Sieg Perseveres to Finish 11th at Dover

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Correspondent

Despite a loose wheel early, Ryan Sieg persevered and finished on the lead lap, just shy of the top-10 in Allied Steel Buildings 200 at Dover International Speedway.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series veteran dropped onto pit road just 14 laps into the 200-lap race with a loose right front wheel. Sieg’s No. 39 Anglin Buildings Chevrolet Camaro SS lost two laps in the process.

Sieg would not move back onto the lead lap until the fifth caution on lap 177. With only 20 laps remaining, he made a quick charge through the field, with the help of a quick caution. Sieg moved from 13^th to 11^th in the final laps and took the checkered just over a second behind 10^th finisher Michael Annett.

Sieg’s journey to move back onto the lead lap was a long one. In his family-owned RSS Racing machine, he had to out-run the Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet of Kaz Grala and Kaulig Racing’s Justin Haley. The powerhouse teams proved no match for Sieg in the fight for the free pass position.

With the first two stages of the 200-mile race going caution free, Sieg had no opportunity to catch-up until several back-to-back cautions in the final stage. He was the fastest of those one lap or more behind the leader throughout the race, which earned him the ‘lucky dog’ with 16 laps to go.

Despite spending 163 laps trapped a lap behind the field, and earning zero stage points, Sieg remained eighth in the championship points standings. With several around Sieg in the standings Noah Gragson, Haley, and John Hunter Nemechek each encountering their own issues, he held station.

Although Sieg is 124-points behind points leader Tyler Reddick, he is still well within the playoff grid. He is 39-points ahead of the cutoff for the playoffs, currently held by Brandon Jones.

Sieg credited the recovery to his team’s hard work on Twitter.

What a recovery for our Anglin Construction car. We had to make a green flag stop for a vibration on lap 15. We went from 2 laps down in 34th to a lead lap finish of 11th. A huge thank you to the whole team for all their hard work. pic.twitter.com/9xh7YGzMcJ

— Ryan Sieg Racing (@RyanSiegRacing) May 4, 2019