The NASCAR Xfinity Series returned to Daytona International Speedway, this time on the road course Saturday afternoon. Unlike last night, the weather cooperated with bright sunny skies and no rain in sight. Brett Moffitt won the pole for this race, and next to him was Austin Cindric. Before the race began, Daniel Hemric was supposed to start in fifth. However, his car failed inspection three times, and he had to start the race in the rear. Noah Gragson also had problems when his car wouldn’t start, and he sat there just as the field took to the green flag.
It took three laps before the first caution came out for fluid on the track from Natalie Decker’s car. She took the car to the garage and was the first driver out of the race. Austin Cindric was now the new leader with Allmendinger next to him as the race resumed on the sixth lap. Within five laps, Allmendinger had gotten the lead from Cindric, just as the second caution came out for Ryan Vargas’s car stalling on the exit of pit road.
Most of the vehicles from the back of the field went to pit road while the leaders stayed out. Allmendinger led the field back to green with two laps to go in stage one. On the last lap, Cindric got a run and was right on Allmendinger’s bumper. After they exited off the front chicane, heading for the stage one finish, Allmendinger and Cindric had a racing incident where Cindric did not back off and spun Allmendinger. While Cindric did win stage one, his car and Allmendinger’s car both suffered damage. Meanwhile, Riley Herbst was a casualty when he tried to avoid the wreck by heading into the wet grass. His vehicle sustained front-end damage, and he would be out of the race finishing in 39th place.
.@joeylogano and @drewblick take a closer look at what happened between @AustinCindric and @AJDinger. (📺: FS1) pic.twitter.com/30Gxx8oDgi — NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) February 20, 2021
Both crews went to work on the cars. Allmendinger’s crew put tape on the car’s damaged areas, and Cindric’s crew cut off parts of the car’s front right end. All teams pitted during the caution. Harrison Burton was now the new leader as stage two got underway on lap 19.
Two laps into stage two, Ty Gibbs, who was making his first Xfinity Series start, passed Burton for the lead at turn seven. On lap 22, AJ Allmendinger took his car to the garage.
Four laps later, JR Motorsports driver Miguel Paludo, a full-time driver in the Porsche GT3 Carrera Cup Series, made his first of three-road course starts in the Xfinity Series. He locked up his brakes, heading into turn one, which led him to cut his left front tire. Upfront, Ty Gibbs would win stage two on lap 31, becoming the second driver to win a stage in his debut.
Gray Gaulding was the only driver to not pit during the caution while everyone else did. However, there was chaos at the exit of pit road as drivers did not know where the exit was, causing a traffic jam. This was heard on their in-car radios. Brandon Jones did not see the pile-up and ran into the back of Myatt Snider’s car. Jones would have to head back to pit road for repairs. The third and final stage got underway on lap 35 with Gaulding and Daniel Hemric out front.
A lap into the third stage, Cindric retook the lead from Hemric. Meanwhile, Ty Gibbs also made his way to the front, getting the second position. He was right on Cindric’s bumper and at one point, challenged him for the lead for a couple of laps. Jade Buford of Big Machine Racing’s No. 48 car came to a stop at turn five to bring out the fifth caution. Only six drivers went to the pit road.
Cindric led the field back to green with twelve laps to go. Gibbs spun the wheels on the restart, allowing Hemric to take second. Gibbs recovered and got the second position back and now was chasing Cindric. He was closing in on Cindric when Bayley Currey cut a right front tire. As he was hobbling to pit road, pieces of the tire went on the track, which brought out the sixth caution with three laps to go.
Just about all the cars went to pit road, anticipating that there would be more cautions to come after what happened in the Truck race last night. Ryan Sieg and Myatt Snider did not pit and were in the first two positions. Overtime number one was underway on lap 53. Cars were scrambling to get to the front and caused another wreck at the horseshoe to bring out another caution for the seventh time. The drivers involved in this crash were Stephen Leicht, Gray Gaulding, Josh Williams, Cody Ware, and Myatt Snider. Before the caution came out, Jeb Burton had gotten the lead from Sieg.
The second overtime was underway on lap 55. Ty Gibbs, who restarted fourth, made his way back up to the lead while Cindric got second. Gibbs pulled away and would score his first win in his debut by 1.726 seconds over Austin Cindric. Gibbs joins Dale Earnhardt (1982), Joe Ruttman (1982), Ricky Rudd (1983), Terry Labonte (1985), and Kurt Busch (2006) to score their first wins in their Xfinity Series debuts.
The rest of the top ten finishers were Daniel Hemric third, Brandon Jones fourth, Jeb Burton fifth, Harrison Burton sixth, Miguel Paludo seventh, Brandon Brown eighth, Justin Haley ninth, and Jeremy Clements tenth. There were seven cautions for fourteen laps and eleven lead changes.
The Xfinity Series will now to Homestead-Miami Speedway next Saturday, February 27th, at 4:30 pm on FS1.
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