BRISTOL, Tenn. — The NASCAR Xfinity Series concluded its regular season Friday night at Bristol Motor Speedway. Here are the 12 drivers that will compete for the 2024 title.
Regular-Season Champion: Cole Custer
Entering Friday’s race at 43 points behind Justin Allgaier, Cole Custer needed a herculean effort – and some help – to make a last-ditch effort at the regular-season title.
Fortunately for him, both happened.
Despite cutting a tire two laps in, Custer came back to win the Food City 300 while a plethora of issues plagued Justin Allgaier.
On lap 52, Austin Green hit the wall before going a lap down and came down the track, ripping Allgaier’s bumper cover off before plowing into Parker Retzlaff. After pitting for damage, Allgaier climbed back to third where he made contact with Sheldon Creed, spinning into the inside wall.
That damage proved to be race-altering. The No. 7 car could never get back to full strength and ended up finishing 30th, 10 laps down. Custer capitalized and won the regular-season championship by three points, backing up his series championship from last year.
“It’s just unbelievable. It’s a testament to these guys,” Custer said. “It’s been a really hard month, but everyone at the shop really kept their heads in it. I can’t thank High Point enough. It’s awesome to get them a win. Ford Performance. All the guys did such a great job. It was an unbelievable car all night. I’m ready to get to the playoffs.
“It’s huge to get this momentum because our confidence was going down there this last month, so to get this win really means a lot.”
While Custer earns the 15-playoff point bonus, Allgaier earns 10 and will start the round of 12 as the top seed.
The Other 10
Outside of the regular-season champion, the playoff field remained unchanged.
Including Allgaier (2) and Custer (2), eight drivers won their way into the playoffs: Austin Hill (3), Shane van Gisbergen (3), Sam Mayer (2), Chandler Smith (2), Jesse Love and Riley Herbst. A.J. Allmendinger and Sheldon Creed secured playoff spots via points at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) Int’l last week, leaving two spots up for grabs at Bristol.
Parker Kligerman entered at 85 points above the cutline, meaning only a new winner and a catastrophic night could possibly knock him out. It certainly wasn’t the cleanest night for the No. 48 Big Machine Racing team, but after finishing 10th in Stage Two, Kligerman officially clinched a playoff spot. He finished 16th.
Entering 42 points above the cutline, Sammy Smith was relatively safe barring a new winner. While Jeremy Clements showed some speed and won Stage Two, he ultimately wasn’t a factor as Smith clinched with a 15th-place finish.
Who Missed Out?
Ryan Sieg was the only driver who could’ve pointed his way into the Xfinity Series playoffs Friday night.
At 42 markers below the cutline, he would’ve likely needed to run top five all race and get some significant help from Sammy Smith. Though he finished eighth, it wasn’t nearly enough to chop into his points deficit.
Sieg had opportunities to win races this year, including Texas Motor Speedway in the spring – where he lost by 0.002 seconds to Sam Mayer. Had he won, it would’ve been the first of his career and secured a playoff spot.
“You go back to Texas, but there was a few races where we let some points slip,” Sieg said. “All in all, it was a great year, nothing to hang our heads on.
“We’ve had a fast Sci Ops Ford Mustang each week, just sometimes we didn’t capitalize on the points and other times I messed up, but, all in all, we come out of here with a top 10 and we just have to continue that momentum and try to win some races here at the end and continue this momentum we’ve got going for next year.”
Brandon Jones finished sixth Friday in a must-win situation. He missed the playoffs in both seasons with JR Motorsports and will return to Joe Gibbs Racing next year.
Anthony Alfredo, Brennan Poole, Josh Williams and Retzlaff, among others, were also in must-win situations at Bristol.
The round of 12 opens next week at Kansas Speedway.