LAS VEGAS – Saturday proved the old racer’s adage true that “it only rains in the desert when NASCAR comes to town.”
Unfortunately for the stars of the NASCAR Xfinity Series, that was the reality of the situation all afternoon, with rain showers delaying the start of the Boyd Gaming 300 and then ultimately postponing the majority of the event to Sunday evening.
Fifty of the 200 scheduled laps were completed in a brief window before persistent storms settled in the Las Vegas area and made hopes of a nighttime resumption impossible.
The remaining three quarters of the event will be run at approximately 7:30 p.m. ET Sunday, following the conclusion of the NASCAR Cup Series Pennzoil 400 at the track.
FS2 will carry the broadcast of the second Xfinity Series race of the season.
After starting from the front row, Chase Briscoe dominated the opening stage, leading twice for 26 of the first 45 laps en route to his fifth career stage win and first of the season.
“I wish we’d been able to keep it going, because our car was really good, but now we get to sit in the rain,” Briscoe noted during the rain delay. “Hopefully we can get it going soon … they say it never rains here a full day and I feel like that’s all it’s done, but it is what it is.
“I’m sure our balance will be a little different than what we had, but I felt like we were pretty close (to where we needed to be).”
Ross Chastain steamrolled from 25th on the grid to second, followed by Austin Cindric, Brandon Jones and Justin Allgaier.
Michael Annett, Harrison Burton, Noah Gragson, Justin Haley and Riley Herbst completed the top 10 and all scored bonus points during the first stage break of the afternoon.
Briscoe led the lead-lap cars down pit road at the intermission and won the race off pit road, but Joe Graf Jr. stayed out and will be the race leader when action resumes Sunday.
Briscoe, Cindric, Chastain and Jones will follow in the top five. Racing will pick up at lap 51.
Aside from the stage caution, the only other yellow came on lap 19 when Daniel Hemric lost control of his No. 8 Chevrolet Camaro on the frontstretch and overcorrected, shooting back across the track and making hard right-side contact with the outside SAFER Barrier.
Hemric was uninjured in the incident and later took responsibility for the crash on Twitter.
I can say this happened or that happened, but at the end of the day, it’s my job to get to pit road to work on it without crashing. I failed miserably at that today. My lip is hung out, I’ll pout the rest of the weekend, but I’ll be ready to answer the call come Monday.
— Daniel Hemric (@DanielHemric) February 23, 2020
The remainder of the Boyd Gaming 300 will commence roughly one hour after the conclusion of the NASCAR Cup Series event on Sunday.