to the bottom lane to be in front of them. This left Haley alone at the top. Almendinger was still leading as he was playing defense and stayed in front of Chastain.
With the laps winding down, Cindric would get by Briscoe diving down to the inside lane on the backstretch to take third place. Then with two laps to go, Chase Briscoe got hung up on the outside lane due to Haley, Annett, and Herbst moving up on the inside lane. This dropped Briscoe to seventh. On the last lap, Haley got momentum and was moving up on the inside lane when Ross Chastain came down in front of him. He began to march forward; however, he hit Almendinger in the left rear, sending them both spinning and crashing. This allowed Justin Haley to sneak by them and take the win by .253 seconds over Gray Gaulding.
.@KauligRacing teammates WRECK on the final lap!@Justin_Haley_ WINS at @DISUpdates! #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/Jmi1voRREJ — NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) August 29, 2020
From not winning a race to winning a race in a split second. 🤯 It's good to be @Justin_Haley_ !! pic.twitter.com/OdsPlMAVl7 — NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) August 29, 2020
The rest of the top ten finishers were Chase Briscoe third, Riley Herbst fourth, Harrison Burton fifth, Ross Chastain sixth, Michael Annett seventh, Austin Cindric eighth, Josh Williams ninth, and Jesse Little tenth. There were nine lead changes and eight cautions for 28 laps.
Updated playoff standings with four races remaining in the regular season are: Austin Cindric first (5 wins), Chase Briscoe second (6 wins), Noah Gragson third (2 wins), Justin Haley fourth (2 wins), Justin Allgaier fifth (1 win), Harrison Burton sixth (2 wins), Brandon Jones seventh (2 wins), are locked in the playoffs. In the playoffs for now are Ross Chastain eighth, Michael Annett ninth, Riley Herbst tenth, Ryan Sieg eleventh, and Brandon Brown twelfth. Outside looking in are Jeremy Clements thirteenth, Myatt Snider fourteenth, Josh Williams fifteenth, and Jesse Little sixteenth. The next race for the Xfinity Series will be next Saturday in the Sport Clips Haircut VFW 200 at Darlington Raceway at 12:30 pm on NBC.
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