Saturday, April 23rd, 2022
Talladega Superspeedway, Lincoln, AL
It was an Earnhardt Saturday in Earnhardt country.
Grabbing the lead on a restart in the third overtime, Noah Gragson - driving for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports - won the Ag-Pro 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series at Talladega Superspeedway.
Gragson beat Jeffrey Earnhardt, grandson of seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Dale Earnhardt Sr., who was driving a black No. 3 Chevrolet in a special appearance for Richard Childress Racing, which fielded Dale Sr.’s car during his heyday.
On the mammoth 2.66-mile track where Dale Sr. won a record 10 times and Dale Jr. added another six, Jeffrey Earnhardt crossed the finish line .131 seconds behind Gragson, who won for the first time at Talladega, the second time this season and the seventh time in his career.
Gragson grabbed the lead when JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier ran out of fuel as he led the field to the third-overtime restart on Lap 123. The driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet held the top spot the rest of the way as Earnhardt worked his way forward from his eighth-place restarting position.
Moments after the race, Gragson was already planning his celebration in the notorious Talladega infield.
“This team at Jr. Motorsports, they never quit,” Gragson said. “We’ve had a kind of a rough last month, just not getting the finishes that we wanted...I couldn’t make moves on the top there very much at the beginning of the race, so I just kept running the bottom - running the bottom - and we’d get shuffled back and keep moving back up.
“I’ve got to run in the Cup race (on Sunday), but the Talladaga Boulevard looks a lot more enchanting right now and inviting, so I might have to go out there and then throw some beads.”
On the second of the two overtime laps, Earnhardt slipped past AJ Allmendinger for second but couldn’t catch Gragson through the tri-oval.
“I’m living the dream here—I’m just so thankful to get this opportunity,” said Earnhardt, whose crew chief, FOX Sports broadcaster Larry McReynolds, was serving his first stint on a pit box since 2000. “Thanks to RCR for building this amazing race car. We were fast all weekend long.
“We just fell a little short there, but congrats to Noah. He’s good at plate races.”
Allmendinger had led on the second overtime restart and appeared to have control of the race when Jeremy Clements’ Chevrolet stalled in Turn 2 to cause the 10th and final caution of the race. With his third-place result, however, Allmendinger claimed the $100,000 Xfinity Dash 4 Cash bonus available to the top finisher among four eligible drivers.
“I thought I crashed about seven times on the last lap,” Allmendinger said. “I really appreciate what Xfinity and Comcast do to allow us to race for 100 grand at these four races. I didn’t realize that the 7 (Allgaier) started laying back, and you can’t take off before him. I was really checking up when he ran out of fuel.
“At that point, the 9 (Gragson) had such a run. This Chevy handled really well. We just lacked kind of the top-end speed, so they could get to my bumper, then basically boot me out of the way. I was just hanging on there. Jeffrey did a good job to make the move (for second place).”
Austin Hill, winner of the season opener at Daytona, led a race-high 67 laps and was out front with fewer than four laps left when Sam Mayer lost control of his Chevrolet in the outside lane and knocked Hill’s Chevy into the infield wall. Both cars were damaged too severely to continue.
Ryan Sieg and Landon Cassill finished fourth and fifth behind Allmendinger, with Cassill scoring his second straight top-five result. Anthony Alfredo, Riley Herbst, Joe Graf Jr., Myatt Snider and Brett Moffitt completed the top 10.
ENTRY | # | DRIVER | HOMETOWN | DOB | AGE | MAKE | SPONSOR | TEAM | CREW CHIEF |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 16 | AJ Allmendinger | Los Gatos, CA | Dec 16, 1981 | 42 | Chevrolet | Nutrien Ag Solutions | Kaulig Racing | Bruce Schlicker |
2 | 66 | JJ Yeley | Phoenix, AZ | Oct 5, 1976 | 48 | Ford | RHS USA / Coble Enterprises | Motorsports Business Management | George Church |
3 | 10 | Landon Cassill | Cedar Rapids, IA | Jul 7, 1989 | 35 | Chevrolet | Voyager Crypto Debit Card | Kaulig Racing | Jason Trinchere |
4 | 08 | David Starr | Houston, TX | Nov 11, 1967 | 56 | Ford | TicketSmarter/Special Report | SS-GLR w/Jeff Lefcourt | Jason Miller |
5 | 7 | Justin Allgaier | Riverton, IL | Jun 6, 1986 | 38 | Chevrolet | Fight Hunger Spark Change | JR Motorsports | Jason Burdett |
6 | 02 | Brett Moffitt | Grimes, IA | Aug 7, 1992 | 32 | Chevrolet | Hometown Lenders | Our Motorsports | Kris Bowen |
7 | 35 | Joey Gase | Cedar Rapids, IA | Feb 8, 1993 | 31 | Toyota | Kitty Kat Coin | Emerling Gase Motorsports | Rick Bourgeois |
8 | 27 | Jeb Burton | Halifax, VA | Aug 6, 1992 | 32 | Chevrolet | Rocky Boots | Our Motorsports | Chad Walter |
9 | 3 | Jeffrey Earnhardt | Mooresville, NC | Jun 22, 1989 | 35 | Chevrolet | ForeverLawn | Richard Childress Racing | Larry McReynolds |
10 | 44 | Ryan Ellis | Torrence, CA | Nov 29, 1989 | 34 | Chevrolet | Heartbeat Hot Sauce | Alpha Prime Racing | Michael Brandt |
11 | 38 | Ryan Sieg | Tucker, GA | Jun 20, 1987 | 37 | Toyota | A-GAME | RSS Racing | Kevin Starland |
12 | 11 | Daniel Hemric | Kannapolis, NC | Jan 27, 1991 | 33 | Chevrolet | Cirkul - Water Your Way | Kaulig Racing | Alex Yontz |
13 | 47 | Brennan Poole | Sacramento, CA | Apr 11, 1991 | 33 | Chevrolet | Mike Harmon Racing | Mike Harmon Racing | Ryan Bell |
14 | 4 | Bayley Currey | Driftwood, TX | Oct 29, 1996 | 27 | Chevrolet | Habana Brisa | JD Motorsports | Wayne Carroll Jr |
15 | 48 | Kaz Grala | Boston, MA | Dec 29, 1998 | 25 | Chevrolet | Big Machine Racing Spiked | Big Machine Racing | Patrick Donahue |
16 | 36 | Alex Labbe | Saint-Albert, Canada | Apr 29, 1993 | 31 | Chevrolet | Larue Industrial Snowblowers | DGM Racing | Nathan Kennedy |
17 | 21 | Austin Hill | Winston, GA | Apr 21, 1994 | 30 | Chevrolet | Bennett Transportation and Logistics | Richard Childress Racing | Andy Street |
18 | 68 | Brandon Brown | Woodbridge, VA | Sep 14, 1993 | 31 | Chevrolet | Trade The Chain | Brandonbilt Motorsports | Doug Randolph |
19 | 19 | Brandon Jones | Atlanta, GA | Feb 18, 1997 | 27 | Toyota | Menards\Atlas | Joe Gibbs Racing | Jeff Meendering |
20 | 45 | Caesar Bacarella | Parkland, FL | Dec 18, 1975 | 48 | Chevrolet | Lilly Finance | Alpha Prime Racing | Frank Kerr |
21 | 28 | CJ McLaughlin | Framingham, MA | Jul 1, 1992 | 32 | Ford | SciAps | RSS Racing | Steve Addington |
22 | 51 | Jeremy Clements | Spartanburg, SC | Jan 16, 1985 | 39 | Chevrolet | One Stop / ASE | Jeremy Clements Racing | Mark Setzer |
23 | 07 | Joe Graf Jr | Mahwah, NJ | Jul 12, 1998 | 26 | Ford | Bucked Up Energy Drink | SS-GLR w/Jeff Lefcourt | Joe Williams |
24 | 78 | Josh Williams | Port Charlotte, FL | Aug 3, 1993 | 31 | Chevrolet | Alloy Employer Servies | BJ McLeod Motorsports | Mike Tyska |
25 | 5 | Matt Mills | Lynchburg, VA | Nov 14, 1996 | 27 | Chevrolet | J.F. Electric | BJ McLeod Motorsports | David Ingram |
26 | 31 | Myatt Snider | Charlotte, NC | Dec 30, 1994 | 29 | Chevrolet | TaxSlayer | Jordan Anderson Racing | Shane Whitbeck |
27 | 9 | Noah Gragson | Las Vegas, NV | Jul 15, 1998 | 26 | Chevrolet | Bass Pro Shops TrueTimber BRCC | JR Motorsports | Luke Lambert |
28 | 98 | Riley Herbst | Las Vegas, NV | Feb 24, 1999 | 25 | Ford | Monster Energy | Stewart-Haas Racing | Richard Boswell |
29 | 91 | Mason Massey | Douglasville, GA | Jan 24, 1997 | 27 | Chevrolet | Anderson Power Services | DGM Racing | Mario Gosselin |
30 | 23 | Anthony Alfredo | Ridgefield, CT | Mar 1, 1999 | 25 | Chevrolet | Dude Wipes | Our Motorsports | Pat Tryson |
31 | 34 | Jesse Iwuji | Carrollton, TX | Aug 12, 1987 | 37 | Chevrolet | SELE Foundation | Jesse Iwuji Motorsports | TBA |
32 | 6 | Ryan Vargas | La Miranda, CA | Sep 23, 2000 | 24 | Chevrolet | Hempvana Pain Relief Cream | JD Motorsports | Kase Kallenbach |
33 | 53 | Shane Lee | Newton, NC | Jul 4, 1993 | 31 | Ford | Kitty Kat Coin | Emerling Gase Motorsports | Mark Hillman |
34 | 2 | Sheldon Creed | Alpine, CA | Sep 30, 1997 | 27 | Chevrolet | Whelen | Richard Childress Racing | Jim Pohlman |
35 | 8 | Josh Berry | Hendersonville, TN | Oct 22, 1990 | 33 | Chevrolet | PUBG MOBILE | JR Motorsports | Mike Bumgarner |
36 | 54 | Ty Gibbs | Charlotte, NC | Oct 4, 2002 | 22 | Toyota | Monster Energy | Joe Gibbs Racing | Chris Gayle |
37 | 13 | Natalie Decker | Eagle River, WI | Jun 25, 1997 | 27 | Toyota | Nerd Focus | Motorsports Business Management | Kody Clark |
38 | 39 | Kyle Sieg | Tucker, GA | Apr 16, 2001 | 23 | Ford | TA Services/ C2 Freight | RSS Racing | Andrew May |
39 | 1 | Sam Mayer | Franklin, WI | Jun 26, 2003 | 21 | Chevrolet | Accelerate Pros Talent | JR Motorsports | Taylor Moyer |
40 | 26 | Chandler Smith | Talking Rock, GA | Jun 26, 2002 | 22 | Toyota | ChargeMe / VITAL | Sam Hunt Racing | Allen Hart |
41 | 18 | Drew Dollar | Atlanta, GA | Dec 2, 2000 | 23 | Toyota | Lynx Capital | Joe Gibbs Racing | Jason Ratcliff |