Roger Penske Racing’s Joey Logano snatched the the lead from Kyle Larson after a restart on Lap 183 of the 200 laps turned of the Drive for the Cure 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The NASCAR mainstay then held of the hard-charging Elliott Sadler by .462 seconds to take the checkered flag on Sunday. As a result, the Xfinity Series Round of Eight was set.
“We had a good car — maybe not the best car, but the pit crew did their job to keep us in position to make an awesome restart there at the end,” said Logano, who led the final 12 laps in earning the 27th NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of his career. “It was also kind of an all-or-nothing move, to be able to get the lead and ultimately to hold him off and get the checkered flag. It was a lot of fun to be able to do that.”
Chip Gnassi Racing’s Kyle Larson, led 165 laps in the Drive for the Cure 300 at Charlotte. Before the field was stacked for the races final re-start, Larson actually was the only racer on the lead lap. When the race got back underway he attempted to close in on joey Logano but scraped the wall in Turn 2 and finished out his day in fourth.
JR Motorsport’s Elliott Sadler finished runner-up and Daniel Suarez drove his way into third when the checkered flag was waved. Both second and third place finishers had already raced their way into the next Round of Eight with victories.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Erik Jones seen his season continue with a fifth-place finish. The up and comer will join JR Motorsport’s Justin Allgaier, who finished out the day in the sixth spot. Blake Koch who finished in twelfth accumulated enough points to move forward.
Erik Jones, the Xfinity Series points leader at the start of the Chase, had to come back from bad finishes at Kentucky and Dover. He found his way into the Round of Eight by just six points with his finish on Sunday.
“We did what we needed to do today and got into the next round, you know?” Jones said. “Just ran a smart race, stayed up front all day, stayed out of trouble. I also only had one mistake that got us back a little bit, but got a caution right away — got a lucky break and finished where we needed to.
Brendan Gaughan crossed the finish line in the 13th spot and advanced to the Round of Eight. Roush Racing’s Ryan Reed concluded his event in the 15th position and Darrell Wallace Jr. found himself in 20th. Both of those finishes were enough for them to also advance into the next Round of Eight.
Unfortunately, some good drivers were eliminated after the conclusion of the Drive for the Cure 300. Ryan Sieg who rounded out the top ten was eliminated on points. Richard Childress Racing’s Ty Dillon, was eliminated with his 11th place effort. Brandon Jones retired in 16th and Brennan Poole 18th. At the end of the day, neither of those two contestants had enough points to move on.
Ty Dillon started the Chase as one of the Xfinity Series favorites. The savvy driver, saw his chances go sideways in a wreck with Erik Jones at Kentucky. It was the opening race of the Round of 12, and he could never could recover from that finish. Understandably, the speedster disappointed by his early departure.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said Dillon. “We’re a team that should have been in the final round. You’ve got to expect things to happen, which happened in the first race at Kentucky … But you’ve got to be able to rebound if you’re going to win a championship. “We had so much momentum coming off of Dover. We also we had a car capable of winning the race, but today we couldn’t even stay on the lead lap. It’s very upsetting. I’ve also wanted this championship so bad — it just hurts.”
Ty Dillon only needed one more point to tie for eighth with Darrell Wallace Jr., but he couldn’t catch Ryan Sieg. Sieg pitted, and put on four fresh tires after Dakota Armstrong’s spin brought out the final caution. Furthermore, Dillon would have won the tiebreaker for the final place in the Round of Eight because of his runner-up finish at Dover.
