It was a rainy and crazy race on Saturday for the NASCAR Xfinity Series at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL. The 68 lap, 157.76-mile race marked the last event of the Round of 12 and the final chance for the Playoff drivers to secure a spot in the Round of 8.
AJ Allmendinger, who is not in Playoff contention as he runs part-time for Kaulig Racing, won the race, and went back-to-back at the ROVAL (2019, 2020). The race had 10 cautions for 24 laps and 14 lead changes among six different drivers.
Noah Gragson was the highest-finishing Xfinity Playoff driver in second. Daniel Hemric finished third, Alex Labbe fourth and Ross Chastain closed out the top five in fifth. Kaz Grala, also on a part-time schedule this season for Richard Childress Racing, won the first stage and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe grabbed the additional Playoff point by winning the second stage.
Harrison Burton, Riley Herbst, Michael Annett and Brandon Brown ultimately were the four drivers eliminated from the Playoffs following the Round of 12.
As the NASCAR Xfinity Series heads to Kansas Speedway this weekend to kick off the Round of 8, the remaining drivers fighting for a spot in the Championship 4 are:
Chase Briscoe
Austin Cindric
Justin Allgaier
Noah Gragson
Justin Haley
Brandon Jones
Ross Chastain
Ryan Sieg
The Kansas Lottery 300 will be at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday, October 17 on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. The race will be 300 miles and 200 laps with Stage 1 ending on Lap 45 and Stage 2 ending on Lap 90.
Gragson will lead the field to the green flag on Saturday evening with Cindric joining him on the outside front row.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brandon Jones was victorious earlier this season at Kansas Speedway, locking himself into the Playoffs with the win. It was also his second win in a row at the track as he won his first career Xfinity Series race at Kansas back in 2019. Jones is not only looking to win this weekend to get the automatic bid to the Championship 4 round, but also because he would like to join his fellow JGR teammate Kyle Busch (2014, 2015, 2016) as just the second driver in series history to win three consecutive races at Kansas Speedway.
