Allmendinger holds on for NXS win at COTA as frontrunners falter late
AUSTIN, TEXAS – A.J. Allmendinger survived a chaotic late-race restart in Saturday’s Pit Boss 250 and won at Circuit of the Americas.
Allmendinger earned his 11th career NASCAR Xfinity Series win – and 7th NXS road course win – in Saturday’s race. He led twice for 27 laps, including the final 14 laps after he took the lead from Ross Chastain.
Chastain led three times for 14 laps and was 2nd until Landon Cassill bumped and spun him in turn 1 on the final restart with 6 laps to go.
Chastain fell out of the top 20 but recovered to finish 17th.in his first NXS race since COTA last May.
After the spin, Cassill broke second gear and finished 31st.
Jeb Burton and Jeremy Clements seized on the incident and battled for third late in the race. However, NASCAR deemed they cut the course in turn four and, with four laps to go, assessed each of them a drive-through penalty.
Burton and Clements finished 23rd and 24th respectively.
The full top 10 finishers are as follows: A.J. Allmendinger, Austin Hill, Cole Custer, Noah Gragson, Sam Mayer, Myatt Snider, Brett Moffitt, Jade Buford, Miguel Paludo and Sheldon Creed, who finished 10th after a spin in turn 20.
There were eight lead changes among five drivers: A.J. Allmendinger (twice for 27 laps), Ross Chastain (3 times for 14 laps), Sam Mayer (once for 3 laps), Ty Gibbs (once for 1 lap) and Justin Allgaier (once for 1 lap).
Four cautions fell for eight laps: The end of the first and second stages at Lap 16 and 32 – and debris cautions on Laps 34 and 38.
The next NASCAR Xfinity Series race is the April 2 ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond Raceway (1:30 p.m. ET; TV: FS1; Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Cassill, Burton and Clements are 11th, 15th and 23rd in points, respectively.
Cassill holds a playoffs spot by 2 points. Burton and Clements are 10 and 55 points out of a playoffs spot, respectively.
Noah Gragson leads the NXS points by 1 over A.J. Allmendinger. They will battle Austin Hill and Sam Mayer for the $100,000 Dash4Cash bonus at Richmond.
Categories
Discover more from The Racing Experts
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com