Justin Allgaier won tonight’s (Aug. 25) NASCAR Xfinity Series Wawa 250 powered by Coca-Cola at Daytona International Speedway after beating Sheldon Creed to the line in a photo finish of .005 seconds in a multi-overtime finish.
Allgaier overcame an earlier penalty that set him back at the beginning of the race.
He made his way through the field and survived the carnage to achieve his 21st career Xfinity victory.
Margin of Victory: 0.005 seconds.
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) August 26, 2023
Tied for the fourth closest finish in #XfinitySeries history. pic.twitter.com/jcez46CqYV
“I’ve been coming to this place a long time,” Allgaier said. “I’ve wanted to win here so bad, and we’ve been so close. We had an oversight yesterday when we got to the track and put a car through inspection that wasn’t where we wanted to roll it through inspection, and, unfortunately, that cost us a pass-through. The team never quit, never gave up, and we rallied. Obviously we put ourselves in good position.”
Creed, once again a bridesmaid to victory, captured his fifth second-place finish, still waiting for his first career finish in the Xfinity Series but successfully putting together a great points day.
“We have some momentum finally, back-to-back second places, and I’m cleaning it up and doing better myself just putting races together,” Creed said. “I thought we killed it tonight. Second stage one. Won in stage two. I kind of got dropped there with a few to go and was just able to stay clean.”
Daniel Hemric finished third, while fellow Chevrolet driver Parker Kligerman and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Cole Custer rounded out the top five.
“I’m proud of the Big Machine Racing team,” Kligerman said. “We had a fast Spiked Light Coolers Chevy once again putting it in the top five. It comes down to that race and the 7 is in the best position. I got the 2 that doesn’t want me to win, the 11 that doesn’t want me to win, the 00 on the last lap, I’m trying to back up to him thinking, ‘ Why won’t he back up to me, come up to my bumper?’ and then I’m like ‘Ugh, he’s the 98’s teammate.’ This was the worst position I could possibly be in. So, I just felt like a lone duck.”
Parker Retzlaff collected his seventh career top 10 in sixth, while Ryan Sieg, Anthony Alfredo, Gray Gaulding and Justin Haley completed the top 10.
Along with Allgaier, Jeb Burton, Jordan Anderson, Retzlaff and Sieg had to start from the rear and serve an early pass-through penalty on the opening lap after failing pre-race inspection. Natalie Decker and Connor Mosack also started at the rear due to adjustments.
Contact in the tri-oval leads to this accident early in Stage 2. pic.twitter.com/nAYJhnajlw
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) August 26, 2023
Austin Hill led the field to the green flag for the final superspeedway race of the Xfinity season. He controlled the start and led the first six laps until Sammy Smith began to challenge on the bottom.
The two continued to battle side-by-side for the lead until lap 12, when the inside line died down and Hill maintained the lead while the field filed into a single-file line.
Hill went on to dominate the rest of stage one over Creed, Chandler Smith, Brett Moffitt and Alfredo.
Riley Herbst, who was having a steering issue during stage one, had his left front tire blow out at the end of the stage, causing him to go a few laps down.
In stage two, Hill pulled away once again until lap 40, when Creed took the lead.
Afterward on lap 42, a Big One occurred involving a dozen drivers, bringing out the first caution for incident.
On lap 51 with 10 to go in the stage, Creed was pushed to the front by Hill until Kligerman briefly took the lead on the next lap.
On lap 53, Trevor Bayne, driving the No. 19 Toyota Supra for Joe Gibbs Racing, took the lead from Kligerman.
Creed took the lead with three to go from Bayne until Hill made the move under him to take the lead. Hill led until the final corner, when Creed caught up with his teammate and made the move on the bottom, side drafted him coming to the line and beat Hill to the line for the important stage win.
Custer motored his way into third at the end of the stage, while Sammy Smith and Hemric completed the top five.
For the start of stage three, Sam Mayer took the lead on pit road by taking fuel only, but he was no match for the RCR duo of Creed and Hill.
With the race winding down, Trevor Bayne pulled away from Creed on the bottom and started working the lanes, until Burton got loose coming to seven to go and spun out. Alpha Prime Racing drivers Caesar Bacarella and Ryan Ellis spun behind Burton as they tried to go down pit road to avoid the trouble. Haley was also involved in the incident.
Hold on there, Jeb! 🟡
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) August 26, 2023
A late yellow at @DAYTONA! pic.twitter.com/xGzaxZ14bj
With two laps to go, Bayne and Allgaier lined up next to each other until Hill made a move to the high side after the restart and Bayne put a block that wrecked both drivers as well as many others in the field.
Trouble at the front of the field! pic.twitter.com/TwGXmvxQef
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) August 26, 2023
Kligerman and Allgaier lined up for the first overtime restart, but the field could not make it back to the white due to another accident.
A look at what brought out the caution following the first overtime restart at @DAYTONA. pic.twitter.com/Btn9wj6i06
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) August 26, 2023
Once again, Kligerman and Allgaier led the field back to the final overtime finish. Allgaier took control of the lead, and Creed had a run on the backstretch and got side-by-side with Allgaier all the way to the checkered flag, with Allgaier winning by the slimmest of margins.
Kligerman exited Daytona above the cutoff line with a 20 point gap to the unfortunate Herbst.
Xfinity Daytona Results
The Xfinity Series returns to action at Darlington Raceway for the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 on Saturday, Sept. 2 at 3:30 p.m. ET.
Wyatt Watson has followed NASCAR closely since 2007. He joined Frontstretchas a journalist in February 2023 after serving in the United States Navy for five years as an Electronic Technician Navigation working on submarines. Wyatt writes breaking NASCAR news and contributes to columns such as Friday Faceoff and 2-Headed Monster. Wyatt also contributes to Frontstretch's social media and serves as an at-track reporter, collecting exclusive content for Frontstretch.
Wyatt Watson can be found on Twitter @WyattGametime
Typical RP race. A few big ones, a couple of GWCs, and a really close finish. Nice to watch with no Cup guys out there. I was really pulling for Creed. It’s not that I am a fan, I’ve just watched enough to know he’s came close on several occasions and hasn’t been able to get that first win.
A big thumbs up to Allgaier for a clean finish with no crazy blocking on the race to the finish. Just a pure drag race.