Despite the chaos that occurred during the 121-lap NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Jeb Burton survived the carnage and scored his first victory of the season on Saturday night.
The No. 27 Jordan Anderson Racing driver led 17 laps total, stealing the win by .113 seconds over Richard Childress Racing’s Sheldon Creed during the second round of overtime. A third Chevrolet driver, Big Machine Racing’s Parker Kligerman, rounded out the top three.
“The only thing I’m disappointed about is that I didn’t get to do a burnout. I blew the transmission out of it,” Burton said with a laugh, during his post-race interview on the FOX broadcast. “Went through some stuff on the off-season, and I’m more focused now than ever.”
Burton brought Jordan Anderson Racing their first win at Talladega and also secured a spot for the small operation in the Xfinity Series playoffs — a detail that wasn’t forgotten by Burton during his victory lane speech.
Along with winning the second stage at the 2.66-mile track, the No. 27 driver made a few smart moves in the late moments of the race, blocking Creed’s advances through turns two and three as the field headed to the checkered flag.
To top off the 10-caution race, Garrett Smithley triggered a final, multi-car incident as he spun out of his fourth-place position on the frontstretch. Stewart Haas Racing’s Cole Custer snuck by to claim fourth instead, while JD Motorsports’ Brennan Poole finished fifth.
Caesar Bacarella, Parker Retzlaff, Gray Gaulding, Joey Gase and Josh Williams completed the top 10.
Notable crashes included a red-flag incident on lap 27 that took out Jade Buford, Blaine Perkins and Dexter Stacey. Sammy Smith and John Hunter Nemecheck both took hard hits at separate points in the race. JR Motorsports lost three entries in one fell swoop when Sam Mayer collected teammates Justin Allgaier and Josh Berry on lap 100. Derek Kraus was also involved in the multi-car wreck.
Daniel Hemric spun out of the lead on lap 110, bringing out a second red flag.