The NASCAR Xfinity Series gave us plenty to talk about at Sonoma Raceway.
Shane van Gisbergen won again, re-igniting a rivalry with Austin Hill in the process and cementing his post-race victory drift lap into racing lore while drawing a middle finger from Hill.
Ty Gibbs showed race-winning speed, the only driver able to keep up with SVG on a long run. But when pit strategy put Gibbs back in the pack, a huge pileup ended his day, eliminating SVG’s strongest competition.
AJ Allmendinger had a miserable day which would’ve rang the alarm bells about the state of Kaulig Racing, if not for the curious juxtaposition between he and his race-winning teammate.
Brandon Jones finished dead last and fell to 30 points below the playoff cut line. Another playoff bubble driver, Anthony Alfredo, finished 31st and sits 31 points below the line.
There is another story we’d be crazy to overlook.
The fourth-place finisher? Rookie driver Austin Green.
When the Concord, N.C., native finished seventh at Circuit of the Americas in March, it seemed like an enigma. Some might’ve written the finish off as a road course fluke. Surrounded in the top 10 by the likes of Kyle Larson, Hill, Sam Mayer, Chandler Smith and Allmendinger, Green seemed like the focus of a “which one doesn’t belong” puzzle.
Green’s next opportunity came at Portland, where he finished a quiet but solid 15th.
“Smooth and technical” is how Green described his driving style to me. After a top 10 and a top 15 to begin his Xfinity career, this starts to check out.
When Green showed up at Sonoma, he had the confidence to do even better.
“I was very confident with the car our team put together. I didn’t qualify as well as I’d like but I knew we had the long run speed.”
The confidence was warranted. Now he has a top five and two top 10s in his first three starts.
Here we have a part-time rookie driver with zero Craftsman Truck Series starts and one lone ARCA start, who has come in and taken the Jordan Anderson Racing No. 32 car that is 35th in owners points to finishes of seventh, 15th and fourth. An average finish of 8.67 through his first three starts driving for a team that doesn’t typically run near the front.
Green’s entry wasn’t exactly the same team that has fielded other drivers this season with the No. 32. Anderson is officially listed as the owner, but the entry was a partnership between JAR and Green’s Trans Am team,…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at …