Talladega Superspeedway once again shook up the NASCAR Xfinity Series playoff picture.
Sammy Smith, who entered as the 12th and final seed in the Xfinity playoffs, earned his second career win in Saturday’s (Oct. 5) United Rentals 250 to lock himself into the Round of 8. It is Smith’s second career win and his first in JR Motorsports’ No. 8 Chevrolet.
“It’s been a while, and it’s been a struggle,” Smith told the CW. “I’m happy to be here and looking forward to hopefully getting better on these ovals and road courses… It feels really good to win again.”
Ryan Sieg finished second by .177 seconds after pushing Smith to the front in the tri-oval. This is the second runner-up finish of the season for Sieg, who narrowly lost to Sam Mayer at Texas in April.
Riley Herbst, who led on the overtime restart, slid down to third in the two-lap dash and was displeased with Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chandler Smith after the race.
Smith’s teammate Sheldon Creed finished ahead of the No. 81 while sliding across the finish line.
Jesse Love, Jeb Burton, David Starr, Brennan Poole and Kyle Sieg rounded out the top 10.
The first incident of the day happened in stage two and involved playoff driver Parker Kligerman after a block by polesitter Love at the front of the pack accordioned the top row, collecting the playoff driver with Nick Leitz and Burton. Kligerman had minor damage, and his crew tapped the hood down to fix the aerodynamics of the car.
While most of the racing in the first two stages was mainly single file, stage three was busy as the field battled both two and three-wide for multiple laps while the lead constantly exchanged hands.
The pushing and shoving eventually caused the first big one with 19 laps to go, as Dean Thompson pushed Shane van Gisbergen down to the apron, slowing Thompson’s No. 26 Toyota. Jordan Anderson tried to push the slower Thompson but ended up turning Thompson into van Gisbergen, sending the Kaulig No. 97 into the pack, collecting playoff driver and stage two winner Austin Hill. Starr, Josh Williams, Joey Gase and Taylor Gray were also involved.
Hill was able to continue on in the race and pass many of his wrecked playoff competitors to finish 24th.
Another caution came out shortly after for debris that came off Aric Almirola after his left front tire went flat.
The lead continued to be swapped by Herbst, AJ Allmendinger, Chandler Smith and Sammy Smith. However, the race would have to go to overtime after a massive wreck with 3 to go.
Carson Kvapil got loose from a push from JR Motorsports teammate Brandon Jones and almost doored Leland Honeyman. Kvapil turned back in front of the field and collected many of the playoff contenders including Allmendinger, Justin Allgaier, Cole Custer, Kligerman and Love. Parker Retzlaff, Dylan Lupton, Anthony Alfredo, Burton and Blaine Perkins were also collected in the multi-car pileup.
Herbst would be the leader at the caution flag, being pushed initially by the No. 81 Toyota, but Sammy Smith would make the last lap pass on the bottom, battling side-by-side with the No. 81 until receiving the massive push from Sieg for the win.
Xfinity Series United Rentals 250 Results
The final race of the Xfinity Series Round of 12 will take place at Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL on Saturday, Oct. 12 at 4 p.m. ET. Broadcasting will be provided by The CW.
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