Ryan Truex Wins in Overtime at Daytona

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Ryan Truex brought home the victory Friday night at Daytona International Speedway, surviving overtime to capture his second NASCAR Xfinity Series win of the season in the Wawa 250.

Midway through the second stage, the younger Truex brother, driving the No. 20 Toyota on a part-time basis for Joe Gibbs Racing asserted himself into the lead for the first time all night and would remain a fixture among the leaders for the duration of the race.

Truex and Kaulig Racing’s A.J. Allmendinger would combine to lead the majority of the second half of the race, with Truex pacing the field for 28 of those laps in his red and white Toyota Supra.

With five laps remaining in regulation, Truex would take over the lead from Allmendinger with a push from the Ford of Riley Herbst, setting the stage for a battle brewing between Truex and Herbst and Allmendinger and his dancing partner Parker Kligerman.

When the caution flag flew for the sixth time on the night for a six car crash in Turn 4, the race was red flagged and forced to overtime with the showdown between the four drivers looming once the race resumed.

Truex would have Herbst pushing him from the low lane, with Allmendinger and Kligerman taking the high lane for the two-lap dash to the finish.

In all the chaos of the restart, Truex would be able to hold the lead steady despite being disconnected from his pusher, while Allmendinger and Kligerman had fallen in line behind him just biding time to make their move.

Coming into Turn 1 after taking the white flag, Kligerman ducked low to make his move from third, but Allmendinger reacted and tried to go with him, causing Allmendinger to get the worst of the deal, spinning through the infield grass.

Truex was able to escape still in the lead as the green was still displayed and challenges were mounting behind him.

However, the caution would fly by the time the field made it to the backstretch, freezing the field and delivering Truex his second win of 2024 in just his eighth start.

Climbing from his car in celebration, Truex explained that he didn’t really have a plan for the overtime restart, but things have a way of working themselves out in the end.

“I didn’t really have one to be honest. I couldn’t figure out if I wanted the top or the bottom. I restarted on both lanes and felt like neither of them were great, but I fell back in 2018 – I had the lead, and I took the top and I lost the race and I didn’t want to do that again, so I figured I would try the opposite of that and go to the bottom.

“Riley (Herbst) gave me a crazy push, so shout out to him. He didn’t wreck me – just straight up pushed me. Once the restart shook out, I was just listening to Tyler (Green, spotter) telling me where to block. AJ (Allmendinger) – I knew he had a run coming to the white. I knew he was going to go for it going into (turn) one and I got lucky, and all of those guys hit each other, and the caution came out. Here we are.”

Still without a guaranteed ride in 2025, Truex added that he hoped that winning at a track like Daytona would help elevate his stock in the job market going forward.

“It shows I’m versatile,” Truex said. “We’ve won at Dover and Daytona – can’t be more opposite. This is my eighth race of the year – period. I don’t race late models or trucks or ARCA or any of that stuff. I do my sim work at TRD during the week, and that is my main focus and on weekends that I get to race, I put all of my effort into this car. To be able to add to the list of winners they’ve had in this car is really special.” 

Chandler Smith would advance to the runner-up position, with Kligerman coming home in third-place, followed by Riley Herbst in fourth and Ryan Sieg rounding out the top-five finishers.

Kligerman explained afterwards that he had a plan that was beginning to materialize when he made his move, until it didn’t.

“Well, I had a plan. I knew the whole time without having that restart, I wanted to be on the bottom of the last lap. And if I could materialize being the lead car on the bottom, I was gonna take it. I pushed him out to the 20, cleared the 98 in the bottom and I thought, okay, I’m going. I don’t care.

“I moved, he tried to come with me, I was already there. It’s a late block that happens, you know? I would love to see it finish under green. Because even with that whole thing, we came through three and four or one and two and I had the 98 right on my bumper. And I was like, ‘Oh, this is gonna work out. Like this is exactly how I planned it.’

“And then a caution came out. So I just, I don’t know. I feel like we did everything correct and still something stupid happened and I just hate that.”

The remainder of the top-10 would go to Jordan Anderson, Justin Allgaier, Sheldon Creed, Leland Honeyman, Jr., and Kyle Weatherman.

“To finish fourth here in February, to finish sixth now, I don’t get to do this much! I’m sitting on the pit box every week watching Jeb and Parker. When you get a chance to do this, you’ve got to make the most of it,” a jubilant Anderson said afterwards.

“What a phenomenal night. They told me if you bring the car back clean, you can run Talladega, so I think other than a few scratches, we’re clean. What a night. Had a lot of fun. Crazy race. I was really hoping…I saw whoever spun to the inside, I was like please let us get back to the checkered, because you never know what can happen in [Turn] 3 and 4 and we were in a perfect spot to maybe jump the middle of go through there.”

Four races remain in the Xfinity Series regular season with the series heading to Darlington Raceway next weekend for the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 before going on to Atlanta, Watkins Glen, and Bristol to set their Playoff field.