NASCAR Xfinity race at Charlotte: AJ Allmendinger wins in the rain, four drivers eliminated

AJ Allmendinger overcame rain, darkness and chaos to win Saturday’s Xfinity race at the Charlotte Roval to avoid elimination before the Round of 8 in the playoffs. His postrace mood reflected relief as much as celebration.

“I was complaining the whole race,” Allmendinger said. “That was miserable.”

Noah Gragson and Daniel Hemric finished second and third, respectively.

Allmendinger battled the No. 98 driven by Chase Briscoe through the final stage, exchanging the lead multiple times, but Briscoe spun off the final restart and hydroplaned through standing water around Turn 1 to deliver the lead to Allmendinger, who controlled the final lap to win his second race of the season, the Drive for the Cure 250.

“It takes being 100% to win these races and I tried going 110% that last restart,” Briscoe tweeted after the race. “Lesson learned, this ones gonna sting for a while.”

Gragson, who started on the pole, controlled the top spot for most of the first stage, but Kaz Grala raced into the top-three following a caution for spins by multiple drivers and then swiped the lead for the stage win. That was just before NASCAR brought out the red flag for rain and to attempt to control standing puddles of water on the track.

The stall lasted 38 minutes before the teams, who earlier changed to wet-weather tires, returned to competition heading into sunset. Briscoe won the second stage following a series of cautions. By the final laps, the infield was dark, but drivers could already hardly see due to the persisting rain.

“A couple times when I started mid-pack, I wouldn’t even touch the throttle,” Allmendinger said. “You just couldn’t see anything.”

When asked for what advice Allmendinger would give to Cup Series drivers racing the course under what will likely be similarly slick conditions Sunday, he responded, “Hang on.”

“Those conditions, to me, it’s not a lot of fun,” Allmendinger said. “There’s fun driving in the wet when it’s not puddling up and flooding the racetrack. That was just chaos.”

He said the rain was probably “past the limit of the racetrack” but he thought NASCAR made the appropriate calls to throw the red flag just before the halfway point and brought out the caution flag when necessary.

“At that point we had come so far in the race, you gotta go out there and try to finish it,” Allmendinger said.

While Allmendinger finished it, not all did. The Roval put an end to four driver’s playoff hopes: Harrison Burton, Brandon Brown, Michael Annett and Riley Herbst were all eliminated from the postseason. Burton exited the race early with a clutch issue.

Eight drivers Briscoe, Austin Cindric, Justin Allgaier, Gragson, Justin Haley, Brandon Jones, Ross Chastain and Ryan Sieg remain in the championship hunt. The Xfinity Series races next at Kansas on Oct. 17.

The Cup Series returns to Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. for the Roval 400.

NASCAR XFINITY POINTS STANDINGS POST-CHARLOTTE

FINISHING ORDER FROM THE DRIVE FOR THE CURE 250

This story was originally published October 10, 2020 at 7:39 PM.

Alexandra Andrejev

The Charlotte Observer

NASCAR and Charlotte FC beat reporter Alex Andrejev joined The Observer in January 2020 following an internship at The Washington Post. She is a two-time APSE award winner for her NASCAR beat coverage and National Motorsports Press Association award winner. She is the host of McClatchy’s podcast “Payback” about women’s soccer. Support my work with a digital subscription