The high school band did a nice job with the anthem. It sounded like the sopranos weren’t quite close enough to the mics, so they sounded under-represented. Hats off to the choir-director. Good job. The skies are sunny and clear. FS1 reports the temperature is 72 degrees at race time. Trevor Bayne (18) will the 38 car field to the green. The stages for today’s race are 45-45-110.
The 18 car is sitting on pit road with officials around it having trouble with the car starting. They’re reporting the kill-switch is cutting out causing the issue. The field is making parade laps. A crewman has run to the hauler to get a new kill-switch and steering wheel for Trevor Bayne (18).
Anthony Alfredo (23) is also sitting on pit road with mechanical issues.
Trevor is headed onto the track as they field continues parade laps so he retains his starting position.
Alfredo remains sitting on pit road because he can’t get the car into gear and can’t get it moving forward. They will take the car behind the wall and try to repair it enough to get some laps during the event.
Trevor gets the early lead followed by Noah Gragson (9) and Brandon Jones (19).
Sheldon Creed (2) lost the back-end into the turn and tagged the wall, then continued on.
Caution on lap 21 of 200 for a crash by Riley Herbst (98). He said on the radio the brake pedal was going to the floor. He spun and hit the wall on the driver’s side.
Riley Herbst is slurring as he’s speaking outside the in-field care center and says that’s the hardest hit he’s ever had. He says he doesn’t know what happened, it turned right, the pedal went to the floor.
Restarting on lap 3 of 200 with Trevor and Noah up front.
Noah (9) gets the early lead.
Noah Gragson holds off Trevor Bayne to win stage one.
Restarting on lap 54 of 200 with Brandon Jones (19) and Noah Gragson (9) up front.
Caution on lap 54 of 200 for a spin by Ty Gibbs (54)
Restarting on lap 61 of 200 with Noah Gragson (9) and Brandon Jones (19) on the front row.
Brandon Jones (19) gets the early lead.
Noah passes him for the lead on lap 70 of 200.
Noah wins stage two.
Trevor Bayne (18) and Sam Mayer (1) will start from the back due to a pit road speeding violation.
NASCAR took a set of tires from four random teams including Bayne (18) and Gragson (9).
Restarting on lap 98 of 200 with Justin Allgaier (7) and on the front row.
Justin Allgaier (7) chases the car to the wall and loses the early lead to Brandon Jones (19).
John Hunter ‘JHN’ Nemechek (26) passes Brandon Jones for the lead on lap 101 of 200.
Noah Gragson takes over the lead on lap 112 of 200.
Green flag pit stops underway on lap 167 0f 200.
Sam Mayer (1) will have to serve a speeding penalty.
Justin Allgaier (7) has to server a pass-thru penalty for taking equipment out of the box. The air-gun hose got stuck under his car as he left his pit stall.
Brandon Jones (19) inherits the lead.
Sam Mayer (1) speeds while serving his speeding penalty.
Noah Gragson (9) catches up to Brandon Jones (19) on lap 183 of 200 and begins looking for a way around him.
Noah takes the lead on lap 186 of 200.
Adam Alexander shares the booth with Joey Logano and Daniel Suarez making for a delightful audio portion of the broadcast. Joey is getting better at calling the race every outing and Daniel provides wonderful insight also.
Noah Gragson takes the white flag.
Noah Gragson wins the race leading 115 laps. He finishes 2.555 seconds ahead of Brandon Jones (19).
Rubber is flying across the infield as he burned both rear tires off the car. One of the pieces of rubber is on fire on the track as he’s greeting his team in the infield.
The 9 team heads over to the fence to climb to salute the fans.
Congrats to Josh Berry (8) on a third place finish.
Congratulations to Trevor Bayne (18) on his fourth place finish.
Good work to Justin Allgaier (7) on his hard work to finish tenth after his late green-flag pit stop penalty.
That was a decent race, good for an Xfinity series race. There seemed to be enough action on the track to keep the tv truck interested enough to limit the gimmick shots, though I had dinner during the long green flag stint and may have missed some of that. The door-to-door racing to end the first stage was enjoyable. I had hoped to see more of that, but it was not to be. It was also good to see cars chase down and pass the leader, though I would have enjoyed seeing more competitive cars in the field. The leader was more than two seconds ahead of the next car at the conclusion of the race.
Motorsport News:
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- Trevor Bayne Added Another Start to NASCAR Schedule.
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- Harvick focusing on long game through grueling run out West.
- Positive COVID test sidelines Ricciardo in Bahrain.
- Hamilton struggling to tame ‘tough’ Mercedes.
- Magnussen fastest in Bahrain F1 testing while Mercedes struggles.
- All-time NASCAR Cup Series winners.
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- Danica Patrick Brings Different Perspective to Fox Broadcasts, Not Considering Racing Return.
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- Steve ODonnell Named Chief Operating Officer of NASCAR; Ben Kennedy Returns to Competition Team.
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- Justin Carroll Planning Truck Series Debut at Martinsville Speedway.
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- Las Vegas TV Ratings.
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- Cindric leads Penske sweep of Phoenix Cup practice.