Justin Haley Wins Wawa 250 With Chaotic Last Lap Pass

Justin Haley claimed his second victory of the year under the lights at the World Center of Racing. Haley made his way through his wrecking teammates on the final lap to claim his Wawa 250 victory.

“Yeah I mean an amazing effort by Kaulig Racing. I hate that AJ and Ross got together there. As you guys at home can see, Matt Kaulig and Chris Rice, we build a team and a family. We all worked together and we just won”, Haley said in his post-race interview with NBC Sports.

“I parked it right here on the double yellow line where I went a little lower two years ago in an Xfinity race.”

Chase Briscoe led the field to green with Kaulig Racing’s Ross Chastain starting alongside. Riley Herbst was the sole car who had to start at the rear of the field due to three failed inspections.

A single-file train on the bottom lane broke out in the first lap as the top-five all jumped in line. The field remained mostly single-file until lap seven, when Joe Graf Jr. and Caesar Bacarella had an incident in the trioval that ended Graf Jr.’s day early. This caution also served as the competition caution that was scheduled for lap 10.

On lap 14, Bacarella’s rough night continued as he spun around on the backstretch with heavy nose damage that sent him to the garage.

With six to go in stage one, Jeffery Earnhardt lost control of his car in turn one. This incident also collected Earnhardt’s teammate, BJ McLeod as well as Kody Vanderwhal.

NASCAR returned to green with one lap remaining in the stage and Justin Haley blocked a charging Austin Cindric to win stage one.

Stage One:

  1. Justin Haley
  2. Ross Chastain
  3. Austin Cindric
  4. Brandon Brown
  5. Chase Briscoe
  6. Riley Herbst
  7. Noah Gragson
  8. Justin Allgaier
  9. Brandon Jones
  10. Daniel Hemric

 

Kaulig Racing teammates Chastain, Haley and AJ Almendinger made their way up to the front as the three of them led the inside line around the inside, a common trend throughout the night.

Lap 40 brought trouble to a majority of the field when Brandon Jones turned into Briscoe collecting the following: Noah Gragson, Justin Allgaier, Daniel Hemric, Brett Moffitt, Alex Labbe, Anthony Alfredo, Myatt Snider, Brandon Brown, Tommy Joe Martins, Colby Howard, Michael Annett.

Seven laps later, Allgaier blew a left rear tire and lost control of his car. Other drivers involved in this wreck include: Joey Gase, Alex Labbe, Myatt Snider and Brandon Brown. The cleanup for this incident required a red flag.

The seventh caution of the race came on lap 53 when debris flew onto the racetrack setting up for a shootout for the stage win which resulted in Allmendinger making a last lap pass on Gray Gaulding to capture the second stage victory of the night for Kaulig Racing.

Allmendinger was able to make a last lap pass on Gray Gaulding to capture a stage two victory.

Stage Two:

  1. AJ Allmendinger
  2. Ross Chastain
  3. Justin Haley
  4. Gray Gaulding
  5. Michael Annett
  6.  Brandon Jones
  7. Harrison Burton
  8. Chase Briscoe
  9. Austin Cindric
  10. Ryan Sieg

 

When the final stage began, the top ten cars broke away from the field with the Kaulig Racing drivers continuing their domination at the front of the train.

The stage was relatively calm until the last five laps when Chase Briscoe made an aggressive move to make a pass that pushed him to the rear of the nine car pack.

On the last lap, Chastain and Allmendinger made contact and collected Michael Annett. Justin Haley was able to slide through the mayhem and win his second superspeedway race of 2020.

Results:

  1. Justin Haley
  2. Gray Gaulding
  3. Chase Briscoe
  4. Riley Herbst
  5. Harrison Burton
  6. Ross Chastain
  7. Michael Annett
  8. Austin Cindric
  9. Josh Williams
  10. Jesse Little

 

Next weekend, the NASCAR Xfinity Series heads to Darlington Raceway for their annual Labor Day weekend date with the Lady in Black. You can catch all the action from Darlington on Saturday, September 5th at 12:30pm EST for the running of the Sports Clips Haircuts 200 on NBC.

Josh Slate