(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)
By Aaron Bearden
After each NASCAR race weekend, Motorsports Beat will share a piece breaking down the stories and takeaways from the weekend’s Xfinity and Truck Series race. This is a report on the road course weekend at Daytona International Speedway.
NASCAR Xfinity Series
A breakout performance
Austin Cindric was the favorite going into Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race on the Daytona International Speedway road course. AJ Allmendinger positioned himself as Cindric’s biggest threat, while various series regulars figured to be factors.
No one would have placed 18-year-old newcomer Ty Gibbs in the winning conversation going into the race. And why would they? A complete rookie isn’t expected to win in NASCAR’s second series, particularly when they enter a race with no practice or qualifying. The only goals they traditionally have are to put together clean laps and gain experience.
That’s why Gibbs shocked the racing world when he managed a drive far beyond what any expected from him – even grandfather and team owner Joe GIbbs.
It wasn’t just that he won the Super Star Batteries 188, it was how he won.
Pressuring the defending race winner and series champion. Putting together two fantastic late restarts. Laying down his fastest lap of the race on the final lap, when all the pressure to win was placed upon him.
Many NASCAR drivers spend their entire careers in search of that type of magical drive. Gibbs’ teammate Daniel Hemric is a perfect example – an experienced, talented 30-year-old driver still hunting for that elusive first win.
Gibbs needed just one run to make it happen.
“This is a dream come true,” he said on the front stretch afterward, his face turning red as he choked back tears.
“I don’t even know how to feel,” he continued. “This is really hard for me to explain.”
He didn’t need to explain the shock and happiness. The smiles he and his grandfather bore told the story better than any words could.
For Joe, seeing his own grandson’s breakout victory stood tall alongside a Hall of Fame career as an owner that’s included Daytona 500s and championships.
“It’s great when you see people achieve things, particularly on our race team,” Gibbs said. “But when you look and it’s your grandson. … Everybody knows the experience and thrill that we have when our kids do things that are special. I think every parent, every grandparents out there knows what I’m talking about.
“It’s just a thrill for us.”
There’s no denying that the younger Gibbs caught a few breaks along the way. Ty was in some of the best equipment around with Joe Gibbs Racing, as evidenced by his teammates finishing third, fourth and sixth behind him. A mid-race crash between Cindric and Allmendinger eliminated one and damaged the other, opening the door for a surprise. Gibbs also got lucky in avoiding significant front end damage when he rolled through the infield grass heading into Turn 1 on a late restart.
Those all helped him get to victory lane. But the 18-year-old wasn’t given the win. He had to go out and take it.
That he was able to rise to the occasion and do so places Gibbs’ name in rare air. He’s just the sixth driver to win in his Xfinity Series debut, and the only one without a Cup start to his name.
Where he goes from here is uncertain. Other young phenoms that have won early quickly ascended to the Cup Series. Joey Logano was in the No. 20 entry for JGR young, while Chase Elliott took just two years in Xfinity before leaping up to Cup as the heir apparent to Jeff Gordon.
Gibbs’ path forward may not be as hasty. He’s only running a partial season this year, meaning he won’t factor into the championship battle or consistently be listed among the front runners each week. The top of Toyota’s ladder system at JGR is already quite full, with two champions in Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr., a three-time Daytona 500 winner in Denny Hamlin and emerging star Christopher Bell — who also won for the first time in Cup this weekend.
But with each opportunity he has this year, Gibbs will have another chance to add to what’s already become a legendary beginning to his NASCAR national series career.
If he continues to take to the discipline quickly, the ceiling is high as can be for NASCAR’s latest breakout star.
Too much, too early
One of the key moments that opened the door for Gibbs’ magical night was a crash that eliminated a few of his biggest hurdles early in the race
As expected entering the evening, road course aces AJ Allmendinger and Austin Cindric were the top contenders from the jump in Saturday’s event. The pair entered the closing laps of Stage 1 running first and second, well clear of anyone else that could dare challenge them for the stage win.
The only issue for both competitors is that they were too close to each other. Tempted by the promise of a playoff point for a stage victory, the duo battled through to the front stretch chicane. Cindric entered that final set of turns with a run on Allmendinger and emerged with a chance to pull alongside of him heading to the checkered flag.
Looking to save the stage win, Allmendinger pinched Cindric down at the bottom of the track.
But Allmendinger wasn’t clear and Cindric had no intent to lift. The pair touched, shifted down to the apron and came together again. Neither let off the gas.
What resulted was chaos. Allmendinger spun around and into the infield, catching his splitter on the grass and destroying the front end of his No. 16 Chevrolet before spinning back upward. Myatt Snider and Riley Herbst were forced to dodge the crash to the inside. Snider just missed the grass, but Herbst was sent barreling into it and suffered the worst damage of anyone in the crash as a result, ending his day.
Cindric continued on, but had significant right-front damage. His pace and ability to bump others was hampered for the rest of the evening, helping Gibbs inch ahead of him when it mattered most in overtime.
“Obviously I don’t want to be racing to a stage that aggressively, I’d love to see a replay and hopefully we can avoid something like that because obviously AJ and I were going to be fighting for a win later,” Cindric said of the accident. “I hated having that much damage to our PPG Ford Mustang that early. Just seemed like he was trying to block there, don’t know if he knew I was there or not. Sucks it’s over with and we salvaged a good finish. Congratulations to Ty.”
Allmendinger was relegated to 35th at race’s end, spoiling one of his best opportunities for an early win and the playoff points that come with it.
He did earn some measure of redemption the following day, though. Given an opportunity to make his first Cup start since 2018, the Californian rose to the occasion and gave Kaulig Racing its first top-10 Cup result with a seventh-place run.
Notes
- Noah Gragson had a long night that he nearly salvaged. Starting multiple laps down after his car wouldn’t fire up, Gragson caught a few caution flags at the right time and joined the lead lap with free passes for the final laps of Saturday’s race. The Nevadan rallied and was in contention for an improbable top-10 when he got caught up in a late crash, sending him free-falling right back to 28th. Great effort, but a tough result.
- Joe Gibbs Racing was a strong team overall in what proved to be a challenging road course event, placing all four of its drivers inside of the top-six at race’s end. That’s not all that surprising given the talent in the team’s ranks. It’s the 18-year-old leading the group that stood out.
- He isn’t a road course standout like his teammate Allmendinger, but Jeb Burton didn’t look out of place in Daytona. He finished a strong fifth to lead Kaulig Racing and secure back-to-back top-fives for the first time in his Xfinity Series career.
- Miguel Paludo made his first Xfinity Series start since 2012 on Saturday. But if he was rusty, Paludo didn’t show it. The veteran road racer was the only JR Motorsports driver to score a solid finish, overcoming a flat tire to finish seventh.
- Brandon Brown and Jeremy Clements are upset-minded again this year. Brown has consecutive top-10s for the second time in his career, while Clements scored a 10th-place finish. They’re both above the playoff cutline so far.
- A pair of debuting drivers had different experiences than Gibbs. Kris Wright was quiet, but respectable in an 18th-place effort for Sam Hunt Racing. Natalie Decker was much less fortunate, leaking fluid early after getting bumped over the kerbs on the front stretch chicane and being forced to retire after just a handful of laps.
Results
- Ty Gibbs
- Austin Cindric
- Daniel Hemric
- Brandon Jones
- Jeb Burton
- Harrison Burton
- Miguel Paludo
- Brandon Brown
- Justin Haley
- Jeremy Clements
- Brett Moffitt
- Landon Cassill
- Myatt Snider
- Jesse Little
- Michael Annett
- Kyle Weatherman
- Josh Williams
- Kris Wright
- Matt Mills
- Joe Graf Jr.
- Gray Gaulding
- Alex Labbe
- Colby Howard
- Tommy Joe Martins
- Cody Ware
- Justin Allgaier
- Ryan Sieg
- Noah Gragson
- Stephen Leicht
- Jeffrey Earnhardt
- Andy Lally
- Bayley Currey
- Preston Pardus
- Timmy Hill
- AJ Allmendinger
- Jade Buford
- Ryan Vargas
- David Starr
- Riley Herbst
- Natalie Decker
Stage 1
- Austin Cindric
- Myatt Snider
- Riley Herbst
- Jeremy Clements
- Andy Lally
- Brandon Brown
- Harrison Burton
- Kyle Weatherman
- Bayley Currey
- Justin Allgaier
Stage 2
- Ty Gibbs
- Harrison Burton
- Daniel Hemric
- Justin Haley
- Justin Allgaier
- Austin Cindric
- Brandon Jones
- Myatt Snider
- Preston Pardus
- Jeremy Clements
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Ben’s big day, part deux
If that recap sounds familiar, it’s because it is. Much like he managed on the oval seven days prior, Rhodes put together a masterful drive and survived overtime for a Truck Series victory at the World Center of Racing.
This time around the Kentuckian fended off Sheldon Creed and John Hunter Nemechek to claim the BrakeBest Brake Pads 159. The result marked Toyota’s 200th victory in the series and gave Rhodes his first multi-win season in six years of competition at the Truck level.
“Unbelievable, I don’t even have words for it,” Rhodes said of his recent success. “I don’t even know what to say, this is so cool.
“I just have to thank my team. The Bombardier Tundra was fast all day. ThorSport Racing gave me a truck that handled this year and we were fast. Rich (Lushes) is a really good crew chief. It’s good to be paired up with him and all of the guys on my team.
“I’m just thrilled. I don’t know what to say. I’ve been on cloud nine all week, so it’s above that. I’m just so happy.”
The result came at the end of a tense night and that included a few frustrating exchanges. Rhodes had to survive multiple late attempts to end the race, once coming within about 50 yards of the white flag only to see the yellow displayed as he flashed by the start-finish line.
In its own way, that caution summarized everything good and bad about Friday’s show. An event that started with relative excitement on a wet Daytona road course slowly turned arduous as myriad caution flags slowed the pace of the event. All told, it last longer than any other Truck race in series history.
“It was the most stressful race of my life for sure,” Rhodes said of the race. “There’s been stressful races, but this was really stressful. I thought it was going to be taken away from us for sure.
“I’m not sure if they showed me throwing my hands up, I hope they didn’t. Hope they didn’t listen to the radio either. I was a little frustrated. Gosh, it all worked out now. So stressful, so stressful. I don’t think I’ve had one that stressful before.”
Fittingly, the race even ended under caution. A stopped Jett Noland on the front stretch forced NASCAR to display the yellow with Rhodes and Creed still a half-lap away from the checkered flag.
Rhodes didn’t seem to mind.
Different layout. Same result.@benrhodes picks up another win at @DAYTONA! pic.twitter.com/KbfGvFVR2f
— NASCAR Camping World Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) February 20, 2021
Notes
- John Hunter Nemechek ended the night a strong third on Friday, but you could argue that he should have finished even better. He lost fuel pressure late in the race and surrendered track position, forcing him to mount a fierce comeback over the final laps.
- Raphael Lessard didn’t get the finish he wanted in 26th, but the Canadian did snag a stage win for the second-straight week. Those playoff points could come in handy – if he can make it to the postseason in title contention, that is.
- The pit lane exit on the Daytona road course is among the tightest and most intimidating in a ll of motorsport. It claimed a victim on Friday, as Carson Hocevar collided with a sand barrel in the acceleration lane at pit exit and was hit from behind by teammate Ryan Truex. The damage slowed both drivers, relegating Hocevar to 14th and knocking Truex out of the race in 31st.
- How’s that for ringing in a new family member? Just days before the birth of his child, Timmy Hill survived the Friday night attrition to bring home a ninth-place result for his family-owned team.
- Something to keep in mind for down the road: Zane Smith’s night came to an early end in last place after he was hooked into the wall by Brett Moffitt coming off of oval Turn 4. Moffitt vowed that it was accidental, and it might have been – he was diving below another truck. But Moffitt and GMS Racing ended their time working together acrimoniously last fall and Friday’s result surely didn’t help mend any fences.
- Hailie Deegan looked far better on Friday than her end result showed. She was in position to contend for a top-10 in the final laps when contact sent her off-track and back to 28th. Potential doesn’t help the stat sheet, but Deegan could be in line for some respectable finishes if she can find similar pace moving forward.
- The might not be much crossover between rainy NASCAR road course races and Monster Jam, but crossover competitor Camden Murphy found success at Daytona on Friday. He put together a mistake-free run to finish a respectable 13th.
- It was a rough night at the office for Bobby Reuse. He was off-course, involved in crashes and even made contact with race leader Sheldon Creed at one point.
Results
- Ben Rhodes
- Sheldon Creed
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Todd Gilliland
- Riley Herbst
- Matt Crafton
- Derek Kraus
- Kaz Grala
- Timmy Hill
- Christian Eckes
- Stewart Friesen
- Chandler Smith
- Camden Murphy
- Carson Hocevar
- Austin Wayne Self
- Codie Rohrbaugh
- Dawson Cram
- Johnny Sauter
- Tate Fogleman
- Tanner Gray
- Tyler Ankrum
- Chase Purdy
- Parker Chase
- Timothy Peters
- Brett Moffitt
- Raphael Lessard
- Bobby Reuse
- Hailie Deegan
- Jett Noland
- Danny Bohn
- Ryan Truex
- Norm Benning
- Austin Hill
- Cory Roper
- Jennifer Jo Cobb
- Lawless Alan
- Sam Mayer
- Jason White
- Spencer Boyd
- Zane Smith
Stage 1
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Ben Rhodes
- Chandler Smith
- Brett Moffitt
- Ryan Truex
- Matt Crafton
- Johnny Sauter
- Austin Hill
- Sheldon Creed
- Riley Herbst
Stage 2
- Raphael Lessard
- Kaz Grala
- Zane Smith
- Austin Wayne Self
- Todd Gilliland
- Matt Crafton
- Hailie Deegan
- Sheldon Creed
- Chase Purdy
- Tanner Gray
