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By Stephen Furst
The first race of the Xfinity Series playoffs kicks off in America’s heartland at Kansas Speedway. Brandon Jones, who is the only driver in the field to win at Kansas in a Xfinity Series race, would start on the pole. Chandler Smith would be the highest qualifying playoff driver starting second with regular season champion Cole Custer starting 3rd. It has been said that “Kansas equals calamity and chaos.” This means that lots of pressure would be on drivers to get a win or score significant points today due to the next two races being at Talladega and the Charlotte Roval to close out this round of the playoffs.
Chandler Smith would jump out to the lead in turn 1 and lead the field full of 2 and 3 wide battles around the first lap. During the opening lap, Connor Zilisch would demonstrate some amazing car control when he got nudged by Aric Almirola in turns 3 and 4 and end up almost completely sideways but gather up the car and continue on only losing a few positions.
The first caution of the day would come on lap 7 when Sammy Smith spins down the backstretch. Smith got loose off of turn 2 along with a little help from Jeb Burton taking air off his spoiler while his car was already unstable. The #8 Chevrolet had already sustained damage to right rear quarter panel when he got loose previously on lap 4 and hit the outside wall. Smith’s crew made numerous pitstops to repair damage while under caution. Even though repairs were made under caution, Smith would go down one lap. Damage repair would continue during stage break after stage 1.
Taylor Gray would begin suffering engine issues with 12 laps to go in Stage 1, going down a cylinder. Gray’s engine would ultimately let go on lap 44, resulting in the second caution of the afternoon due to his truck dropping fluids on the racing surface.
Almirola was tracking down Chandler Smith with 10 to go in stage 1, closing in half second behind Smith, and would take the lead two laps later. Almirola would go on to win stage 1 over Chandler Smith, Cole Custer, Brandon Jones, and Sam Mayer rounding out the top 5.
Stage break pitstops after stage 1 would not be friendly to a couple of drivers that had been running up front. Aric Almirola would lose, 6 spots during his pitstop, while Chandler Smith would also lose 3 spots. Brandon Jones would also have to come down pit road a second time to tighten missing/loose lug nuts. This would turn the lead over to Cole Custer and Austin Hill when the race went back to green. Custer would take the lead into turn 1 with a three wide battle for 2nd between Sam Mayer, Chandler Smith and Auston Hill was taking place. Smith would succeed in taking the 2nd place position however Smith would take over 2nd a few laps later, but not without a fight from Mayer.
Justin Allgaier would struggle running the top groove throughout the early portions of the race, running the bottom groove and remaining in a respectable 7th position, while battling with Almirola who managed to get back up to 8th position after bad pitstop during stage break. Caution would fly yet again on lap 65 for the #45 car of Brad Perez stopping on apron in turns 3 and 4.
A total of 27 cars would remain on the lead lap when the field took the green flag again on lap 70, including Sammy Smith who had gone down a lap early after contact with the wall, and subsequent pitstops for repairs.
Cole Custer again takes the lead on the restart, but green flag racing wouldn’t last long as Justin Allgaier brings out an immediate caution, losing control coming off of turn 2 and making hard contact with inside wall on backstretch damaging the front of his Jr. Motorsports Chevrolet. Before the wreck, Allgaier had already been on the radio complaining to his crew about lack of grip. Allgaier would remain on pit road for an extended period during caution to make repairs to car in hopes of getting back on track and maintaining minimum speed.
Going back to green on lap 76, Cole Custer and Sam Mayer would lead the on the restart with cars 4 wide behind leaders and the leaders themselves 3 wide into turns 1 and 2 with Sam Mayer taking the lead. Allgaier did not have brakes and hit wall in turn 3, but manage to get the car back to pit road without a need for another caution. Allgaier would retire the car on lap 77 dashing any hopes of a good points day.
“I don’t know if I’ve had a stretch of races that have been like these last three or four weeks,” said Allgaier. “We’re not out of it by any stretch. Obviously, that’s why you do all the work to get all the bonus points you can. We’ve got a long road the next two weeks. I’ve got the team that can do it. We’ve just got to go have some luck on our side.”
Almirola showing his strength coming back through the field was back up to 3rd on lap 77 and would move into the number 2 spot 2 laps later. Throughout the day Almirola made his way through the feed finding speed running inches off the wall in the turns. However, while Almirola battled with Custer for the 2nd spot it allowed Sam Mayer to break away to over a 1 second lead with 7 laps to go in stage 2 and go on to win stage 2 over Almirola. As the green and white checkered flag waved at the end of stage 2, playoff driver Riley Herbst gets loose off of turn 4 and received a nudge from Austn Hill to go for a ride through the infield grass in the trioval. Herbst would finish stage 2 in 20th place.
On restart to begin stage 3, Chandler Smith gets a push from Creed to take lead into turn 1 with Custer taking 2nd and Connor Zilisch in 3rd and plenty of 4 wide racing further back in the field. Aric Almirola would once again be stuck deep in the field in 20th place due to broken impact gun on his pitstop during the stage break causing him to pit a 2nd time.
Corey Heim gets into wall in turns 1 and 2 on lap 120 with Almirola having a brush with the wall as well while running in the 9th position. Almirola would pit for new right rear tire on lap 126 as a result of making contact with the wall, which would seemingly take him out of contention for the win. Playoff drivers would begin making pitstops on lap 141 when Austin Hill brought his car to pit road for service. Lap 142 would see the likes of Sam Mayer, AJ Allmendinger, and Herbst bring their machines to pit road, followed by Parker Klingerman on lap 143. Chandler Smith and Sheldon Creed would make their way to pit road on lap 144 with Cole Custer following on lap 145 pitting from the lead. While making his pitstop, a caution comes out for uncontrolled tire from Parker Retzlaf’s pitstop.
After being caught on pit road when caution came out, Custer not only remained on lead lap, but retained the lead after other lead lap cars pitted under caution. Chandler Smith would restart in 2nd place, but Custer fires off and into the lead into turn 1. Austin Hill and Chandler Smith would battle for 2nd with Smith taking the position. A few short laps later, Chandler Smith would take the lead from Custer and pull away from the field.
After going 2 laps down only a short time ago, Aric Almirola found his way back up to 5th place and in a position to find his way back to the leaders. With 43 laps remaining in the race Almirola was only 3 seconds off the lead in 4th place and passes Austin Hill for 3rd place with 42 to go. All day Almirola had a good long-run car, which if the race remained caution free would come into play. In fact, the question of if “team orders” would come in to play if Almirola were able to catch Smith, who is his teammate and in the playoffs.
With less than 20 laps remaining, Cole Custer is less than .100 sec behind Smith and Almirola only 1.2 seconds behind Custer. With Smith and Custer battling for the lead Almirola is able catch up and close the gap further. Custer made a few attempts to get alongside Smith on the high side out of turn 4 and then rubs on Smith into turn 1 with 18 to go but cannot make the pass. Almirola was now under .900 sec behind Custer in 3rd with Connor Zilisch in 4th but nearly 5 seconds behind with 17 laps to go. Custer pins Smith to low groove out of turn 4 and through trioval with 10 laps to go and takes lead. Almirola follows Custer and passes Smith in turn 3 on the same lap, dropping Smith to 3rd place. The hunt is now on as Almirola was only .300 sec behind Custer with 9 laps to go.
With 6 laps to go, Corey Heim, winner if Friday night’s Craftsman Truck Series race, was slow on track in turn 3 but manages to coast his slow moving Toyota it to pit road allowing the race to stay green. With five laps to go Almirola has caught Custer and gets a run out of 4 with 3 laps to go making the pass on Custer to take lead. Custer battles back but cannot get past. Almirola would hold on to the win the Kansas Lottery 300 by half a second over Custer and get redemption at the same track where he suffered a compression fracture in his back from a wreck in May 2017.
“I’m wore out,” said Almirola, “That was a hard day at the office for a guy that’s been sitting on the couch. I just pushed too hard there when we had the issue on pit road (a slow stop), and I got in the fence and cut the right-rear tire down. I knew I had to put my head down and go to work after that. We got lucky to get the caution when we did, and we were out of tires, so the fact that it went green there to the end (for the final 49 laps)… that’s where we were strong. We were really strong on the long runs.”
Cole Custer, Chandler Smith, Connor Zilisch, and Sheldon Creed would round out the Top 5. Remaining playoff drivers would finish as Austin Hill in 7th, SVG in 8th, Jordan Love in 9th, Riley Herbst in 10th, Parker Klingerman in 12th, Sam Mayer in 13th, AJ Allmendinger in 17th 1 lap down, Sammy Smith in 22nd, and Justin Allgaier in 36th.
Custer not happy with Chandler Smith, had this to say after the race. “Everybody wants to try and talk afterwards,” Custer said. “At the end of the day, he put me in the fence, and he’s going to pay for it.”
In response, Chandler Smith said that he didn’t believe Custer ever had position to his outside.
“We’re racing for the win and five extra Playoff points,” said Smith. “You’ve got a very, very valid statement, I understand, but I also wouldn’t change what I did, because I was giving myself the best shot to win.”
NASCAR Xfinity Series Race – Kansas Lottery 300
Kansas Speedway
Kansas City, Kansas
Saturday, September 28, 2024
- (6) Aric Almirola (P), Toyota, 200.
- (3) Cole Custer (P), Ford, 200.
- (2) Chandler Smith (P), Toyota, 200.
- (4) Connor Zilisch, Chevrolet, 200.
- (15) Sheldon Creed (P), Toyota, 200.
- (1) Brandon Jones, Chevrolet, 200.
- (10) Austin Hill (P), Chevrolet, 200.
- (22) Shane Van Gisbergen # (P), Chevrolet, 200.
- (7) Jesse Love # (P), Chevrolet, 200.
- (16) Riley Herbst (P), Ford, 200.
- (18) Josh Williams, Chevrolet, 200.
- (8) Parker Kligerman (P), Chevrolet, 200.
- (5) Sam Mayer (P), Chevrolet, 200.
- (24) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 200.
- (20) Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet, 200.
- (12) Ryan Sieg, Ford, 200.
- (14) AJ Allmendinger (P), Chevrolet, 199.
- (28) Brennan Poole, Chevrolet, 199.
- (29) Ryan Ellis, Chevrolet, 199.
- (25) JJ Yeley, Ford, 199.
- (23) Parker Retzlaff, Chevrolet, 199.
- (13) Sammy Smith (P), Chevrolet, 199.
- (19) Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, 198.
- (21) Kyle Sieg, Ford, 198.
- (38) Leland Honeyman #, Chevrolet, 198.
- (33) Kyle Weatherman, Chevrolet, 197.
- (26) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 197.
- (32) Blaine Perkins, Ford, 197.
- (36) Ryan Vargas, Chevrolet, 196.
- (35) Patrick Emerling, Chevrolet, 196.
- (17) Corey Heim(i), Toyota, 195.
- (34) Joey Gase, Chevrolet, 194.
- (31) Logan Bearden, Ford, 190.
- (30) Daniel Dye(i), Chevrolet, 189.
- (27) Dawson Cram(i), Chevrolet, Fuel Pressure, 174.
- (9) Justin Allgaier (P), Chevrolet, Accident, 73.
- (37) Brad Perez, Chevrolet, Oil Pump, 61.
- (11) Taylor Gray(i), Toyota, Engine, 45.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 121.036 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 28 Mins, 43 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.660 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 6 for 33 laps.
Lead Changes: 14 among 5 drivers.
Lap Leaders: C. Smith (P) 1-9;B. Jones 10;C. Smith (P) 11-36;A. Almirola (P) 37-48;C. Smith (P) 49;C. Custer (P) 50-75;S. Mayer (P) 76-93;C. Smith (P) 94-136;C. Custer (P) 137-144;B. Jones 145-147;C. Custer (P) 148-155;C. Smith (P) 156-190;C. Custer (P) 191-196;A. Almirola (P) 197-200.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Chandler Smith (P) 5 times for 114 laps; Cole Custer (P) 4 times for 48 laps; Sam Mayer (P) 1 time for 18 laps; Aric Almirola (P) 2 times for 16 laps; Brandon Jones 2 times for 4 laps.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 20,81,00,9,1,18,21,7,98,48
Stage #2 Top Ten: 1,20,00,81,88,21,18,9,38,39
