{"id":76921,"date":"2024-10-20T05:00:16","date_gmt":"2024-10-20T05:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racer.com\/?p=369412"},"modified":"2024-10-20T05:00:16","modified_gmt":"2024-10-20T05:00:16","slug":"allmendinger-locks-into-xfinity-championship-4-with-vegas-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/allmendinger-locks-into-xfinity-championship-4-with-vegas-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Allmendinger locks into Xfinity Championship 4 with Vegas win"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It was the first NASCAR Xfinity Series trophy of the season for A.J. Allmendinger but the timing was on point. His Playoff win in Saturday\u2019s Ambetter Health 302 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway punched his ticket into next month\u2019s season finale Championship race.<\/p>\n

The 42-year old Californian held off a hard-charging Ryan Sieg by a mere 0.156s to claim his 18th career win \u2013 leading a race best 102 of the 201 laps in his No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet. Allmendinger had to out-run and out-negotiate Sieg in the closing laps, ultimately getting the best of the field on a final re-start at the 1.5-miler with two laps remaining.<\/p>\n

An exuberant Allmendinger \u2013 who is moving to the NASCAR Cup Series next year — climbed out of his Chevrolet, raising his arms to urge the crowd cheer and shouting congratulations to his team and his team owner Matt Kaulig, whose birthday was Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI absolutely love these guys and girls at Kaulig Racing. It\u2019s been such up-and-down but what I love about them is we stick together, we keep fighting,\u2019\u2019 Allmendinger said before turning toward his team and shouting, \u201cHappy Birthday Matt Kaulig. The boss\u2019s birthday — I told you I was getting you a trophy. I love you.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a way to get to Phoenix after the year we\u2019ve had. Let\u2019s go win a championship!”<\/p>\n

For Sieg \u2013 who is still looking for his first win in 364 Xfinity Series starts \u2013 Saturday\u2019s near-miss marked the fifth runner-up showing of his career and second in just the last three races. He challenged Allmendinger mightily in the final 30 laps \u2013 passing him with nine laps to go, only to get passed right back the following lap.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had the best car on the longer run and I needed a long run and we were getting there,\u2019\u2019 the RSS Racing driver Sieg said afterward. \u201cI just overdrove 1 and lost some of our track position, but I was able to gain it back. Just sucks to finish second again with a great car. One of these days it\u2019s going to go our way.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Allmendinger\u2019s fellow Playoff drivers, JR Motorsports\u2019 Justin Allgaier and Joe Gibbs Racing\u2019s Chandler Smith finished third and fourth. Parker Kligerman, who was eliminated from the Playoffs just last week, finished fifth.<\/p>\n

Allgaier had a strong No. 7 Chevrolet, winning Stage 2 and leading 42 laps \u2013 second best to Allmendinger. His work didn\u2019t get him the automatic Championship 4 berth but does put him atop the championship standings 32 points to the good with races at Homestead-Miami Speedway next week and then at the half-mile Martinsville, Va. track to formally decide which four drivers move to the Nov. 9 season finale eligible to compete for the trophy.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe did a great job and hats off to those guys to get a Chevrolet in victory lane,\u2019\u2019 Allgaier said of Allmendinger. \u201cRyan did a great job too.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally proud of this team. Yesterday in practice we weren\u2019t as good as we wanted to be, but they went to work and made good adjustments all day to put us in a good position.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end there, just not able to get into dirty air like I wanted to,\u2019\u2019 he said, adding, \u201cGreat start to the next round and obviously got some good stage points so we\u2019ll move on to next week.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

.@ColeCuster<\/span> was on the MOVE. \"\ud83d\ude2e\u200d\ud83d\udca8\" #NASCARPlayoffs<\/span> pic.twitter.com\/Qj3ONwsYyQ<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014 NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) October 20, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Richard Childress Racing rookie driver Jesse Love \u2013 a Playoff contender — was sixth, followed by Stewart-Haas Racing teammates, defending race winner Riley Herbst and Playoff driver Cole Custer. JGR\u2019s Sheldon Creed \u2013 also eliminated from Playoff contention last week \u2013 was 10th.<\/p>\n

Playoff contenders RCR\u2019s Austin Hill and JR Motorsports\u2019 Sam Mayer were 13th and 14th, respectively, with JR Motorsports\u2019 Sammy Smith getting involved in an early race accident and finishing 32nd \u2013 last among the Playoff eight.<\/p>\n

The reigning series champion Custer sits just behind Allgaier in the points standings \u2013 16 points to the good with Chandler Smith in that fourth position, eight points to the good.<\/p>\n

Hill (-8) is fifth followed by Love (-13), Mayer (-23) and Smith (-53).<\/p>\n

The series moves to the Homestead-Miami Speedway 1.5-miler for next Saturday\u2019s Credit One NASCAR Amex Credit Card 300 (4 p.m. ET, CW, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Mayer is the defending race winner.<\/p>\n

RESULTS<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was the first NASCAR Xfinity Series trophy of the season for A.J. Allmendinger but the timing was on point. His Playoff win in Saturday\u2019s Ambetter Health 302 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway punched his ticket into next month\u2019s season finale Championship race. The 42-year old Californian held off a hard-charging Ryan Sieg by a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":76922,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","has-thumb","has-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76921"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}