NXS: What to watch for in today’s Ag-Pro 300

From smallest to biggest: That’s right the Xfinity Series goes from the smallest track that NASCAR runs on, the half-mile Martinsville Speedway to the biggest and longest the 2.66-mile monster Talladega Superspeedway. In what might not have been a shock short track ace Josh Berry dueled it out early with Brandon Jones and in the end, it was Josh Berry adding another grandfather clock to his trophy case for his first Xfinity win for JR Motorsports over teammate Noah Gragson.

Dash 4 Cash Round 2: With Berry’s win in Martinsville he will join Noah Gragson, Daniel Hemric and Brandon Jones in a $100,000 shoot out at Talladega in the second installment of the 2021 Xfinity Dash 4 Cash. The top four finishing drivers from Talladega will move onto Darlington in early May for the next round followed by Dover to round out the Dash 4 Cash in 2021. Gragson will make his fifth start this weekend followed by Hemric’s four starts, Jones will make his seventh start with two top-five, two top-10s and last weeks winner Berry will make his first start at Talladega today.

Playoff lookout: With four winners already locked in(Cindric, AJ Allmendinger, Snider and Allgaier) just eight spots remain with Brandon Brown falling out this week along with Herbst and Josh Williams all nipping to get one of those 12 spots. Berry who is running a part-time schedule and won this year is not eligible for the playoffs later this year. Some big names are currently inside that 12 driver cut line and not won yet like Harrison Burton, Brandon Jones, Noah Gragson and a surprise entry of Jeremy Clements saying inside the top-12 and finishing 14th two weeks ago at Martinsville to keep him in the hunt.

Decker returns to Xfinity: Natalie Decker this weekend returns for a four race stint this year for Our Motorsports and starting in 38th this weekend and returning at Nashville, Road America and Martinsville later this year.

Side Note: Ty Gibbs leads the way over Berry by a mere eight points in the rookie of the year standings.