{"id":32177,"date":"2020-11-07T21:44:09","date_gmt":"2020-11-08T03:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=32177"},"modified":"2020-11-07T21:44:38","modified_gmt":"2020-11-08T03:44:38","slug":"nascar-saturday-xfinity-championship-weekend-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/07\/nascar-saturday-xfinity-championship-weekend-notebook\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Saturday Xfinity Championship Weekend Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer , NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Justin Allgaier leaves it all on the track but falls short in title battle<\/b><\/p>\n

Justin Allgaier and crew chief Jason Burdett tried everything.<\/p>\n

Under caution on Lap 172 of 200 in Saturday\u2019s Desert Diamond Casino West Valley 200 at Phoenix Raceway, Burdett called Allgaier to pit road for his last set of sticker tires.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Justin Allgaier, driver of the #7 BRANDT Chevrolet, enters his car to start the NASCAR Xfinity Series Desert Diamond Casino West Valley 200 at Phoenix Raceway on November 07, 2020 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Even on fresh rubber, Allgaier couldn\u2019t catch race leader Austin Cindric, as the drivers battled for position and the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship.<\/p>\n

When title contender Chase Briscoe spun on Lap 198 to cause the final caution and set up a two-lap overtime, Allgaier stayed on track and inherited the lead while Cindric came to pit road for new tires. When the cars lined up for the final restart, Cindric was right behind Allgaier in the outside lane.<\/p>\n

Allgaier\u2019s lead was short-lived. With better tires, Cindric quickly charged to the front as Allgaier fell to fifth at the finish but salvaged second in the final series standings.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Justin Allgaier, driver of the #7 BRANDT Chevrolet, and Austin Cindric, driver of the #22 Menards\/Richmond Ford, lead the field during the NASCAR Xfinity Series Desert Diamond Casino West Valley 200 at Phoenix Raceway on November 07, 2020 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cFirst of all, hats off to Austin and the whole Team Penske group,\u201d Allgaier said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been strong competitors all year. To have the race they did tonight, they were obviously the best car, and they deserved to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cProud of our guys, proud of everybody at JR Motorsports. We had a shot at it at the end. When it\u2019s all said and done, that\u2019s all you can really ask for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allgaier knew his No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet was in trouble when he and Ross Chastain were the only lead-lap cars to stay on the track during the final yellow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that (Cindric was) going to be good on tires,\u201d Allgaier said. \u201cI was hoping to see a few more cars in my rear-view mirror when we took the green\u2026 We didn\u2019t have the speed at the end. We were off a little bit all night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Justin Haley has to wait for the championship celebration before flying home<\/b><\/p>\n

Kaulig Racing driver Justin Haley gave a creditable performance in Saturday\u2019s Championship 4 race, but his No. 11 Chevrolet was trapped a lap down by an inopportune caution on Lap 170.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Justin Haley, driver of the #11 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet, waves to fans as he is driven on the track during pre-race ceremonies prior to the NASCAR Xfinity Series Desert Diamond Casino West Valley 200 at Phoenix Raceway on November 07, 2020 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Though Haley got his lap back, he couldn\u2019t improve his position significantly in the late going and finished eighth, taking the third position in the final standings.<\/p>\n

To make matters worse, Haley had to stay at the track for series champion and race winner Austin Cindric\u2019s post-race celebration.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to congratulate the 22 team,\u201d Haley said, then quipped, \u201cIt actually sucks they got the championship, because we share a plane. So we\u2019re going to have to wait on them to go home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haley fell back at the start of the race, but his crew improved the car after that. It simply wasn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were not too good there at the start, and then we actually took a little time on one of the pit stops,\u201d said Haley, who restarted eighth for the two-lap overtime. \u201cWe started running in the top five, but it\u2019s super hard to pass.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were too far back to make anything happen at the green-white-checkered.\u201d<\/p>\n

In stellar season, Chase Briscoe runs disappointing ninth in championship finale<\/b><\/p>\n

Very little had gone wrong during Chase Briscoe\u2019s dream 2020 NASCAR Xfinity Series season.<\/p>\n

The driver of the No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford collected nine victories and earned a promotion to the No. 14 SHR NASCAR Cup Series car next year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Chase Briscoe, driver of the #98 HighPoint.com Ford, waits on the grid prior to the NASCAR Xfinity Series Desert Diamond Casino West Valley 200 at Phoenix Raceway on November 07, 2020 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

But the season ended in disappointment on Saturday when Briscoe finished ninth at Phoenix Raceway and dropped to fourth among the four drivers competing for the series title.<\/p>\n

Briscoe led 41 laps and won the first stage of the race, but the handling on his car deteriorated as the light faded and the track cooled.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just a frustrating day,\u201d Briscoe said. \u201cThis is by far not my best race track. We started the race and, for me, just leading laps here I was like, \u2018Wow, this is different.\u2019 I was just so loose at the beginning of the race, and as the night came, I was just getting freer and freer. I don\u2019t know how many times I about wrecked into (Turn) 1 and would end up hitting the wall.  <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got to do a lot better job coming here. There\u2019s something about this place that I just really struggle at, so I\u2019ve got a lot of homework to do. It\u2019s definitely frustrating to finish fourth in the championship after the year we had, but, overall, to win nine races it\u2019s been a phenomenal year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer , NASCAR Wire Service   Justin Allgaier leaves it all on the track but falls short in title battle Justin Allgaier and crew chief Jason Burdett tried everything. Under caution on Lap 172 of 200 in Saturday\u2019s Desert Diamond Casino West Valley 200 at Phoenix Raceway, Burdett called Allgaier to pit road […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":32183,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[16,181,395],"class_list":["post-32177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-xfinity-series","tag-phoenix-raceway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/NXS_PHX_CindricAllgaier_110720-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1706","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-8mZ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32177"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32186,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32177\/revisions\/32186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}