The most shocking victory of the NASCAR Xfinity Series season came at Daytona International Speedway in the Wawa 250 on Friday, Aug. 26, and now it’s finish means something once again.
With all but five cars involved in incidents and half the field in the garage for the final restart, Jeremy Clements held off Timmy Hill and a damaged AJ Allmendinger to score his second Xfinity Series win in improbable fashion after the caution waved on the 118th and final lap. The checkered flag waved in the early hours of Saturday, Aug. 27, which marked five years to the day of Clements’ first Xfinity Series win at Road America in 2017.
Upon winning, it appeared that Clements had punched his ticket to the playoffs for the third time in his career and for the second year in a row. However, the celebration was short-lived. Clements’ No. 51 car was taken to the NASCAR R&D Center for further inspection, and it was announced days later that the team was assessed an L2 penalty on Aug. 30 for a problem with the intake manifold of the car.
While Clements was allowed to keep the victory, he was stripped of his playoff eligibility while NASCAR dropped the hammer with a $60,000 fine for crew chief Mark Setzer, -10 playoff points and a 75-point deduction in both the driver and owner’s championships.
With the ramifications of the penalty for Jeremy Clements Racing, the team quickly launched an appeal. The process took more than two weeks, but it was announced on Sept. 13 that the L2 penalty was rescinded; Clements was eligible for the playoffs once again.
And with Clements’ reintroduction to the playoff grid comes a complicated situation for the drivers on the cut line, as last Saturday’s (Sept. 10) rain-shortened race at Kansas Speedway was the penultimate race of the Xfinity Series regular season. After Kansas, the cut line was Daniel Hemric (+48), Landon Cassill (+32) and Ryan Sieg (+13) to the good with Sheldon Creed (-13) right behind them.
Now that Clements has been added to the playoff field, Hemric (+35) and Cassill (+19) are the last drivers in while Sieg (-19) and Creed (-32) are further behind in points.
Of course, the possibility of Clements’ penalty being overturned was always an outside chance. But for the last two weeks, Sieg and Creed operated under the assumption that the battle for the final spot would come down to them.
The elephant is the room is the battle between Creed, Noah Gragson and Kyle Larson for the win at Darlington Raceway two…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Frontstretch…