Ross Chastain scores his first career Cup pole
LEBANON, Tenn. — AJ Allmendinger pulled away from the field on the second overtime to win Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Nashville Superspeedway and claim his second victory of the year.
Allmendinger’s win snapped the streak of 11 consecutive different winners this season.
Riley Herbst, working with new crew chief Davin Restivo in a change made this week, finished second to tie his career series best. Sam Mayer placed third and was followed by Austin Hill and Josh Berry in a race that had 11 cautions and 21 cars involved in accidents.
Allmendinger passed Parker Kligerman for the lead with 11 laps left in the scheduled distance as Kligerman tried to save fuel. A caution for Chad Chastain’s spin sent the race into overtime. Contact on the restart led to Chandler Smith spinning. That set up the second overtime restart.
There were three cautions in the first 20 laps for multi-car accidents.
The field failed to complete a lap before a five-car incident in Turn 2 that collected Justin Allgaier, who entered the race third in the points. Shortly after the race restarted, the caution came back out again for an incident that included Hill bouncing off the wall. Hill entered the race second in the points.
The start of the second stage had a caution almost immediately. Hill, who was on older tires, slid up into Ty Gibbs, triggering an incident that collected Allmendinger and Carson Hocevar, ending Hocevar’s race. Hill was on older tires because he had put on new tires earlier after he was involved in an incident early in the first stage. With limits on tires, Hill’s team did not pit for tires at the end of the first stage. He moved to the lead when the rest of the field pitted during the stage break.
STAGE 1 WINNER: Ty Gibbs
STAGE 2 WINNER: Chandler Smith
WHO HAD A BAD RACE: Stefan Parsons was collected in an accident on the opening lap and finished last. … After winning the first stage, Ty Gibbs was collected in a crash and finished 36th.
NOTABLE: There were five cautions for multi-car crashes in the first two stages of the race. There had been five cautions for multi-car crash in the previous five races combined. … The 11 cautions tied an event record.
NEXT: The series races July 1 on the Chicago street course (5 p.m. ET on USA Network)
Source: NBC Sports
