The most obvious milestone in Friday night’s NASCAR XFINITY Series race came when Denny Hamlin took the checkered flag to register Toyota’s 100th victory in the series. But there were other significant achievements beyond Hamlin’s dominating win.
Rookie Daniel Suarez finished sixth, marking the first time in his career he had posted back-to-back top-10 results. A week earlier at Bristol, Suarez had run a career-best second.
Erik Jones, pressed into full-time participation in the XFINITY Series by an injury to Kyle Busch at Daytona, recorded his fifth straight top-five finish. During the stretch, Jones scored a breakthrough victory at Texas to go with a fifth at Phoenix, a third at Fontana and consecutive fourths at Bristol and Richmond.
If Hamlin, Suarez and Jones added to their accomplishments, one important streak ended on Friday night. Kevin Harvick suffered severe handling problems with his JR Motorsports Chevrolet and finished 18th, two laps down, ending a string of 29 straight top 10s in the series.
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