When the NASCAR Xfinity Series visits a superspeedway like Atlanta Motor Speedway, picking Richard Childress Racing to win is as safe a bet as there is.
Austin Hill was king of the high banks again on Sept. 7 (Saturday), claiming a win in the Focused Health 250, the seventh of his career on drafting tracks.
After several contenders were collected in a crash with just under 20 to go, Hill battled Chandler Smith to the finish with an unlikely assist. Corey Heim in a Sam Hunt Racing Toyota gave a shove late to Hill rather than his fellow Toyota teammate Smith, allowing Hill to control over the final two laps.
Parker Kligerman finished runner-up while AJ Allmendinger took third. Smith rallied to fourth and Heim, after a brush with the outside wall on the final lap, faded to fifth.
The Winners
Kligerman has quietly become a bit of a superspeedway whisperer.
The No. 48 Chevy avoided the late accident and wound up at the front with a chance to win. A second-place finish, his best run of the year, would have to suffice.
Kligerman now has a comfortable lead over the cutline with just two races remaining in the regular season, including a road course next week that Kligerman has been strong at.
Speaking of road courses, Allmendinger somehow entered the day with no stage wins to his name. The former Atlanta winner not only picked up a stage win and finished third. While it’s been a quiet year in his return to the Xfinity Series, Allmendinger is now locked into the playoffs as the fifth-place driver in the standings.
An extra nod goes to Josh Williams, who finished eighth. His choice to start on the bottom of the front row on the final restart ultimately didn’t pay off how he needed it to, but Williams did manage his fourth top-10 of the season.
Smith might not have been too happy with him afterwards, but Heim had a legitimate chance to get his first career Xfinity win and the first win in Sam Hunt Racing history. Heim’s peek on the outside of Hill going into turn 2 ultimately cost him, but the Truck Series regular can hold his head high with a fifth-place run.
Brandon Jones was sitting third when the red flag was thrown late. It seemed to have slipped away with a fuel intake issue upon refiring. Jones’ opportunity to punch his ticket to the playoffs may have slipped away but he somehow managed to salvage a ninth-place finish.
After a tumultuous few weeks for AM Racing, Lawless Alan was near the front late. While he may have been shuffled out of the main pack, Alan came home 13th for the team’s best finish since Chicago.
The Losers
With 19 laps to go, contact between Cole Custer and Justin Allgaier triggered an accident that collected a half-dozen other cars. The two regular season title contenders wound up collecting Jesse Love, Riley Herbst, Ryan Sieg and Taylor Gray.
Custer and Allgaier’s accidents effectively allowed Smith and Hill back into the mix for the regular-season title. Allgaier finished 30th in the garage and still holds a 34-point advantage over Custer. However, the gap from Custer to third-place Smith was shrunk to 33 points.
The biggest loser in that accident, however, was Sieg. With one of the fastest cars of the day, Sieg looked like a contender to win or at least get above the cutline. The crash rendered him 32nd and put him 44 points below the cutline.
Sheldon Creed’s string of strong runs was done with 28 laps to go when he pitted under the green flag with an issue. Creed found himself three laps down and finished 25th.
Sam Mayer’s roller coaster season continued when his No. 1 Chevy burst into flames during the closing laps of stage 2, resulting in a 36th-place finish.
The Playoff Pit
Two races — Watkins Glen and Bristol — remain in the regular season with three spots still up for grabs after Allmendinger locked himself in on points.
Creed (123 points up), Kligerman (74 points) and Sammy Smith (44 points) all sit above the cutline.
Sieg is the first driver outside the playoffs with Jones now mathematically unable to point his way in at 139 points back. He and the rest of the field will need to win to earn a spot in the playoffs.
Paint Scheme of the Race
This one was decided before the cars even hit the track on Saturday. Jeremy Clements’ throwback scheme to Mark Martin would be a solid pick on it’s own. Then on Saturday, the team hit the grid sporting all-red rims just like Martin’s old Ford Taurus.
Unfortunately, Clements’ snazzy scheme never saw the front of the field. Clements struggled in qualifying and finished 29th.
Fuel for Thought
At no other type of tracks do manufacturers meet to plan out how they operate in a race outside of superspeedways. So how has there been so many issues this season, mainly outside the Xfinity Series, with drivers of the same make working together?
Parker Retzlaff shoved Harrison Burton to a win at Daytona and left Chevy driver Kyle Busch on the outside looking in. That was preceded by Allmendinger and Kligerman the night before, allowing a Toyota to go to victory lane. This weekend, Heim chose Hill over his Toyota teammate Chandler Smith and opened the door for a Chevy 1-2-3 finish.
The through line explanation from Retzlaff, Kligerman and Heim is always the same. There’s no friends or teammates when there’s a chance to win at stake.
Where to Next?
The Xfinity Series will be making lefts and rights at Watkins Glen International on Sept. 14 for the Mission 200 at the Glen. Mayer picked up the win in New York last season.
TV Coverage on the USA Network begins at 2 p.m. ET.
James Krause joined Frontstretch in March 2024 as a contributor. Krause was born and raised in Illinois and graduated from Northern Illinois University. He currently works in La Crosse, Wisconsin as a local sports reporter, including local short track racing. Outside of racing, Krause loves to keep up with football, music, anime and video games.