• NASCAR Cup Series
  • Xfinity Series
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RESULTS

START POS

FINAL STATUS

LAPS COMPLETED

LAPS LED

POINTS

PLAYOFF POINTS

1

AJ Allmendinger

16 |

8

Running

113

3

53

5

2

Sam Mayer

1 |

13

Running

113

3

41

0

3

Landon Cassill

10 |

18

Running

113

0

34

0

4

Ryan Sieg

39 |

14

Running

113

11

35

0

5

Josh Berry

8 |

7

Running

113

0

33

0

6

Parker Kligerman

48 |

9

Running

113

0

0

0

7

Ty Gibbs

54 |

2

Running

113

0

33

0

8

Daniel Hemric

11 |

12

Running

113

0

37

0

9

Brandon Jones

19 |

5

Running

113

1

38

0

10

Noah Gragson

9 |

6

Running

113

1

27

0

11

Riley Herbst

98 |

23

Running

113

0

26

0

12

Sheldon Creed

2 |

3

Running

113

2

34

0

13

Trevor Bayne

18 |

11

Running

113

13

37

0

14

Austin Hill

21 |

1

Running

113

60

43

2

15

Justin Allgaier

7 |

4

Running

113

6

35

0

16

Anthony Alfredo

23 |

20

Running

113

0

21

0

17

Jeb Burton

27 |

16

Running

113

0

26

0

18

JJ Yeley

66 |

35

Running

113

0

19

0

19

Josh Williams

36 |

30

Running

113

0

18

0

20

Jeremy Clements

51 |

37

Running

113

0

17

0

21

Joey Gase

5 |

25

Running

113

0

16

0

22

Joe Graf Jr

07 |

19

Running

113

0

15

0

23

Derek Griffith

26 |

26

Running

113

0

14

0

24

Bayley Currey

4 |

24

Running

112

12

13

0

25

David Starr

08 |

33

Running

112

0

12

0

26

BJ McLeod

78 |

32

Running

112

0

11

0

27

Timmy Hill

13 |

36

Running

112

1

0

0

28

Jesse Iwuji

34 |

22

Running

112

0

9

0

29

Cj McLaughlin

38 |

28

Running

112

0

8

0

30

Ryan Vargas

6 |

10

Running

112

0

7

0

31

Caesar Bacarella

45 |

31

Running

112

0

6

0

32

Howie Disavino III

44 |

34

Running

112

0

5

0

33

Brandon Brown

68 |

17

Running

112

0

10

0

34

Mike Harmon

47 |

38

Running

111

0

0

0

35

Myatt Snider

31 |

21

Running

111

0

2

0

36

Blaine Perkins

02 |

15

Running

110

0

0

0

37

Jeffrey Earnhardt

35 |

27

Running

109

0

1

0

38

Mason Massey

91 |

29

Running

95

0

1

0

  • POS 1 | LEADER

    AJ Allmendinger

    POS1

    LEADER

    AJ Allmendinger

    Driver badge number 16 |

  • POS 2 | 0.015

    Sam Mayer

    POS2

    0.015

    Sam Mayer

    Driver badge number 1 |

  • POS 3 | 0.113

    Landon Cassill

    POS3

    0.113

    Landon Cassill

    Driver badge number 10 |

AJ Allmendinger wins Xfinity playoff race at Talladega in photo finish

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Three times A.J. Allmendinger has led the white flag lap on a superspeedway track and not been able to lead that next lap to earn the big trophy.

On Saturday, the veteran waited and pulled ahead of the field in the final feet coming to the Sparks 300 checkered flag at Talladega Superspeedway and edged 19-year old Sam Mayer by .015 seconds — about three feet — in a photo finish to earn his first NASCAR Xfinity Series win at NASCAR‘s biggest track.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

It marked the regular season champ’s fourth victory in the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet this season and first ever at a superspeedway venue. Most importantly, the win — coming in the second race of the opening round of the playoffs — is an automatic ticket through to the next round of Xfinity Series playoff competition.

“Let‘s go,” an absolutely elated Allmendinger screamed into the grandstands after climbing out of his car and accepting the checkered flag at the iconic track.

“Gosh, we‘ve been so close to winning one (superspeedway race) and I feel like I keep giving them away,” Allmendinger said. “Thought I might have given it away. I‘m still learning, trying to know what too big of a lead is. But honestly, all credit to (Kaulig teammate) Landon Cassill.

“He kept shoving me. He stuck with me. That‘s what is great about Kaulig Racing. When you have teammates like Landon and Daniel (Hemric) that you know wherever you go, they‘ll go with you. So thank you Landon.

“Man, I just wanted to win a superspeedway and finally got it,” added a grinning Allmendinger, who now claims 14 career Xfinity Series victories.

Cassill finished third, followed by Ryan Sieg and JR Motorsports driver Josh Berry — all playoff contenders. Parker Kligerman was sixth, followed by Playoff drivers Ty Gibbs, Daniel Hemric, Brandon Jones and Noah Gragson.

It marked quite the comeback for Gibbs, who qualified on the front row, but was involved in the only on-track yellow flag for incident on the afternoon. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver‘s No. 54 Toyota was tagged from behind by Justin Allgaier while racing in a tight pack up front only three laps into the 113-lap event. Gibbs spun out but was remarkably untouched by any other car.

A quick pit stop and impressive pit strategy later, Gibbs was running around the top 10 in the closing laps of the race and managed to recover to that seventh place final effort.

Gragson, driver of the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, was looking to become the first driver in NASCAR Xfinity Series history to win five consecutive races and was running among the top three with 10 laps to go.

RELATED: Appreciating Gragson’s recent dominance

His ultimate move forward for the win in the closing laps was blocked and he instead finished 10th. Although just short of that historic victory nod, he had already earned his automatic ticket to the playoffs’ second round by virtue of his victory last week at Texas (his seventh on the season and fourth in a row).

“We‘re going to keep it going,” Gragson said after the race. “I have a super motivated team… you want to win them all, but you can‘t do that sometimes.”

Pole-sitter and series rookie Austin Hill, who swept the two stage wins and led the most laps — 60 on Saturday — also dropped out of the lead group in the waning laps to the checkered flag. He finished 14th.

With Allmendinger and Gragson having earned automatic bids in ton the next round of the playoffs, Gibbs (-21) and Hill (-27) are ranked third and fourth in the standings, followed by Berry, Allgaier — who finished 15th Saturday — Mayer and Sieg in that eighth and final transfer position.

Defending series champion Hemric  (-6 to the elimination line), Brandon Jones (-10), Riley Herbst (-10) and Jeremy Clements (-47) are ranked ninth through 12th heading into the final race of this playoff round.

Up next is the Drive for the Cure 250 presented by BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina on Saturday (3 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Allmendinger has won the last three races there.

NOTE: Post-race inspection concluded without issue, confirming Allmendinger as the race winner.