Practice #1 : Texas Motor Speedway

• Texas Motor Speedway
• 18th Annual Andy's Frozen Custard 300
• Pole Winner: Brandon Jones
• Age: 25
• Team : No. 19 - Menards/Pelonis Toyota
• Owner: Joe Gibbs
• Crew Chief: Jeff Meendering
• Brandon Jones won the Pole Award for the 18th Annual Andy's Frozen Custard 300 with a lap of 29.089 seconds, 185.637 mph.
• This is his seventh pole in 230 NASCAR Xfinity Series races.
• This is his fourth pole and 17th top-10 start in 2022.
• This is his first pole in 14 races at Texas Motor Speedway.
• Noah Gragson (second) posted his 22nd top-10 start of 2022 and his sixth in eight races at Texas Motor Speedway.
• Daniel Hemric (third) posted his sixth top-10 start at Texas Motor Speedway. It is his 16th in 27 races this season.
• Austin Hill (ninth) was the fastest qualifying rookie.

• Saturday, September 24th, 2022
• NASCAR Wire Service - Holly Cain

Noah Gragson drives to Victory Lane at Texas, ties NASCAR Xfinity Series record with fourth consecutive win

Noah Gragson parked his No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet at the finish line, emerged through his car's roof flap and raised his arms in triumph taking in the loud cheers from the Texas Motor Speedway grandstands as he celebrated a historic fourth consecutive NASCAR Xfinity Series victory Saturday afternoon in the Andy's Frozen Custard 300.

It was a series best and career-high seventh win on the season for the 24-year old Las Vegas native and automatically reserves his spot in the next round of the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs. That fourth consecutive victory is significant historically as well - tying one of the longstanding records- set in 1983 - by Sam Ard.

Although it was a tumultuous Playoff opener for many of the championship contenders, Gragson was out front often and ultimately when he needed to be. He didn't win a Stage, but led a race best 85-of-200 laps and held off fellow 2022 Playoff contenders Austin Hill and Ty Gibbs by 1.238-seconds to earn the big trophy - and even more momentum at just the right time of the calendar.

"This No. 9 team, man, they're on fire and all you fans, you keep us motivated,'' Gragson told the cheering grandstands. "We're gonna come back and win more races for you. You guys are awesome and we appreciate you. Thanks for coming out.

"Just this team, I mean the pit crew's done awesome and our car was as fast as Xfinity internet all day and I'm just so thankful for the opportunity"

"Such a relief,'' he continued. "We lost this race back in 2020 and just executed a great race [today],'' he continued.

Eight Playoff cars finished in the Top-10. Stewart-Haas Racing's Riley Herbst was fifth, followed by Playoff driver Josh Berry (JR Motorsports), Sheldon Creed, Playoff drivers Sam Mayer (JR Motorsports) and Ryan Sieg (Ryan Sieg Racing). C.J. McLaughlin was 10th – the first Top-10 of his career.

Compared to his closest competitors, Gragson's day was more a matter of holding court. Several other race contenders and Playoff competitors had busier days of survival and the power of positive thinking.

Both Gibbs, who finished third and regular season champion A.J. Allmendinger, who finished fourth, had to rally to those finishing positions. Gibbs started the race from the rear of the field after failing technical inspection. And the two-time regular season champion Allmendinger? He just had a hectic afternoon overcoming race setbacks.

Two multi-car accidents on mid-race restarts eliminated the winning opportunity for several Playoff drivers and now place them in catch-up mode only one race into the Playoff push.

Eight cars were involved in a crash on Lap 110, including regular season champion Allmendinger, whose No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet – only a few laps removed from the Stage 2 victory - was damaged. Quick repairs returned him to the track and the positions he lost during the pit stop actually proved to be advantageous as he missed the next accident up front after returning to the race.

It was a similar scene on the ensuing restart, only this time the accident started at the front. John Hunter Nemechek, who had led a race best 60 laps – at that point - got loose at the front of the pack, his Toyota colliding with Justin Allgaier's Chevy.

The hard contact sent them both hard into the wall and caused another chain-reaction accident that ended up collecting nine cars in all – including Playoff drivers Brandon Jones, the race polesitter, and 2021 series champion Daniel Hemric (who won Stage 1) in addition to Allgaier.

As with that Playoff trio, It was the end of the day for Nemechek, a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship driver who was driving the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota at Texas as part of the owner's championship chase.

"The 7 (Allgaier) chose the top behind me, and I haven't seen the replay of it, but the 7 chose the top behind me and started pushing,'' Nemechek said. "The 21 (Austin Hill) made it three-wide on the 9 (Gragson) and I was three-wide at the top being able to be in the race and I think we ended up four-wide at one point which doesn't really work aero-wide in the pack. The resin was up there as well and I don't know. It sucks.

"I thought we were going to have a shot to win the race and repeat from last year. It didn't work out. I'm looking forward to seeing what the future holds.”

With two more races remaining in this opening Playoff round – at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway and the Charlotte ROVAL road course – Gragson's win is an automatic berth into the next Playoff round. Allmendinger and Gibbs are second and third in the standings, 26 and 27 points – respectively behind Allmendinger.

Eight of the 12 Playoff drivers will advance following the ROVAL race.

Riley Herbst (-1), Hemric (-8), Jones (-13) and Jeremy Clements (-29) whose car retired early with an engine issue, now find themselves in the bottom four of the Playoff standings going to Talladega.

• Drivers Entered: 38
• Laps Scheduled: 200
• Margin of Victory: 01.238 Seconds
• Time of Race: 2 Hours 38 Minutes 21 Seconds
• Average Speed: 113.672
• Cautions: 9 for 52 laps
• Lead Changes: 14
• Green Flag Passes: 1,517 (10.3 passes per green flag lap)

• Texas Motor Speedway
• 18th Annual Andy's Frozen Custard 300
• Race Winner: Noah Gragson
• Age: 24
• Team : No. 9 - Bass Pro Shops/TrueTimber/BRCC Chevrolet
• Owner: Rick Hendrick
• Crew Chief: Lucas Lambert
• Noah Gragson won the 18th Annual Andy's Frozen Custard 300, his 12th victory in 129 Xfinity Series races.
• This is his seventh victory and 20th top-10 finish in 2022.
• This is his first victory and fourth top-10 finish in eight races at Texas Motor Speedway.
• Austin Hill (second) posted his second top-10 finish in four races at Texas Motor Speedway. It is his 17th top-10 finish in 2022.
• Ty Gibbs (third) posted his first top-10 finish in two races at Texas Motor Speedway.
• Austin Hill (second) was the highest finishing rookie.
• Noah Gragson leads the point standings by 26 points over AJ Allmendinger.