The NASCAR Xfinity Series headed to Richmond International Raceway for race number eight of the season. It also marked another Dash 4 Cash event for the series.
Daniel Hemric and Kyle Benjamin set the front row in qualifying earlier in the morning on Saturday.
75 laps made up stages one and two, while 150 laps made up the last stage. This would make up the 250 scheduled lap race.
Hemric set the pace early in the going, before Justin Allgaier took the lead on lap 27 on the fronstretch. Allgaier held on to the lead for 13 laps, as Austin Dillon takes the lead on lap 40. Dillon would stay as the leader until the end of stage one, where Dillon won the first stage. Justin Allgaier and Daniel Hemric transferred for Dash 4 Cash.
Stage number two began on lap 86, with Dillon and Allgaier as the leaders on the front row. On the restart, Allgaier retook the lead from Dillon. The race was remained green until lap 115, where Dakoda Armstrong spun around in turns one and two to bring out the second caution.
The restart came back out on lap 125, which thus, saw Allgaier drive away with the lead and would hang on to win stage number two which ended on lap 150. Kyle Benjamin and Elliott Sadler clinched the final Dash 4 Cash spots. However, Austin Dillon would win the race off pit road, with Allgaier loosing one spot on pit road.
The final stage began on lap 164, where Allgaier would regain the lead from Dillon. Another caution came out on lap 180, when fluid came from the back of J.J. Yeley's car. A risky move was made by Elliott Sadler, where he came down pit road for four fresh tires.
This setup a restart with 64 laps to go. Allgaier continued to set the pace like he did all afternoon, but with four fresh tires, Elliott Sadler began to reel in the leader with 22 laps to go. Sadler caught Allgaier with 14 laps to go, but a caution came out two laps later for B.J. McLeod. This would ultimately end Sadler's chances at a win. Under this caution, the leaders came down pit road, where Ty Dillon won the race off pit road by taking two tires only. Rookie, Kyle Benjamin, lost his shot at a top 10 when he went too soon on his pit stop.
A restart came with four laps to go, however, a wreck in turn four once again brought out another caution. William Byron's car went up the track and accidentally got in to Daniel Suarez, which caused the big pileup in turns three and four. On the restart, there were some controversy as Ty Dillon jumped the gun, which then saw him get black flagged for the restart. Dillon would have to drop to the tail end of the field.
Kyle Larson and Justin Allgaier were on the front row for the two lap dash for the finish. This saw NASCAR's overtime rule come in to place. Both drivers got a clean restart, but problems came on the last lap on the back straightaway when a crash broke out to bring out a caution.
While the last lap caused some controversy for the leaders, the replays did indeed show that Kyle Larson had crossed the overtime line to make the race official and declared him the winner.
This is Larson's second career NASCAR Xfinity Series win this season.
Larson led once for 10 laps.
There were five leaders for nine lead changes.
There were eight cautions for 50 laps.
Justin Allgaier collected his second $100,000 Dash 4 Cash.
Quote- "The 3 (Ty Dillon) took off early on the one restart, so I don't know if I was clear or not," Larson said. Anyways, he jumped the start and I was able to be the leader for the last restart. Justin (Allgaier), took off way better than I had wanted him too. I'm surprised I had cleared him off (turn) two, I thought he (Allgaier) would hang on my outside, if not pass me. Thankfully we were able to clear him and they crashed, NASCAR threw the caution and got the overtime win."
The NASCAR Xfinity Series head to Talladega Superspeedway next Saturday for the Sparks Energy 300.
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