BY: SPEEDWAY DIGEST STAFF / ON: MARCH 24, 2024 / IN: SPEEDWAY NEWS / TAGGED: AJ ALLMENDINGER, BRANDON JONES, CHANNEL, FOX, HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS, JR MOTORSPORTS, KAULIG RACING, KYLE LARSON, MOTORSPORTS, NASCAR, NASCAR XFINITY SERIES, PARKER KLIGERMAN, PENALTY, RACING, RICHARD CHILDRESS, RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING, SERIES, TV, WILLIAM BYRON, XFINITY SERIES
Calamity at COTA! What looked, for most of the race, like a battle between road course aces Shane van Gisbergen and AJ Allmendinger, turned into a hard-fought NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) victory for Kyle Larson in a thrilling double-overtime finish at the Focused Health 250 at Circuit of The Americas (COTA). Kaulig Racing teammates van Gisbergen and
Allmendinger battled at the front for most of the race, leading a combined 40 of the race’s 50 laps, before Allmendinger – the two-time, defending winner – got shuffled back in the pack on a late restart.
On the final restart, Austin Hill of Richard Childress Racing made contact with van Gisbergen heading into Turn One and took the lead. The three-time Supercars champion from New Zealand returned the favor in the closing corners. That contact opened the door for Larson, on fresher tires, to sneak past for his 15th career NXS win by a margin of 1.354 seconds over Hill. Van Gisbergen was rated as:
He was given a 30 second penalty for cutting the track on the final lap and was in 27th place when the checkered flag fell. After the race, Larson had high praise for the talented New Zealander. “He’s just better than us,” Larson said. “AJ is a notch above me, and he’s also a notch above AJ.” I was a little surprised when he came to my right. I was a little surprised because I didn’t know he was there. Then when he came to my left he surprised me again because I thought he was still on my right. The race was fun. he is much better. It’s a lot of fun because you learn a lot when you play against such great players. ”
Van Gisbergen, who will be competing in NXS for the fifth time as a full-time driver, said he learned a lot during the race. “We’re getting better and better,” said Van Gisbergen, who was on track to improve on his season-best third place finish in Atlanta. “On the last restart he (Hill) just passed me. I guess that’s the way it is here. I just stood up for myself.”
Although Hill was disappointed with the goal, he said the team had a lot to be happy about. “Obviously it’s frustrating,” said Hill, who has had five consecutive top-five finishes this season. “We’re going full throttle right now.” It doesn’t matter where you go. I have to brace myself for this and it’s really frustrating. I wanted to aim for my first road course victory. Big Machine Racing’s Parker Kligerman took the lead at the end of the first stage, and JR Motorsports driver Brandon Jones took the green and white checkered flag to win the second stage. Larson aims to double his performance with a win Sunday at the Echo Park Automotive Grand Prix NASCAR Cup
Teammate William Byron will start from pole position for the series showdown. The green flag will fly at 2:49 p.m. CT (TV: FOX, Radio: PRN, SiriusXM Channel 90). ticket:
Fans can buy tickets to Echo Park on Sunday car grand prix online
NASCARatCOTA.com.
