Noah Gragson won the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ rain-shortened Kansas Lottery 300 on Saturday, Sept. 10.
For the second week in a row, the rain came to the racetrack, ending the event on lap 94 out of 200 scheduled laps. Gragson got out into the lead in stage two and won the stage and his fifth race of the season. He ties Ty Gibbs for most wins on the year.
It’s also Gragson’s 10th Xfinity win of his career.
“It was tough, I don’t know if we had the fastest car there at the beginning of the first stage…,” Gragson told NBC Sports after the race. “I felt like if we would’ve went green, we could’ve kept working on it, working on it. I had a pretty fast car there, but I’ll take them anyway we get them. The (No.) 7 was fast, the (No.) 54 was obviously the fastest car all day. Extremely thankful. …”
Justin Allgaier placed second after he and Gibbs made contact coming to the line. Gibbs finished third after leading 66 laps. Polesitter Brandon Jones was fourth and Ross Chastain rounded out the top five.
AJ Allmendinger, Josh Berry, Sammy Smith, Sam Mayer and Brett Moffitt complete the top 10.
Gibbs won stage one, and as the rain was coming closer to the track, Jeremy Clements ended up spinning near the end of stage two. This caution brought differing pit strategies, with Austin Hill and Ryan Sieg among those few to stay out.
That strategy didn’t work, as Hill and Sieg both lost a lot of spots. Meanwhile, Gragson threaded through and into the lead as others worked around those with older tires.
After the threat of rain brought the caution out near the end of stage two, NASCAR allowed the race to return to green flag conditions with two laps left in the stage. Gragson took first, while Allgaier and Gibbs banged into each other just before they crossed the line.
Then the rain poured, bringing out the red flag on lap 94.
Gragson couldn’t celebrate with a victorious burnout, but he earned his 10th career Xfinity victory and celebrated with fans as the rain continued to fall.
Xfinity Results from Kansas
Sheldon Creed gained a few points on Sieg but is still 13 points below the playoff cut line entering the last race of the regular season.
The NXS regular-season finale is at Bristol Motor Speedway next Friday, Sept. 16 at 7:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.
About the author
Joy joined Frontstretch in 2019 as a NASCAR DraftKings writer, expanding to news and iRacing coverage in 2020. She's currently an assistant editor and involved with photos, social media and news editing. A California native, Joy was raised watching motorsports and started watching NASCAR extensively in 2001. She earned her B.A. degree in Liberal Studies at California State University Bakersfield in 2010.
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Every time I see the 18 and 19 I think of Alias Smith and Jones!