Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)
By Aaron Bearden

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.. — Post-race review and analysis from the NASCAR Xfinity Series opener at Daytona International Speedway. 

Who Won? 

Noah Gragson. He was leading as the caution flag flew on the last lap and secured his first Xfinity Series win.

Who Won the Stages?

Jeb Burton and Justin Allgaier.

Race Results

Top Stories

Noah’s big breakthrough

It was a celebration for the ages.

Noah Gragson finally broke through for his first NASCAR Xfinity Series win in his 37th-career start, kicking off the 2020 season in victory lane. He rose to the lead with two laps remaining after previously dropping the top spot to Chase Briscoe. After taking the white flag, Gragson was prepared to make a defensive move coming to the checkered flag.

He didn’t have to. The caution flag flew for a large crash on the backstretch, locking the field in their positions.

Then the fun began.

There was a flame-inducing burnout, the traditional grabbing of the checkered flag. Gragson tossed his water bottle into the stands – on a second attempt, mind you – climbed the fence in homage to Helio Castroneves and Tony Stewart and slid across the hood of his car before rolling to victory lane. The Nevadan essentially did everything outside of his strange previous victory trend – throwing up.

“I played NASCAR Inside Line when I was racing Bandoleros and Legend cars and K&N Series, and I’d do like a 10-minute burnout after I’d win and stuff and figured, man, if I could ever do that in real life that would be pretty damned cool, and I was able to today,” he said. 

The performance was a microcosm of Gragson’s career, putting his energetic and aloof personality on display for all to see. That same personality has gained Gragson detractors over his rise through the NASCAR ladder system, with critics questioning his motivation to excelling on-track compared to his antics outside of the car.

Only those close to Gragson know his dedication to succeeding behind the wheel.

“He’s got a really interesting personality, which is great, but it sometimes can give off the impression that maybe he’s not as dedicated as he should be,” team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. “But I know for sure where his heart is and where his mind is on his craft and that he wants it badly and that he wants to do what he needs to do and works hard to be successful.  And he’s just going to be him, and I think we just have to let him do that.  

“I think that he’s growing up rapidly, maturing quickly, as fast as he possibly can,” he later continued. “And that should lean toward giving him some more success behind the wheel as he starts to prioritize those things a little differently and what he needs to do to win.”

Gragson’s personality hasn’t changed, but he’s been putting in the work to show how serious he takes his current opportunity. During the build toward Daytona that meant talking to Earnhardt – perhaps the best living driver to compete at the 2.5-mile oval. The two spent “about two hours” picking the retired star’s brain over competing at the World Center of Racing.

The time paid off. He became the third-consecutive JR Motorsports driver to claim the season opener in Daytona, clinching a postseason spot and five playoff points in the process.

That accomplishment unleashed the fun-loving Gragson that fans have come to know – a sight they didn’t see often in 2019. The 21-year-old is among NASCAR’s most emotional drivers, someone known for his heart and fire. In moments of success that yields uproarious celebration, but in the downtimes, it can make for muted sadness and frustration. Earnhardt admitted that Gragson typically comes to him in “dark” times when he’s lacking confidence and needs guidance to move forward.

There were a few of those dark times last year when Gragson struggled, but his team and crew chief Dave Elenz have continued to support him.

“Dave believes in Noah, and that’s really the key relationship, the crew chief and the driver,” Earnhardt said. “And if they’re not connected and believing in each other and communicating well, there’s not going to be anything good that comes out of that. Dave has stuck with it, works really hard with Noah.  Every time I walk by their office, they’re in there together, communicating, talking.”

For at least one day that communication and effort paid off for all sides. Now the key is for Gragson to keep growing and find ways to carry his success on to NASCAR’s more traditional tracks.

No one has to tell him that. He knows it.

“The time is now, the opportunity is now,” Gragson said. “I just need to execute here this year, and it’s a big year for me. I have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to try and be the best I can be, and I know when I lay my head down at night, if I feel like I’ve done all the reps in the gym, I’ve prepared the best I could, I’m spending good quality time with my team, if I feel like I’ve done everything to the best I can with no regrets, then no matter the result, you can’t control the results necessarily, you can just control what you can do.”

Jordan Anderon’s big day

Jeb Burton emerged from the infield care center and made the short walk to the interview area near the fence, disappointment showing clearly on his face. He glanced up at the scoring monitor and saw the top two finishers – Noah Gragson and Harrison Burton.

The first was his teammate, the latter his cousin.

Just moments early he’d ran amongst them. But an attempted draft off of the nose of Austin Cindric sent the elder Burton cousin spinning into the outside wall.

That set off the Big One, eliminating the majority of the remaining field.

Burton was out after a miscommunication. Moments earlier he’d been in position to win, restarting in the outside lane alongside his teammate Gragson. The plan was to allow Gragson to start on the bottom and jump up in front of him, and that’s ultimately what occurred. But the pair were slow to execute the strategy, allowing Chase Briscoe to rise alongside Gragson and make a dangerous block just before the caution.

Gragson ended up having to overtake Briscoe on the ensuing restart. Burton was eliminated altogether.

“I thought I was going to get in front of (Gragson) or he was going to get in front of me, but we didn’t work together at all,” Burton said. “Going down the back, I got a big run on (Gragson) so I pushed him. I had to check up a little bit, (Cindric) hit me in the right rear corner and that sent me into (Brandon Jones) and that was the wrong spot.”

Cindric was unsure of what, if anything, he’d done wrong after a trip to the infield care center.

“The (No.) 98 (Briscoe) jumped in front of the pack, and (Gragson) got pushed back, so that kind of compressed us,” Cindric said. “I thought I gave the (No.) 8 the right push, so I don’t know what went wrong there.”

The cause wasn’t certain, but the outcome was. Burton was crestfallen in the moments after the crash, wondering what could have been as one of his 11 starts ended in disappointment. Daniel Hemric will drive the No. 8 for the majority of the 2020 season.

“It was a great day for (sponsor) LS Tractors, and it just stings when you only have so many bullets in the gun with a limited schedule,” Burton said. “It hurts for the owners’ point because me and Daniel are trying to win that championship.”

Burton has been a journeyman driver for the better part of a decade, bouncing from ride to ride in partial schedules since the end of a difficult 2015 campaign with the now-defunct BK Racing. He landed at JRM with a six-race schedule in 2019 and has returned with additional starts in 2020.

His work ethic has caught the eye of Earnhardt and others in the shop during his limited time with the team.

“I don’t know of many drivers that work harder than he does to cultivate relationships and partnerships to create opportunities in races and chances to drive,” Earnhardt said. “I don’t know that many guys work as hard as he does to attain the opportunity to be in the car, and I think that’s why it matters to him so much because he knows he puts so much effort into just being there, just getting into that car, and he knows that he has to succeed to see more opportunities, right.

“He has to win.  He knows that he can’t sustain this work ethic and not have results.”

Perhaps Burton’s best opportunity in the Xfinity Series came on Saturday, but the failed plan with Gragson kept Burton from having a shot at the win when it mattered.

Gragson believes the two drivers will review the accident sometime soon.

“I’m going to go talk to him and just tell him to execute it a little bit better,” Gragson said. “It was really big at Kyle Busch Motorsports doing teammate restarts and stuff.  I’ve had a lot of experience doing that.

“I was happy when we crossed the start-finish line first and wish he would have been there to be second, but hey, it is what it is, and we’ll move on for another week, try it again.” 

For Burton, that next week won’t come for over a month at Texas Motor Speedway. He’ll have to wait until then to race away the sting of a Daytona loss.

“It stings and sucks,” Burton said. “But it is what it is. We’ll go to Texas and try to get it done there.”

Top results

Hidden behind both sides of the JRM controversy was a pair of great finishes from two drivers in vastly different circumstances.
Harrison Burton and Timmy Hill each notched their best-career finishes at the end of Saturday’s NASCAR Racing Experience 300, crossing the line just behind Gragson in second and third.
The run was something to expect in Burton’s case, but perhaps not this soon. His No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota figures to be among the top cars in the Xfinity Series garage this year, but Burton arrived at Daytona with only three prior starts at drafting tracks and a best finish of third in his NASCAR national series career.
Burton’s day hadn’t gone perfect. He sustained early damage in a crash and had to claw his way to the front. But a second-place run was more than enough for Burton in his first Xfinity start at Daytona.
“We had a good day,” Burton said. “We fought back from a lot of adversity. We got damage. My team did a good job repairing it. We kind of still couldn’t poke through the hole like we needed too, but the 66 (Timmy Hill) got lined up behind me. Noah (Gragson) got out front about a car and a half and I thought ‘He might be in trouble here’, but then the caution came out.
“Just really proud of our guys. We had a tough day. I think that there were a couple times in the race that we were down and out, and our guys clawed it out. I was proud of that effort.”
Hill’s run was much more surprising, particularly given the circumstances of the day preceding the run. His No. 66 MBM Motorsports entry was issued an L2-level penalty early in the day for manipulated bodywork on the nose of the car, resulting in a $50,000 fine and a 75-point penalty in the owner’s standings along with a six-race suspension for crew chief Sebastian Laforge.
That left Hill and MBM rolling into Saturday’s race on a sour note, but the group bounced back in a big way. Hill was a constant presence in the top-10 and rose when it counted to tally a third-place finish.
The penalty still hurts, but Hill’s finish will help MBM’s recovery. That it came on the same week where Hill raced his way into the Daytona 500 in his Bluegreen Vacations Duel made Saturday’s finish all the more satisfying.
“I just feel like this year is kicking off on a great note,” Hill said. “Making the Daytona 500 on Thursday was awesome. I didn’t think it could get any better.”

Other Notes

  • A nightmarish situation for Kaulig Racing led Ross Chastain to compete in the No. 38 Chevrolet on Saturday. Brake issues led both Chastain and AJ Allmendinger to DNQ for the race, but Kaulig struck a deal with Ryan Sieg Racing that allowed Chastain to replace Jeff Green in the team’s second car. He ultimately finished 22nd after sustaining damage.
  • Myatt Snider made his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut with Richard Childress Racing on Saturday and did so from the pole after a strong lap in qualifying. He led 22 laps but ultimately finished 31st after getting caught up in a crash.
  • Ray Black Jr. tallied his first top-10 in NASCAR national series competition since 2015 with an eighth-place effort in Saturday’s race. He’d never finished better than 11th in 98 prior Xfinity Series starts.
  • Just in front of Black in seventh was Brandon Brown, who scored his second top-10. The first? His last trip to Daytona in July.
  • Mike Harmon quietly tallied his best finish in 285 starts on Saturday, surviving the crashes to come home in 16th. That was one spot better than his previous best of 17th at Talladega Superspeedway in 2008.
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Aaron Bearden Daytona International Speedway Featured NASCAR XFINITY Series