CONCORD, N.C. — After Sam Mayer scored a walk-off win in overtime, the NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs round of 8 is set. Here’s who made it and who didn’t.
Already In
Heading to the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL, two drivers had already clinched spots in the semifinal round.
Sammy Smith won his second career Xfinity Series race last week at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, shaking off an inconsistent regular season. He made the playoffs by just 36 points over Ryan Sieg with just five top-fives and five finishes of 30th or worse in the first 26 races.
Chandler Smith clinched a spot last week on points as he finished third at Kansas Speedway and fifth at Talladega. Including the ROVAL, Chandler Smith has recorded six consecutive top-five results.
“Very, very happy with the consistency we have shown,” Chandler Smith said. “All of the hard-working men and women that has been thrashing to make this No. 81 Wheelers Toyota group back to how we were at the start of the season. We went through a rough patch through the summer. We were hit or miss. We would show up and be really good some weeks, and others we would show up and not be great.
“I’m looking forward going into the next round.”
Clinched In Charlotte
Entering the weekend -13 after a disqualification at Talladega, Mayer had his work cut out for him. He qualified second but jumped the initial start, forcing him to serve a pit road penalty on lap 3. Mayer climbed back to second by lap 33 and took the lead from Josh Bilicki on a restart, officially making up for his early miscue.
In the closing laps of the race, Mayer attempted to run down Parker Kligerman for the win – and clearly had more pace. But twice, his car popped out of gear while shifting into third, causing him to lose ground. It seemed that Kligerman was going to win the race, but a caution mere inches from the white flag caused overtime, when Mayer ultimately prevailed.
All things considered, Austin Hill, Cole Custer and A.J. Allmendinger had uneventful days as they all advanced on points. Hill earned seven points in Stage One and came home fourth, while Custer finished 13th – advancing by 17.
However, Custer left the ROVAL frustrated with his team’s pace.
“We did a great job the first two races getting ourselves where we needed to in the points,” Custer said. “All year we put ourselves where we needed to in the points and it ended up where we didn’t need our best day today.
“I felt like road courses were our strong suit last year and we are really struggling with them this year. I am a little confused. We have some good tracks for us coming up, so we are looking forward to those.”
Entering Saturday at just +7, Allmendinger ran up front and contended for the victory. He won the opening stage, giving himself a solid points cushion for the remaining 47 laps. Allmendinger ultimately finished second as he didn’t have enough for Mayer.
After a Murphy’s Law-esque start to the playoffs, No. 1 seeded Justin Allgaier came to the ROVAL seven points below the cutline. He maximized his day, finishing third in Stage One and winning Stage Two. But because of his pit strategy, he had to drive through the field in the final stage and advanced by four markers.
Jesse Love seemed destined for a somewhat easy transfer into the round of 8, but before overtime, crew chief Danny Stockman called him to pit road from just outside the top 10. The team elected to take fresh tires for the two-lap shootout and eeked into the semifinal round by just two points.
Eliminated
Stepping aside from full-time racing at the end of the year, Kligerman’s playoff run ended in the most heartbreaking way possible.
He fended off Mayer for 10 laps, successfully navigating around a set of calculated dive bombs and sliders from the JR Motorsports driver. After Mayer’s car popped out of gear a second time, Kligerman seemed to have enough of a gap to hold on.
But Leland Honeyman blew a tire and went into the tire barriers, causing a caution with two laps to go. But the caution button wasn’t pressed until the exact time Kligerman crossed the start/finish line to take the white flag.
For a moment, Kligerman and Big Machine Racing believed they won. But video evidence proved the caution lights came on milliseconds before he took the white.
In overtime, Mayer got past Kligerman in Turn Seven and the latter picked up damage, ultimately coming home sixth.
Though he finished third, polesitter Shane van Gisbergen didn’t quite have enough in the tank to contend for the win. He made a few early mistakes, including a blow-through of the backstretch chicane in Stage One. Van Gisbergen lacked pace to Allmendinger and Mayer, and with Mayer winning from below the cutline, he missed the transfer by four points.
Riley Herbst’s and Sheldon Creed’s chances both essentially ended together. Racing through the frontstretch chicane on lap 34, Herbst and Anthony Alfredo made contact, sparking a huge crash that Creed piled into. Both Herbst and Creed tried to make repairs, but neither could continue. Creed blew up and Herbst had terminal rear-end damage.
“The ROVAL has never been a good track for me, but I thought we would be OK to advance if we just survived,” Herbst said. “Neither myself nor the 5 (Alfredo) were giving up in the chicane and it took me out ultimately. We probably would’ve been fine if it wasn’t for that. Still, we struggled with the handling of our car all day so it wasn’t perfect.”
Creed found himself in the rear after transmission issues in Stage Two. He needed to pit to get them resolved, which ultimately led to his involvement in the wreck.
“We were running third, and my transmission locked itself in second gear, so that was weird. First time that has ever happened to me,” Creed said. “I thought I was going to be OK when they started crashing. I stopped right at it, and then whoever was behind me, pushed me into it even further. Unfortunate. It sucks that our playoffs will end this way.”
The round of 8 begins next week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.