After some crashes, spins and a lengthy rain delay, Noah Gragson wound up on top in the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 on Saturday, Sept. 3.
It was a tight battle between Sheldon Creed, who had the lead on the late restart, Gragson and Kyle Larson. Contact was made several times amongst all three drivers, and on the last lap Creed got into the wall with sparks flying, allowing Gragson to get by him for the win.
Creed was second, AJ Allmendinger placed third, Justin Allgaier was fourth and Larson rounded out the top five.
This race was rather strange in the first couple of stages.
Actually, it started before the green flag waved. Ty Gibbs was warming up his tires and accidentally got into Justin Allgaier. Both were able to continue on, though.
Much of stage one was relatively quiet, save for some Darlington stripes. However, as the stage wound down, multiple cars had some trouble. First, Ryan Ellis and Joe Graf Jr. made contact with each other as the leaders, including Gragson, were going by.
Around the same time on lap 41, Larson had a flat tire and pitted, going two laps down as a result.
Gragson ended up winning stage one, and during the caution between stages one and two, another odd thing happened. Anthony Alfredo ran into the back of John Hunter Nemechek, ruining the No. 23’s day.
Tuesday: Alfredo sauce spill closes I-55 in Memphis.
Saturday: Anthony Alfredo crashes into John Hunter Nemechek.#NASCAR pic.twitter.com/FUtREsqsHj
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) September 3, 2022
“[…] Started to get sick in the car, everything happened really fast,” Alfredo told Frontstretch and other reporters. “I was catching the field, we were a penalty car after that pit stop and he was coming off pit road for the same reason. When I looked up, they were right there, I just tried to avoid them. I just really couldn’t do anything because I was getting sick in the car. Just an embarrassing incident but I don’t think I could have done anything because it all happened so fast.”
He also apologized to Nemechek and his team, as well as Alfredo’s own team.
Shortly after stage two got underway, several cars were involved in a big crash off of turn 2. Myatt Snider got loose off the corner, while Kris Wright slid into Graf. Tommy Joe Martins spun and slid across the track and as Riley Herbst tried to avoid him, the No. 98 slammed the inside wall, ending his…
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