XFINITY’s 100th NASCAR race among its most memorable

By Aaron Bearden, Motorsports Editor

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The NASCAR XFINITY Series’ 100th race may also have been its most memorable.

The stage was set from the beginning, with NASCAR’s second series ringing in the 100th run at the ‘World Center of Speed,’ Daytona International Speedway. But what played out in Saturday’s PowerShares QQQ 300 took things to a level of craziness previously unseen on the tour.

Early Action

From the moment the green-flag flew, the 40-car XFINITY Series field seemed determined to put on a show or crash out trying.

Joey Logano set the precedent for the day when he rose from the tail-end of the field into the top 10 in just three laps. Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson ratcheted the intensity up another level when they began weaving all across the 2.5-mile Daytona oval, trading off a series of blocks and passes that inspired equal parts excitement and fear from those in attendance.

“I think that the cars are comfortable enough to give them the confidence to be that aggressive, and I think that they have confidence in themselves,” JR Motorsports owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. said after the race. “All of them out there feel like they’re the best plate racer that’s ever lived, and that’s the way they drive in that fashion.

“You have to feel that way as a driver, that you’re the best, you’re the one out there that needs to be leading this race, not that other guy.”

The racing was chaotic, with the field trading moves and positions with reckless abandon. Despite that the majority of the grid was able to avoid issue, completing the opening portion of the race with just one wreck and additional cautions for fluid and a stage break.

A group of drivers from the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series owned the front of the field, trading the lead amongst themselves for 111 of the first 126 laps of the event despite a litany of challenges from the XFINITY Series regulars in the pack.

With the Cup stars at the helm the opening two stages whisked by, and for a time it appeared that the race would carry on to completion without much issue.

Then the crashes began.

Bedlam

If the first 100 laps were standard – if spectacular on-track – then the race’s final stint played out like the final chapter of a horror movie, complete with surprising twists, unexpected heroes and an exciting ending.

The chaos began on Lap 99 with a multi-car crash in Turn 4 that collected polesitter Daniel Hemric, Michael Annett and Ryan Reed in the process.

The field stacked back together and restarted on Lap 105, but another incident followed on Lap 106. They lined up again on Lap 111, but another crash followed just moments later. Another restart came on Lap 116, with just five laps remaining in regulation. But three laps later the caution flew again when Elliott Sadler was sent spinning into the infield.

After a race that had ran primarily clean and green, the group of late crashes combined to force the field into NASCAR Overtime.

Multiple overtimes, to be exact.

The first attempt at overtime came on Lap 122, but it ended in race-altering disaster moments later.

Aric Almirola was running behind Larson in second when a big push from Elliott sent him into Larson’s rear bumper. The contact sent Larson around from the lead, triggering a massive crash that included 18 of the race’s 40 competitors.

Easier to tell you who wasn’t involved in the #XfinitySeries overtime wreck.

How about double overtime in our 100th race? pic.twitter.com/R3HNx313tW

— Xfinity Racing (@XfinityRacing) February 17, 2018

“(Larson) had a really good car and led a lot of laps and was really aggressively blocking all day and doing it masterfully,” Almirola said of the incident. “Right there he kind of pulled up to block my run and really only blocked it halfway, so when I ran into the back of him I clipped him in the right-rear quarterpanel and he started a tank-slopper.”

Suddenly all of the laps led and domination from Larson, Logano and the other Cup drivers were for naught. Most were eliminated outright in the crash, and the few that remained were left to compete with damaged machines.

The crash left a shortened field remaining to chase the checkered flag in a double overtime. But the pandemonium wasn’t over – it was just beginning.

Another caution flag flew for Spencer Gallagher on Lap 130. The field finally appeared poised to get to the white flag and end the race on the ensuing restart, but just as leader Tyler Reddick was reaching the start-finish line, a crash that included Ryan Ellis and Larson forced another yellow.

In that moment the XFINITY Series stepped into uncharted territory, moving into a fourth overtime that would have been impossible under the green-white-checkered format of yesteryear.

It was also the catalyst for a member of JR Motorsports to steal the show.

During the caution FOX Sports 1 shifted their cameras onto Elliott, who was forced to pit road when the side mirror fell out of his No. 88 Chevrolet. He pulled into his pit stall for a replacement, but his JRM crew didn’t have a replacement part in the pit stall.

With no time to waste, team mechanic David Mayo took off to the garage area for a replacement mirror. The team had the mirror in the pit box seconds later, and after the window was applied with duct tape Elliott was sent back on-track to cheers from those in attendance.

Not all heroes wear capes. pic.twitter.com/DW5YiamWtY

— NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts (@NASCAROReillyAP) February 17, 2018

“Yeah,” Earnhardt said with laughter when asked if he’d seen the incident. “That was Mayo, and I worked with him before actually on the Cup side for some years, and he’s a good guy.  I was probably as disappointed a he was that (the window) wasn’t already in the pit stall.

“But he did a great job.  You know, and I think that was a — that effort there got the job done.  He’s going to be a star now.  I saw it blowing up on social media.”

Elliott made his way back onto the track, and a fourth overtime began in earnest just moments later on Lap 138. But once again the field failed to survive to the white flag, slowing to caution pace again when an issue sent Dylan Lupton’s No. 28 Ford around and into the outside wall to force another yellow and an unprecedented fifth overtime.

History

That moment was historic for the XFINITY Series in a bad way – marking the first time in NASCAR history a series has gone to a fifth attempt at a green-flag finish. The previous record was four attempts, coming in David Starr’s 2006 Camping World Truck Series victory at Gateway Motorsports Park.

By that point the race had devolved into a war between the cars that remained. Reddick led the way despite an entire race spent suffering from power issues. Sadler and Reed contended despite suffering black flags earlier in the race, and Reed also found himself chasing a third Daytona victory despite front-end damage to his No. 16 Ford.

January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona had seen only four cautions for a combined 20 laps for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The time from the final 10 laps of regulation through the race’s finish in Saturday’s XFINITY Series race topped the 24-hour endurance race in both regards, suffering six yellows for 23 circuits.

The calamity tested those drivers in contention for the victory, costing Daniel Suarez when he ran out of fuel before one of the attempts and forcing Reddick and Reed to restart alongside each other multiple times.

“It’s just plate racing,” Reddick said afterward. “Just when you think you’ve got it, it gets taken away from you.  Running these races kind of — you get used to that a little bit.

“Nothing really can prepare you and make — when you’re so many feet away from the finish line that the caution comes out and you have to go back out and do another restart or another overtime attempt.”

On the fifth attempt at overtime, the small field that remained finally managed to survive until the white flag.

In fact, they even made it to the checkered.

Reddick led the way once more, pacing the field into the final lap. But the Californian would see one final challenge when his JRM teammate Sadler rose back after a late penalty to the front, diving below Reddick in a final attempt to claim a victory. The pair rose off of Turn 4 in a dead heat, and the anticipation began to build.

A few seconds and some contact later, the duo streaked across the start-finish line in a photo finish. Timing and scoring indicated a tie, forcing NASCAR to go to their photo technology to determine a winner.

After a review, it went to Reddick by the slimmest of margins – 0.000 seconds.

https://twitter.com/odsteve/status/965003457089490945

The finish – later classified to have a margin of victory of .0004 seconds – was the closest in NASCAR’s 70-year history, besting a mark of .001 seconds previously held by Truck Series competitor Butch Miller when he beat Mike Skinner to the line in the 1995 Total Petroleum 200 at Colorado National Speedway.

“It’s really cool that I was able to win their 100th race, and it was really cool that the margin of victory came down to as little as it was,” Reddick said. “I mean, I’m sure they’re going to remember this race for a very long time.

“All those guys are excited.  They were really pumped off about kicking off their 100th race sponsoring the series, and just one more way they’re going to remember this 100th race, and it’s just really cool that they’ve stepped up to the plate in the way that they have.”

In all Saturday’s race set three records for the XFINITY Series field. The margin of victory is the one that will likely be remembered best, but the race also set new benchmarks for overtimes attempted as well as a track record 12 cautions at Daytona for NASCAR’s second series.

From start to finish, the event was chaotic, calamitous and unpredictable.

But most importantly, it was memorable – a perfect way to cap off XFINITY’s first 100 races as series sponsor.