Bearden Breakdown: Whelen Trusted to Perform 200

By Aaron Bearden, Motorsports Editor

Post-race review and analysis from the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at ISM Raceway. 

Who Won? 

Christopher Bell. The rookie climbed through the field from 38th to score a clutch playoff victory.

Who Claimed the Stages? 

Justin Allgaier. He won both stages and seemed the driver to beat in the early stages.

Who Made the Championship 4?

Bell, Cole Custer, Daniel Hemric and Tyler Reddick.

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Opportunity restored

Before he could contend for a victory and try to push himself into the Championship 4, Christopher Bell needed to accomplish something he hadn’t managed in the first two Round of 8 races – survive the opening lap.

He did just that, then manufactured one of the great drives of NASCAR’s playoff era.

Bell rose from 38th to the lead and dominated the second half of Saturday’s Whelen Trusted to Perform 200 to claim his seventh win of the season and secure a spot in the Championship 4.

The Oklahoman quickly declared it the biggest win of his NASCAR career, before thanking those that got him to this point.

“Absolutely,” he said. “The pressure was on and I’m just so thankful for all my mentors. They’ve done such a good job taking care of me. It started with my mom and my dad as a kid and from there I moved up to Ohio and lived with a guy named Rick Ferkel and Pete Willoughby and all those guys became such great mentors to me and they prepared me for moments like this where the pressure is on and everything’s on the line.

“Just thankful that I pulled through for my team.”

Despite a dominant regular season, Bell entered the penultimate race of the season at ISM Raceway on the brink of playoff elimination, having crashed out of the previous two races at Kansas Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway.

The rookie led the series in wins and was considered a championship favorite by many going into the playoffs. But two poor races pushed him more than 30 points below the cutoff heading into Phoenix, making the race an essential must-win to keep his postseason going.

Bell’s odds for advancement were slim entering the day. They grew smaller when he was sent to the rear for the start of the race due an inspection failure, and early on the difficult passing at Phoenix made Bell’s prospects for marching to the front appear low.

“This place is very tricky and I started 38^th and I really got stalled out once I got to the top-15 and I quit going forward,” he said. “I got to like 10^th at the end of stage one and I was stuck, I couldn’t do anything.”

Passing was difficult, but good pit stops from his Joe Gibbs Racing crew helped Bell gain track position. With the leaders in sight, the 2017 Truck Series champion slowly marched his way to the front.

Bell finally took the lead on Lap 108 and never looked back, pacing the field for the final 93 laps en-route to a playoff-altering victory.

Now he heads to Homestead-Miami Speedway, where he won the Truck Series title last year, with a chance to accomplish the feat again in Xfinity. Bell figures to be one of two favorites, joining Cole Custer – who dominated the season finale last fall.

“Man, I’ve got a one-in-four shot right? We all do,” Bell said. “There’s no doubt that 00 (Cole Custer) is going to be really fast. They were outstanding last year so I think he’s got to be the favorite going into it. I’m excited to see how fast of a race car we bring.”

Disappointing day for JR Motorsports veterans

JR Motorsports entered the playoffs with two drivers that could be considered favorites to make and contend in the Championship 4, having made it the previous two years.

Neither of them survived the Round of 8.

Justin Allgaier and Elliott Sadler were each eliminated at ISM Raceway, knocking them out of the playoffs early for the first time. Only Tyler Reddick remains in contention to deliver a championship to JR Motorsports at Homestead.

For Allgaier, the loss came in an instant. The Illinoisan entered the day outside of the playoff grid, but wins in both of the opening stages pushed him above the cutoff. Even with Bell leading, a spot on points seemed attainable under the right circumstances.

That all fell apart for Allgaier on Lap 146 when a spinning John Hunter Nemechek collided with the veteran’s right-front fender.

Major trouble for @J_Allgaier. He picks up significant RF damage. #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/ilBocIXVG7

— NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts (@NASCAROReillyAP) November 10, 2018

Allgaier continued on, but the damage and later brake issues relegated him to a 24th-place result. After the best year of his Xfinity career — a five-win season that included the regular season championship — the 32-year-old was eliminated from postseason contention.

“You know, at the end of the day, we did everything right this year,” Allgaier told NASCAR.com. “We had a great season. Today, we did everything right at the beginning part of the race. That was probably the most frustrating part is we led a lot of laps and we won both stages. It was going to be a great day, but then ultimately there at the end getting ourselves in that bad position.”

Sadler entered the day on the right side of the cutoff line, in need of a consistent top 10 drive to carry him into the Championship 4. But the Virginian struggled after sustaining early damage, failing to tally stage points and leaving himself vulnerabl.

Bell’s win served as the killing blow, knocking the veteran out of postseason contention in his final Xfinity Series season.

“We fought way too many things today,” Sadler said afterward. “We tried some new things and I led us in that direction, so I take full responsibility for that. My guys did so much for me this year and we were so fast at the right times.”

Sadler later posted a tweet thanking team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. while acknowledging the sting of the loss.

Hard to put in words how awesome it is driving for one of your closest friends @DaleJr .. but also hard when you don’t reach your final goal for your team owners.. but the text I just got from him is one I will always remember…

— Elliott Sadler (@Elliott_Sadler) November 11, 2018

With their playoff pushes ended, Allgaier and Sadler will be relegated to the role of spoiler next week. The veterans will only be able to assist Reddick and aim for a race win while four upcoming stars battle for their first Xfinity championship.

Leaving it all on the track

Matt Tifft and Austin Cindric entered the Round of 8 as underdogs and found themselves eliminated at round’s end. But each driver could leave Arizona with their heads held high after strong performances at ISM Raceway.

Tifft rose to the occasion with the pressure on, battling back from an early speeding penalty to finish third at race’s end. The Ohioan didn’t earn enough points to advance, but he notched the best oval finish of his career.

“We needed a win at that point to advance to the next round, and we had a couple of shots at it,” Tifft said of the final stage. “In the end, my Camaro just built a little bit too tight to get it done in the closing laps. I know my team will keep after it though, and we’ll go for the win next weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway.”

While the championship is out of reach, Tifft will have an opportunity to secure the best points finish of his young career. The Richard Childress Racing prospect sits sixth in the standings with one race to go – one spot above the seventh-place mark he met last season.

While Tifft tried and fell short on points, Team Penske’s Cindric entered Phoenix knowing he’d need a win to keep his postseason alive.

The rookie was taken out on Lap 1 at Kansas, an innocent bystander in the Bell-Allgaier crash that changed the storyline for every team in the Round of 8. Without the hefty playoff point totals of the others involved in the incident, Cindric was left in must-win territory for each of the round’s final two races.

Cindric came close at Texas, slotting in third at race’s end. But it wasn’t enough. Moral victories and solid points days mattered not for his driver’s championship hopes.

Knowing that, the North Carolinian left everything on the track in Phoenix. He qualified third, stayed in the top five for the majority of the race and found himself within sight of the lead heading to the checkered flag.

Last season Cindric scraped by on points to snag an unexpected Championship 4 berth in the Truck Series. But on Saturday a playoff advancement wasn’t mean to be. Cindric ended a strong race in fourth, three spots shy of a Championship 4 bid.

The rookie felt capable of contending for a surprise win, but felt that untimely cautions diminished his opportunity.

“I needed track position and a long green flag run,” Cindric said. “We had an awesome Discount Tire Ford Mustang today, something definitely capable of winning the race today and locking us into Homestead, but we didn’t quite get what we needed to going to that third stage.

“I was just relying on track position from there on out and got three cautions we didn’t need, but I’m just really thankful to be in these Playoffs and in this system.”

While he didn’t advance, Cindric did put together the best back-to-back performances of his young career. Never before had he managed consecutive top-fives in Xfinity Series competition. The lone other time he’d accomplished the feat at all in NASCAR national series competition was at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway last fall, where he finished fourth and fifth in the Truck Series.

With his championship opportunity lost, Cindric will look to carry his recent speed to a win at Homestead-Miami Speedway – a feat Stewart-Haas Racing’s Cole Custer accomplished last year.

“I’m excited for Homestead next week,” Cindric said. “I think we’ve got a really good shot at going out there and being a surprise winner.”

Other Notes

• Chevrolet didn’t score a win in Phoenix, but they did earn an important distinction. The Bowties clinched the Bill France Performance Cup with the green flag of Saturday’s race, securing their 19th Manufacturer Championship in the Xfinity Series.
• This year’s Championship 4 is a rarity – a quartet without any veterans. Drivers like Kevin Harvick, Elliott Sadler and Johnny Sauter have ensured a veteran’s presence in every Championship 4 prior to this one. But next Saturday’s finale will feature four upcoming stars, all with less than two full seasons of Xfinity Series experience. Regardless of the victor, a Cup prospect will shine on Xfinity’s grandest stage.
• Tyler Reddick may have made the driver’s Championship 4, but the No. 9 team can’t win the title in the Owner Championship. The No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing team made the top quartet ahead of JR Motorsports and Team Penske’s No. 22. So if the No. 42 races the title contenders hard next week, understand that they’re chasing a championship of their own
• It was an interesting day for international racers in the pack. Canadian Donald Theetge made his second start, finishing a career-best 25th. Japanese veteran Akinori Ogata also made the leap up to Xfinity. Though he crashed on the opening lap, the 45-year-old soldiered on to finish 33rd.
• Spencer Gallagher brought home a 10th-place finish to notch his 10th top-10 of the year, and back-to-back top 10s for the second time this season. The Nevadan will step out of the car to take on a new role after next weekend’s