Noah Gragson fended off multiple attempts at the lead by Brandon Jones over the last 10 laps in order to win Friday night’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
The battle, created by a restart with 20 laps to go, resulted in Gragson’s third consecutive win and his sixth of the season.
In a bit of irony, Gragson had to hold Jones days after it was announced that Jones will replace him in the JR Motorsports No. 9 car in 2023.
Gragson’s managed the victory despite being on older tires than every other lead-lap car. When the race’s last caution came out, Gragson stayed out of the pits as everyone else chose to get fresh tires.
“Man, three in a row … That last caution came out and I knew if I could (race on) the top it was going to be hard for (Jones) to get there,” Gragson told NBC Sports. “Appreciate Brandon Jones racing me clean. He fed us the bumper with two to go, I was hanging on scrubbing the fence.
“Holy s—, having won here in 2020, there was no fans here. This is 10-times cooler.”
Gragson only led 25 of 300 laps, taking the lead when teammate Justin Allgaier pit along with the rest of the field. Allgaier, who led 148 laps, was called for speeding. That allowed Jones to restart second.
For Jones, it is his sixth top-five finish of the season. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver said the fact that he will drive the No. 9 next year “didn’t even cross my mind one time” in the final laps.
“This one hurts the most just because it was our race to win I felt like,” Jones said. “The bottom didn’t take off great, I didn’t have a great restart. … I just got (Gragson) at the wrong time, every single time.”
The top five was completed by Austin Hill, Sam Mayer and Riley Herbst. AJ Allmendinger, who clinched the regular-season championship, was sixth,
The top 10 was rounded out by Josh Berry, Stefan Parsons, Allgaier and Ryan Sieg. For Parson, driving for Alpha Prime Racing, it’s his first career top-10 finish.
Friday night’s race was the regular-season finale and locked in the 12 driver playoff field.
The drivers who will complete in the seven-race playoff are: Gragson, Ty Gibbs, Allgaier, Allmendinger, Berry, Hill, Jones, Jeremy Clements, Mayer, Riley Herbst, Daniel Hemric, and Ryan Sieg.
Gibbs started from the pole and despite four cautions in the first 46 laps, he led all 85 laps to win the first stage over Allgaier, Gragson, Mayer and Allmendinger. Allgaier made a last-lap surge at Gibbs, but could only get up to Gibbs’ left-rear quarterpanel at the start-finish line.
Under the caution, Gibbs was first off pit road ahead of Allgaier and Gragson. Sheldon Creed had the lead over Jeffrey Earnhardt due to him having pit in the middle of the stage. The race resumed on Lap 95 as Allgaier and Gibbs quickly overtook Earnhardt.
After struggling to get by Creed on the inside for multiple laps, Allgaier got into Creed on Lap 103 and barely kept his No. 7 car from going around and was even able to keep his position ahead of Gibbs.
On Lap 109, playoff driver Landon Cassill was forced to pit with what was believed to be a flat tire. But when Cassill returned to the track, smoke emerged from the right front of his No. 10 car sending him back to pit road.
After recovering from his near spin, Allgaier got back to Creed by Lap 116. Seven laps later Allgaier was able to pull even with Creed and completed the pass two laps later.
On Lap 128, the first major accident struck. While Gibbs, Creed and Gragson were racing for second, Gragson throttled up entering a turn and tapped Gibbs’ rear bumper. That was enough for Gibbs to lose control and slide up into Creed and then the wall. The wreck eliminated both drivers and ended Creed’s hopes of making the playoffs.
“We know how he’s going to race us for the next 7 weeks,” a Gibbs crew members remarked on the team radio of Gragson.
CREED & GIBBS CRASH OUT!@NoahGragson bumps the No. 54 sending him into @sheldoncreed, ending the No. 2's chances of making the #NASCARPlayoffs
— NASCAR on TSN (@NASCARonTSN) September 17, 2022
Heartbreak for Sheldon again. @RyanSiegRacing now sits in the final playoff spot.#NASCAR #FoodCity300 pic.twitter.com/jW6OG4WaqA
“That’s just the way my year’s gone, we have speed at times and things like that happen,” Creed told NBC Sports.
Gibbs was “Very disappointed. … I feel like the guys made a really good progress over the last year from this car, from what we had last year. I felt like we were a little off last race here last September. We came back and I feel like we were one of the fastest, so very thankful for that.”
At the time of the caution, Allgaier led Gragson, Jones, Mayer and Allmendinger. The race resumed with 32 laps left in Stage 2.
Mayer got by Gragson for second with eight laps to go in the stage. But four laps later, Mayer tried to execute a three-wide pass of two lapped cars, only to get loose and make contact with JJ Yeley, sending them and CJ McLaughlin into a spin.
The caution allowed Allgaier to win the stage.
With his top-five result in the stage, Allmendinger clinched the regular-season title and 15 bonus playoff points. It’s the second consecutive season Allmendinger has claimed that title.
The race off pit road was won by Allgaier over Jones, Austin Hill and Ryan Sieg.
Allgaier would keep the lead until 29 laps to go. Then, while leading Gragson in second and navigating a huge section of lapped cars, Allgaier went between two cars as they exited Turn 4. Allgaier and Yeley made contact, which sent Yeley sliding hard nose-first into the inside wall, forcing the final yellow flag.
Then with Allgaier’s speeding penalty, the stage was set for the final run to the finish.
#NASCAR … Justin Allgaier called his pit road speeding penalty late in the race a “rookie mistake” … he explains pic.twitter.com/xCaxv5fyDT
— Dustin Long (@dustinlong) September 17, 2022