John Hunter Nemechek wins Xfinity Regular Season Finale at Kansas
Photo Courtesy: TaurusEmerald Wikimedia Commons
John Hunter Nemechek won the Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway in the NASCAR Xfinity Series regular-season finale. Nemechek wraps the regular season with a series-high six wins in his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota Supra.
Nemechek took the lead late in the first stage from pole-winner, JR Motorsports No. 7 driver Justin Allgaier, and ended up winning Stage 1 and Stage 2 for a big playoff point bonus going into the Round of 12.
Big Machine Racing No. 48 driver Parker Kligerman locked himself into the final playoff spot with a 4th-place finish. He entered the race battling on the cutline with Riley Herbst who had a tough day in his No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.
Kligerman was slow on a restart in Stage 2 which caused the outside line to check up. Herbst tried to escape to the middle but found Kligerman’s rear bumper. The contact damaged the nose of Herbst’s car cutting a tire down. He had to stop on pit road and fell off of the lead lap. Herbst battled back onto the lead lap and was making up ground in the Final Stage before another issue brought him down pit road again which ended his playoff hopes.
JRM No. 9 driver Brandon Jones was running strong throughout the race, he needed a win to earn his way into the playoffs as a race-winner. Despite spinning twice Jones managed to finish 2nd, coming up just short. Though, Nemechek did beat him with a solid lead.
There were 10 cautions in the 200-lap race. Some of the faster cars in the race ended up having their runs altered due to incidents during the race.
In Stage 1, JRM No. 1 driver Sam Mayer was collected after spinning off of Turn 4 after contact with Sheldon Creed in the Richard Childress Racing No. 2. Creed bounced off of the wall and got into Mayer spinning him out and DGM Racing No. 91 driver Kyle Weatherman drilled his passenger side door head-on. Both Mayer and Weatherman were done for the race.
After placing 2nd in Stage 1 SHR No. 00 driver Cole Custer found trouble in Stage 2. A caution was waved on Lap 60 for debris on the track after a car near the back of the field blew a tire in Turn 1. However, it did not come out in time for Custer to see or avoid it and he hit the tire carcass at full speed which sent him into the outside wall. The damage ended his race as the third car out.
Starting the Final Stage a big wreck caused damage to a lot of strong front runners. Creed was running the bottom three wide and moved up the track getting JGR No. 18 driver Sammy Smith loose. Smith started to spin toward the outside and hit Allgaier who took heavy damage to the rear of his car. Smith hit the wall hard, ending his race. Jones was running right behind the pack but spun avoiding the wall and the wreck saving his car. Allgaier finished one lap down in 18th.
RCR No. 21 driver Austin Hill locked up the Regular Season Championship. Hill finished the regular season with four wins and 19 top-10 finishes. Hill leads the Xfinity Series in top 5 finishes with 15 after placing 5th at Kansas.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs begin next week at Bristol Motor Speedway as the Round of 12 gets underway in the Food City 300. The race is Friday, Sept. 15 at 7:30 p.m. ET on USA.