Jason Guth

Driving the fastest car of the weekend in Atlanta, Joey Logano led 140 of 260 laps and ended the race right where he started it – in first place.

After cruising through Stage 1, leading every single lap of the 60-lap opening stage, the field was put on notice that Logano’s Ford was indeed the car to beat on Sunday afternoon.

“This thing was an animal,” Logano said of his Autotrader Mustang. “It was very very fast and (I) was able to lead a ton of laps … huge victory. Nice to get one early in the season – it always feels better – but what a great day for us.”

Making matters more impressive for Logano, he wasn’t the leader coming to the white flag – that distinction went to his old Penske pal Brad Keselowski who wound up crossing the finish line in second place after leading 47 laps of his own.

Logano utilized a big run through Turn 1 on the final lap, got to the outside of Keselowski’s car, and set his sights on Victory Lane after a big push down the backstretch from Christopher Bell helped him clear Keselowski.

“Yeah, the bottom came with a huge run – I don’t know how,” Keselowski said. “I thought I had it blocked and Joey just kept shaking and his car didn’t stall out.

“I couldn’t get the push down the back. I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll just get a push down the back,’ and the 20 car just hauled down there.”

Bell came home third, while Corey LaJoie earned his first top-five of the season and second of his career in fourth place. LaJoie was followed by 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick in fifth.

While the action was reasonably tame for much of the day, that narrative changed when Kevin Harvick was spun from the lead by Ross Chastain on Lap 190 – although little if any contact was actually made. As Harvick noted, the air behind his car caused the spin that involved 12 cars.

“I don’t know that he actually hit me, I think he was just so close to me that it just kind of took the back tires.

“He just caught me right in the middle of the corner there, and then the way that he got to me right there, I think he was just barely on me. The way he came from the right to the left just took the back of the car and spun it around. Just a weird deal.”

Chastain came away unscathed and finished 13^th. Denny Hamlin was sixth after leading 14 laps early in the final stage, while Ryan Blaney rebounded to take seventh after a pit road speeding penalty. Erik Jones was eighth, Ty Gibbs ninth – his first top-10 of the season and second of his young career – and the man he replaced, Kyle Busch, was 10^th.

Logano’s Penske teammate Austin Cindric won the second stage of the race and ended the day 11^th. Logano now leads the standings by a single point over Bell, and Chastain is five points behind Logano in third.

The Cup Series heads to Austin, Texas, for its first road-course venture of the season next Sunday at the Circuit of The Americas. Race coverage begins at 3:30 p.m. ET on Fox.

The third time was the charm for Front Row Motorsports’ Zane Smith on Friday night in the Arizona desert.

After consecutive runner-up finishes in the final series standings the last two years, Smith was finally able to summit the mountain and claim the Truck Series championship.

“Oh my God. Third time’s the charm,” Smith said. “I want this sh-t more than anyone in the world. I don’t care what anyone says. … I was crying that whole (last) lap.”

Though he dominated the first two stages after winning the pole for the race, leading 77 laps, it wasn’t all easy for Smith. The caution flag flew on Lap 134 of 150 when Hailie Deegan made hard contact with the frontstretch wall, setting up the final “money stop” for the Championship 4 contenders.

Championship contender Ben Rhodes, who had been running the worst of the four for most of the night, played the strategy game by taking only two tires on the stop. Several non-Playoff drivers also took just two, leaving Rhodes a buffer to fellow championship hopefuls Chandler Smith, Ty Majeski and Zane Smith, who all re-started in the back-half of the top 10 with four fresh tires.

Zane Smith had the worst stop of the four, but was able to drive up to the second position with less than five laps remaining behind Rhodes. It was on Lap 147, though, that Majeski made a bold attempt to pass Zane Smith coming off of Turn 2, spinning himself out and bringing out the yellow flag once again. The move ruined any chance for Majeski to win the title in his first full-time Truck season.

Up to that point, Rhodes’ two tires had held serve, leaving last year’s champion disappointed to see the caution flag displayed.

“Two tires versus four, that was the name of the game,” Rhodes said. “We didn’t have the pace all night that we needed to be up there and compete, so it was a great heads-up call by my crew chief (Rich Lushes).

“Ultimately, we just didn’t need that last caution. I think we could’ve held them off for the final few laps.”

Zane Smith, who re-started on the inside of the second row in Overtime, was able to get to Rhodes’ inside almost immediately while Chandler Smith ran the high lane through Turns 1 and 2.

Zane Smith completed the pass on both of his fellow championship contenders, and was able to fend them off for the final lap-and-a-half en route to his fourth win of the season, and first since Kansas in May.

“I wasn’t gonna let it go down like that. I was either wrecked or I was winning this thing – there was no other option,” he said.

Rhodes crossed the stripe in second after getting to Zane Smith’s rear bumper in the final corner. Last year’s Phoenix winner Chandler Smith – who will move to Kaulig Racing’s Xfinity program next season –  was just behind Rhodes in third, while John Hunter Nemechek came home fourth, followed by 2019 Phoenix winner Stewart Friesen.

Grant Enfinger, Corey Heim, Tanner Gray, Kayden Honeycutt and Carson Hocevar completed the top 10. Majeski came home a disappointing 20th.

The race also marked the end of the current iteration of Kyle Busch Motorsports, as the team will switch from Toyota to Chevrolet next season with Busch’s move to Richard Childress Racing.

The newly-minted Craftsman Truck Series is off until February, where it will return to action in Daytona for the NextEra Energy 250 on Friday, Feb. 17.

“We’re racing for a championship! Let’s go!” exclaimed Joey Logano after climbing from his Mustang on the frontstretch in Las Vegas following a lengthy celebratory burnout.

“All you want to do is get to the Championship Four when the season starts and race for a championship,” Logano said, “and we’ve got the team to do it.”

Logano’s crew chief Paul Wolfe made the decision to bring Logano down pit road for four fresh tires with 25 laps remaining after a Daniel Suárez spin, which proved to be the winning move of the race.

“I don’t see why we can’t win (the championship) at this point,” Logano said.

“Just a lot of adversity we fought through the last 50 laps or so. I thought we were going to win, and then we kind of fell out, (but) had the tires. Racing Ross (Chastain) was fun – he was doing a good job air-blocking me and I was just trying to be patient.

“Eventually, I was just like, ‘I gotta go here.’”

Logano pulled even with Chastain in Turn 4 with four laps to go after Chastain blocked his run on the frontstretch earlier in the lap.

Logano was able to drive deeper into Turn 1 with three to go, and slid up in front of Chastain, setting sail to a .817-second victory.

The win locks Logano into the race for the championship at Phoenix in three weeks, a track he has won at twice previously.

Sunday’s race saw plenty of leaders – 11 – and perhaps the most dominant car on the day was Chastain who led 68 laps.

“There was a clear difference in tires there,” Chastain said, alluding to Logano’s fresher set. “We fully believed that we could hold them off and win the race on the tires we had.

“Joey (Logano) did a good job getting through the field. I hope I’m racing that guy for a really long time.”

The biggest moment of drama, though, happened much earlier in the race.

23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace and Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson – eliminated from Playoff contention a week ago – tangled during Stage 2.

Larson took the low line inside of Kevin Harvick into Turn 3 while Wallace was driving in the top lane, making it three-wide on Lap 95. Larson was able to clear Harvick, but his car got tight and pushed up the track, forcing Wallace into the outside wall.

Wallace – the Stage 1 winner – was unhappy and retaliated by hooking Larson in the right-rear, sending both drivers careening hard into the wall and ending both of their days.

A furious Wallace approached Larson on the frontstretch and pushed him several times with no response from Larson. Both drivers were treated and released from the care center.

Their interviews can be seen here.

Christopher Bell, last week’s winner, was an innocent bystander and saw his day end as he was caught up in the wreck. He now sits 23 points behind Denny Hamlin, the current occupant of the final spot in the championship race.

Fellow championship hopeful Ryan Blaney also found trouble on Lap 228 after running up front for much of the day, including leading 39 laps at one point.

While running second, he had a tire go down in Turn 2 and he got into both the outside and inside walls, relegating him to a 28^th-place finish, seven laps down. Blaney, the Stage 2 winner, is now 11 points out of fourth.

Kyle Busch, Chase Briscoe and Hamlin rounded out the top-five. Tyler Reddick, Martin Truex Jr., Erik Jones, AJ Allmendinger and Austin Dillon completed the top-10.

Chastain sits 18 points above the cutline – William Byron – while Byron’s teammate Chase Elliott is in third, 17 points to the good. Briscoe is nine points behind Hamlin who holds a six-point advantage over Byron.

The second race in the Round of 8 emanates from Homestead-Miami Speedway next Sunday with the Dixie Vodka 400 at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

Rain, rain, go away may have been on the minds of every driver on Saturday afternoon in Kansas except for one: Noah Gragson.

Gragson was able to take advantage of two re-starts before the end of Stage 2 – and the skies opening up – to make the race official and earn the 10^th checkered flag of his Xfinity Series career, and fifth of the season.

While Ty Gibbs dominated the early going of the race – winning Stage 1 and leading 66 laps – it was Gragson who was able to take advantage of the Lap 76 re-start after Jeremy Clements spun a few laps earlier.

With Austin Hill, Brett Moffitt and Ryan Sieg staying out under yellow in anticipation of the rain to come, Gragson started on the inside of the second row next to Gibbs.

Gibbs, though, took several laps to overtake Hill, while Gragson quickly spurted out to more than a one-second lead following the re-start.

Then on Lap 82, NASCAR displayed the caution flag for rain, running a few caution laps before determining it would allow the drivers to race to the end of Stage 2 on Lap 90.

Gragson was able to keep ahead during the two-lap shootout to win Stage 2, and the rain started pouring soon after, ensuring Gragson a second consecutive victory as NASCAR called the race official as the second stage was completed.

“It was tough. I don’t know if we had the fastest car there at the beginning in the first stage,” Gragson said of the rain-shortened afternoon.

“The (No.) 7 (of Justin Allgaier) was fast, the (No.) 54 (of Gibbs) was obviously the fastest car all day, but extremely grateful.”

Gragson later added: “I felt like if it would’ve went green, we could’ve kept working on it; we had a pretty fast car there. I’ll take (the wins) any way we can get them.”

Allgaier nosed Gibbs for second as the two made contact coming to the line to finish Stage 2. Pole-sitter Brandon Jones came home fourth, while Cup-regular Ross Chastain drove the No. 48 Chevrolet for Big Machine Racing to a fifth-place finish.

Points leader AJ Allmendinger finished sixth, followed by Josh Berry, Sammy Smith, Sam Mayer and Moffitt.

Allmendinger leads the regular-season standings by 38 points over Gibbs with one race remaining before the Xfinity Series Playoffs, with Allgaier 55 points out of first place.

The Xfinity Series’ regular-season finale takes place Friday night at Bristol Motor Speedway with the running of the Food City 300. Coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. ET on USA.

Imagine being Ryan Blaney for a moment.

You’ve been top-five in points since the sixth race of the season, yet somehow, some way, you have to sweat it out all the way until the waning laps of the regular season finale at Daytona – Race 26.

Welcome to NASCAR in 2022.

Blaney – like everyone else – had to wait out a 3-plus hour rain delay last Sunday while relying on his crew to keep his car in raceable condition after an early wreck.

For much of the day, the ever-consistent Blaney found himself behind fellow winless driver Martin Truex Jr. in points as a result of his wreck, and making matters worse, Austin Dillon passed a train of cars to take the lead after a big wreck in a rain-soaked Turn 1 before NASCAR could display the yellow flag.

Not only did that give Dillon the 15^th spot on the Playoff grid temporarily as he came into the race needing a win – it meant that Blaney was out of the Playoffs.

Talk about a precarious and unenviable position to be in with just 21 laps to go.

Fortunately for Blaney, NASCAR made the obvious decision to wait out the rain and restart the race when the skies cleared.

Because of the aforementioned wreck that propelled Dillon to the lead, several of the cars involved were unable to continue, allowing Blaney to pass enough of them when the race resumed that he wound up three points ahead of Truex when Dillon crossed under the checkered flag.

(By the way, Dillon made the race-winning move with three laps remaining, otherwise Austin Cindric may have won his second race of the season and Truex and Blaney both would’ve made the Playoffs anyway. Not much is simple about NASCAR anymore, folks.)

So, when the day was over in Daytona, Blaney left the track knowing the goal was accomplished, albeit with even more nervousness than he and his team had planned for.

While Blaney may have been the last car to earn a postseason berth, any objective fan would acknowledge that he shouldn’t have even been in that position to begin with. (I know, I know, “But he couldn’t even win one race. He deserved to miss the Playoffs!” or something like that.)

Wrong.

Blaney has been a model of consistency this season, and there’s still something to be said for that attribute.

Blaney was 212 points above Erik Jones – the proverbial cutline – heading into Daytona. 212!

But because of the new winner, Dillon, who himself had 275 fewer points than Blaney coming into Daytona, Blaney almost missed the Playoffs.

Regardless of how asinine I may think that is, the point is that Blaney clearly deserved to be in the Playoffs, and it isn’t crazy to view him as one of the favorites.

Which is why he is my pick to win the championship in November.

Let’s take a look at some numbers, shall we?

While he doesn’t (yet) have a win – unless of course you count the All-Star Race – Blaney finished third in the regular-season standings; earned five stage wins; 3 poles; eight top-fives; and 12 top-10s.

He has the fourth best average finish in the garage, and the second best average running position. Blaney has also been outside the top-10 in points on just one occasion the entire season – way back after Race 3.

Blaney has led 417 laps this season to boot, but perhaps the most important factor working in his favor? Second through 16^th on the Playoff grid are separated by only 20 points (Blaney is tied for sixth with 2013 points).

Traditionally we have seen two or three drivers with a hoard of Playoff points, followed by two or three with slightly fewer, and then the bottom 10 or so have practically none in comparison.

That simply isn’t the case with the advent of the Next Gen car and parity in the sport. This to me means that consistency is precisely what is needed to separate oneself from the pack in these Playoffs.

Enter Blaney.

In the opening round of the Playoffs, it wouldn’t surprise anyone to see him win at Bristol, a track he’s led 484 laps in 12 career races.

In the Playoffs’ second-round tracks, Blaney has an All-Star victory at Texas, two career wins at Talladega, and a win in the inaugural edition of the Charlotte ROVAL race in 2018.

The third round of the Playoffs sees two of Blaney’s best tracks: Las Vegas (eight career top-10s) and the season’s penultimate race at Martinsville (six top-fives and 377 laps led in 13 races).

For the forgetful, the championship race is once again at Phoenix Raceway. What are Blaney’s stats there, you ask?

In the last seven races in the desert, Blaney has four top-fives and 306 laps led. Just this season, he started on pole, won a stage and led 143 laps. While he hasn’t yet claimed victory there, Blaney and crew have a tremendous notebook from which to build come November.

What a storybook ending it would be for Blaney – who assuredly had thoughts of what-if-I-miss-the-Playoffs just a week ago – to ride his consistency through the Playoffs to his first Cup championship.

I for one expect it to happen, and believe Blaney will propel himself to “Elite” level in NASCAR’s top series once and for all.

On a dominant day that almost wasn’t, Tyler Reddick earned his second career Cup victory, winning in the Cup Series’ return to road racing after his triumph at Road America on Fourth of July weekend.

Despite leading a race-high 38 laps, Reddick almost lost hold of his victory on the final restart.

Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain missed Turn One, deciding to charge ahead and use the access lane instead. By making the move, he was able to nose ahead of Reddick into Turn Three, though Reddick was able to pass him back in a frantic dash with two laps remaining.

“Just trying not to be in the carnage there in Turn One – I thought we were four-wide,” Chastain said of the evasive maneuver. “(I) couldn’t go any farther right and just decided to take the NASCAR access lane.”

Chastain was ultimately issued a penalty by NASCAR, relegating him to a 27^th place finish.

With his second victory, Reddick now sits firmly in the Playoffs with four races remaining in the regular-season.

“I was like ‘uh-oh,’ but that was a scenario that had been talked about,” Reddick said of losing the lead briefly to Chastain via the access road. “I couldn’t believe he got ahead of me, I was kind of waiting to see if he was going to have a penalty …

“Just really glad to be able to do it here in Indianapolis. This is one really special place to race, (and) really excited to be able to kiss the bricks.”

As a result of Chastain’s penalty, Daytona 500 Champion and Cup rookie Austin Cindric came home in the second position, his second top-five result in the last four races.

Fellow rookies Harrison Burton and Todd Gilliland were also able to survive the carnage of the day, finishing third and fourth, respectively; it was each driver’s best career finish.

Bubba Wallace turned in his third top-five finish of the season in fifth place, followed by Joey Logano, AJ Allmendinger (Saturday’s Xfinity winner), Michael McDowell, Cole Custer and Chris Buescher – whose car caught fire earlier in the race.

Championship-leader Chase Elliott was running second to Reddick on the second-to-last restart, but was spun and finished 16^th.

Looking to the Playoff picture, Ryan Blaney and Martin Truex Jr. were able to expand their leads over Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick, who had multiple run-ins with Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman during the race, causing Harvick to finish 33^rd.

Blaney – who was also spun while contending late – has a 121-point cushion over Harvick, while Truex has a similarly comfortable 96-point advantage.

In the hardest crash of the race – and one of the hardest in recent memory – Kyle Larson had an undisclosed failure with his car, causing him to destroy the right-side of Ty Dillon’s Chevy Camaro while making the right-hander into Turn One; both drivers were OK after the incident.

Stage One was won by Indiana-native Chase Briscoe while Stage Two was won by Christopher Bell. Bell led 17 laps but had trouble on a restart late and finished 12^th.

Elliott retains his lead in the standings by 125 points over Blaney.

The NASCAR Cup Series returns to action next Sunday with the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway. Coverage begins at 3 p.m. ET on USA.

A dominant car for Justin Allgaier and JR Motorsports resulted in his second win of the season and first career victory at Nashville Superspeedway on Saturday.

It was by no means easy, though, as strategy dictated the latter portion of the race.

On Lap 116 of 188, Jeffrey Earnhardt spun from 12^th place while battling Sheldon Creed as Allgaier led the field after winning Stages 1 and 2.

All but eight drivers – including AJ Allmendinger, Brandon Jones, Noah Gragson and Daniel Hemric – elected to pit for their final set of sticker tires under caution.

Though as they say, cautions breed cautions.

On the ensuing restart, Jeb Burton got into the left rear of Creed, also collecting Joe Graf Jr., ending the latter two drivers’ days. The race stayed green from there however after the Lap 131 restart, for the final 58 laps of the day.

That left Allgaier enough time to make his march back to the front of the field a year after finishing runner-up to the Xfinity Series’ winningest driver, Kyle Busch, at the same track.

Allgaier regained the lead from Allmendinger on Lap 149 and set sail for the final 40 laps of the race.

“What a heck of a race. Been coming here a long time and love this racetrack,” Allgaier said.

“Been trying to go to victory lane so bad and haven’t been able to do it. Today was for the dirt racers though – it was slick, it was hot, we were sliding around. Just proud of this team.”

Allgaier led a season-best 134 laps, and when asked the last time he had such a dominant car was, Allgaier said simply:

“I don’t think ever.”

Trevor Bayne was able to finish second after having various problems on pit road throughout the day; Riley Herbst hit one of his crew members, and the team later had an equipment interference penalty.

Bayne has three more starts this season for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Rounding out the top-five were Herbst, Ty Gibbs and Sam Mayer.

Gibbs and Mayer – who fought previously after an on-track dust-up at Martinsville in April – had another run-in on Saturday.

With about 40 laps remaining, Mayer took advantage of Gibbs leaving space on the bottom of the track in turn three, driving underneath him. Gibbs’ car got loose from the air with no contact being made until Gibbs used the side of Mayer’s car to straighten his back up.

Gibbs was later able to pass Mayer back without further incident.

Completing the top-10 were Friday night’s Truck Series winner Ryan Preece, Earnhardt, Austin Hill, Ryan Sieg and Brett Moffitt.

Allmendinger holds the lead in the standings by 25 points over Gibbs.

The Xfinity Series returns to action next Saturday with the Henry 180 from Road America. Coverage begins at 2:30 p.m. ET on USA.

Friday’s Truck Series Charlotte winner and resident watermelon farmer in the NASCAR garage, Ross Chastain, has ascended to the top of the Cup Series in short order.

Chastain – driving for second-year Trackhouse Racing – has victories at Circuit of the Americas and Talladega, to go along with seven top-fives and eight top-10s through 13 Cup races.

With the hot start, Chastain has sent a message to the field through the first half of the regular-season:

He is a bona fide championship contender.

The question, though, must be asked: Are we really surprised?

Chastain has long been revered for his ability to get the most out of his typically subpar equipment. Whether it was driving for Premium Motorsports in Cup or Johnny Davis in the Xfinity Series, and to a lesser extent Niece Motorsports in Trucks, NASCAR fans, drivers and pundits alike have known this to be true for several years.

So it wasn’t terribly surprising, then, that when he got his first big opportunity in 2018, he didn’t disappoint.

Driving in three Xfinity races for Chip Ganassi Racing, Chastain won one race; finished second in another; led 270 laps; earned a pole; and won four stages. And those numbers don’t even tell the full story.

Chastain dominated the first two stages at Darlington only to get tangled up with not-so-happy Kevin Harvick, relegating him to a 25^th place finish that day.

All of that led to the announcement that Chastain would drive full-time for CGR’s Xfinity program in 2019. Early that year, though, the owners of car sponsor DC Solar had items seized from their headquarters and personal home by the FBI, and were later found to have run a Ponzi scheme to the tune of $1 billion.

Nix that plan.

Because CGR was forced to shutter its Xfinity operation, Chastain wound up running a partial Xfinity schedule that amounted to 13 starts for Johnny Davis, and six for Kaulig Racing.

Midway through that season, Chastain switched his points declaration to the Truck Series as he was also driving full-time for Niece (not to mention a full-time Cup schedule for Premium).

As it were, Chastain had to go from zero to hero, starting with zero points eight races into the Trucks regular-season because of the switch, leaving him with just eight races to reach the top-20 in points and win a race to make the Playoffs.

He was able to do it with two (three?) race wins in addition to his win at Kansas prior to the points change. At season’s end, Chastain finished two on-track positions short of hoisting the championship trophy that was ultimately won by the winless Matt Crafton.

Perhaps more clearly than ever, it was evident that the watermelon man could wheel a race vehicle.

Along came 2020, and Chastain found his full-time home in the Xfinity Series with Kaulig Racing – it was with that team he won the July Daytona race the season prior while lighting the Trucks world on fire.

Though he didn’t find victory lane, he was able to amass 15 top-fives and 27 top-10s in 33 races, finishing seventh in the final standings.

That earned him a promotion – and return – to CGR full-time in Cup a season ago, replacing the departed Kyle Larson as he moved over to Hendrick Motorsports.

While the numbers didn’t necessarily show it – three top-fives and eight top-10s – Chastain found speed throughout the latter portion of last season and had reason to be optimistic that Justin Marks would hire him to drive his second car at Trackhouse after purchasing Ganassi’s NASCAR assets.

Hire him he did, and Marks has reaped the rewards throughout the first half of 2022 and the debut of the Next Gen car.

Chastain is tied with William Byron for the most wins in Cup (2); has the fifth-best average finish (13.5); has led the fourth-most laps (273); and sits fifth in traditional points (second on the Playoff grid).

For a second-year Cup operation, even the visionary Marks couldn’t have possibly expected this much early success from Chastain.

But again, we should no longer be surprised; that is why I will leave with this declaration:

Chastain will plant the (watermelon) seeds necessary and win the Cup Series championship in November.

Stats courtesy of NASCAR Stats Hub and Racing-Reference.info.

On a beautiful and sunny day at the renamed Dover Motor Speedway, Josh Berry and the No. 8 JR Motorsports team captured the checkered flag for the first time in 2022, and for the third time in Berry's career.

Leading the final 55 laps of the race, Berry was able to get around teammate Justin Allgaier in an exciting battle during the final stage as the two drivers were the class of the field for much of the day.

Allgaier led a race-high 67 laps and won Stage Two, ultimately finishing runner-up to Berry. Their teammate, Sam Mayer, won Stage One and led 18 laps, but had to recover from a lost wheel and later a pit road speeding penalty. He was able to rejoin the top-five in the closing laps, finishing fifth.

A complimentary Berry gave a nod to his pit crew during his postrace interview.

"The pit crew did a phenomenal job today, they executed when we needed it," he said. "We were there when it counted.

"Both times I've raced here, I've gone toe-to-toe with Justin (Allgaier) the whole time -- he is so good here."

A dejected Allgaier had thoughts of what could have been after his pit crew lost several spots on pit road throughout the day, including the final stop when they lost three more, causing him to restart fifth with less than 50 laps remaining.

"Yeah, it's just disappointing. I feel like we gave one away," Allgaier said after his 34-race winless streak was extended another week. "We felt like that last run there, we were really good. ... Just came up a little bit short."

The fourth JR Motorsports driver, Noah Gragson, came home fourth and earned his fifth-career $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus.

Breaking up the JRM party in third was Ty Gibbs; AJ Allmendinger, Brandon Jones, Sheldon Creed, Riley Herbst and Ryan Sieg rounded out the top-10.

Jones led 59 laps but had to come back down pit road after his pit stop before Stage Three to tighten lugnuts, effectively ending his day.

The margin of victory was .604 seconds, and there were five cautions for 36 laps.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series returns to action next Saturday for the Mahindra ROXOR 200 at Darlington Raceway on Throwback Weekend. Coverage begins at 1:30 p.m. ET on FS1.

Making just his second Truck Series start since his seven-win 2016 campaign, Hendrick Motorsports' William Byron -- driving in this race for Spire Motorsports -- captured his eighth-career Truck victory, and first at Martinsville.

Leading a race-high 94 laps, Byron was able to overcome a 32nd place starting position after qualifying was rained out earlier in the day.

"It was a lot of fun. Great crowd here at Martinsville," Byron said on the FS1 telecast. "I've never won a race at Martinsville -- I struggled here when I was in late models. ...

"Thanks to Spire, all the guys back at their shop. They don't have a lot of guys, but they do it right," he continued.

Zane Smith led all 50 laps in Stage One. Because several drivers stayed out after the conclusion of the first stage, Smith -- who pitted -- had to work his way back up to fourth by the conclusion of Stage Two.

After all of that hard work he was met with a speeding penalty on pit road during the second stage break, and ultimately battled back to finish ninth.

Defending series champion Ben Rhodes won Stage Two and led 47 laps with arguably the best long-run truck on the night. Several late cautions, however, negated his truck's strength, and he settled for a fifth place finish.

Johnny Sauter -- who got tangled up with Hailie Deegan earlier in the evening -- came through the field from a 36th place starting spot to finish second. It was his first Truck start since Daytona in February; Deegan finished 19th.

Running near the front of the field on Lap 133, Stewart Friesen was spun by Christian Eckes after Rhodes pushed him up the track; Friesen wound up 13th, one spot behind Eckes.

Also in the top-five were Kyle Busch in third and John Hunter Nemechek in fourth, who earned his second consecutive top-five finish.

Rounding out the top-10 were Chandler Smith, Matt Crafton, Grant Enfinger, Zane Smith and Tyler Ankrum.

In all, there were 11 cautions for 71 laps and the margin of victory for Byron was 1.138 seconds.

Ben Rhodes regained the points lead over Chandler Smith, and now leads by four points.

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series returns to action next Saturday on the dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway. Coverage begins at 8 p.m. ET on FS1.