2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series Race One Daytona

Cars in field: 38
Pole: Justin Allgaier (7)
Outside Pole: Taylor Gray (54)
Stages: 30-30-60
Weather: Partly sunny, 79°F, Wind S 9 mph, Wind Gusts 10 mph

The CW has a pre-race show with three people – some chick with a hard-to-listen-to accent, Jamie McMurray, and Parker Kligerman. I gave it a shot, then turned to a cooking show on television and turned on the MRN pre-race broadcast. I miss Jeff Striegle on MRN. Mike ‘Bagman’ Bagley isn’t as bad on this broadcast as he was on the broadcasts at the end of last season, but he’s audibly green.

Caution on lap 5 of 120 for a crash involving Brandon Jones (20), Carson Kvapil (1), Connor Zilisch (88), Brennan Poole (44), Harrison Burton (25, and Daniel Dye (10). Looks like Jesse Love (2) got into the back of Jones (20) turning him into Carson Kvapil mid-pack collecting others. The television broadcast reported the field checked up in front resulting in an accordion effect. MRN reports Brandon is already out of the car. Daniel Dye’s day is also done.

Restarting on lap 11 of 120 with Austin Hill (21) up front.

Brandon Jones said he was trying to avoid exactly what happened, his running into the back of the 18, but he said there doesn’t seem to be any learning. Daniel Dye said the 2 was just trying to make aggressive moves to early. He went on saying, “that’s one of his best friends there, just being stupid, so poker night is going to get a little awkward now

Caution on lap 20 of 120 for debris for the hood blowing open on Brennan Poole’s (44) car after the piece of tape that was holding it closed flies off.

MRN reports the race is scheduled to start an hour earlier, at 1230, due to weather.

That is a sexy car Justin Allgaier (7) has this week. I love the multi-colored Brandt paint scheme.

nascar.com has mucked up the leaderboard, adding all kinds of crap, making the view big, and messy, and wasting screen real estate. It also seems to display a whole lot slower. I’m used to nascar.com showing things before they appear on television and, occasionally before it’s reported on MRN. Today the nascar.com timeline is the slowest of all. It has been updating several seconds behind the MRN broadcast which lags about two laps behind the television broadcast this season.

I’m going to go in search of a simplified version of the timeline that shows me what I want to see as clearly, and simply as possible. The leaderboard page was great a few years ago; responsive, clear, concise, wonderful. Each year it gets more congested, less responsive, and much less useful to simply follow the race. NASCAR seems to be going out of it’s way to destroy every element of the series that made me a fan of the sport and of the coverage of the sport. They keep adding elements that take away from the broadcasts. I don’t understand why they believe NASCAR fans prefer to see anything other than the cars racing on track – all of the cars, not just the bumpers, hoods, doors, interiors, and windscreens of cars.

NASCAR should accommodate fans who believe less is more. There should be a simple version of the leaderboard and timeline that is basically just text, and only a reporting of the fact – lap number and action – for people who enjoy reading information and don’t require the bells and whistles. I find it very difficult to see the current lap number on the page, now that it is buried due to a smaller font and the addition of an idiotic colored bar/graph showing the elapsed laps using a colored bar, plus a link to the MRN broadcast amongst other stuff. Congested.

Austin Hill (21) wins stage one.

Restarting on lap 36 of 120 with Justin Allgaier (7) and Sam Mayer (41) up front. Justin stayed out on that pit cycle.

Caution on lap 59 of 120 for Nick Sanchez (48) getting into the wall after contact with Sheldon Creed (00).

Stage two will end under caution with Austin Hill (21) out front.

MRN reports the tire of the 21 car has fluid on it and the drivers behind him have been warned of that. Since he’s leading, I guess that’s all the field, or maybe just the folks lined up immediately behind him. Television is showing the right rear tire looking very shiny as Austin Hill heads in for a pit stop.

Restarting on lap 57 of 120 with Austin Hill (21) and Taylor Gray (54) up front.

Sheldon Creed (00) apologized on the radio for taking Nick Sanchez (48) out of the race. Nick says no hard feelings there, in the end it’s just plate racing.

On lap 78 of 120 the 31 car has smoke coming out of the back end as it races around. nascar.com is reporting that the 21 car is smoking. Considering how difficult it is to see car numbers with the crappy television coverage I could’ve been looking at the 21 – nope, different colored car. Blaine Perkins is the (31).

Green flag pit stops on lap 81 of 120.

On lap 82 of 120 Austin Hill (21) reports a big vibration and the cars behind him are reporting fluid on their windshield. MRN reports on lap 83 of 120 that Austin Hill (21) is done for the day.

Justin Allgaier (7) stalled the car leaving pit road and will attempt to catch up to the rear of the field as Ryan Sieg (39) leads the race. Justin Allgaier (7) was one lap down after the long pit stop. MRN reports he had gained his lap back before the caution, now he’s gained additional spots.

Caution on lap 87 of 120 as Kris Wright (5) plows into Josh Bilicki (91) trying to get onto pit road, and clips Ryan Truex (24). Reportedly Kris Wright said he had no brakes. Leland Honeyman (70) is stopped on the backstretch on lap 89 of 120.

Austin Hill (21) says it was either a rear-hub or gear or a combination of both that took him out of the race, but he hasn’t gotten the final diagnosis. He says he saw smoke in the cockpit and it smelled weird, like burning oil.

MRN reports Sheldon Creed has finished second 13 times and Ryan Sieg (39) has finished second 5 times.

Kris Wright said they had a brake issue before and had some bad communication coming to the pits and he “had no brakes for two seconds and two seconds is two football fields here.”

Restarting on lap 95 of 120 with Sheldon Creed (00) and Jesse Love (2) on the front row followed by second-place Sam Mayer (41).

On lap 97 of 120 MRN reports Garrett Smithley (14) has lost power and is coasting on the apron to pit road.

A third row has formed and the middle lane is leaving the inside lead removing Harrison Burton (25) from the lead.

They get back into two rows on lap 103 of 120.

With 15 laps to go they seem to be racing with Jesse Love and Sheldon Creed up front followed by Connor Zilisch (88), Sam Mayer (41), Sammy Smith (8), Taylor Gray (54) and Justin Allgaier (7).

Allgaier gets dumped into the middle by teammate Carson Kavpil (1) on lap 109 of 120.

Sheldon drops down creating an inside lane on lap 110 of 120 – other cars join him to form a second lane up front.

Caution on lap 112 of 120 for a big crash involving Justin Bonsignore (19), Anthony Alfredo (42), Sammy Smith (8). Bonsignore went down into Smith sending him up into Anthony Alfredo.

Restarting on lap 117 of 120 Jesse Love (2), Sheldon Creed (00), Sam Mayer (41), Taylor Gray (54), Connor Zilisch (88), Jeb Burton (27), William Sawalich (18), Christian Eckes (16), Carson Kvapil (1), Justin Allgaier (7), Ryan Sieg (39), and Jordan Anderson (32) up front.

Jesse Love (2) gets the early jump for the lead.

Caution on lap 118 of 120 for a crash involving Parker Retzlaff (4), Christian Eckes (16), William Sawalich (18), Connor Zilisch (88), Greg Van Alst (35) and Ryan Ellis (71). Ryan Ellis Parker Retzlaff. Connor Zilisch got turned into the outside wall and began spinning collecting cars that have no way to go.

Restarting in overtime with Jesse Love (2), Taylor Gray (54), Sam Mayer (41), Sheldon Creed (00), Jeb Burton (27), Carson Kvapil (1), Justin Allgaier (7), Ryan Sieg (39), Jordan Anderson (32), and Josh Williams (11).

They’re going to end it under caution so Jesse Love will get the win.

Caution as they were headed to the white flag collecting Ryan Sieg (39), Josh William (11), Justin Allgaier (7), Anthony ‘FastPasta’ Alfredo (42), Jeb Burton (27), and Leland Honeyman (70). Allgaier got pushed into 27 and tried to get off his bumper and got turned in front of the field collecting a lot of cars.

Congratulations to Jordon Anderson (32) on his fifth place finish.

Connor Zilisch (88) says he and Jesse Love (2) are best fiends and he loves him like a brother, so he’s very happy for Jesse’s win.

The race was mostly boring until the third stage. They really began racing in the final quarter of the event – which means basically racy driving around in circles occasionally broken up with actual racing at stage endings. They hung it out in the final 15 laps resulting in multiple crashes. The finish seemed to show NASCAR’s exhaustion. They restarted with three laps left in the scheduled distances and didn’t make it to the white flag. They restarted in overtime and seemingly didn’t make it to the white flag, but the next thing I knew NASCAR declared Jesse Love (2) the winner. Overall it was a ho-hum race with some excitement near the end. It wasn’t a great race. It wasn’t as bad as many of them. It was relatively predictable based on the number of newbies. It was also a bit unpredictable due to the number of newbies. Not bad.

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Next Race: Atlanta

GO 7!!!!