On a rain-washed weekend in Texas, the Xfinity Series race was defined by a couple standard tropes once again: misfortune did not allow Justin Allgaier to convert a dominant car into a win in the Lone Star State, and Kyle Larson scored a convincing win.
Larson, who has recently made comments about his mentality of trying to embarrass the Xfinity field in his limited starts, was not as dominant on the day as he has been in his other starts on the year, although he did win comfortably after Allgaier was eliminated.
In an eventful race, Larson had to avoid early incidents and survive two overtime restarts to take the win. Taylor Gray came home runner-up, while Riley Herbst secured a third-place finish. Austin Hill completed a solid points day that included a stage win with a fourth-place finish. Sam Mayer completed the front five finishers after leading in the closing stages.
Harrison Burton scored yet another top 10 for AM Racing with a sixth-place effort, while Jesse Love rebounded nicely from early damage to finish seventh. Ryan Sieg showed great speed in Texas and came home with a nice eighth-place finish to boot. Brandon Jones came home ninth, and Jeb Burton completed the top 10 finishers.
The Winners
After finding out late in the week that he would be filling in from a recovering Connor Zilisch, Larson did what he often does and capitalized on a great opportunity by winning. While Larson didn’t exhibit the same type of thorough domination he did at Bristol, the result was a win nonetheless, and it will register just the same in the history books.
Runner-up Gray gained several spots in overtime to match his career-best finish in spite of damage from the pileup to begin stage three. Days like these in which he did not have a dominant car and faced some adversity, yet was still able to score a great finish, should boost Gray’s confidence and build some momentum for his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 54 team.
At the site of his closest call to scoring his first Xfinity Series win in last spring’s race, Sieg yet again showed great pace. Sieg finished a solid eighth and showed even greater potential in the early going. After fuel economy misfortune cost him a shot at Rockingham and early trouble led to a poor finish at Talladega, Sieg’s relatively uneventful top-10 run in Texas was a welcome change of luck for the Georgia driver.
After heartbreak a week ago at Talladega, Burton was able to overcome pit road mishaps to score a third consecutive top-10 finish for his Jordan Anderson Racing team. In addition to finishing well, Burton was also able to collect stage points in stage one, making Texas an excellent points day that will go a long way in furthering his bid to make the playoffs.
The Losers
Allgaier’s 99 laps led at Texas moved him to third all-time in laps led in Xfinity Series history at Texas Motor Speedway behind only Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick. While this is no surprise, it may come as a surprise to some that Allgaier has yet to visit Texas Motor Speedway victory lane. The reason Allgaier has never visited victory lane in the Lone Star State is that he has been snakebitten, as he was today.
With perhaps the best car on the day, Allgaier dominated early and would have had a chance to race Larson for the win before he was taken out in an incident that saw him collide with an unexpectedly slow Kris Wright coming out of turn 4 soon after making his last pit stop. While Allgaier consistently has speed at nearly every track the series visits, it seems like he runs into bad luck a disproportionately large amount of the time.
After he was the benefactor of another’s misfortune at Homestead, Allgaier’s luck seemed to have changed. Incidents like today’s, however, indicate that it may not have.
Tough luck also put an unfortunate end to the day for series veteran Jeremy Clements. While running toward the back end of the top 10, Clements was wiped out in wreck when he pounded the wall exiting turn two. While the speed Clements exhibited today could be promising for the rest of his season, failing to secure a solid finish to reflect this speed surely is disappointing.
Running much of the race with damage from an early incident, Sammy Smith steadily worked his way up the running order and found himself inside the top five in the closing laps. Unfortunately for the Rockingham winner, contact with Hill through the dogleg sent his No. 8 Chevy into the wall and hampered his comeback effort. While an 18th-place result is certainly respectable considering the obstacles he had to overcome, Smith will be disappointed knowing there was much more on the table.
Fuel for Thought
While being injured and missing time is an obvious detriment to any driver, Zilisch may have stood to gain some valuable perspective from sitting out this week and watching one of the best in the business in Larson run his car. Sitting on the pit box during the race, maybe Zilisch was able to observe both what Larson was doing behind the wheel and what his crew was doing in pit road and learn something invaluable to success going forward. With a three-week break before the Xfinity Series returns to action at Charlotte, hopefully Zilisch will be good to return to where he is most comfortable: behind the steering wheel.
Paint Scheme of the Week
Carrying the colors of the race’s title sponsor, Mayer held the lead in the closing stages in the Andy’s Frozen Custard Ford before finishing fifth. This colorful scheme nearly found victory lane, but it surely found lots of looks over the course of the weekend.
Where to Next?
After an extended break, the Xfinity Series will return to action Saturday, May 24 from Charlotte Motor Speedway. Chase Elliott led 18 laps last year en route to the victory. Coverage will begin at 4:30 p.m. ET on The CW.
