Practice #1 : Darlington Raceway

• Thursday, August 29th, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service - Reid Spencer

There’s plenty of uncertainty in race for NASCAR Xfinity Playoff spots

The cutoff race for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs won’t take place until Friday, Sept. 20 at Bristol Motor Speedway, leaving plenty of time for drivers to jockey for position on the Playoff grid.

That said, for practical purposes, the race to qualify for the Playoffs on points features a small field. Ryan Sieg leads Sammy Smith by 15 points for the final Playoff-eligible position entering Saturday’s Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway (3:30 p.m. on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Among winless drivers in the series, Parker Kligerman leads Smith by 44 points, Sheldon Creed holds a 93-point edge, and AJ Allmendinger enjoys a 113-point cushion with four races left in the regular season.

Drivers below Smith in the standings are almost certainly in a win-or-bust position. Brandon Jones in 14th place trails Sieg for the last spot in the 12-driver Playoff field by 108 points.

Xfinity drivers hoping to advance to the Playoffs by winning a race, however, will face several substantial obstacles at Darlington. Full-time NASCAR Cup Series drivers Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Ross Chastain and Noah Gragson are running both races this weekend.

At the top of the Xfinity standings, Justin Allgaier has seized control of the Regular Season Championship race on the strength of seven straight top-10 finishes, including an Aug. 17 win at Michigan.

Allgaier holds a 33-point lead over reigning series champion Cole Custer, who finished 30th at Michigan and 32nd last Friday at Daytona. Custer, however, has finished in the top-four in five of his six Xfinity starts at Darlington, including a win in 2019.

“Honestly, we just need to leave the bad luck behind us,” Custer said. “Michigan and Daytona were just miserable. In such a good season, we were forced to park our car early in incidents outside of our own doing. Those days are tough as a driver. You replay what you could’ve done differently in your head, but you can’t dwell on it too long.

“This stretch here is so weird, with so many superspeedway races in a month-and-a-half. We’ve got one of my best tracks with Darlington, though, and I’m planning to use that to my advantage.

“We lost the points lead last weekend, which is hard. We still have a shot to fight for it, though. We just need to get back to where we were. Luckily, we’re locked into the Playoffs, but I’m hoping to find our way back to the top of the leaderboard again.”

Technically, Custer isn’t locked into the Playoffs quite yet. With one victory to his credit this season, he will clinch a Playoff berth if he wins on Saturday or if another driver who already has a victory wins again.

The same scenario also applies to single-race winners Riley Herbst and Jesse Love.

• Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200
• Pole Winner: Christopher Bell
• Age: 29
• Team : No 20 - Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota
• Owner: Joe Gibbs
• Crew Chief: Tyler Allen
• Christopher Bell won the Pole Award for the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 with a lap of 29828 seconds, 164865 mph
• This is his 13th pole in 79 NASCAR Xfinity Series races
• This is his first pole and first top-10 start in 2024
• This is his first pole in four races at Darlington Raceway
• Sheldon Creed (second) posted his 17th top-10 start of 2024 and his fifth in six races at Darlington Raceway
• Sam Mayer (third) posted his fifth top-10 start at Darlington Raceway It is his 12th in 23 races this season
• Jesse Love (23rd) was the fastest qualifying rookie

• Saturday, August 31st, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service - Reid Spencer

Christopher Bell wins NASCAR Xfinity race at Darlington in overtime dash

Christopher Bell survived a near-disaster with Cole Custer on the first lap of overtime and held on to win Saturday’s Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 over Custer and snakebit Sheldon Creed.

During a green-flag run that started on lap 97 of 150, Creed caught and passed Bell for the lead on Lap 139 and was poised to claim his first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory after a record 11 runner-up finishes in the series.

But Kaulig Racing’s AJ Allmendinger slapped the outside wall on Lap 143, causing the sixth caution of the afternoon, and Creed lost the top spot with a slow 15-second stop on pit road, thanks to issues with the right rear tire.

Creed restarted third behind Bell in the outside lane. Contact between the cars of Bell and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Custer on the backstretch got both cars out of shape below the normal racing line, but the drivers recovered and held their positions.

“That was wild, for sure,” said Bell, who started from the pole and led 108 laps. “I thought I was headed nose-first into the inside wall… It’s a tough race track, and off of (Turn) 2, whether you’re on the bottom of the top, it flushes you to the wall, and then you kind of get a little bit of a wiggle coming down.

“Once again, I feel terrible for Sheldon, to essentially win the race on the long run there and then lose it on pit road. It’s a big bummer… It seemed like our car was really good on the short runs. Obviously, the 18, Sheldon, was really good on the long runs.

“Unfortunately for him, the race played out differently, and fortunately for us, we got another shot at it.”

The victory was Bell’s second of the season in as many starts, with the first victory having come at New Hampshire in June. But Bell’s triumph came at the expense of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate.

As expected, Creed was disconsolate as he reflected on the race that got away.

“I lost one the same way a few years ago here,” lamented Creed, who led 30 laps and was pulling away from Bell before the final caution. “This has been a really good place for me. I’ve always loved racing here. Man, I don’t know if we could be any better than that.

“I felt like I put in one of my best performances today… Man, it’s a bummer. I’m so proud of everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing on this 18 team. I took a chance on myself and brought all the money we could. I’m literally not even making a dollar this year.”

Creed will leave Joe Gibbs Racing to drive a Ford for the Haas Factory Team next year.

NASCAR Cup Series driver Chase Elliott finished fourth, followed by Sammy Smith, who leap-frogged Ryan Sieg into the final Playoff-eligible position on points. Smith leads Sieg by 10 points with three races left in the Xfinity regular season.

Jesse Love, Shane van Gisbergen, Chandler Smith, Austin Hill and Justin Allgaier completed the top 10.

Creed did pick up his first stage win of the season, beating Bell to the finish line in Stage 2. Bell won the opening 45-lap stage over Hill.

• Drivers Entered: 38
• Laps Scheduled: 147
• Laps Actual: 150 - NASCAR OVERTIME!
• Margin of Victory: 0.351 Seconds
• Time of Race: 1 Hours 50 Minutes 49 Seconds
• Average Speed: 110.940
• Cautions: 6 for 29 laps
• Lead Changes: 12
• Green Flag Passes: 947 (7.8 passes per green flag lap)

• Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200
• Race Winner: Christopher Bell
• Age: 29
• Team : No 20 - Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota
• Owner: Joe Gibbs
• Crew Chief: Tyler Allen
• Christopher Bell won the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200, his 19th victory in 79 Xfinity Series races
• This is his second victory and second top-10 finish in 2024
• This is his first victory and third top-10 finish in four races at Darlington Raceway
• Cole Custer (second) posted his seventh top-10 finish in seven races at Darlington Raceway It is his 17th top-10 finish in 2024
• Sheldon Creed (third) posted his fourth top-10 finish in six races at Darlington Raceway
• Jesse Love (sixth) was the highest finishing rookie
• Justin Allgaier leads the point standings by 28 points over Cole Custer