By Seth Eggert, Associate Editor
For the second consecutive week the ‘underdog driver and team’ took home the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus. Anthony Alfredo avoided the chaos to take home the bonus despite not having an alliance with any NASCAR Cup Series team.
The Chris Our-owned Our Motorsports team, in its’ fifth year of full-time competition qualified for the bonus program when Alfredo finished third at Talladega Superspeedway. That pitted the No. 5 DUDE Wipes Chevrolet Camaro SS against last week’s Dash 4 Cash winner, Ryan Sieg, as well as last week’s race winner Jesse Love, and Riley Herbst.
An early race fire eliminated Sieg while contact with eventual Bet Rivers 200 winner Ryan Truex cut Love’s left rear tire. That brought the battle for $100,000 at Dover Motor Speedway down to Alfredo and Herbst.
When the caution waved with 40 laps to go for rain, the general confusion first put Alfredo ahead of Herbst. Then crew chief Joshua Graham called the 25-year-old to pit road. A 12-minute rain delay eventually relented and the calm race devolved into a mad scramble.
A caution with five laps to go ultimately decided who would win the $100,000 bonus. Contact from Justin Allgaier sent Herbst spinning off Turn 4. Daniel Dye, Leland Honeyman Jr., Brennan Poole, Kyle Sieg, and Sammy Smith piled into the melee. Luckily for the Stewart-Haas Racing driver, he only received minimal damage. However, it was enough that it relegated Herbst to the back of the lead lap.
Alfredo cruised in double overtime to score a ninth-place finish in the scheduled 200-lap race. What made his third consecutive top-10 finish even more impressive is that Our does not have any technical support or alliance with any Cup Series teams, something that has become increasingly uncommon in the Xfinity Series.
“Man, that was chaotic,” admitted Alfredo. “We came into this race knowing we were the underdog. I’m sure a lot of people ruled us out; we don’t have any technical support or a [Cup] team alliance. We’re all by ourselves out there. But we’ve been doing a lot with a little and punching above our weight this year, so we knew if we put ourselves in position, you know, that anything could happen.
“In this case it was just about staying skid-mark free thanks to DUDE Wipes,” Alfredo added, eliciting chuckles at the trademark reference to his longtime sponsor. “We stayed out of trouble and were able to be the first one there at the end out of those we were racing against. The money’s kind of overwhelming us right now. It’s crazy [for us] to win the Dash 4 Cash, just because of what we were up against.”
Alfredo didn’t score any Stage points at ‘The Monster Mile.’ While he qualified 21st, the Ridgefield, CT native started in the back due to unapproved adjustments before the race.
The ninth-place finish was Alfredo’s fifth top-10 finish of the 2024 season, a single-season career best for the journeyman driver. It also marked the 20th top-10 finish of his Xfinity career.
The top-10 finish moved Alfredo up from 12th to a tie for 10th in the points standings with Sammy Smith. Alfredo is 147-points behind leader Chandler Smith and 15 above the Playoff Cutoff. Despite being tied for 10th in points, 11th on the playoff grid, Alfredo holds the tiebreaker with a best finish of third to Sammy Smith’s best finish of seventh.
Next for Alfredo is the Crown Royal Purple Bag Project 200 at Darlington Raceway. In six Xfinity starts at ‘The Track Too Tough to Tame,’ he has a best finish of 14th in 2020.
The Crown Royal Purple Bag Project 200 at Darlington Raceway is scheduled for Saturday, May 11 at 1:30 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1. The race will also be broadcast on the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.