Noah Gragson has not lost an Xfinity race in a month. Let that sink in.
Gragson came across the line first for his fourth straight win and first playoff win of the 2022 postseason. Behind him, Austin Hill, Ty Gibbs, AJ Allmendinger and Riley Herbst filled out the rest of the top five.
This was the first playoff race for the Xfinity Series, and Gragson wasted no time in punching his ticket to the next round. It’s those that came up short, though, that we’ll dive into later.
The Winners
The fact that AJ Allmendinger was able to bring his ride home inside the top five is a miracle in itself with as much tape as he had on it by the end of the race. Allmendinger was involved in multiple accidents, including spinning Brandon Brown from ninth. By the end of the race, there was more tape on the car than actual paint.
Despite plenty of factors working against him, the veteran driver found a way to have a very productive day as he avoided the biggest wreck of the afternoon and put himself in a good position to potentially advance to the Round of 8 ahead of a superspeedway where anything can happen.
Never out of it.
P4 to kick off the #NASCARPlayoffs for @AJDinger. #AndysFrozenCustard300 | #TrophyHunting pic.twitter.com/Yb9gz4BwdN
— Kaulig Racing (@KauligRacing) September 24, 2022
Not only did Noah Gragson win the race, but he also managed to add his name to some very important record books. That fourth straight win tied him with the legendary Sam Ard for the most consecutive Xfinity series wins. Ard set his record all the way back in 1983 (I’m sorry if that doesn’t seem like that long ago, but it was almost 40 years).
The Losers
Wrecking out always sucks, but at least that can be blamed on the incompetence of other drivers sometimes. Jeremy Clements did not have that luxury on Saturday.
Clements suffered an ignition system failure that was originally thought to be a dead battery. After swapping out the battery, it was determined that it was a much larger ignition system issue, and the car was pushed back to the garage. Clements is the underdog story in these playoffs — he’s had to fight through not only other drivers, but even a NASCAR appeal just to get here.
With the 36th-place finish today, Clements would typically have put himself in a must-win situation. However, so many other playoff drivers had such poor performances that Clements might still have a shot.
Caution out – @JClements51 loses power during caution – changing…
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