Ryan Truex wins his second straight Xfinity race at Dover Motor Speedway
DOVER, Del – Ryan Truex was hanging around all afternoon.
He was in the right place at the end – first place.
After starting Saturday’s BetRivers 200 NASCAR Xfinity Race from 12th place at Dover Motor Speedway – The Monster Mile – Truex ran between eighth and 10th for a good portion of the scheduled 200-lap race over the one-mile oval.
When the race went to double overtime, Truex, a 32-year-old from nearby Mayetta, NJ, was in second place and on the front row for the two-lap race to the finish.
On the first lap of double OT, Lap 207, Truex got past Carson Kvapil – a 20-year-old from Mooresville, NC who was making just his second Xfinity start – coming off Turn 2 and went on to win his second straight race at the Delaware track for his second career Xfinity win.
“I can’t believe it, our car was just good at the end when it mattered, I was so loose all day,” said Truex, the younger brother of former NASCAR Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. “Shout out to Carson (Kvapil) – what an amazing run for what, his second race. I felt a little bad running him up the hill, but you’ve got to take these things when you can. I think I held my breath the last two laps. Love these fans. Love this track.”
Truex led only two laps – the final two.
“We were eighth, 10th the whole race,” said Truex. “We had really good restarts and were able to steal one.”
Kvapil finished second, 2.111 seconds behind Truex.
“This is pretty incredible,” said Kvapil. “Definitely felt like we had a fast car going into the day, but to be competing for the win on a green-white-checkered is pretty amazing. We’ve been in this situation before just not quite at this level.”
Sam Mayer finished third followed by Sheldon Creed, Cole Custer, AJ Allmendinger, Chandler Smith, Kyle Weatherman, Anthony Alfredo, and Parker Retzlaff.
The way the day was going, either Truex or Kvapil would have been an improbable winner.
Brandon Jones was on the pole but his lead lasted only 14 laps. He ended up 19th.
Justin Allgaier was next in the lead, holding it for 34 laps and winning Stage 1. Allgaier got back in the lead for seven laps with 27 laps left in the race.
He was in contention but crashed in double overtime and ended up 17th.
Maybe it would be Cole Custer’s day.
Nope.
He led a race-high 95 laps, winning Stage 2.
Then a light rain began.
NASCAR called a caution with 34 laps remaining that turned into a nearly 13-minute (12:49) red flag rain delay.
Since the race had gone past the 100 lap mark, it was official. If the rain got worse and forced the cancelation of the rest of the race, Custer would be declared the winner.
That didn’t happen.
And Custer’s chances ended right after the drivers got back to racing.
Custer, needing fuel and tires, pitted as soon as the race restarted, fell out of the top 10, and could only get back to fifth place at the end.
Now it was Austin Hill’s chance.
Hill led the next 16 laps but was in a battle with Sheldon Creed and Kvapil the entire time.
Kvapil roared into first place in a thrilling three-wide battle for the lead with nine laps left.
Then the mayhem began.
With six to go, Riley Herbst spun, crashed into Kyle Sieg coming out of Turn 4, setting off an eight-car pileup.
That forced the first overtime.
On the front row of the restart, Hill tried to pass Kvapil on the high side, lost the air on his nose, and began to spin.
That ruined Hill’s day. He ended up 15th.
In the second overtime, Kvapil took the inside lane with Truex outside.
Truex nosed ahead, grabbed the lead coming off Turn 2, and held it through the white flag (final) lap when Allgaier crashed behind the leaders, bringing out the checkered flag and ending the race with Truex two car lengths ahead of Kvapil.
Last year, after Ryan Truex won the Xfinity race, older brother Martin made it a family sweep by winning Sunday’s Cup race while their father, Martin Sr., looked on.
“My father and brother are both here today,” said Ryan Truex. “It feels good. We had another family reunion in Victory Lane.”
And then there was the race within the race – The Dash 4 Cash, the fourth and final one of the season that awarded a $100,000 bonus to whoever finished the highest among the four drivers who qualified at last weekend’s race at Talladega.
Jesse Love, who won at Talladega, Ryan Sieg, Herbst, and Anthony Alfredo were the eligible drivers.
All four had issues and it was Alfredo who grabbed the cash.
Sieg was the first one with trouble – big trouble when his car caught fire coming out of Turn 2 on Lap 25.
He was out of the race in 37th place.
Then it was Love’s turn at misfortune when he lost all kinds of time during a pit stop on Lap 163, fell way back, and ended up 24th
Herbst looked like a lock to win the cash, he was 10 spots ahead of Alfredo, when Allgaier tapped the rear of Herbst’s car, sending Herbst into Kyle Sieg to set off that multi-car crash.
Herbst was still running but could only finish 17th.
That put Alfredo in the money – if he could survive overtime.
He did, finishing 9th for a $100,000 payday.
“Coming into this race, that was our motivation, it wasn’t something to just be a part of, yeah, I mean this was huge,” said Alfredo. “You don’t understand how small our budget is compared to these bigger teams. People overlook it because we’ve been running so well. The last three weeks we’ve been running top-10, and everyone asks, ‘who’s your alliance with.’ Coming into this race we knew if we could pull it off, we could invest in our team to be that much better.”
Chandel Smith holds a slim one-point lead on Custer in the Xfinity Series standings.
Xfinity is off next week. The series returns to the track on May 11 in Darlington.
NASCAR Xfinity Series Race – BetRivers 200
Dover Motor Speedway
Dover, Delaware
Saturday, April 27, 2024
Statistics provided by NASCAR
1. (Started 12) Ryan Truex, Toyota, 208 laps.
2. (26) Carson Kvapil, Chevrolet, 208.
3. (20) Sam Mayer, Chevrolet, 208.
4. (5) Sheldon Creed, Toyota, 208.
5. (11) Cole Custer, Ford, 208.
6. (10) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 208.
7. (7) Chandler Smith, Toyota, 208.
8. (6) Kyle Weatherman, Chevrolet, 208.
9. (21) Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet, 208.
10. (17) Parker Retzlaff, Chevrolet, 208.
11. (19) Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, 208.
12. (15) Parker Kligerman, Chevrolet, 208.
13. (23) Ryan Ellis, Chevrolet, 208.
14. (25) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 208.
15. (4) Austin Hill, Chevrolet, 208.
16. (2) Riley Herbst, Ford, 208.
17. (3) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 208.
18. (31) Shane Van Gisbergen #, Chevrolet, 208.
19. (1) Brandon Jones, Chevrolet, 208.
20. (36) Daniel Dye(i), Chevrolet, 208.
21. (28) Leland Honeyman #, Chevrolet, 207.
22. (27) Brennan Poole, Chevrolet, 207.
23. (18) Karen Honeycutt(i), Chevrolet, 206.
24. (8) Jesse Love #, Chevrolet, 206.
25. (38) Josh Williams, Chevrolet, 206.
26. (37) David Starr, Chevrolet, 206.
27. (24) Kyle Sieg, Ford, 206.
28. (30) Patrick Emerling, Chevrolet, 205.
29. (32) Dawson Cram #, Chevrolet, 205.
30. (35) Garrett Smithley, Chevrolet, 202.
31. (29) Hailie Deegan #, Ford, 200.
32. (16) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 196.
33. (13) Sammy Smith, Chevrolet, Accident, 192.
34. (9) Taylor Gray(i), Toyota, Accident, 183.
35. (22) Corey Heim(i), Toyota, Engine, 85.
36. (34) Blaine Perkins, Ford, Electrical, 47.
37. (14) Ryan Sieg, Ford, Engine, 25.
38. (33) JJ Yeley, Toyota, Accident, 4.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 87.395 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 22 Mins, 48 Secs.
Margin of Victory: Under Caution 2.111 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 10 for 61 laps.
Lead Changes: 11 among 10 drivers.
Lap Leaders: B. Jones 0;B. Jones 1-13;J. Allgaier 14-47;K. Sieg 48;P. Retzlaff 49-51;J. Love # 52-72;C. Custer 73-167;J. Allgaier 168-172;A. Hill 173-188;S. Creed 189-191;A. Hill 192;C. Kvapil 193-206;R. Truex 207-208.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Cole Custer 1 time for 95 laps; Justin Allgaier 2 times for 39 laps; Jesse Love # 1 time for 21 laps; Austin Hill 2 times for 17 laps; Carson Kvapil 1 time for 14 laps; Brandon Jones 1 time for 13 laps; Sheldon Creed 1 time for 3 laps; Parker Retzlaff 1 time for 3 laps; Ryan Truex 1 time for 2 laps; Kyle Sieg 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 7,9,00,18,98,21,81,16,20,1
Stage #2 Top Ten: 00,21,2,31,18,7,98,81,8,20
