CONCORD, N.C. — Though it’s only halfway through the NASCAR Cup Series regular season, with 23 races in total left to go, the mystery is already thickening about what next year’s driver roster might look like. Prime among those in the potential free-agency blend sits Erik Jones, who is in his second season driving the No. 43 Chevrolet but in his first campaign wheeling it for the recently merged Petty GMS Motorsports group.
Jones — who turns 26 on Memorial Day — offered a glimpse at a potential timetable for getting a deal done for 2023. His update came after he qualified 25th for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 (6 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM) at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Spring will soon turn to summer, and the clock is slowly churning toward decision time.
“I mean, it’s what — end of May, almost June? I mean, by late July, August, I’d like to have something going already for next year,” Jones said. “You get past that, and it just kind of gets to be a burden for both ends, you know. Burden for me, burden for the team, so if I could get something done by then, I mean, that’d be pretty cool.”
The timing of Jones’ confirmed return to Richard Petty’s No. 43 came last year with an Aug. 22 announcement. His status didn’t change when the team underwent an offseason merger with Maury Gallagher’s GMS Racing, forming a two-car operation with Ty Dillon as a new teammate in the No. 42 Chevy.
His re-up in 2021 marked the latest in a series of one-year deals, which included his time under the Toyota banner with Joe Gibbs Racing. Jones said a new deal that had the security of a two-year term or more ranked as a wish-list item.
“I wouldn’t be mad,” Jones said with a laugh. “Obviously, I’ve lived year to year for, I don’t know what, three years now, maybe? Something like that. So having a multiyear deal would be something I would like to have. It at least gives some comfort, knowing what you’ve got going on for a while and to be able to continue just to build the program, continue to work toward one goal with everybody. The team kind of relies on that, too, you know. They see that stuff and want to keep working with multi-years like that.”
Jones ranks 17th in the Cup Series standings, seven spots better than where he was at this time last year. He’s shown some glimmers or restoring the No. 43 to its past glory this season — a pristine third-place run at Auto Club Speedway and a near-victory that slipped away in the final lap at Talladega Superspeedway.
Jones has two Cup Series wins in his career, but none since his Southern 500 triumph in 2019 at Darlington. He’s in the midst of his sixth full season at NASCAR’s top level and indicated there’s still plenty he wants to accomplish.
“I want to go for a while still in the Cup Series. There’s a lot of stuff I still want to do,” Jones says. “I’ve been able to come here and win a couple races, which has been great, and that’s always your first goal, but still want to win more races. The championship is always the ultimate goal and I feel like, you know, the right group, we can make that happen someday.”
JENNERSTOWN, Pa. – Two legendary names in Modified racing came together for a landmark victory Saturday night at Jennerstown Speedway.
Mike Christopher Jr., nephew of the late Ted Christopher, wheeled the No. 7NY Modified owned by Tommy Baldwin Jr. to his first NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour victory during the Jennerstown Salutes 150.
It was the third-straight victory for team owner Baldwin after six-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion Doug Coby drove to consecutive victories in the last two events at New York’s Riverhead Raceway and New Hampshire’s Lee USA Speedway.
“I’m real happy,” said the 23-year-old Christopher. “I’m real proud of what Tommy Baldwin has done this year. Obviously Doug has been in the car the last two races and he won. I had this scheduled to run this race and then Doug wins the two races. I guess I had a lot of shoes to fill.”
Make it three wins in a row for Tommy Baldwin Jr.!
Christopher started eighth and slowly worked his way to the front of the field while Tyler Rypkema led the way after starting from the pole. Christopher moved into third on Lap 71 and quickly caught Rypkema and second-place Jon McKennedy.
McKennedy took the lead from Rypkema on Lap 88, with Christopher following him past to take second. A dozen laps later caution flag would wave when Kyle Bonsignore came to a stop between Turns 1 and 2.
All of the leaders hit pit road for tires, but McKennedy mistakenly stopped in the wrong pit box and was forced to come back around to the pits a second time.
That gave Tommy Catalano the lead with Christopher alongside him for the restart. Christopher quickly dispatched Catalano only to lose the lead to Rypkema, who restarted third, a few laps later.
From there it was a cat and mouse game, with Rypkema leading Christopher by at most a few car lengths for the next 20 laps.
Christopher made the race winning with 11 laps left, diving low in Turns 1 and 2 to take the lead from Rypkema. He ultimately pulled away to a 1.7-second victory, his first NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour triumph in just his third start.
“This is our first time coming here and I can’t be any happier than to park it in Victory Lane,” Christopher said.
Rypkema, who had never led more than five laps in a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race before Saturday night, settled for second after leading more than 100 laps.
“It’s hard to be mad about this,” Rypkema said. “We were second in practice and sat on the pole for the feature and then lead over 100 laps. We were just so tight that last run. I held him off as long as I could. I knew he was getting better runs off the corner and I just couldn’t make it happen.”
J.B. Fortin scored his best Tour finish in third, followed by Andrew Krause in fourth and Catalano in fifth.
McKennedy, Max McLaughlin, Justin Bonsignore, Ron Silk and Craig Lutz completed the top-10 finishers.
A replay of Saturday’s Jennerstown Salutes 150 at Jennerstown Speedway will be broadcast live on USA Network on Thursday, June 2 at 2 p.m. ET.
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season continues Saturday, June 18 at Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, New Hampshire. The event will be shown live on FloRacing.
See where your favorite driver will pit in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 in the NASCAR Cup Series at Charlotte Motor Speedway (6 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Denny Hamlin snatched his first Busch Light Pole Award of the season on Saturday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway, putting his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on the front row for the 2022 Coca-Cola 600.
Hamlin clocked a 29.399-second and 183.68-mph lap around Charlotte’s 1.5-mile oval to secure P1. It marked Hamlin’s 34th career pole, third at Charlotte — a track he has yet to win at in 30 starts. Hamlin has won in two of the four crown-jewel events — Daytona 500 (three times) and Southern 500 (three times). He’s missing Brickyard 400 and Coca-Cola 600 trophies.
“It’s been really a great day and the end result was probably the perfect scenario for me to have an ideal day,” Hamlin said. “Our car’s been good, it’s been good off the truck, and we just continue to tune on it quite a bit and then just kind of thought that once this thing got into the night that you would want to run the low line through (Turns) 3 and 4, so I just continued to get as many reps as I could doing that and it looked like that was kind of the difference maker in the lap itself. Happy about it.
“You talk about the long relationship I’ve had with Coca-Cola that I’ve had for 17 or 18 years now, being part of the Coke family and not winning this race has been pretty frustrating. Certainly, in the resume column, this is at the top of the list by far and the team knows how badly I want it. Anytime we can start with a head start on the field like we will on Sunday, that’s a good thing.”
Hamlin’s driver at 23XI Racing, Kurt Busch, will start alongside him Sunday in the No. 45 Toyota. Busch was 0.003 seconds slower than Hamlin at 29.402 seconds and 183.661 mph. Then, Hamlin’s teammates, Christopher Bell (29.403 seconds, 183.655 mph) and Kyle Busch (29.427 seconds, 183.505 mph), were third and fourth, respectively, giving Toyota the top four spots for the first time at Charlotte and first time overall since 2017.
Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron and his No. 24 Chevrolet came in fifth with 29.52-second and 182.927-mph marks. Austin Cindric, Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick, Alex Bowman and Michael McDowell completed the top 10 for the starting lineup.
Qualifying consisted of two rounds, the first consisting of two groups. The top five in each group made up the final 10.
Kurt Busch, Hamlin, Bowman, Wallace and McDowell advanced out of the first round from Group A. Kyle Busch, Bell, Byron, Cindric and Reddick advanced from Group B.
There were two 20-minute practice sessions before qualifying, dividing the field into Groups A and B. Kyle Larson sustained damage during practice, which led to his absence in qualifying.
LARSON TOPS PRACTICE BOARD
Kyle Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet zoomed to the top of the practice leaderboard Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He posted a 29.589-second and 182.5-mph lap around the 1.5-mile track.
Teammate Alex Bowman in the No. 48 car clocked the second-best time at 29.637 seconds and 182.205 mph. Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain then chimed in third with his No. 1 Chevy at 29.703 seconds and 181.8 mph.
Austin Cindric from Team Penske and Martin Truex Jr. from Joe Gibbs Racing placed fourth and fifth in order. Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Daniel Suárez, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano rounded out the top 10.
“I definitely want more,” Cindric said. “We were pretty loose in qualifying. I’m not sure I can do 400 laps, 600 miles hanging on like that, but a solid day for our Menards Ford Mustang. I think we need a little bit of speed to run up inside the top five, but this race is gonna be about execution. This is gonna be my first Coke 600 in person and from the driver’s seat, so I want to do all 600 miles and being in the top 10 is a good start.”
Larson was the fastest in Group A’s practice session. Bowman, Chastain, Logano and Erik Jones (11th overall) completed the top five. Cindric was the fastest in Group B’s practice session. Truex, Busch, Suárez and Blaney completed the top five.
Corey LaJoie slammed into the wall and sustained pretty heavy damage during the first session. Ryan Preece had a large spin in the second session but kept it off the wall. They wound up 16th and 20th on the results sheet, respectively.
The Coca-Cola 600 is scheduled for 6 p.m. ET Sunday and will air live on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. It’ll mark the 14th points-paying event of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season. Kyle Larson won this crown-jewel event last year.
CONCORD, N.C. — NASCAR officials ejected two crew members Saturday after pre-qualifying inspection for the Cup Series’ Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Two teams failed inspection twice during Saturday’s scrutinizing — the No. 31 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet team for driver Justin Haley and the No. 50 The Money Team Racing Chevy for driver Kaz Grala. Ejected were No. 31 engineer Alexander Pelican and No. 50 engineer Tim Norman.
Haley ranks 23rd in the NASCAR Cup Series standings heading into Sunday’s annual 600-miler (6 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM). Grala is set for his third Cup Series start of the year for the part-time TMT Racing operation.
Additionally, NASCAR officials confirmed pre-race Sunday that the following cars will go to the rear of the field: the No. 7 Chevrolet of Corey LaJoie (backup car); and the No. 5 Chevrolet of Kyle Larson, the No. 10 Ford of Aric Almirola, the No. 41 Ford of Cole Custer, the No. 47 Chevrolet of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and the No. 50 Chevrolet of Grala (unapproved adjustments for all).
Teams are still struggling to find a consistent grip on the Next Gen car through the midway point of the regular season. Past weeks have shown mistakes that simply can’t happen if you’re going to make it through the daunting 600-mile marathon Sunday. The Coca-Cola 600 has not only been the best NASCAR test of driver stamina, but also a test of which teams can execute repeatedly in the daytime and into the long night. Obviously, to win the race, you need to be in the race at the end. And that is a tall task in the longest race of the year. Hendrick Motorsports has historically dominated at these 1.5-mile ovals, but the last three Coca-Cola 600s have seen each manufacturer and three different teams take a piece of the pie (Kyle Larson – 2021 with Chevrolet, Brad Keselowski – 2020 with Ford, Martin Truex Jr. – 2019 with Toyota). At its best, this stock-car marathon is unpredictable, much like what we have seen so far in 2022. So which team and driver will rise and conquer the biggest Next Gen challenge yet?
Who’s hot? Who’s not?
After early mishaps and flying under the radar for most of the 2022 season, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has emerged as one of the most consistent drivers in the field as of late. Stenhouse is riding high after his runner-up finish at Dover Motor Speedway, following that stellar performance with consecutive eighth-place finishes at Darlington Raceway and Kansas Speedway. The No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing team has found speed, but more importantly, it has found consistency. Heading to another 1.5-mile track in Charlotte Motor Speedway, Stenhouse can continue to climb up the Cup Series standings and may even be in the mix for his first premier-series win since 2017.
For William Byron, his Martinsville Speedway win couldn’t feel any further away. Since the “Paperclip” triumph, which included a Camping World Truck Series win, the No. 24 Cup team has yet to register a top-10 finish. Yes, the incident at Darlington with Joey Logano prevented him from snapping this cold streak, but outside of that weekend, there hasn’t been much to boast about as of late. Nonetheless, one of only two multi-time winners in the Next Gen era (Ross Chastain), Charlotte should be a bounce-back week for the No. 24 group. Hendrick Motorsports has a strong footing here, and Byron registered a Coca-Cola 600 career-best finish of fourth just a season ago.
Driving under the radar
Chris Buescher’s performance this season has been pretty much on par with RFK Racing’s early struggles. Buescher won the pole at Dover and has three top-10 results, but the team has struggled to find a balance. Based on previous history, the Coca-Cola 600 could not have come at a better time for Buescher and company. Statistically, he has been one of the best in this race over the last three seasons, with three straight top 10s, including eighth in 2021. In one of the toughest races of the season, from strategy to pure will to win, history says Buescher is certainly an underdog to watch this weekend.
Saturday’s sessions
Reigning Coca-Cola 600 winner Kyle Larson pushed it to the limit in the lone practice session of the weekend, but went just a little too far. Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet slammed into the wall, damaging the right-side bodywork and preventing the team from qualifying Saturday night. However, not having to bring out a backup car should bring some comfort for Larson before the long race Sunday. Corey LaJoie also took a spill but was less fortunate and will have overnight work to do on a backup Chevrolet. Outside of these two incidents, drivers seemed to have a better handle on the car than in weeks past, and it showed with a competitive run in qualifying. Toyota once again proved to be on its game after a resurgence in recent weeks, sweeping the top four positions and landing the Busch Light Pole Award with Denny Hamlin. | Full practice, qualifying recap | Two teams see crew members ejected in inspection.
Maddie Meyer | Getty Images
Race-day staples ✅
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.
• Paint Scheme Preview: Coca-Cola 600 weekend at Charlotte | Pick a favorite
• Power Rankings: Ryan Blaney shines after All-Star win | Updated driver rankings
• Fantasy Fastlane: Familiar faces stick out for Coca-Cola 600 | Expert advice • Preview Show: What to expect in the 2022 Coca-Cola 600 | Watch the show
• NASCAR betting: Odds for 2022 Coca-Cola 600 | DraftKings betting odds
• Backseat Drivers: Which team will dominate Sunday? | Watch and listen
• At-track photos: See what’s going on this weekend at Charlotte | Full gallery
Catch the pack 💨
Read up on the top headlines from the week leading up to Sunday’s race.
• 600 Miles of Remembrance: First look at the fallen soldiers honored during Sunday’s race | Learn more
• More than a moment: Kurt Busch’s tribute to US military is personal, year-long initiative | Read more
• Collaboration: Spire, Corey LaJoie partner with USO, Coca-Cola for patriotic tribute Sunday | Read more
• PROJECT 91: Kimi Raikkonen to make NASCAR debut with Trackhouse Racing | More details | Trackhouse announces PROJECT91
• ‘Seven-Time’: Jimmie Johnson carries champion’s confidence into Sunday’s Indy 500 | Read more
• Penalty report: Two teams fined for violations at Texas Motor Speedway | More details
• Welcome home: Corey, Kelly LaJoie announce birth of second child | Read more
• Dudes being dads: Dale Jr., Kyle Busch join Greg Olsen’s podcast to talk family | More details
• Eyes on Cup: Truck Series owner Shige Hattori’s success in trucks is just the first goal | Learn more
• Great honor: Jim France to be awarded 2022 Spirit of Le Mans trophy | Read more
• eNASCAR: Matt Bussa wins at virtual Charlotte in Coca-Cola iRacing Series | See final laps
Get in on the action 💰
Think you know NASCAR? Put your mettle to the test with gaming, fantasy.
• Parity party: How NASCAR’s newfound parity affects Coca-Cola 600 betting | Read more
• BetMGM: Despite track record, be wary of Martin Truex Jr. in Coca-Cola 600 | Learn why
• Fantasy: Is Ricky Stenhouse Jr. a Coca-Cola 600 Hail Mary? | Hear the debate
• The Action Network: How to bet Bubba Wallace vs. Daniel Suárez matchup | Read more
• Play it LIVE: Full guide to 2022 NASCAR Fantasy Live game | Get the FAQ
• Going all the way: NASCAR betting: 2022 Cup Series championship odds | See them here
Marathon men 🏃♂️
Dive into which drivers have conquered the 600-mile marathon and more history from Charlotte Motor Speedway.
• Winner, winner: All-time Coca-Cola 600 winners | Full list
• Last year: Kyle Larson dominates in first Coca-Cola 600 win | 2021 race recap
• Race Rewind: Larson sweeps all the stages in 2021 | Relive the best moments
• Do it for Dale: Flashback to Dale Earnhardt’s first Cup start in 1975 World 600 | Watch video
• Last-lap pass!: Jimmie Johnson wins 2005 Coca-Cola 600 | Watch video
Fast facts ⏩
Hard-hitting, race-relevant statistics, brought to you by the experts at Racing Insights.
• Kyle Busch’s pit crew had the fastest four-tire stop in each of the last five races with live pit stops. • First raced on June 1960, Charlotte is the oldest of the current 1.5-mile tracks on the Cup Series schedule. • The Coca-Cola 600 is the only race on the schedule with three stage breaks prior to the final stage. • Twice a driver swept all three stages and won the Coke 600, Kyle Busch in 2018 and Kyle Larson in 2021. • The final green-flag stretch was five laps or less in two of the last three Coca-Cola 600s.
Say what? 🎙
Notable quotes from the stars of the sport heading into Sunday’s race.
• “Racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway is always special for me. I grew up watching races here as a fan, I raced Legend cars on the quarter-mile and have raced there in every series of NASCAR for the most part. It’s a hometown race for Mr. (Rick) Hendrick and Hendrick Motorsports as well. You always want to run good when the shop is literally across the street. Winning the 600 would already mean so much given the history of this race, but it would carry even more meaning for myself. We ran well in last year’s 600, the biggest difference will be with the Next Gen car. I think we have some good notes on mile-and-a-half tracks so far this year, and with how long the race is, it gives us time to adjust throughout the race if we need to.” — William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
• “I hope it gets wide out there. That is when this car is really good when you can run the fence, the bottom, and the middle and get some air under your nose. That is when the racing is really good with this car, like at Fontana and Vegas, where there are multiple lanes to go and it is easy to make mistakes and that is what makes racing good. If it is easy for drivers to mess up and make mistakes and be on the verge of wrecking, that is when you see people go forward and backward and it takes a wide track to do that.” — Ryan Blaney, driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford
• “The Coca-Cola 600 is a race that I haven’t won that I really would like to win. It’s a tough race, it’s an endurance race that really tests the driver and the car, and it’s one of the toughest for a reason. It’s one that I’ve been close, but I just haven’t been able to get the checkered flag there yet. Winning this race would certainly be something that would get added very high on the resume.” — Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
CONCORD, N.C. – Justin Allgaier’s shrug and smile did a lot of the heavy lifting in telling his feeling after a slugfest of a race with fellow JR Motorsports ace Josh Berry. The two teammates were 1A and 1B for much of Saturday afternoon at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and their intrateam battle turned physical at times in the Alsco Uniforms 300.
Allgaier took the short end of their final-stage clash, getting his No. 7 Chevrolet loose in Turn 1 with 15 laps remaining and allowing Berry’s No. 8 Chevy to scrape by. By that time, the lead pair had a 15-plus second gap on the third-place runner. Berry waltzed to an 18-second margin of victory over runner-up Ty Gibbs. Allgaier stopped for tires after his wall contact but still held for seventh place as the first driver one lap down.
Their battle was validation of the current speed level of JR Motorsports, but also a referendum on the gloves-off nature of racing within the organization and where the line in the sand is marked. With their performance near-equal and optimal, Berry and Allgaier have had a habit of being in close quarters in recent weeks. Saturday was the latest chapter.
“Every week, it just seems like we’re battling amongst ourselves,” Allgaier said from pit road post-race. “It may not even be for the win, but whether it be for fifth or second or 10th — whatever it is — we race each other really hard and we race each other a lot. So it can be difficult at times. I mean, obviously knowing where that line is, it’s always the difficult part, but on the other side of it, I think you race each other aggressively but trying not to wreck each other and battle it out for the win.
“Like I said, the worst thing we could do is come here with four extremely fast Camaros and not one of us win it, right? So we did the best job we could today, and we came up a little bit short but obviously as a company, we still got the victory.”
Allgaier led 63 laps, second only to Berry’s race-high 89. Only three other drivers led laps Saturday, and JRM’s Noah Gragson and Sam Mayer were among them.
Allgaier apologized to his crew with 10 laps remaining after his fate was cast: “That’s a heck of a way to lose one right there, boys. I’m sorry.” But No. 7 crew chief Jason Burdett said there was consolation to be found in how well the team ran.
“As an organization, I don’t know, I mean, we can’t ask for much more out of either of those guys,” Burdett told NASCAR.com. “With 20 to go, we’re 15 seconds ahead of third and they’re both racing as hard as they can go. Now, unfortunately, we got the fence, which ultimately ruined a second-place finish but it’s fun.
“I think they asked me during the race about battling with the 8 and teammates all the time. It makes it harder because you know it goes both ways. You want them to give you a little; they want you to give you a little, because your teammates — this, that, whatever – but at the end of the day, man, all four of us have been really good for the last couple of months, and that’s a lot of fun. And it keeps pushing everybody to be better every week.”
Few have been recently better than JRM, which has won four of the last five Xfinity Series races. Berry (Charlotte, Dover Motor Speedway) has accounted for a pair of those, and Allgaier added a tally to that stretch at Darlington Raceway.
The tour returns next Saturday at the Portland, Oregon, road course, and the odds Berry and Allgaier are racing in close confines are better than average. In any event, Berry said an underlying sense of respect permeated their near-weekly heat-of-the-moment battles.
“I mean, it’s tough, right? Like, the reality of it is, our cars are phenomenal right now,” he said. “And there’s five of us in the top seven, eight, whatever it is. We’re gonna have to race each other and more times than not, Justin and I seem to find each other racing for these wins. It was intense, but I respect Justin. He’s a very underrated race-car driver. He’s very good, and right now, the reality of it is that we’re pushing each other to get better every week. And that was a tough battle for sure. But it came down to it that, who was going to slip and luckily I didn’t.”
CONCORD, N.C. — When Josh Berry crossed the finish line at Charlotte Motor Speedway — giving JR Motorsports its first NASCAR Xfinity Series win at its home track — second-place Ty Gibbs was just reaching the 200-foot-long Speedway TV screen television on the backstretch.
After JRM teammate Justin Allgaier scraped the outside wall for the second time and had to pit during the final 81-lap green-flag run, Berry won Saturday’s Alsco Uniforms 300 by an astonishing 18.039 seconds over Gibbs.
But the race wasn’t that lopsided before Allgaier had to bring his No. 7 Chevrolet to pit road on Lap 185 of 200.
True, Berry and Allgaier were racing in a different zip code from the rest of the field, but their battle was intense until Allgaier nicked the wall on Lap 177 and hit the Turn 2 barrier even harder eight laps later.
With Allgaier out of the picture, Berry enjoyed a pleasure cruise for the remaining 15 laps and finished three-quarters of a mile ahead of Gibbs.
“Man, it’s so amazing,” Berry said. “This car was so good. (Crew chief) Mike (Bumgarner) and this whole group works so hard. We’ve been getting better every week. I think the sky is the limit as we continue to learn about each other and keep getting better.
“That was a battle with Justin. It always is with us. We always seem to run good at the same places and always have to race each other. He slipped up in (Turn) 1 — and I got loose, too, and it all worked out.”
In fact, JR Motorsports, co-owned by NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr., enjoyed another banner day from green flag to checkered flag. Sam Mayer started from the pole position and finished third. Berry won the first stage and Allgaier the second, giving JRM its 10th consecutive stage victory — extending the series record established last week at Kansas Speedway.
Five drivers led laps Saturday — four of them from JRM. Berry led a race-high 89 circuits, followed by 63 for Allgaier, 36 for Noah Gragson and two for Mayer. Gragson dropped off the lead lap with a cylinder down, but with power seemingly restored, he recovered to finish fourth.
Berry won for the second time this season and the fourth time in his career. JRM has won four of the last five Xfinity Series races.
“I think everybody knew that this was going to be a good benchmark for our organization, and I think I speak for everybody in saying that we exceeded expectations,” Berry said.
Ryan Preece came home fifth in the top Ford, with Daniel Hemric, Allgaier, Sheldon Creed, Trevor Bayne and Myatt Snider completing the top 10.
Allgaier had the lead on Lap 163 after a full cycle of green-flag pit stops, and he held it until Berry beat him to the stripe by 0.022 seconds on Lap 176. Allgaier regained the top spot on Lap 177 but scraped the wall for the first time a lap later.
“We tried to put on a show for the fans,” Allgaier said. “I don’t know if you can drive any harder. At one point we were literally barreling off into Turn 1 harder than we did in qualifying.
“I thought we were going to be OK there and battle it out again (after the first contact with the wall), but unfortunately, my right rear started to go flat.”
NOTE: There were no major issues in the NASCAR Xfinity Series garage found during post-race inspection, confirming Berry as the winner. The No. 44 of Ryan Ellis had one lug nut not safe and secure, usually resulting in a fine to the crew chief next week.
