Ryan Sieg‘s night at Las Vegas Motor Speedway seemed destined to spiral down the drain during a late-race pit stop after he overshot his pit stall, but the No. 39 fought back to finish fifth in the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ Alsco 300.
Sieg’s ninth top-10 effort of 2020 came at one of his best tracks this season. The Georgia native finished third in Sin City in February, tying that result later on at Darlington in September. The September Vegas result also marks Sieg’s fifth top-five result of the year and the most in his career.
The night wasn’t without incident, as Sieg slid into his pit stall and just over the far line, needing to be pushed back by his crew before they serviced the car.
Sieg slides past his pit stall and needs to be pushed back.
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) September 27, 2020
“It’s huge for the CMR team and the guys did an awesome job all night, just the driver did one little mess-up,” Sieg said in a post-race interview. “We’re getting back to what we were running. I was trying to get something to drink, and my helmet hose fell off at the end of stage 1, so I was trying to get something to drink under that green flag and just kind of missed my stopping points on pit road. Just kind of screwed me up a little bit, but we got back, and [I’m] just super, super excited to be plus-nine in the playoffs heading to Talladega. We got the ROVAL, which something can always happen, so I can’t be prouder of this team and all they’ve done.”
Sieg ran well early, running as high as second in the first stage and scoring a third-place finish in the segment. He followed that up with a fourth-place effort in stage 2, and in total gave himself 47 points on the night. Sieg heads into next weekend’s race at Talladega seventh in the standings, nine points above the playoff cutline.
A very strong night for @RyanSiegRacing at @LVMotorSpeedway.
He spoke with @NASCARonNBC about his P5 result. pic.twitter.com/9OWZfrK7K1
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) September 27, 2020
“We’re always fast at Talladega, we had the fastest lap at Daytona and just had a miscue on on the car,” he noted. “We’re pretty pumped to get there, hopefully get that win or at least keep ourselves on the positive side of things, and just can’t wait to get to the next two. It’s been a fun first race already.”
Sieg and the rest of the Xfinity Series field head all the way back east for the middle race of the playoffs’ first round at Talladega, where he has one top-10 finish and finished 30th earlier this year.
About the author
Adam Cheek joined Frontstretch as a contributing writer in January 2019. A 2020 graduate of VCU, he covered sports there and later spent a year and a half as a sports host on 910 the Fan in Richmond, VA. He's freelanced for Richmond Magazine and the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and also hosts the "Adam Cheek's Sports Week" podcast. Adam has followed racing since the age of three, inheriting the passion from his grandfather, who raced in amateur events up and down the East Coast in the 1950s.
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