RacinToday.com

Demolitionweeks continued at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday as the NASCAR Xfinity Series took the track for a yellow flag-dominated marathon. It finally came to an end when Tyler Reddick edged Elliott Sadler to the finish line by inches in the fifth overtime.

With an official margin of victory at .000, the photo finish was the closest in NASCAR national series history.

Reddick led once for 11 laps in his Dale Earnhardt Jr.-owned Chevrolet.

“This feels amazing,” Reddick said. “Hell of a way to start the year off with JR Motorsports … and get my first win for JR Motorsports.

“This is an amazing opportunity. Me and [crew chief] Dave [Elenz] are going to get along great. It’s going to take a little bit of time to really get honed in, but I guess we’re getting along pretty good, right off the bat.”

“Congratulations to him (Reddick),” Sadler said. “He’s my teammate, so it’s great on one hand to have a JR Motorsports car in Victory Lane, but it’s definitely tough to finish second. I think that’s three seconds in a row for me on superspeedway races, so we’ve got to figure out how to be leading one of these things.

“We had a pretty wild day. We spun out twice, got black flagged for something–I’m not real sure what yet.  I think I was running 32nd on the first green-white-checkered attempt, and we had a chance to win the race. So perseverance and never give up and just kind of stay after it. That’s the kind of motto of my race team, and it kind of showed again today.

Ryan Reed finished third while Kas Grala and Garrett Smithley were fourth and fifth respectively.

“Daytona is such an up and down race,” Reed said.  “You never know what you are going to get when you come here. I got involved in someone else’s mess early on and just tried to recover all day. We picked the right lanes late in the race and got up to the top-10, then the leaders wrecked and the next thing you know we are on the front row. I didn’t think we had a good enough car to lead there with all the damage but we could push really well.”

Cup Series regular Larson won Stage 1, and Justin Allgaier was the top-finishing XfinitySeries title contender in the opening segment. Elliott won Stage 2; Spencer Gallagher was the top-finishing Xfinity Series regular in fifth.

The Xfinity race came a day after the Camping World Truck Series event slogged through seven cautions and had so many wrecks that only 21 trucks were running at its end. On Saturday, only 23 cars finished on the lead lap.

The race produced 143 laps – 23 more than schedule – because of the wrecks. The yellow flag waved 12 times and the red flag once.

Why?

“We were pushing really hard up top and that’s gonna happen at the end of the race,” Joey Logano, who was involved in one of the overtime crashes, said. “You’re gonna see something similar again here.”

###

NASCAR XFINITY Series Race – PowerShares QQQ 300

Daytona International Speedway

Daytona Beach, Florida

Saturday, February 17, 2018

1. (9) Tyler Reddick #, Chevrolet, 143.
2. (11) Elliott Sadler, Chevrolet, 143.
3. (15) Ryan Reed, Ford, 143.
4. (27) Kaz Grala #, Ford, 143.
5. (25) Garrett Smithley, Chevrolet, 143.
6. (4) Spencer Gallagher, Chevrolet, 143.
7. (6) Ryan Truex, Chevrolet, 143.
8. (17) Daniel Suarez(i), Toyota, 143.
9. (23) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 143.
10. (18) Brandon Jones, Toyota, 143.
11. (31) Jeff Green, Chevrolet, 143.
12. (8) Chase Elliott(i), Chevrolet, 143.
13. (30) Caesar Bacarella, Toyota, 143.
14. (14) Cole Custer, Ford, 143.
15. (35) Stephen Leicht, Toyota, 143.
16. (24) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 143.
17. (32) David Starr, Chevrolet, 143.
18. (37) JJ Yeley, Chevrolet, 143.
19. (39) Matt Tifft, Chevrolet, 143.
20. (26) Vinnie Miller #, Chevrolet, 143.
21. (21) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, 143.
22. (40) Josh Williams, Chevrolet, 143.
23. (16) Joe Nemechek(i), Chevrolet, 143.
24. (22) Alex Labbe #, Chevrolet, 142.
25. (34) Spencer Boyd #, Chevrolet, 142.
26. (1) Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, 140.
27. (20) Dylan Lupton, Ford, Accident, 137.
28. (36) Chad Finchum #, Toyota, 136.
29. (2) Kyle Larson(i), Chevrolet, Accident, 134.
30. (29) Ryan Ellis, Toyota, Accident, 133.
31. (5) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, Accident, 124.
32. (38) Austin Dillon(i), Chevrolet, Accident, 122.
33. (19) Joey Gase, Chevrolet, Accident, 122.
34. (3) Joey Logano(i), Ford, Accident, 121.
35. (12) Aric Almirola(i), Ford, Accident, 121.
36. (28) Brandon Brown, Chevrolet, Accident, 121.
37. (7) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, Accident, 106.
38. (33) Gray Gaulding, Toyota, Rear Gear, 82.
39. (13) Christopher Bell #, Toyota, Accident, 11.
40. (10) Austin Cindric #, Ford, Accident, 10.

Average Speed of Race Winner:  119.1 mph.

Time of Race:  03 Hrs, 00 Mins, 06 Secs. Margin of Victory:  0.000 Seconds.

Caution Flags:  12 for 49 laps.

Lead Changes:  19 among 11 drivers.

Lap Leaders:   D. Hemric 1-2; K. Larson(i) 3; D. Hemric 4-8; K. Larson(i) 9-32; G. Smithley 33; E. Sadler 34-35; K. Larson(i) 36-46; C. Elliott(i) 47-63; G. Smithley 64; A. Almirola(i) 65-68; J. Logano(i) 69-74; K. Larson(i) 75; J. Logano(i) 76-96; K. Larson(i) 97-103; J. Logano(i) 104; K. Larson(i) 105-121; D. Suarez(i) 122-126; R. Reed 127-129; R. Truex 130-132; T. Reddick # 133-143.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  K. Larson(i) 6 times for 61 laps; J. Logano(i) 3 times for 28 laps; C. Elliott(i) 1 time for 17 laps; T. Reddick # 1 time for 11 laps; D. Hemric 2 times for 7 laps; D. Suarez(i) 1 time for 5 laps; A. Almirola(i) 1 time for 4 laps; R. Truex 1 time for 3 laps; R. Reed 1 time for 3 laps; G. Smithley 2 times for 2 laps; E. Sadler 1 time for 2 laps.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 42,22,7,9,1,21,5,18,23,00

Stage #2 Top Ten: 88,98,42,18,23,11,3,9,21,

No Comment