The NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs kicked off at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where Chase Briscoe was victorious and took home his eighth win of the season and punched his ticket to the Round of 8.
Last weekend, Justin Haley got another superspeedway win at Talladega Superspeedway, punching his ticket to the Round of 8, as well. In a wild race from start to finish, Haley led the final two laps of the race en route to the win.
Haley’s win marked his third superspeedway victory of the season and put him on a list of elite company, joining Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Jr. as the only drivers in NASCAR to win three consecutive superspeedway races.
Playoff drivers took the top four finishing positions on Saturday with Ryan Sieg snatching a career-best finish of second. He’s now +27 points above the cutline after accumulating many points throughout the race. Noah Gragson finished third and Brandon Jones finished fourth. Ross Chastain finished in the sixth position and Brandon Brown finished ninth. Chase Briscoe, who led a majority of the race and looked like he was going to be victorious once again, got involved in a late-race scuffle and finished 19th. Harrison Burton finished 23rd, Justin Allgaier 29th, Austin Cindric 34th, Riley Herbst 35th and Michael Annett finished 37th. Annett was originally scored as finishing second, but was disqualified during post-race inspection after the No. 1 car failed heights for being too low in the left front.
This weekend, the series heads to the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL for the Drive for the Cure 250 presented by Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (3:30 p.m. ET on NBC, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) on Saturday, October 10, to conclude the Xfinity Series Playoffs Round of 12.
As if Talladega Superspeedway wasn’t crazy enough last weekend, the Charlotte road course is another wild card race that could potentially shake up the Playoff standings.
This will be only the third race in Xfinity Series history at the Charlotte ROVAL. Briscoe won the inaugural race in 2018, which also marked his first career win, and last season, AJ Allmendinger took home the victory for Kaulig Racing.
Cindric and Briscoe, two Ford teammates, have been seemingly the best drivers on road courses this season. However, this race is really anyone’s to win. But, if the drivers not locked into the Playoffs want to make it to the Round of 8, they need to get as many points as possible and a decent finishing position.
Saturday’s race will be 155.44 miles and 67 laps. Stage 1 will end on Lap 20 and Stage 2 will end on Lap 40. Gragson will lead the field to green.
