Matthew Jackson - Results from #20

Josh Berry won Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, giving him a spot in the championship race at Phoenix Raceway next month.

Three JR Motorsports drivers finished in the top three following the checkered flag. Noah Gragson finished second and Justin Allgaier finished third.

Allgaier, who finished third had a chance at the race win but would make contact with the Turn 4 wall with two laps remaining in the race.

Ty Gibbs and Trevor Bayne would round out the top five.

Hailie Deegan, who started her first NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday, finished 13th. It marks the best finish for a female driver in their first Xfinity Series start.

Josh Berry sits atop the playoff board after his win on Saturday. Noah Gragson, Ty Gibbs and Justin Allgaier make up the top four spots above the cutoff line.

Austin Hill, AJ Allmendinger, Brandon Jones and Sam Mayer all are below the cutoff line with two races left in the Round of 8.

Rounding out the top ten were Austin Hill in sixth, Sam Mayer in seventh, Daniel Hemric in eighth, Brandon Jones in ninth and Anthony Alfredo in tenth.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series heads to Homestead-Miami Speedway next Saturday October, 22nd at 4:30 p.m. Eastern on USA Network.

Stage 1 Winner: Ty Gibbs
Stage 2 Winner: Noah Gragson
Race Winner: Josh Berry

Christopher Bell won Sunday’s Bank of America Rival 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and punched his ticket into the next round of the playoffs.

Sunday’s race was rather calm until the final few laps when there were some cautions for wrecks which would send the race into an overtime finish.

Bell, who would get fresh tires during a late race pit stop under caution needed a win in order to advance into the Round of 8. When the race went back to green, Bell would charge past race leader Kevin Harvick and win over a margin of. 1.7 seconds.

Adam Stevens, who is the crew chief for Bell, made the decision to go with four tires in the late race pit stop to try and pull off a miracle. “We hit a three-pointer at the buzzer,” Stevens said post-race.

“I was the first one on new tires,” Bell told NBC Sports post-race. “I guess we’ll roll the dice and see what happens. When I got into Turn 1 my spotter did an amazing job. They all started wrecking, that kept me out of the junk in Turn 1.”

For Bell, Sunday’s win marks his second win of the year and gives him a spot into the next round of the playoffs. Bell also became the sixth driver to win below the cutoff line in an elimination race.

Chase Briscoe, who needed a good finish in order to advance into the Round of 8 would do just that with his ninth place finish.

Briscoe’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Cole Custer, who was racing drivers that Briscoe needed to pass to finish high enough to not get eliminated from the playoffs. Custer would slow down off the back stretch in order to slow other drivers so that Briscoe could get past them.

NASCAR announced after the race that they’re reviewing data, video and radio transmissions from Cole Custer and his team related to Custer’s actions. NASCAR also added that any penalties that might come from their investigation into the matter won’t affect the Round of 8 field. Custer, who started the final lap in eighth would finish 24th.

Rounding out the top five were Kevin Harvick in second, Kyle Busch in third, AJ Allmendinger in fourth and Justin Haley in fifth.

Chase Elliott, who was in control of the race up until a restart with two laps to go. Harvick would drive past race-leader Elliott for the lead and Elliott and Reddick would make contact as they both race for second place, sending Elliott around.

Drivers advancing into the Round of 8 next weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway are Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell, William Byron, Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe.

Drivers who did not advance into the Round of 8 are Kyle Larson, Daniel Suarez, Austin Cindric and Alex Bowman. Bowman has been out with a concussion. 

Rounding out the top ten were Chris Buescher in sixth, Bubba Wallace in seventh, Tyler Reddick in eighth, Chase Briscoe in ninth and Austin Dillion in tenth.

The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday October, 15th in the opening race for the Round of 8 at 3:00 p.m. Eastern on NBC. 

Stage 1 Winner: Joey Logano

Stage 2 Winner: Ross Chastain 

Race Winner: Christopher Bell

AJ Allmendinger won Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. 

Erik Jones won Sunday’s CookOut Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

Sunday’s opening round of the playoffs shown everything you could imagine. Drama, carnage and hurt feelings.

Jones, who is not one of the sixteen playoff drivers, emerged from everyone else’s troubles to win the Southern 500, a huge upset victory to open the playoffs.

Jones took advantage of the other playoff drivers troubles on a restart with 21 laps to go in the race. Driver No. 43 would pull out to a one second lead over second place Denny Hamlin on the restart. Jones would beat Hamlin by .252 of a second at the finish.

Sunday’s win for Jones marked the third win of his career. The famous No. 43 returned to victory lane at the track “Too tough to tame” for the first time since Richard Petty won back in 1967.

The results of Sunday’s playoff driver troubles took a big hit in the point standings. Chase Elliott, who started the playoffs at the top of the charts fell to ninth in standings, Kevin Harvick, who started the playoffs in ninth fell seven spots sixteenth in standings.

Joey Logano took over the lead in the point standings over William Byron in second and Denny Hamlin in third place in standings.

Probably the most strange thing of the race happened when Kevin Harvick’s No. 4 Ford went into a haze of fire and smoke on lap 277 of 367. Fire would erupt on both sides of Harvick’s car, forcing Harvick to quickly park the car and exit through the drivers side window.

Harvick was arguably mad at NASCAR during his comments in the garage after his incident. Harvick said the fire started without any contact, blaming it on the parts NASCAR issues the teams.

Rounding out the top five were Denny Hamlin in second, Tyler Reddick in third, Joey Logano in fourth and Christopher Bell in fifth.

Rounding out the top ten were Michael McDowell in sixth, Brad Keselowski in seventh, William Byron in eighth, Bubba Wallace in ninth and Alex Bowman in tenth.

The NASCAR Cup Series second race of the playoffs will take place at Kansas Speedway in the running of the Hollywood Casino 400 on Sunday, Sept. 11 at 3:00 p.m. Eastern on USA Network.

Stage 1 Winner: William Byron
Stage 2 Winner: Kyle Busch
Race Winner: Erik Jones

Kyle Larson won Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Watkins Glen International.

Larson took advantage of a costly late race restart from William Byron and Ty Gibbs and went on to win Saturday’s Xfinity Series race.

“I got lucky. I think my only shot really was if Gibbs and Byron really got racing. I just wanted to help William down the front-stretch as much as I could then they got to battle up the esses.

“I tried to help William get clear to the bus stop. They raced side-by-side into there, got together and and the seas parted and I was able to get through. Then I had AJ behind me so I was just trying yo hit my marks as best as I could. He had me definitely nervous out in front of him,” Larson told NBC Sports post-race.

During the final restart with five laps to go, Byron and Gibbs both raced for the lead as they both entered the bus stop. Larson, who was running third at the time saw the battle ahead of him. He would then see Gibbs get loose and spin out collecting Byron as well.

That costly mistake would give Larson the race lead ahead of AJ Allmendinger in second.

Allmendinger would catch up to Larson within a car length on the final lap however, it would not be enough to take over the top spot.

Byron would go onto finish 25th and Gibbs would go onto finish 27th. Both drivers had communication on pit road after the race regarding the wreck. The conversation would end would need for intervention.

 Rounding out the top five were AJ Allmendinger in second, Sammy Smith in third, Noah Gragson in fourth and Kaz Grala in fifth.

Rounding out the top ten were Sam Mayer in sixth, Riley Herbst in seventh, Sheldon Creed in eighth, Josh Berry in ninth and Jeremy Clements in tenth.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series heads to Daytona International Speedway next Friday, August 26th at 7:30 p.m. Eastern on USA Network.

Stage 1 Winner: Sammy Smith
Stage 2 Winner: William Byron
Race Winner: Kyle Larson