XFINITY Series Talladega Superspeedway

NASCAR XFINITY Series

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Loop Data Box Score

Sparks 300

Saturday, October 1st, 2022

Talladega Superspeedway, Lincoln, AL

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  • 25 Chevrolet
  • 6 Ford
  • 6 Toyota

  • Talladega Superspeedway
  • 3rd Annual Sparks 300
  • Pole Winner: Austin Hill
  • Age: 28
  • Team : No. 21 - Bennett Transportation Chevrolet
  • Owner: Richard Childress
  • Crew Chief: Andy Street
  • Austin Hill won the Pole Award for the 3rd Annual Sparks 300 with a lap of 52.605 seconds, 182.036 mph.
  • This is his first pole in 43 NASCAR Xfinity Series races.
  • This is his first pole and 17th top-10 start in 2022.
  • This is his first pole in three races at Talladega Superspeedway.
  • Ty Gibbs (second) posted his 23rd top-10 start of 2022 and his second in two races at Talladega Superspeedway.
  • Sheldon Creed (third) posted his second top-10 start at Talladega Superspeedway. It is his 15th in 28 races this season.
  • Austin Hill (first) was the fastest qualifying rookie.

  • Saturday, October 1st, 2022
  • NASCAR Wire Service - Holly Cain
AJ Allmendinger Makes Last Lap Pass to Win Xfinity Race at Talladega

Three times A.J. Allmendinger has led the white flag lap on a superspeedway track and not been able to lead that next lap to earn the big trophy.

On Saturday, the veteran waited and pulled ahead of the field in the final feet coming to the Sparks 300 checkered flag at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway and edged 19-year old Sam Mayer by .015-second - about three feet - in a photo finish to earn his first NASCAR Xfinity Series win at NASCAR's biggest track.

It marked the regular season champ Allmendinger's fourth victory in the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet this season and first ever at a superspeedway venue. Most importantly, the win - coming in the second race of the opening round of the Playoffs - is an automatic ticket through to the next round of Xfinity Series Playoff competition.

"Let's gooooooo," an absolutely elated Allmendinger screamed into the grandstands after climbing out of his car and accepting the checkered flag at the iconic track.

"Gosh, we've been so close to winning one (superspeedway race) and I feel like I keep giving them away. Thought I might have given it away. I'm still learning, trying to know what too big of a lead is. But honestly, all credit to (Kaulig teammate) Landon Cassill.

"He kept shoving me. He stuck with me. That's what is great about Kaulig Racing, when you have teammates like Landon and Daniel (Hemric) that you know wherever you go, they'll go with you. So thank you Landon.

"Man, I just wanted to win a superspeedway and finally got it," added a grinning Allmendinger, who now claims 14 career Xfinity Series victories.

Cassill finished third, followed by Ryan Sieg and JR Motorsports driver Josh Berry - all Playoff contenders. Parker Kligerman was sixth, followed by Playoff drivers Ty Gibbs, Daniel Hemric, Brandon Jones and Noah Gragson.

It marked quite the comeback for Gibbs, who qualified on the front row, but was involved in the only on-track yellow flag for an incident on the afternoon. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver's No. 54 Toyota was tagged from behind by Justin Allgaier while racing in a tight pack up front only three laps into the 113-lap race. Gibbs spun out but was remarkably untouched by any other car.

A quick pit stop and impressive pit strategy later, Gibbs was running around the Top-10 in the closing laps of the race and managed to recover to that seventh place final effort.

Gragson, driver of the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, was looking to become the first driver in NASCAR Xfinity Series history to win five consecutive races and was running among the Top-3 with 10 laps to go.

His ultimate move forward for the win in the closing laps was blocked and he instead finished 10th. Although just short of that historic victory nod, he had already earned his automatic ticket to the Playoffs second round by virtue of his victory last week at Texas (his seventh on the season and fourth in a row).

"We're going to keep it going," Gragson said after the race. "I have a super motivated team… you want to win them all, but you can't do that sometimes."

Polesitter and series rookie Austin Hill, who swept the two stage wins and for the second straight race led the most laps - 60 on Saturday - also dropped out of the lead group in the waning laps to the checkered flag. He finished 14th.

With Allmendinger and Gragson having earned automatic bids in ton the next round of the Playoffs, Gibbs (-21) and Hill (-27) are ranked third and fourth in the standings, followed by Berry, Allgaier - who finished 15th Saturday - Mayer and Sieg in that eighth and final transfer position.

Defending series champion Hemric (-6), Brandon Jones (-10), Riley Herbst (-10) and Jeremy Clements (-47) are ranked ninth through 12th heading into the final race of this Playoff round.

Up next is the Drive for the Cure 250 presented by BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina on Saturday (3 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). A.J. Allmendinger has won the last three races.

  • Drivers Entered: 38
  • Laps Scheduled: 113
  • Margin of Victory: 0.015 Seconds
  • Time of Race: 1 Hours 53 Minutes 33 Seconds
  • Average Speed: 158.827
  • Cautions: 3 for 11 laps
  • Lead Changes: 20
  • Green Flag Passes: 5,392 (52.9 passes per green flag lap)

  • Talladega Superspeedway
  • 3rd Annual Sparks 300
  • Race Winner: AJ Allmendinger
  • Age: 40
  • Team : No. 16 - Action Industries Chevrolet
  • Owner: Matthew Kaulig
  • Crew Chief: Bruce Schlicker
  • AJ Allmendinger won the 3rd Annual Sparks 300, his 14th victory in 88 Xfinity Series races.
  • This is his fourth victory and 25th top-10 finish in 2022.
  • This is his first victory and fourth top-10 finish in six races at Talladega Superspeedway.
  • Sam Mayer (second) posted his first top-10 finish in three races at Talladega Superspeedway. It is his 16th top-10 finish in 2022.
  • Landon Cassill (third) posted his fourth top-10 finish in eight races at Talladega Superspeedway.
  • Sheldon Creed (12th) was the highest finishing rookie.
  • Noah Gragson leads the point standings by 0 points over AJ Allmendinger.
Trevor Bayne leads the field
Talladega, Alabama - October 1, 2022 : Trevor Bayne, driver of the #18 Dollar Concrete Toyota, leads the field during the NASCAR Xfinity Series Sparks 300 at Talladega Superspeedway.
Chris GraythenGetty Images

Race weekend links appear as data becomes available.

Sparks 300 at Talladega Superspeedway Loop Data Box Score results
DRIVER ST MID CLO FIN HI LOW ARP PL DIF GFP GFxP PD QPS % QPS FST % T15 LED % LED LAPS DR TOT PTS
AJ Allmendinger 8 8 2 1 1 29 6.3 7 179 161 18 141 78.77 2 93.8 3 2.7 113 119.20 53
Sam Mayer 13 25 5 2 1 35 11.0 11 255 205 50 110 43.14 7 70.8 3 2.7 113 104.60 41
Landon Cassill 18 18 4 3 2 36 12.6 15 188 175 13 86 45.74 2 62.8 0 0.0 113 93.70 34
Ryan Sieg 14 4 8 4 1 21 9.1 10 196 200 -4 153 78.06 3 92.0 11 9.7 113 106.80 35
Josh Berry 7 20 10 5 4 30 14.1 2 213 210 3 117 54.93 3 62.8 0 0.0 113 94.20 33
Parker Kligerman 9 15 6 6 4 28 11.3 3 241 243 -2 165 68.46 3 80.5 0 0.0 113 99.20 0
Ty Gibbs 2 5 11 7 2 38 14.3 -5 212 176 36 113 53.30 6 63.7 0 0.0 113 98.60 33
Daniel Hemric 12 23 14 8 3 34 14.3 4 184 175 9 90 48.91 11 64.6 0 0.0 113 85.90 37
Brandon Jones 5 2 13 9 1 25 8.9 -4 161 169 -8 126 78.26 4 90.3 1 0.9 113 103.60 38
Noah Gragson 6 1 3 10 1 36 10.6 -4 224 208 16 114 50.89 3 74.3 1 0.9 113 97.90 27
Riley Herbst 23 14 9 11 5 29 12.9 12 253 247 6 125 49.41 2 70.8 0 0.0 113 95.50 26
Sheldon Creed 3 13 7 12 1 28 7.8 -9 183 193 -10 130 71.04 1 90.3 2 1.8 113 106.50 34
Trevor Bayne 11 3 12 13 1 24 9.1 -2 161 172 -11 133 82.61 1 90.3 13 11.5 113 96.80 37
Austin Hill 1 6 1 14 1 23 3.5 -13 125 131 -6 93 74.40 5 97.4 60 53.1 113 117.10 43
Justin Allgaier 4 9 16 15 1 33 12.3 -11 177 181 -4 122 68.93 3 52.2 6 5.3 113 81.20 35
Anthony Alfredo 20 17 17 16 1 37 13.8 4 168 181 -13 115 68.45 1 48.7 0 0.0 113 76.00 21
Jeb Burton 16 10 15 17 3 36 14.6 -1 240 241 -1 147 61.25 1 71.7 0 0.0 113 70.50 26
JJ Yeley 35 7 18 18 5 35 18.3 17 164 160 4 37 22.56 3 17.7 0 0.0 113 69.90 19
Josh Williams 30 31 20 19 8 36 24.3 11 126 92 34 3 2.38 2 1.8 0 0.0 113 59.90 18
Jeremy Clements 37 21 21 20 4 37 24.4 17 90 91 -1 5 5.56 0 4.4 0 0.0 113 53.80 17
Joey Gase 25 24 23 21 2 36 26.2 4 70 56 14 0 0.00 1 1.8 0 0.0 113 52.80 16
Joe Graf Jr 19 26 24 22 5 37 26.9 -3 85 111 -26 2 2.35 0 2.7 0 0.0 113 48.50 15
Derek Griffith 26 16 19 23 6 31 19.6 3 140 144 -4 23 16.43 3 11.5 0 0.0 113 62.90 14
Bayley Currey 24 22 30 24 1 36 23.8 0 87 80 7 6 6.90 5 12.4 12 10.7 112 62.70 13
David Starr 33 28 25 25 3 33 24.0 8 87 88 -1 5 5.75 4 12.4 0 0.0 112 51.70 12
BJ McLeod 32 36 29 26 9 37 31.4 6 55 48 7 2 3.64 1 4.4 0 0.0 112 37.30 11
Timmy Hill 36 30 26 27 2 37 25.6 9 97 75 22 4 4.12 5 12.4 1 0.9 112 48.20 0
Jesse Iwuji 22 35 27 28 6 38 31.3 -6 73 56 17 1 1.37 1 4.4 0 0.0 112 36.30 9
CJ McLaughlin 28 37 31 29 6 37 30.4 -1 76 98 -22 6 7.89 2 3.5 0 0.0 112 40.70 8
Ryan Vargas 10 32 33 30 2 36 28.3 -20 65 91 -26 7 10.77 2 13.3 0 0.0 112 45.90 7
Caesar Bacarella 31 27 32 31 7 38 30.9 0 55 74 -19 4 7.27 0 4.4 0 0.0 112 33.50 6
Howie Disavino III 34 29 36 32 3 37 31.2 2 68 78 -10 4 5.88 1 4.4 0 0.0 112 36.20 5
Brandon Brown 17 11 34 33 1 35 18.0 -16 232 248 -16 126 54.31 3 42.5 0 0.0 112 50.20 10
Mike Harmon 38 34 35 34 12 38 34.3 4 48 59 -11 0 0.00 1 0.9 0 0.0 111 26.20 0
Myatt Snider 21 19 28 35 5 37 21.7 -14 156 180 -24 78 50.00 0 29.2 0 0.0 111 42.70 2
Blaine Perkins 15 12 37 36 5 37 23.0 -21 182 194 -12 83 45.60 4 26.6 0 0.0 110 51.90 0
Jeffrey Earnhardt 27 33 22 37 3 37 24.2 -10 68 84 -16 7 10.29 1 12.4 0 0.0 109 44.20 1
Mason Massey 29 38 38 38 17 38 37.1 -9 8 23 -15 0 0.00 0 0.0 0 0.0 95 26.30 1