The NASCAR Xfinity Series was at Homestead-Miami Speedway Saturday afternoon for the third race of the season. Austin Cindric was on the pole, with Daniel Hemric starting second. There were no drivers that failed pre-race inspection.
The race ran clean for the first twenty-six laps before the No. 99 of Stefan Parsons’s car got loose and spun off turn four to bring out the race’s first caution. During the caution, some of the teams went to pit road. Daniel Hemric hit his tire carrier Josh Shipplett, who is part of Denny Hamlin’s pit crew when he went into the wrong box. Shipplett was taken to the infield care center as Brad Donaghy of Harrison Burton’s crew took over the duties.
A scary moment as the No. 18 of @DanielHemric makes contact with his tire carrier on pit road.#ContenderBoats250 pic.twitter.com/jaVsJH5G16 — NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) February 27, 2021
The race resumed on lap 30 with Cindric and Moffitt upfront. During the restart, Justin Haley led for five laps before AJ Allmendinger, who restarted 27th, took the lead away. Allmendinger led the last five laps to win stage one. During the caution, everyone went back to pit road for service, with Allmendinger beating Justin Haley for the top spot. The race resumed on lap 48 to start stage two.
Allmendinger was in control from the start. He led thirty laps before the third caution came out for fluid on the track left by the No. 99 of Stefan Parsons. During the caution, Harrison Burton’s car was smoking from the exhaust, ending his day with an engine failure. The race resumed on lap 75 with six laps to go in stage two. Noah Gragson took the lead away from Allmendinger. Gragson led three laps before Austin Cindric with fresh tires blew by him for the lead. Cindric led the last three laps to win stage two.
Everyone except Colby Howard made a pit stop during the caution, with Cindric beating Gragson for second place. Another incident behind them was when JJ Yeley slowly entered his box and got turned by Justin Haley. Once pit stops were complete, the race resumed on lap 88.
Everyone was scrambling to get to the front. Myatt Snider briefly had the lead before Cindric took it back. Eleven laps into the final stage, Justin Allgaier came up the racetrack to block the lane Riley Herbst was at and made contact to bring out the fifth caution. Herbst was able to continue the race while Allgaier was the second car out of the race.
Everyone except Jeremy Clements would head to pit road during the caution, with Cindric beating Allmendinger for second place. The race would resume on lap 103. This restart only lasted eight laps before Colby Howard’s No. 15 car left fluid on the track to bring out the sixth caution. Some teams from the back went to pit road. Cindric was still the leader when the race resumed on lap 116.
Brandon Jones would get the lead from Cindric on the same lap. AJ Allmendinger and Brett Moffitt would also take turns leading the race. Noah Gragson would get the lead from Moffitt on lap 137. He had Moffitt right behind him, but Gragson had over an eight-second lead on Tyler Reddick once Moffitt’s right rear tire went down. Gragson had this race won with three laps to go when David Starr’s tire went down and went right up the wall, and Gragson hit him. The seventh caution would come out, sending the race to overtime.
Some teams went to pit road during the caution while others stayed out with Myatt Snider leading the race and Tyler Reddick second. In the first overtime, AJ Allmendinger and Brandon Jones had an incident to bring out the eighth caution leading to a second overtime. Snider would just edge Riddick to score his first career Xfinity Series win in his 36th career start by .085 seconds in the second overtime. Snider’s previous best finish was fourth last year in Pocono. After the race, Reddick’s car was disqualified for rear height requirements and finished in last place.
After his disqualification, the rest of the top ten finishers were Brandon Jones second, Daniel Hemric third, Jeb Burton fourth, Austin Cindric fifth, Justin Haley sixth, Brett Moffitt seventh, Ryan Sieg eighth, Jeremy Clements ninth, and Josh Berry tenth. There were eight cautions for 42 laps, twenty lead changes, and Austin Cindric led the most laps with 64, followed by AJ Allmendinger 45 and Noah Gragson 34.
The Xfinity Series will now head west to Las Vegas Motor Speedway next Saturday, March 6th, at 4:30 pm on FS1.
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