October 19, 2024 | By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service

AJ Allmendinger fends off Sieg for Las Vegas win, clinches Xfinity Series title shot

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — It was the first NASCAR Xfinity Series trophy of the season for AJ Allmendinger but the timing was on point, his Playoff win in Saturday’s Ambetter Health 302 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway punching his ticket into next month’s season-finale championship race.

The 42-year-old Californian held off a hard-charging Ryan Sieg by a mere 0.156 seconds to claim his 18th career win – leading a race-best 102 of the 201 laps in his No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet. Allmendinger had to outrun and out-negotiate Sieg in the closing laps, ultimately getting the best of the field on a final restart at the 1.5-miler with two laps remaining.

An exuberant Allmendinger – who is moving to the NASCAR Cup Series next year – climbed out of his Chevrolet, raising his arms to urge the crowd to cheer and shouting congratulations to his crew and his team owner Matt Kaulig, whose birthday was Saturday.

“I absolutely love these guys and girls at Kaulig Racing, it’s been such up-and-down but what I love about them is we stick together, we keep fighting,” Allmendinger said before turning toward his team and shouting, “Happy birthday, Matt Kaulig. The boss’s birthday. I told you I was getting you a trophy. I love you.”

“What a way to get to Phoenix after the year we’ve had. Let’s go win a championship. LET’S GOOOOOO!”

For Sieg – who is still looking for his first win in 364 Xfinity Series starts – Saturday’s near-miss marked the fifth runner-up showing of his career and second in just the last three races. He challenged Allmendinger mightily in the final 30 laps – passing him with nine laps to go, only to get passed right back the next lap.

“We had the best car on the longer run and I needed a long run and we were getting there,” the RSS Racing driver Sieg said afterward. “I just overdrove [turn] one and lost some of our track position, but I was able to gain it back. Just sucks to finish second again with a great car. One of these days it’s going to go our way.”

Allmendinger’s fellow playoff drivers, JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chandler Smith finished third and fourth. Parker Kligerman, who was eliminated from the playoffs just last week, finished fifth.

Allgaier had a strong No. 7 Chevrolet, winning Stage 2 and leading 42 laps – second-best to Allmendinger. His work didn’t get him the automatic Championship 4 berth but does put him atop the series standings, 32 points to the good with races at Homestead-Miami Speedway next week and then at the half-mile Martinsville, Va., track to formally decide which four drivers move to the Nov. 9 season finale to compete for the season trophy.

“He did a great job and hats off to those guys to get a Chevrolet in Victory Lane,” Allgaier said of Allmendinger. “Ryan [Sieg] did a great job, too. Really proud of this team. Yesterday in practice we weren’t as good as we wanted to be but they went to work and made good adjustments all day to put us in a good position.”

“At the end there, just not able to get into dirty air like I wanted to,” he said, adding, “great start to the next round and obviously got some good stage points so we’ll move on to next week.”

Richard Childress Racing rookie driver Jesse Love – a playoff contender – was sixth, followed by Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Riley Herbst and playoff driver Cole Custer. JGR’s Sheldon Creed – also eliminated from playoff contention last week – was 10th.

Playoff contenders RCR’s Austin Hill and JR Motorsports’ Sam Mayer were 13th and 14th, respectively, with JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith getting involved in an early race accident and finishing 32nd – last among the playoff eight.

Reigning series champion Custer sits just behind Allgaier in the points standings – 16 points to the good with Chandler Smith in that fourth position, eight points above the provisional elimination line.

Hill (-8) is fifth followed by Love (-13), Mayer (-23) and Sammy Smith (-53).

The series moves to the Homestead-Miami Speedway 1.5-miler for next Saturday’s Credit One NASCAR Amex Credit Card 300 (4 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Mayer is the defending race winner.

Note: Inspection in the Xfinity Series garage was completed without major issue, confirming Allmendinger as the race winner. Three cars were found with one unsecured lug nut each in a post-race check, which should result in a monetary penalty for each crew chief next week. Teams with lug-nut infractions: the No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, the No. 27 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet, the No. 38 RSS Racing Ford.



NASCAR Xfinity Series Race Number 30
Race Results for the Ambetter Health 302 - Saturday, October 19, 2024
Las Vegas Motor Speedway - Las Vegas, NV - 1.5 - Mile Paved

Total Race Length - 201 Laps - 301.5 Miles

Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Saturday, 10/19/2024 @ 10:13 PM Eastern

Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Stage 2 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 9 16 AJ Allmendinger (P) Modern Day Garage Chevrolet 201 4 2 56 Running 3 102 5
2 10 28 Ryan Sieg Sci Aps Ford 201 6 3 48 Running 2 2
3 6 7 Justin Allgaier (P) BRANDT Chevrolet 201 2 1 53 Running 1 42 1
4 3 81 Chandler Smith (P) QuickTie Toyota 201  5 39 Running  
5 11 48 Parker Kligerman Big Machine Spiked Coolers Chevrolet 201   32 Running 1 1
6 8 2 Jesse Love # (P) Whelen Chevrolet 201 7 8 38 Running 1 3
7 7 98 Riley Herbst Monster Energy Ford 201 3 9 40 Running 1 4
8 2 00 Cole Custer (P) 3D Systems Ford 201 1 6 44 Running 2 31 1
9 38 18 Sheldon Creed Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Toyota 201 5  34 Running  
10 17 21 Austin Hill (P) Global Industrial Chevrolet 201 8  30 Running  
11 14 26 Corey Heim(i) Synergy Modular Toyota 201   0 Running  
12 30 10 Daniel Dye(i) Trackside Chevrolet 201   0 Running  
13 12 20 Aric Almirola (P) MRC Construction Toyota 201  7 28 Running  
14 4 1 Sam Mayer (P) 10X Health Chevrolet 201 10  24 Running  
15 23 11 Josh Williams Alloy Employer Services Chevrolet 201   22 Running  
16 24 38 Matt DiBenedetto ReMA Ford 201   21 Running  
17 1 9 Brandon Jones Menards/Pelonis Chevrolet 201 9 4 29 Running 2 11
18 19 51 Jeremy Clements First Pacific Funding Chevrolet 201   19 Running  
19 18 5 Anthony Alfredo Dead On Tools Chevrolet 201   18 Running  
20 27 91 Kyle Weatherman MyRadar/DriveSmartWarranty.com Chevrolet 201   17 Running  
21 32 44 Brennan Poole Macc Door Systems Chevrolet 201   16 Running  
22 20 31 Parker Retzlaff FUNKAWAY Chevrolet 201   15 Running  
23 33 07 Myatt Snider BBPrintingCO.com Chevrolet 201   14 Running  
24 15 27 Jeb Burton Puryear Tank Lines Chevrolet 201   13 Running  
25 28 14 JJ Yeley  Ford 199   12 Running  
26 22 39 Kyle Sieg The Thomas Group Ford 199   11 Running  
27 21 15 Dylan Lupton AirBox Ford 198   10 Running  
28 34 43 Ryan Ellis Snapchat Chevrolet 198   9 Running  
29 31 45 Garrett Smithley Vet the Vote Chevrolet 198   8 Running  
30 36 53 Joey Gase Nevada Donor Network Chevrolet 198   7 Running  
31 35 29 Blaine Perkins VIVID EV Ford 198   6 Running  
32 5 8 Sammy Smith (P) Pilot Flying J Chevrolet 197   5 Running 1 5
33 13 19 Taylor Gray(i) Operation 300 Toyota 197  10 0 Running  
34 29 74 Ryan Vargas Mike Harmon Racing Chevrolet 197   3 Running  
35 37 35 Akinori Ogata(i) Moon Chevrolet 196   0 Running  
36 26 92 Dawson Cram(i) Trade With thr Pros Chevrolet 193   0 Running  
37 25 42 Leland Honeyman # LH Waterfront Construction Chevrolet 130   1 Electrical  
38 16 97 Shane Van Gisbergen # WeatherTech Chevrolet 77   1 Fuel Pump  

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 22 Mins, 12 Secs. Average Speed: 127.215 MPH Margin of Victory: 0.156 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 00, 7, 98, 16, 18, 28, 2, 21, 9, 1
Stage 2 Top 10: 7, 16, 28, 9, 81, 00, 20, 2, 98, 19

Failed to Qualify: None.

Caution Flags: 7 for 31 laps; Laps: 6-8 (Debris on backstretch [None]); 36-39 (#15 incident turn 2 [35]); 47-51 (Stage 1 Conclusion [15]); 92-96 (Stage 2 Conclusion [51]); 98-102 (#19, 8 incident frontstretch [29]); 172-176 (#39 spin frontstretch [5]); 196-199 (#8 slowed on track [07]).

Lead Changes: 13 among 9 drivers; B. Jones 1-8; S. Smith (P) 9-13; C. Custer (P) 14-35; B. Jones 36-38; R. Herbst 39-42; C. Custer (P) 43-51; J. Allgaier (P) 52-93; A. Allmendinger (P) 94-145; R. Sieg 146; P. Kligerman 147; J. Love # (P) 148-150; A. Allmendinger (P) 151-191; R. Sieg 192; A. Allmendinger (P) 193-201.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

Next Race: October 26, 2024 - Homestead-Miami Speedway

NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications @ P.O. Box 2875, Daytona Beach, FL 32120-2875



CURRENT NASCAR XFINITY SERIES STANDINGS

POS NO. DRIVER MFR +/-

1 16 AJ Allmendinger Chevrolet +7  WINNER
2 7 Justin Allgaier Chevrolet +32
3 00 Cole Custer Ford +16
4 81 Chandler Smith Toyota +8


On The Bubble

5 21 Austin Hill Chevrolet -8
6 2 Jesse Love Chevrolet -13
7 1 Sam Mayer Chevrolet -23
8 8 Sammy Smith Chevrolet -53