On an afternoon that saw JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier perform a masterclass for 42 of the first 47 laps around Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis., in surprising fashion it was his teammate Sam Mayer who wound up the victor for the first time in his 71st Xfinity Series race.

The 20-year-old from nearby Franklin, Wis., was able to overtake Allgaier, Sage Karam and Parker Kligerman on the second Overtime attempt after each driver lost the lead coming to the white flag.

“It was just about getting track position. We had it there at the end and I lost it for a second,” Mayer said in victory lane. “All hell broke loose there at the end and we ended up on top.

“This team – it’s so special to get that first win, that monkey off your back. It feels so good.”

Mayer led only the final two laps after Allgaier took the lead on Lap 6 from pole-sitter AJ Allmendinger and didn’t surrender it until Lap 48 while battling with Karam in Turns 6 and 7.

Allgaier spun in the Turn 8 kink and finished a disappointing 18th while Karam held the lead all the way through “Canada Corner,” soon after getting off track in Turn 13 allowing Kligerman to pounce and grab the lead.

Just as quickly as that heart-pumping battle was over, Mayer stormed to the inside of the No. 48 Big Machine Racing Chevrolet in the final turn and led the rest of the way, taking the checkered flag by 0.368 seconds over Kligerman.

Mayer became the 14th different winner in 14 races at the wildly popular road course and has essentially clinched a Playoff berth with six races remaining in the regular season. It was his fourth top-five in the last six races.

Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill came home third, followed by Karam and Riley Herbst. Josh Berry, Kaz Grala, Josh Bilicki, Allmendinger and Brandon Jones were sixth through 10th. It was the second top-10 of Bilicki’s Xfinity Series career.

The race featured two particularly frightening moments in Turn 1. The first came on the final lap of Stage 1 when Kaulig Racing’s Chandler Smith lost his brakes at the fastest portion of the track after the long frontstretch.

In a heady move, Smith turned his car left into the inside wall to diminish his speed and alleviate some of the damage, but it was nevertheless vicious.

“I definitely was having some brake fade throughout the runs,” Smith said of the scary incident.

“But I didn’t think that I was abusing them by any means to make them fail on me. I was going up the hill on the frontstretch. I heard something snap in half and then I felt something come off of the car and it’s like the whole front nose just dropped when that happened.

“When it happened I was like, ‘What in the world was that?’ I had to keep pumping the brakes going down the straightaways anyways as it was at that point in the run. I went to pump them and there was nothing there, and I just was trying to scrub speed at that point.”

In nearly the same spot on the track with six laps remaining in regulation, Alex Labbe of SS GreenLight Racing also lost his brakes but couldn’t do as Smith did, instead pounding the tire barrier head-on in Turn 1 after going through the sand trap. Labbe dropped the window net almost immediately after the crash and laid on the ground briefly upon exiting his car. Both drivers were OK.

John Hunter Nemechek came into the day with a 13-point lead over Hill and left 14 points behind his fellow four-race winner. Nemechek ran off track and ripped the front splitter from his Toyota GR Supra in Turn 13 with 13 laps left – a considerable distance from the finish on the 4.048-mile track – bringing out the caution and finishing 34th.

Allgaier won Stages 1 and 2 and sits 40 points back of Hill in third place.

The Xfinity Series’ trek to the Playoffs continues next Saturday with the running of the Cabo Wabo 250 at Michigan International Speedway. Coverage begins at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

After a flurry of late cautions and subsequent restart attempts, Denny Hamlin was able to hold off 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick Sunday afternoon in Long Pond, Pa., as Hamlin captured his second checkered flag of the season, seventh at Pocono and 50th of his career in his 18th full-time season.

The race ended under caution as Stewart-Haas Racing driver Ryan Preece spun in Turn 2 and couldn’t re-fire his engine on the white flag.

Despite the historic afternoon, Hamlin was greeted with a chorus of boos from the Pocono crowd postrace after tussling on-track with Stage 2 winner Kyle Larson on Lap 154 of 160. Hamlin pushed Larson wide in Turn 1 – akin to what Hamlin did to Ross Chastain last year at this same track – sending the Hendrick Motorsports driver into the wall.

In Turn 2 on the same lap, Justin Haley hit driver-side into the outside wall to bring out the yellow flag. Haley was checked and released from the infield care center. During the caution period, Larson retaliated with a slight bump to Hamlin on the frontstretch before the final restart and finished 20th.

Before the incident with Larson, Hamlin had a separate run-in with Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman in Turn 3 five laps earlier. Although the drivers didn’t touch, Bowman got loose in front of Hamlin and spun into the fence. Bowman finished 24th and now sits 46 points outside the Playoffs.

“Both guys wrecked themselves,” an unapologetic Hamlin said of the Hendrick duo. “There was a lane. He (Larson) missed the corner first and evidently, he didn’t have his right-side tires cleaned and when he gassed up, he kept going again.

“You have an option in those positions to either hold it wide open and hit the fence, or lift and race it out, but those are choices they made. I didn’t hit either one of them – didn’t touch them.”

Larson had a predictably different point of view:

“I’ve been cost a lot of good finishes by (Hamlin) throughout my career. I know he says I race a certain way, but I don’t think I’ve ever had to apologize to him about anything. Not that I’m sure he’s (going to) say sorry after this.”

Before their day went awry, Larson and crew chief Cliff Daniels had the strategy call of the race as they took two tires on what figured to be the final round of pit stops on Lap 120 before the rash of late cautions. The move propelled the No. 5 team to the lead in front of Hamlin, and it stayed that way until Ty Dillon spun Chase Briscoe in Turn 3 on Lap 143. Larson led 24 laps to Hamlin’s nine.

Martin Truex Jr. followed up his New Hampshire triumph with a third-place finish for his sixth top-five in the last eight races. Kevin Harvick was fourth followed by Ty Gibbs in fifth – the best finish of the 20-year-old’s young Cup career.

Christopher Bell was sixth, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. seventh, and Harrison Burton, Erik Jones and Chase Elliott completed the top-10.

Joey Logano won Stage 1 and led 21 laps before crashing on the Stage 2 restart after contact with both Reddick and Michael McDowell. Daniel Suárez was also involved in the wreck and finished one spot behind Logano in 36th.

Austin Dillon was another driver who left Pennsylvania unsatisfied. The 34th place finisher launched his helmet at Reddick’s car after he felt Reddick purposefully wrecked him on Lap 106. Replay appeared to show that the driver of the No. 3 came down the track into Reddick entering Turn 1 and took himself out of contention.

Truex Jr. increased his points lead to 30 over William Byron. Byron started on pole and led a race-high 60 laps but finished 14th.

McDowell now holds a 17-point edge over AJ Allmendinger for the 16th and final Playoff spot. Suárez is 23 points back in 18th.

The Cup Series heads to Richmond Raceway next Sunday for the Cook Out 400. Coverage begins at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network.

Taking advantage of an Overtime restart on the 12-turn Portland International Raceway, Cole Custer capitalized on a mistake ahead of him and held off a hard-charging Justin Allgaier over the final two laps to claim his first Xfinity Series victory since returning to the series full-time in 2023.

A debris caution on Lap 73 of a scheduled 75 necessitated the Overtime finish, and Parker Kligerman was able to get a good jump and made it three-wide by diving to the inside of race-leader Allgaier in Turn 1 to try to gain the lead.

Kligerman was unable to make the corner, which pushed he, Allgaier and John Hunter Nemecheck wide of the first turn, forcing them to serve a de facto time penalty as instructed by NASCAR – maneuvering around pieces of signage before blending back in with the field.

That allowed Custer – who started the race from the rear despite qualifying second – to take over the lead, and though Allgaier, who led 23 laps, closed to his back bumper in Turn 11 coming to the checkered flag in a heart-thumping finish, Custer was able to hold on for the 11th victory of his career by .142 seconds.

“I mean, just try not to make mistakes. I did the same exact thing – I saw him drive in so deep. I did the same thing like two restarts ago,” Custer said of Kligerman’s misstep.

“Man, I’m just so happy. I’ve never won a road course race before. I’ve been so close so many times.

“It’s just awesome to win this.”

The win was the first by a full-time Ford driver in the series since Austin Cindric won on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course in 2021 driving for Team Penske.

Pole sitter Sheldon Creed had the fastest car early, winning the first stage and leading 47 of the race’s first 49 laps. On Lap 50, the final lap of Stage 2, Nemechek turned Creed from the lead in Turn 11 and dropped Creed to sixth in the running order. The move was all for naught as Custer edged Nemechek by a nose to claim the stage.

Creed got his payback later, spinning Nemechek from second in Turn 12, dropping Nemechek well down the leaderboard. Nemechek also had a run-in with Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Sammy Smith in the closing laps as Smith spun Nemechek around in Turn 1. Nemechek recovered to finish 10th while Smith ran 30th.

“He (Nemechek) spun me coming to the stage end there,” Creed, the seventh-place finisher, said. “Obviously going for a stage win, aggressive. He came up and apologized and I got even on the racetrack, so that was fine.”

Allgaier’s JR Motorsports teammates Sam Mayer and Josh Berry came home behind him in third and fourth, followed by Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill in fifth.

Myatt Snider was sixth, Connor Mosack eighth and Chandler Smith ninth. It was the first top-10 of Mosack’s career.

Even with his chaotic afternoon in the Pacific Northwest, Nemechek retains the points lead by 14 over Hill.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series will make more right- and left-handed turns next Saturday at Sonoma Raceway for the first time in series history. Coverage of the DoorDash 250 is on FS1 beginning at 8 p.m. ET.

DARLINGTON, S.C. – A year after being booted in Turn 3 by Joey Logano coming to the white flag, William Byron earned a redemptive victory at The Track Too Tough to Tame on Sunday in the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway on Mother’s Day.

“Yeah, it's pretty amazing. My granddad passed away on Thursday, and just man, I wish my family could be here,” Byron said. “Things have a way of working out, honestly. It just worked out that way today. We didn't have the best third stage. We just kept battling, and things just kind of come back around.

“Want to wish Happy Mother's Day to my mom. My sister just graduated school, so big day. Definitely didn't expect this. But just thankful for a great team, and yeah, just things have a way of working out, and come back here to Darlington and have it go exactly the other way.”

With the win, Byron becomes the first three-time winner this season after going back to back at Las Vegas and Phoenix in March. The win is also Hendrick Motorsports’ first at Darlington since Jimmie Johnson won the Southern 500 in May 2012, and is the 100th win for the No. 24 car – Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon had 93, and Byron now has seven.

After starting fourth, Byron had a solid top-10 run going for most of the day but was never really a threat to win – that was until a flurry of cautions broke out over the last 17 laps of regulation.

The first was a Ryan Newman spin on Lap 277 in Turn 4. Newman was making his first Cup Series start since the 2021 season finale in Phoenix, driving the No. 51 for Rick Ware Racing.

Kyle Larson, Byron’s Hendrick teammate, looked to have the race won after assuming the lead with 31 laps remaining following a green-flag pit cycle before the spin.

On the ensuing restart, Martin Truex Jr. – the Stage 1 winner who led a race-best 145 laps – made contact with Logano and got turned right into the fence to trigger an eight-car melee in Turn 2. Truex finished 31st and Logano 18th.

Tyler Reddick, Kevin Harvick, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, Aric Almirola and Ryan Blaney were the others involved.

Ross Chastain, the Stage 2 winner who led 93 laps on the day, took the inside for the restart with six laps left and ran Larson high into the fence in Turn 1. Larson held his ground and Chastain spun across his nose to force Overtime. Larson wound up 20th, Chastain 29th.

With the door opened for Byron, he chose the outside lane for the Overtime restart and Kevin Harvick took the inside. Byron was able to clear Harvick off Turn 2 and set sail to victory lane over the final two laps.

Elliott rebounded to finish third in a car reminiscent of his father Bill’s from the early 2000s on Throwback Weekend. Keselowski was fourth and Bubba Wallace was fifth.

Wallace led the opening lap of the race after starting second, but Truex took the lead for the next 89 laps en route to a dominant Stage 1 victory. Truex held first place until making his first green-flag stop of the day on Lap 139.
Truex regained the lead by Lap 143 but was run down by Chastain on Lap 151 as the Trackhouse Racing driver led the final 35 laps of the second stage.

The stage end wasn’t without drama either, as Truex got to Chastain’s inside in Turn 3 on the stage’s final lap. Chastain hit the outside wall, bounced into Truex and sent him spinning as Chastain claimed the stage.

Second-year driver Harrison Burton earned his first top-10 of the year with a sixth-place showing. Kyle Busch was seventh, Justin Haley eighth, Blaney ninth and Chris Buescher 10th.

Despite plentiful drama, Chastain retains the points lead by 27 over Christopher Bell. Bell, too, looked to have a chance at the win as he came off pit road in second place with less than 15 laps to go. He was forced to come back to the pits almost immediately to put four new tires on as he reported a loose wheel after the initial stop. Bell ended up 14th.

The Cup Series makes its eagerly awaited return to North Wilkesboro for the first time since 1996 next Sunday for All-Star weekend. Coverage of the All-Star Open begins at 5:30 p.m. ET on FS1, followed by the All-Star Race at 8.

On the second Overtime attempt in Friday night’s Craftsman Truck Series race at Darlington, Christian Eckes crossed the start/finish line underneath the white flag just before the yellow flag waved for a Grant Enfinger spin in Turn 3, giving Eckes his second victory of the season.

Eckes led a race-high 82 of 158 laps – including the final 27 – to claim his first win at The Lady in Black and the third of his career.

“I can’t say enough about this truck. I’m not that excited because it was such a damn good truck it drove itself,” Eckes said. “So proud of everyone on our team. It’s been a really, really rough couple of weeks.”

The rough stretch for Eckes included five consecutive finishes outside the top-10 after his win in Atlanta on March 18.

“To come back and win shows the resilience of this team, and how we had to win shows the fight in this team.”

William Byron, the fourth-place finisher driving the No. 51 for Kyle Busch Motorsports, hounded Eckes for several laps and closed within three-tenths of a second before Timmy Hill spun in Turns 3 and 4 with two laps left to force Overtime.

On the initial Overtime try, Jake Garcia made contact with the outside wall coming off of Turn 2 and spun off the nose of Taylor Gray on Lap 152 to force the second attempt.

Eckes and Stewart Friesen – who took home the second position – were gearing up for a thrilling final lap before Enfinger’s spin ended the race.

Tanner Gray came home third while Carson Hocevar recovered to finish fifth after Rajah Caruth – finishing one spot behind him – spun Hocevar on Lap 115.

Cup-regular Bubba Wallace, who made his first Truck Series start in over two years Friday, finished seventh in the No. 1 TRICON Garage Toyota.

Corey Heim started on pole, led 66 laps and finished eighth. Dean Thompson earned the first top-10 of his career in his 33rd race in ninth and Kaden Honeycutt finished 10th for his third career top-10.

Heim had the dominant truck early, leading the first 26 laps before Eckes’ truck came to life and was able to get around him to win the 45-lap opening stage. Heim regained the lead on the Stage 2 restart and led until three to go in the stage. That’s when Byron carried momentum from the high lane in Turns 3 and 4, pulled even on the frontstretch and made the pass in Turns 1 and 2 to claim the second stage.

Zane Smith had a night to forget as he was caught up in a wreck early in the final stage and finished 22nd. Fortunately for Smith he retains the points lead by nine over Ty Majeski who had a similarly disappointing night, finishing 31st after experiencing power steering issues throughout the race.

The Craftsman Truck Series is back in action next Saturday, May 20 as NASCAR makes its highly anticipated return to North Wilkesboro. The Tyson 250 will get underway at 1:30 p.m. ET on Fox.

AJ Allmendinger started the day in first, and that’s also where he ended it for the second straight year on the 20-turn Circuit of The Americas.

Allmendinger, who led a race-high 28 of 46 laps, retook the lead on Lap 33 and didn’t relinquish it again even as fellow Cup regular William Byron gave chase over the last several laps and finished .853 seconds behind the winner.

“Well, William Byron might be one of the best ones in the sport right now. We’ve seen all the Cup races he’s winning,” Allmendinger said. “I knew it was gonna be tough just trying to fight to get back up to the front there.”

The “fight” Allmendinger referred to was the result of pitting after cruising to a Stage 1 victory. Allmendinger elected to pit on Lap 15 after winning the opening stage – the stage ended under green instead of yellow, a new road course rule – while the majority of the field pitted prior. That left Allmendinger mired deep in the field for much of Stage 2.

After ninth-place Brett Moffit’s car stopped in Turn 1 and brought out the caution on Lap 28, most everyone pitted for four tires, including Allmendinger. On the ensuing restart, Sheldon Creed was able to pass Ryan Sieg for the lead and won the second stage after the caution flag flew for Cole Custer, who was stuck in the Turn 4 sand trap after contact from Josh Berry.

On the Lap 33 restart to begin the final stage, Allmendinger got up to second place and later spun Creed in Turn 19 to regain the lead for the first time since Lap 15.

“Hate we had contact with Sheldon (Creed),” Allmendinger said. “I got under him, I was there I felt like, and he turned. I was trying to stay off him, so I hate that happened, but so proud of everybody at Kaulig Racing.”

Hendrick Motorsports’ Byron said of his second-place showing: “I just messed the esses up. I was getting one final run at him. Obviously they were really good all day. AJ’s great at these road courses and I still have just a little bit to gain and minimize some mistakes.”

Another Cup regular – Ty Gibbs – finished third, almost 13 seconds behind Allmendinger. Fellow Joe Gibbs Racing driver Sammy Smith was fourth and veteran Justin Allgaier was fifth.

Daniel Hemric made up the middle of a JRM sandwich in sixth as Sam Mayer and Berry were seventh and eighth. Creed was able to preserve a top-10 finish in ninth, while Riley Herbst came home 10^th.

In all, there were five cautions for seven laps. Austin Hill, who had engine troubles and finished 37^th, retains the lead in the point standings by 15 over Herbst. John Hunter Nemechek, who was spun by Hemric in the closing laps, finished 27^th and sits 29 points behind Hill in third.

The Xfinity Series heads to Richmond Raceway for the first short track race of the season next Saturday, April 1, for the ToyotaCare 250. Coverage begins at 1 p.m. ET on FS1.

Driving the fastest car of the weekend in Atlanta, Joey Logano led 140 of 260 laps and ended the race right where he started it – in first place.

After cruising through Stage 1, leading every single lap of the 60-lap opening stage, the field was put on notice that Logano’s Ford was indeed the car to beat on Sunday afternoon.

“This thing was an animal,” Logano said of his Autotrader Mustang. “It was very very fast and (I) was able to lead a ton of laps … huge victory. Nice to get one early in the season – it always feels better – but what a great day for us.”

Making matters more impressive for Logano, he wasn’t the leader coming to the white flag – that distinction went to his old Penske pal Brad Keselowski who wound up crossing the finish line in second place after leading 47 laps of his own.

Logano utilized a big run through Turn 1 on the final lap, got to the outside of Keselowski’s car, and set his sights on Victory Lane after a big push down the backstretch from Christopher Bell helped him clear Keselowski.

“Yeah, the bottom came with a huge run – I don’t know how,” Keselowski said. “I thought I had it blocked and Joey just kept shaking and his car didn’t stall out.

“I couldn’t get the push down the back. I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll just get a push down the back,’ and the 20 car just hauled down there.”

Bell came home third, while Corey LaJoie earned his first top-five of the season and second of his career in fourth place. LaJoie was followed by 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick in fifth.

While the action was reasonably tame for much of the day, that narrative changed when Kevin Harvick was spun from the lead by Ross Chastain on Lap 190 – although little if any contact was actually made. As Harvick noted, the air behind his car caused the spin that involved 12 cars.

“I don’t know that he actually hit me, I think he was just so close to me that it just kind of took the back tires.

“He just caught me right in the middle of the corner there, and then the way that he got to me right there, I think he was just barely on me. The way he came from the right to the left just took the back of the car and spun it around. Just a weird deal.”

Chastain came away unscathed and finished 13^th. Denny Hamlin was sixth after leading 14 laps early in the final stage, while Ryan Blaney rebounded to take seventh after a pit road speeding penalty. Erik Jones was eighth, Ty Gibbs ninth – his first top-10 of the season and second of his young career – and the man he replaced, Kyle Busch, was 10^th.

Logano’s Penske teammate Austin Cindric won the second stage of the race and ended the day 11^th. Logano now leads the standings by a single point over Bell, and Chastain is five points behind Logano in third.

The Cup Series heads to Austin, Texas, for its first road-course venture of the season next Sunday at the Circuit of The Americas. Race coverage begins at 3:30 p.m. ET on Fox.