Austin Hill Wins Pocono Xfinity Race
Photo Courtesy: TaurusEmerald Wikimedia Commons
Austin Hill, the driver of the Richard Childress Racing No. 21, earned his fourth win of the NASCAR Xfinity Series season in the Explore the Pocono Mountains 225 at Pocono Raceway. He had not won since the fifth race of the season at Atlanta. He is now tied for most wins with Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 driver John Hunter Nemechek.
JR Motorsports No. 8 driver Josh Berry won the first two stages and led 51 laps, including controlling the start on the overtime restart. He got high in Turn 1 which allowed Hill to take his first lead of the race on the first lap of overtime. As the leaders crossed for the white flag JRM No. 7 driver Justin Allgaier blew a tire and got into the outside wall. Debris came off of his car on the front stretch but they let the race stay green as far around the 2.5-mile track as the pack could safely make it.
Berry bumped Hill on the inside entering Turn 1 and briefly pulled ahead but lost momentum on the inside entering the backstretch. He tried to get back to the right but door slammed JRM No. 1 driver Sam Mayer and Berry fell back in line in 3rd before wrecking on the outside wall in the Tunnel Curve. Moments later RSS Racing No. 39 driver Ryan Sieg spun which brought out a race-ending caution. Allgaier limped his way around to finish 23rd after leading eight laps and Berry DNFed in 24th.
Mayer held on to finish 2nd, the best out of the JRM cars. No. 9 driver Brandon Jones finished 7th after leading 12 laps. Jones, Berry and Allgaier controlled the top three spots for a good portion of the race before the start of the final green flag pit cycle.
Two late cautions helped some cars who had not yet stopped as they were able to make it through the end of overtime without giving up their gained track position. Hill had pitted on Lap 48. And Mayer and Riley Herbst, driver of the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 98, both had their last stop on Lap 47. Herbst finished in 4th.
Allgaier caused the first caution while making his way around the lapped car of Joey Gase in the Emerling-Gase Motorsports No. 35. Gase was off the pace and Allgaier just bulldozed him through a turn and took heavy damage to his nose. The damage popped one of his tires which put him out of any sort of contention on the last restarts even before he suffered the second flat.
JGR No. 19 driver Connor Mosack got into the wall and DNFed shortly after the restart bringing out a second caution in the short period and it sent the race into overtime.
It was Chase Elliott’s first Xfinity race since the Indianapolis Road Course in 2021 as he did not qualify at Darlington last season. It was his first-ever run in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 17, a number that has significance with Ricky Hendrick, the son of team owner Rick Hendrick. Ricky, who passed away in 2004, ran the No. 17 in the Truck Series in 2001 and finished 6th in points. He also won the truck race at Kansas that season. In his return to the Xfinity Series, Elliott finished 3rd which is his best finish in the series since 2018 when he placed 2nd, also at Pocono.
On the Final Stage restart, two championship hopefuls John Hunter Nemechek and SHR No. 00 driver Cole Custer got caught up in a jam and wrecked on the outside wall. They were able to stay running but off of the lead lap. Due to the damage, they were off-pace and not able to make up their laps and Nemechek finished 32nd and Custer finished 33rd.
Next week the Xfinity Series splits from the Cup and Truck Series and heads to Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin for the Henry 180. The race is Saturday, July 29 at 3:00 p.m. ET on NBC.