2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series Race Twenty-Four Darlington

Brandon Jones (19) and Noah Gragson (9) are on the front row to lead the 38 car field to the green flag. The stages for today’s race are 45-45-57. Ty ‘LittleJoe’ Gibbs (54) hit Justin Allgaier (7) on the formation lap.

Brandon Jones (19) gets the early lead.

On lap 2 of 147 the television broadcast is already bored and showing an in-car shot of a driver driving.

Noah Gragson takes the lead on lap 3 of 147.

Television has a split screen of the battle for the lead and a car in the 31st position on track. While I’m sure Christopher Bell (18) fans are concerned about his progress, I’m not sure why we’re distracting the viewer from the battle for the lead with a driver driving, doing nothing special, at back end of the field.

Now theres a shot of a hood and the track and some driver driving. No idea who or why. Since I tuned in for a race I don’t actually care either. This is proving, on lap 9 of 147, to be a race to listen to on MRN instead of bothering with the television broadcast.

TV is working hard to avoid showing the on-track action. During a ‘non-stop’ commercial break the racing camera was showing the hands, steering wheel, and dashboard of a car with a bit of the track surface showing. It was a dark shot that displayed nothing of the racing action and provided the viewer with nothing visually engaging, nor descriptive of the point of the broadcast.

Noah Gragson (9) wins stage one.

John Hunter ‘JHN’ Nemechek () and Anthony ‘FastPasta’ Alfredo (23) have an incident coming to the restart. Alfredo ran underneath the back end of JHN. JHN went for a spin. The restart was called off as a result.

Clouds are building off turns one and two. The skies were suny, but are now cloudy.

Noah Gragson (9) and Brandon Jones (19) restart up front.

Noah Gragson gets an early lead off a shove from teammate Justin Allgaier (7).

Heavy rain is falling a mile or two off turn two according to MRN’s Dave Moody. The skies are very dark. You can clearly see the areas of rain in the distance from the blimp shot.

Caution on lap 55 of 147 for a crash involving Myatt Snider (31), Riley Herbst (98), and Brandon Brown (68). The replay shown by NBCSports looks like Snider got out of shape and bounced off the wall into Riley Herbst and was run into from behind by Brandon Brown (68), though its hard to say from the bad camera angle shown on the television broadcast. According to NASCAR digital it was Kris Wright (68) and Joe Graf Jr who got together and hit the wall collecting Snider; then Herbst ran into the mess. Bad camerawork.

The cloud appears to be over the track now. The shot is quite dark as the cars roll around under caution.

Restarting on lap 61 of 147 with teammates Gragson and Allgaier on the front row.

Noah Gragson gets the early lead.

MRN says, “Rain is imminent you can see it off turn two”.

Caution on lap 62 of 147 for rain in turn two.

MRN’s Dave Moody says its very light in turn two. He said it was raining hard behind him a few minutes ago.

MRN reports the race officially sold out a couple of minutes ago.

NASCAR has an itchy trigger finger about rain due to last week’s crash during rain at Daytona. Different track, different week, different danger.

The cars continue to circle under the rain caution.

They showed the grandstands and it looked like most people were leaving there was so much movement in the stands. Apparently they were going to stand inside to wait out the rains.

Kim Coon is on the NBC broadcast.

The cars are being led onto pit road on lap 67 of 147 and stopped.

Moody says it’s not raining much now, but he ca no longer see a water tower 2 miles away so he’s headed for the ladder. MRN’s Mike Bagley said he’s starting to get the rain and is headed down the ladder also.

Red flag at 1611 eastern.

Christopher Bell (18) says he was trying to let the field get single-filed out.

Noah Gragson (9) said, on the television interview, he’s hoping to get to lap 74 so the race can be official and he can start the Labor Day weekend early. He’s holding an umbrella talking to Parker Kligerman. It’s raining hard and the wind is blowing hard. Noah said thanks and ran away as the rain got harder. Parker covered what Noah said when a rain gust hit them hard avoiding an apology for an ‘Oh shit’ on-air.

On the radio interview he said it’s raining hard on one side of the track and the sun is coming out on the other side. He said he “wished it didn’t rain”. During the radio interview Noah said when he’s climbed the fence he’s thinking, “Oh shit, I’m worn out.” Riley Herst ran away from Marty Snider’s television interview when the rain picked up. Alex Hayden apologized for the language.

MRN is going to throw the broadcast back to the local stations.

You can barely see the cars through the rain on pit road at 1625 eastern. You can more easily see a safety vehicle circling the track. The rain is falling at very different rates at different areas of the track.

At 1628 MRN tosses it to local stations and will have an update at the top of the hour.

The track drying team is at work under mostly sunny skies at 1655 eastern.

MRN reports at 1730 eastern that the skies have cleared and there’s sunshine and white puffy clouds over the track. The track drying continues.

At 1800 MRN says the car covers are off and the drivers have been called back to their cars. MRN’s Alex Hayden says the weather is the best it’s looked all day long.

At 1847 eastern engines are re-fired.

The caution flag is displayed at 1848 eastern.

Restarting on lap 77 of 147 with Noah Gragson (9) leading the field to the green flag.

The sun is setting behind turn four, according to MRN, as the drivers head toward the green flag.

On the restart lap tv is already going to the gimmick shot. So they’re not expecting anything of interest on track for the rest of the event.

Justin Allgaier (7) is staying on the rear bumper of his teammate Noah Gragson (9) for the lead.

TV is showing something in slo-mo in a large box, somewhere in the field, as Justin Allgaier (7) takes the lead on lap 81 of 147 in a tiny box.

Now they’re showing three cars racing each other. I have no idea where they are in the running order due to the tight camera shot.

Noah Gragson (9) has caught up to teammate Justin Allgiaer and is battling for the lead.

JJ Yeley (66) is engulfed in flames on lap 87 of 147 bringing out the caution. JJ is out of car quickly. There was a plume of smoke then fire burst from the rear end and wheel wells of the car.

MRN is reporting something ‘hand-grenaded’ under the hood of the car. They mention it was like the explosions one sees in NHRA cars.

Justin Allgaier (7) wins the stage under caution.

Restarting on lap 97 of 147 with Austin Hill (21) and Justin Allgaier (7) on the front row.

Justin Allgaier gets the early lead.

Sheldon Creed passes (2) Allgaier for the lead on lap 97 of 147.

Austin Hill (21), and Noah Gragson (9) pass Allgaier (7) on lap 101 of 147.

Noah Gragson has passed Austin Hill on lap 110 of 147 for second position.

Justin Allgaier passes Austin Hill for third on lap 113 of 147.

Caution on lap 126 of 147 for a spin by Brandon Jones (19).

TV is showing a nice shot of the evening sky and a close up of the half moon.

Sheldon Creed (2) is first on and first off pit road followed by Noah Gragson (9) and Ty ‘LittleJoe’ Gibbs (54).

Restarting on lap 133 of 147 with Sheldon Creed on Noah Gragson up front.

Sheldon Creed (2) gets the early lead.

Noah Gragson is on Creed’s bumper on lap 134 of 147.

It’s a three-car race for the lead with Sheldon Creed followed by Noah Gragson followed by Kyle Larson on lap 141 of 147.

Larson takes second on lap 143 of 147 when Noah tried to pass and gets into creed

Larson has the same experience with Creed on lap 144 of 147 but holds onto the second spot.

Larson takes the white flag inches ahead of Creed.

Larson and Creed are door to door headed to the checkered flag.

Noah takes it three wide.

Creed (2) hit the wall, sparks fly as he continues.

Larson (17) hits the wall.

Gragson (9) hits the wall.

Gragson wins!

The finish of that race was exciting with three drivers driving all out battling for the win. The television broadcast managed to stay with the racing action for it. The radio call was dead-on and as exciting as the on-track action.

Noah has zipped down his firesuit showing his chest after climbing the fence. We got a damn and a bad ass in the first sentence out of Noah’s potty-mouth on the television interview.

Noah is totally out of breath and can’t talk. He immediately said he was worn out and that was badass, then he couldn’t say anything further. Parker Kligerman asked him a question and Noah couldn’t really answer it.

He doesn’t look good.

Parker has backed away after asking Noah is he needed some water. Noah didn’t really answer him. Parker is giving Noah a break to have some water and get himself together. After a couple of minutes he realizes Noah can’t continue and tells them he will talk to Noah later. Noah walks away toward his team.

Dave Burns of NBCSports said Noah has an history of getting sick to his stomach after races like this and we hope he doesn’t have another incident. He should not be in that position. He also said Sheldon had a similar incident earlier today. Wow. He really does not know what to say.

Noah said he got a little dizzy from all the smoke that got in his visor from the burnout. Noah looks much better in his tv interview a few minutes later. He’s smiling and exuberant.

Noah’s radio interview is just as excited as the tv interview and he’s complimentary of Sheldon’s performance.

Kim Coon on NBC was reporting on someone, during the rain delay, who said he ‘didn’t know how Noah does it’ referring to Noah’s prior references to being sick while wearing his helmet.

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2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series Race Twenty-Four Darlington

Next Race: Kansas

GO JRM!!!!