RICHMOND, Va. – The four drivers who vied for the Dash 4 Cash bonus in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race all started among the top five at the front of the pack. None of them finished there, but best-of-the-rest veteran Justin Allgaier was still smiling at the end, $100,000 richer.
After a final-stage call on pit strategy that nearly went awry, Allgaier held on to finish 13th and outlast the others in the Dash 4 Cash-eligible quartet on a hard-fought afternoon at Richmond Raceway. The rest struggled to stay on the lead lap, with Allgaier’s JR Motorsports teammate Sam Mayer taking 17th, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Sammy Smith driving home 19th and Kaulig Racing’s Daniel Hemric placing 24th as the first driver one lap down.
Allgaier started from the pole and led only the first two laps but grappled to keep the same pace as the day’s eventual front-runners in the ToyotaCare 250. With 40 laps to go, his No. 7 JRM crew chief, James Pohlman, opted to pit on a long green-flag run through the final stage, but a yellow flag 10 laps later for Jeremy Clements’ stalled No. 51 thwarted the gamble. He held on with tires that were 10 laps older than most of his peers who pitted during that caution period, helped by a trickle of more yellows that kept the others from gaining on him.
“Obviously, you want to win the 100 grand by winning the race, right, and we felt like that was the call to try to win the race,” Allgaier said. “We were off a little bit more than we wanted to be, and we knew everybody was gonna have to pit in that last segment. It’d been going green, so we were kind of hopeful that maybe it would stay green. … Ultimately, it worked out for us, but proud of the team, proud of the effort. You know, Jim Pohlman’s done a great job this year. We made the play to go try to win the race. It could have bitten us and taken the 100 grand away, but ultimately didn’t.”
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Allgaier took some exception with how the pivotal caution period played out, with Clements’ car stopping on pit road just short of an escape route. “Of course,” he said on the No. 7 team radio.
“Every time he breaks or has a problem, we are on a different strategy than everybody else, and it always bites us,” said Allgaier, able to smile about it later with his six-figure payday secured. “I don’t know why. Jeremy and I are really good friends. But it’s like, oh, man, it just, it never fails.”
The rest of the four who made the Dash 4 Cash field on the basis of their finishes in the qualifier at Circuit of The Americas last weekend each fought through their own issues, and all three were one lap down at the end of Stage 2.
Mayer was the top finisher from that group. A Lap 230 crash between Riley Herbst and Brandon Jones put his No. 1 JRM Chevy back on the lead lap, but he was unable to gain enough ground to top Allgaier. A JR Motorsports spokesperson said he declined to comment about his finish post-race, but he told his No. 1 team over the radio that something seemed to break in the car’s rear end early on.
Smith was bitten by a strategy call in the first stage that put his No. 18 Toyota at a deficit. He and teammate John Hunter Nemechek opted not to pit during a competition caution at Lap 35, and the rest of the field overtook them easily on fresher tires. Smith was a lap down in 33rd place by Lap 70, but the free pass at the stage break five laps later went to Nemechek’s No. 20 Toyota in 32nd.
Smith didn’t return to the lead lap until the 239th of 250 laps. Nemechek rallied to finish second to race winner Chandler Smith, no relation.
“I knew the 20 was going to stay out, and I felt like at the time, the other guys were conserving tires, so obviously, looking back, it was a big mistake,” said No. 18 crew chief Jeff Meendering. “I thought more people were gonna stay out with us, and I didn’t want to be at a tire deficit at the end of the race. It put us in a great big hole, and we had a really good car. Sammy did a great job, and I definitely screwed up the pit call.”
Hemric’s downfall came later as he lost significant headway through the middle portions of the event. Post-race, he joined his crew in diligently checking over his No. 11 Kaulig Chevy to see if anything had gone amiss.
“I’ve never had something go that bad without having a problem,” Hemric said. “So we’ll get to the bottom of it. That first run, I tried to go hard, knowing we’re gonna pit at Lap 35, and then after that, OK, there’s parts of the run where you save your stuff, and I couldn’t manage anything, so I don’t know.”
Allgaier will get a chance to repeat in the Xfinity Series’ next race of the Dash 4 Cash program, scheduled Saturday, April 15 (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM) at Martinsville Speedway. He will be joined in the bonus-eligible field by Chandler Smith, Nemechek and JRM teammate Josh Berry.
Rookie Chandler Smith earned his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series victory Saturday afternoon at Richmond Raceway, holding off John Hunter Nemechek on a final race restart with six laps remaining to hoist the ToyotaCare 250 trophy.
Smith’s No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet led a race-best 83 of the 250 laps – the bulk of that early in the race. But the 20-year-old Georgia native was able to run among the top five for most of the day and ultimately drive his Chevy around Nemechek’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on that last restart, pulling away to a 0.298-second victory after intense side-by-side action for the lead in the closing laps.
Smith has had three top-five finishes, including a gut-wrenching near miss at Las Vegas last month. After leading a dominant 118 laps and being out front with one lap to go at Vegas four races ago, he had to settle for third place. So this victory at Richmond was especially motivating for the young driver.
“Feels great,’’ a smiling Smith said. “This goes to testimony as to Vegas, dominated that race but didn’t win and said, ‘It was all in God’s timing.’ … Here we are in Richmond, my favorite race track, and we’re sitting in Victory Lane.’’
It marks the third-consecutive runner-up finish for Nemechek at the 0.75-mile Richmond track, including a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race and the last two NASCAR Xfinity Series races there.
“We weren’t very good on the short run, we had a long-run speed car,’’ Nemechek said. “But we came from the back up there to battle for the win, put ourselves in position.’”
“Disappointed to run runner-up again, that’s the last three races I’ve run here, finished second. Frustrated, but we’ll go back to work. The 16 (Smith) just had the best car on the short run.”
JR Motorsports driver Josh Berry finished third in the No. 8 JRM Chevrolet. He led 63 laps and was out front with 65 laps remaining until a series of caution flags and restarts characterized the race ending.
Kaz Grala turned in a strong day with a fourth-place showing in the No. 26 Sam Hunt Racing Toyota — equaling his career-best effort in the Xfinity Series. And Cole Custer rallied to a fifth-place finish in the No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford after a problem on pit road and some tight side-by-side racing late in the day.
Justin Allgaier — who started his No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet from pole position after qualifying was rained out Saturday morning – led laps early but had an up-and-down day. Ultimately, he finished 13th and was good enough to take the first $100,000 bonus in the Dash 4 Cash sweepstakes sponsored by Xfinity.
With his work, Allgaier now joins Saturday’s three new qualifiers – Chandler Smith, Berry and Nemechek to contend for the next $100,000 check at the series’ next race at Martinsville Speedway on April 15.
“Weird day today, we didn’t fire off quite as good as we hoped for, but they kept working, great pit stops all day.’’ Allgaier said, adding: “It’s weird finishing 13th and still be standing here holding this check, but the other guys had a rough day. This puts us in next week for the Dash 4 Cash, so huge thanks to Xfinity for all they do for the sport.’’
Seven different drivers led at least 24 laps – and for much of the race, there were at least three drivers ranked among the top 10 looking for their first career Xfinity Series win.
Sheldon Creed, Ryan Sieg, Parker Kligerman, the season’s three-race winner Austin Hill and Derek Kraus rounded out the top 10. It was the first series start for Kraus, who raced among the top 10 in his No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet for most of the day.
Riley Herbst, who led 27 laps and Brandon Jones, who led 24, were involved in an accident while contending for fourth place late in the race. Herbst finished 23rd while Jones was 21st.
The next race is the Call811.com Before You Dig. 250 at Martinsville Speedway on April 15 (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Note: Post-race inspection concluded following the Xfinity Series race without issue, confirming Chandler Smith as the race winner.
RICHMOND, Va. – Bubba Wallace was downcast after an early exit to last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of The Americas. He had overcooked one of the road course’s 20 corners and barreled into a pair of other drivers, marking the second straight weekend with a miscue that led to contact. He completed just 10 of the 75 laps.
Wallace was critical of himself in his brief post-race interview, chalking up the incident to what he called a “rookie mistake” and going so far to suggest that he needed to be replaced. It’s led to a week of reflection heading into the next stop on the Cup Series schedule, this Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM) here at Richmond Raceway.
Wallace’s season thus far has been a jumble of results, with three DNFs through six races. The highlight was a fourth-place charge at Las Vegas in March, but his last two efforts were both crash-related finishes outside the top 25 – 27th at Atlanta, 37th at COTA. This week, Wallace said he made an extra effort to rededicate himself to his work ethic, noting that physical health and mental health go hand in hand. The support from his team had also helped pick up his spirits.
“All positive, all uplifting for sure,” Wallace said of the messages from his 23XI Racing colleagues back at the shop. “You know, I questioned myself, sitting on the plane or sitting in the car or waiting to get on the plane of like, why am I in this headspace right now after coming into this year with the most confidence I ever had. And I think I realized, I was solely riding on confidence, you know, not putting the work effort into being where I wanted to be. We put a lot of effort going into COTA, but just from the race before that, you’re just kind of riding on confidence. And, you know, we’ve kind of had an up-and-down start to the year. But realizing like, I gotta work hard, I gotta be a better person.
“I think the text I got from my mom as well, if you want something to change, you’ve got to change yourself. And so finally that stuck with me. Usually I’m like, ‘Thanks, Mom.’ But there’s a lot of unanswered texts that I had, a lot of unanswered phone calls that I had, but I read every single one, listened to all the voicemails, and I appreciate them. But I took a lot of moments, a lot of time to self-reflect and basically, in short, need to get my ass in shape and work out, eat better, just do things better. And I feel good, feel back to where I was to start the year.”
Wallace explained his misstep from last week, where his No. 23 Toyota careened into the Chevrolets of Kyle Larson and Erik Jones entering the Turn 12 left-hander at the 3.41-mile course. He was following the No. 1 Chevrolet of Ross Chastain, a former COTA winner, when he made a move outside the racing line. By the time Wallace tucked back in, he’d lost his point of reference for slowing the car to make the corner. The collision that followed was reminiscent of Larson’s Turn 1 crash with Ty Dillon last year at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
“So I got a run on Ross out of (Turn) 11, and I had this conversation with myself,” Wallace said. “I was like, ‘Ross is pretty good at these places. Don’t overdrive the corner and blow through it, right?’ And so I get three-quarters of the way down the straightaway, and I poke out to see like where we’re at, because I’m kind of fixated. That was my problem, I got fixated on Ross’ car. But I was like, we’re close to the braking marker, I believe, and as soon as I got back in line, he brakes and I was like, oh s—. I’m gonna clean him out.
“So I turned left, and when I did that the way our cars are set up, you’re on the right-rear shocks so hard it loaded and it locked up the rears, and then next thing you know, I looked like Larson at Indy. It’s just, it was just gone. And I piled into Larson, piled into the 43, just all trying not to wreck the 1 car. In short, I should have done that because a lot of people would have been happy with me for wrecking the 1.”
Wallace laughed at the thought of his joke, one that 23XI team co-owner Denny Hamlin – given his history of run-ins with Chastain – might have appreciated. But even with a rough start to the 2023 campaign, Hamlin has remained a staunch supporter in Wallace’s corner, providing words of encouragement as he lauded his recent improvement at road racing.
“When you look at it, his road-course skills took a giant leap in the course of a year,” Hamlin said, noticing how Wallace kept pace with teammate and eventual race winner Tyler Reddick leading up to the event. “They were 1-2 in practice for the bulk of it. He just made a mistake and is just beating himself up. That’s how emotional he is, but he also can really quickly pivot into using it as motivation to get better. And we saw over the last 12 months, he’s used that motivation and he has gotten better. My job is just to pat Bubba on the back and say we all screw up, and we’ve all made big, big mistakes. It’s just when it happens a couple of weeks in a row, as a driver, you really take it hard, but he’ll get over it with a good run.”
RICHMOND, Va. – Daniel Suárez said that he was not expecting to be penalized for his post-race actions last weekend at the Circuit of The Americas and that he and teammate Ross Chastain have moved on from their pit-road disagreement.
Suárez’s remarks came Saturday morning at Richmond Raceway, where qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series was washed away by a series of showers. He will start 20th in the 37-car field for Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) here at the 0.75-mile track.
NASCAR officials penalized Suárez on Wednesday, issuing a $50,000 fine for his actions on the cooldown lap in last Sunday’s Cup Series race. After contact in overtime dropped him from the top five to a 27th-place result in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, Suárez bumped past Chastain, his Trackhouse Racing teammate, at the pit-road entrance to express his frustration with Alex Bowman.
Suárez’s No. 99 Chevrolet made contact with the back bumper of Bowman’s No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy on pit road in close proximity to race officials. That action violated Section 4.4.B&D (Member Conduct) in the NASCAR Rule Book. Suárez said that satellite data showed his car’s speed at less than 20 miles an hour as he initiated that contact.
“I mean, it was very slow, and also, the 48 car, he was brake-checking me, so you know, we’re not going quick,” Suárez said. “There was one official there, and that was wrong. But yeah, I wasn’t expecting anything, but this is what it is. NASCAR wants to send a message, and it’s OK. I’m OK with that. You know, it’s not right what I did, but I don’t think that anything else was going to happen. I wasn’t going to kill somebody like a lot of people thought I was going to, but it is what it is. I’m already moved on from that.”
Suárez exchanged words with Bowman and Chastain on pit road after all three exited their cars. Chastain had knocked Bowman’s car into Suárez’s in COTA’s sharp Turn 1 in a late-race restart, a move that derailed Suárez’s strong day.
The internal friction between teammates was brief but testy, and both Suárez and Chastain said they’d agreed this week to move past the incident.
“Yeah, we just have to, we have to get it mended,” Chastain said. “So that’s, there’s no other way because we’re family. We’re in the same house, right? It’s in our name, it’s Trackhouse. So no matter what, no matter what we all think, we have to put that behind us and know that moving forward, we’re brothers. We don’t always get to pick our family, but we’re brothers at Trackhouse, and we’re going to be stronger together.”
Suárez said that team founder Justin Marks was not needed as an intermediary in their squabble and that the two worked to resolve their issues independently. He added that the recent hot-button topic of racing with respect and the fraught nature of the drivers’ on-track code of conduct was a larger issue that’s contributed to the hurt feelings and the multiple instances of late-race contact at COTA.
“We just worked it out on our own,” Suárez said. “I mean, we already, we know what we did. We know it’s not the first time we’ve been in this position and probably won’t be the last one. You know, that’s part of racing. Both cars on the consistent basis, we’re running in the top five. We’re gonna have situations like this. Sometimes, I’m going to be unhappy with him, and sometimes, he’s gonna be unhappy with me, so it’s part of racing. I don’t see it as a big deal when it comes to Trackhouse. There is no story there. I think the big picture is a problem, you know, what we are doing as a 40-driver group that’s not right. Hopefully, we can fix it, and like I said, if we don’t fix it, the group of drivers that are not doing this kind of thing, they’re just going to join the party and we’re gonna make this embarrassing circus even bigger.”
Bowman, who will start from the pole position in Sunday’s 400-lapper, was the third wheel in the low-key Trackhouse tiff. He said that he and Suárez had watched the video replay of the incident together and felt that they had an understanding afterward.
“Yeah, as far as I know,” Bowman said. “I mean, I’m sure he’s mad that he got run over, but I mean, when my rear tires are off the ground getting in the corner because his teammate’s got me jacked up and his teammate’s getting pushed by another guy, what are you going to do, right?”
Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and Richmond Raceway’s winningest active driver, Kyle Busch (six victories) says the overall parity in the sport since the introduction of the Next Gen race car last year is not a bad thing. There have been five different winners in the opening six races of 2023 with Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron (Las Vegas and Phoenix) the only repeat winner.
“Parity is always good, right?’’ said Busch, who drives the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet and scored a victory at California’s Auto Club Speedway in February.
“Last year we had 19 different winners. Every manufacturer, obviously. I think the guy who won the most races, it was four or five that they won and it’s been a while since it’s been that few races won by the top winner of the series. Typically, you see seven, eight, nine, 10 race wins.
“It just showed good parity and I feel like a lot of that has more to do with this Next Gen race car than it does the manufacturers, but they are all working hard and doing best we can with what we continue to build on our program with RCR and Chevrolet and hopefully keep heading in the right direction.”
When comparing the NASCAR Cup Series competitiveness to other series, such as Formula One, Busch grinned.
“If you look at F1 I don’t think there’s much parity,’’ he said. “So you could argue, that you turn on NASCAR races and you kind of don’t know whose going to win each week. You know who’s good at particular race tracks but sometimes those guys, like myself, only win one race a year so they’re not winning every single week.
“Where you turn on an F1 race and you’re just wondering if anybody’s going to beat Red Bull right now. It was Mercedes. So, there’s obviously a distinct difference between our two series.’’
See where your favorite driver will pit in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Due to poor weather, NASCAR’s Cup Series and Xfinity Series practice and qualifying sessions were canceled Saturday morning at Richmond Raceway. The NASCAR starting lineups were then set based upon the rule book.
Current NASCAR Cup Series championship leader Alex Bowman will start Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) from pole position in the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, with Kyle Busch completing the front row in the No. 8 Richard Childress Chevy. Defending race winner – and four-time Richmond winner — Denny Hamlin will start his No.11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota from 11th on the grid.
There have been five different winners in the last five NASCAR Cup Series races at the 0.75-mile Richmond track.
Justin Allgaier – a two-time Richmond winner – will start Saturday afternoon’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race, the ToyotaCare 250 (1 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) from pole position in the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, alongside Joe Gibbs Racing’s rookie Sammy Smith in the No. 18 JGR Toyota.
JR Motorsport’s Sam Mayer and Kaulig Racing’s Daniel Hemric – who will start their Chevys third and fifth, respectively – join Allgaier and Smith in being eligible for the first $100,000 prize from the Dash 4 Cash incentive program this week at Richmond. The top finishing driver among these four (they qualified for the bonus last week at Circuit of The Americas) takes the big check. The top four finishing full-time NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers at Richmond will then be eligible for the next $100,000 at Martinsville Speedway in two weeks.
Ty Gibbs is the defending Richmond race winner, but he is not competing Saturday.
RICHMOND, Va. — Persistent rain showers Friday evening in the Richmond area forced the postponement of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 at Richmond Raceway.
The race, the second of the 2023 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season, has been rescheduled for Saturday, April 1 after the NASCAR Xfinity Series ToyotaCare 250 at approximately 4:30 p.m. ET.
The Whelen Modified Tour race will be available live on FloRacing and MRN.
Prior to the postponement, Austin Beers set the fastest time in qualifying to secure the Mayhew Tools Dominator Pole Award. Defending race winner Justin Bonsignore qualified second. Click here for complete qualifying results.
