Ryan Truex won the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ Wawa 250 at Daytona International Speedway Friday, Aug. 23.
Truex, driving the No. 20, scored the victory after the field was frozen due to a caution on the final lap for AJ Allmendinger, who was spun entering turn 1 while running second.
Truex fended off a challenge from Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chandler Smith before the race-ending caution flew.
Smith finished second, followed by Parker Kligerman, Riley Herbst and Ryan Sieg.
Jordan Anderson, Justin Allgaier, Sheldon Creed, Leland Honeyman and Kyle Weatherman rounded out the top 10.
“It’s so amazing to race here,” Truex told NBC post-race. ” … I don’t get to race often. I don’t know what I’m going to do next year. It’s all a work in progress. Just a great car. … I can’t believe this.”
The win is Truex’s second of 2024, marking the first time he’s scored more than one victory in an Xfinity season. He now has three wins in all.
Truex has two wins in his eight starts with JGR this season, running part time between its Nos. 19 and 20.
The race started off with a crash in the back half of the pack. On lap 1, Jeremy Clements got shoved out of line onto the apron and spun around. Those behind him checked up and set off a chain reaction, with cars running into the back of others.
Ryan Ellis‘ day was over before it really began, as he had major damage to the front of his car. Also caught up in the incident were Gus Dean, CJ McLaughlin, Akinori Ogata and Austin Hill. Hill had to drop to the back before the race after the team changed a steering pump.
Things settled down for the rest of stage one (aside from the normal jockeying for positions). Allgaier took the stage one victory.
Under this stage break, Cole Custer made contact with Herbst on pit road when Custer left his pit box. There was significant front bumper damage to the No. 00, so the Stewart-Haas Racing team put some tape on it.
Truex also had a solo spin on pit lane.
Stage two went mostly clean, as Allgaier, Allmendinger and Truex all held the point. Allgaier surged to the front on the bottom lane in the closing laps of the stage and went on to win after the caution came out with just over a lap to go.
The yellow was for Anthony Alfredo smacking the wall after Jesse Love‘s right front got to Alfredo’s left rear. Sam Mayer slid around in avoidance of the movement in front of him.
Truex got the lead back before a single-car spin by Brandon Jones.
Some laps later, chaos ensued. Around lap 78, the Big One occurred when Sammy Smith tried to slot in front of Jeb Burton. Both cars got turned — Smith in the outside and Burton on the inside — and multiple cars were caught up in the wreckage. Custer, Parker Retzlaff, Jones, Matt DiBenedetto and Love were among those involved.
The intensity and aggressiveness ramped up as the laps wound down, and with just a few laps to go, Alfredo appeared to have a flat tire and got slow in the middle lane. Another car on the bottom got turned around and into Alfredo, setting off another large accident and sending the race into overtime following a lengthy red flag.
Allmendinger and Truex led the field to green at overtime. Truex edged ahead and was able to hold off the field after Allmendinger turned across Kligerman’s nose going into turn 1 on the final lap.
Daytona Xfinity Results
The Xfinity Series travels to Darlington Raceway next Saturday, Aug. 31. The Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 runs at 3:30 p.m. ET and airs on USA Network.
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.