Talladega Superspeedway once again shook up the NASCAR Xfinity Series playoff picture.
Sammy Smith, who entered as the 12th and final seed in the Xfinity playoffs, earned his second career win in Saturday’s (Oct. 5) United Rentals 250 to lock himself into the Round of 8. It is Smith’s second career win and his first in JR Motorsports’ No. 8 Chevrolet.
“It’s been a while, and it’s been a struggle,” Smith told the CW. “I’m happy to be here and looking forward to hopefully getting better on these ovals and road courses… It feels really good to win again.”
Ryan Sieg finished second by .177 seconds after pushing Smith to the front in the tri-oval. This is the second runner-up finish of the season for Sieg, who narrowly lost to Sam Mayer at Texas in April.
Riley Herbst, who led on the overtime restart, slid down to third in the two-lap dash and was displeased with Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chandler Smith after the race.
Smith’s teammate Sheldon Creed finished ahead of the No. 81 while sliding across the finish line.
Jesse Love, Jeb Burton, David Starr, Brennan Poole and Kyle Sieg rounded out the top 10.
The first incident of the day happened in stage two and involved playoff driver Parker Kligerman after a block by polesitter Love at the front of the pack accordioned the top row, collecting the playoff driver with Nick Leitz and Burton. Kligerman had minor damage, and his crew tapped the hood down to fix the aerodynamics of the car.
While most of the racing in the first two stages was mainly single file, stage three was busy as the field battled both two and three-wide for multiple laps while the lead constantly exchanged hands.
The pushing and shoving eventually caused the first big one with 19 laps to go, as Dean Thompson pushed Shane van Gisbergen down to the apron, slowing Thompson’s No. 26 Toyota. Jordan Anderson tried to push the slower Thompson but ended up turning Thompson into van Gisbergen, sending the Kaulig No. 97 into the pack, collecting playoff driver and stage two winner Austin Hill. Starr, Josh Williams, Joey Gase and Taylor Gray were also involved.
Hill was able to continue on in the race and pass many of his wrecked playoff competitors to finish 24th.
Another caution came out shortly after for debris that came off Aric Almirola after his left front tire went flat.
The lead continued to be swapped by Herbst, AJ Allmendinger, Chandler Smith and Sammy Smith. However,…
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