By David Morgan, Associate Editor
TALLADEGA, Ala. – Worst to first.
Sammy Smith and the No. 8 JR Motorsports team are heading to the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs after winning Saturday’s United Rentals 250 at Talladega Superspeedway.
Smith came into the day at the bottom of the Playoff standings, some 23 points below the cut-off line, but with his victory on Saturday, he’s the first of the championship contenders to advance to the next round.
“Just a great team. My sponsors, everybody that has stuck with us, it’s been a really tough year,” Smith said. “It’s been a while and it’s been a struggle, but I’m really happy to be here. Looking forward to hopefully going and getting better on these ovals and road courses.”
Starting the day in 27th place, Smith worked his way forward, finishing the second stage inside the top-five and remained there as the finish grew nearer, running amongst his JRM teammates with less than five laps to go.
When the second multi-car crash of the day broke out with three laps to go, wiping out three of his four teammates, Smith and his team had time to formulate a plan under the red flag and once the race headed into overtime, he would line up on the outside of the front row alongside Riley Herbst.
Shuffled out of line by the Joe Gibbs Racing duo of Chandler Smith and Sheldon Creed, Sammy found a new dancing partner in Ryan Sieg on the low lane as they took the white flag. For the final 2.66 miles of the race, Sammy would not leave the low lane, using a push from Sieg to advance forward.
A final shove from Sieg pushed Smith clear into the lead as the field entered the tri-oval for the final time, forcing the rest of his competitors to try and find a way around him in the final charge to the finish.
Though Sieg swung wide off the exit of the tri-oval, it was too little, too late as Smith streaked across the line to bank the victory and cement his place in the next round of the Playoffs.
Prior to Saturday’s race, Smith sat down with his team owner, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., to learn the ways of the master with Earnhardt having a number of superspeedway wins under his belt in both the Xfinity and Cup Series, especially at Talladega.
“We sat down with him on Wednesday. It wasn’t a whole lot, just kind of some stuff that he would do in those situations, but, man, it feels really good to win again.”
Sieg would come home in the runner-up position, equaling his career-best finish, with Herbst in third, and Creed and Chandler Smith rounding out the top-five finishers.
“The 8 in front of me was about all I could see. I was trying to do what I could do to try to get something going,” Sieg said. “I thought he was gonna go high right there, but he didn’t block the top so I went up top and he kind of stayed down there. I was gonna go to the bottom, but Timmy Fedewa was guiding me through all that.
“From all the issues we started out with to come up second is pretty good. These are so tough. We were kind of just riding around most of the day and then tried to be there at the end and win the thing. We’ve been so good here and just haven’t been here at the very end. One of these times it’s gonna be us going to Victory Lane, but, all in all, it was a great day for Sci Aps and Ford. We had a good car. We just have to keep it up.”
The remainder of the top-10 went to Jesse Love, Jeb Burton, David Starr, Brennan Poole, and Kyle Sieg.
Outside of the Playoff drivers in the top-10, the remainder were scattered throughout the leaderboard when the checkered flag flew, some having been caught up in one of the two multi-car crashes in the latter half of the race.
A.J. Allmendinger came home in 11th, with Parker Kligerman in 12th, Sam Mayer in 16th, Austin Hill in 24th, Justin Allgaier in 26th, Cole Custer in 27th, and Shane van Gisbergen in 36th.
“Just got pushed out of line. Put myself in a bad spot. I thought I saved it and there must have been some other stuff going on and got caught up in it. So, that sucked,” van Gisbergen said after getting swept up in his crash on Lap 91.
“We’ll see how far in a hole we are. Just got to prepare well, turn up with a fast car next week, get as many points as we can and hopefully make it through OK…Hopefully we can have a smooth day, get some stage points and be there at the end.
“Really wanted to do well today, so gutted for the Kaulig Racing guys.”
Chandler Smith leaves Talladega in the best position of those not yet locked in, carrying a 57-point advantage to the cut-off race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL next Saturday.
Hill is third in points at +29, followed by Custer (+28), Creed (+25), Love (+15), Herbst (+13), and Mayer (+10) as the drivers currently occupying the top-eight in points.
The four in danger of being eliminated are defending ROVAL winner Allmendinger (-10), Allgaier (-18), van Gisbergen (-21), and Kligerman (-26).
The Drive for the Cure 250 at Charlotte is scheduled for 4:00 pm ET next Saturday to determine who will be moving on in the Playoffs and who will be left on the outside looking in.
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