Sammy Smith Wins at Talladega, Advances to Round of 8 in XFINITY Playoffs
Credit: Savannah Shirey for Skirts and Scuffs
Sammy Smith earned his second career XFINITY Series victory in overtime at Talladega Super Speedway, holding off Ryan Sieg by a 0.177-second margin of victory.
Smith led five laps of the United Rentals 250 before earning the win on Saturday evening, which secures his ticket into the Round of 8 of the series playoffs.
“It was tough you know, Stage 1 we weren’t the best, Stage 2 we were able to get the car a lot better, get some good solid stage points," Smith said. "That was kinda our goal going into it was to get good stage points. That put us in a good position for track position there at the end.
“There was a lot of great guys that gave me really good pushes there at the end, so thank you to all of those guys. It feels really good to win again. It’s been a tough season for us. It feels even better to get locked in to the Round of 8.”
Sieg finished second, while Riley Herbst, Sheldon Creed, and Chandler Smith finished third through fifth, respectively.
Jesse Love finished sixth after leading a race-high 28 laps. Jeb Burton finished seventh, David Starr finished eighth, and Brennan Poole and Kyle Sieg completed the top 10.
There were multiple “Big Ones” that took the leaders out of race-winning contention at Talladega. The most notable drivers were Shane Van Gisbergen and Justin Allgaier. Gisbergen was taken out on Lap 76, while Allgaier was involved in a crash on Lap 91.
SVG was turned after making contact with an already-spinning Dean Thompson. Thompson sent the No. 97 Chevrolet spinning which created a chain reaction of events that involved Starr, Taylor Gray, Josh Williams, Austin Hill, and Jordan Anderson.
Allgaier was involved in a Lap-91 crash that brought out the red flag and sent the race into overtime. Carson Kvapil got loose after receiving a push from behind from the No. 9 Chevrolet of Brandon Jones. Kvapil was running fourth at the time before spinning and collecting Parker Kligerman, Cole Custer, Allgaier, and several other drivers.
AJ Allmendinger, Allgaier, van Gisbergen, and Kligerman are all outside the top 10 going into the cutoff race next weekend at the Charlotte ROVAL. Allmendinger is 10 points behind Sam Mayer in eighth, while Allgaier is -18, van Gisbergen is -21, and Kligerman is -26.
The XFINITY Series is on home turf at the Charlotte Roval next Saturday, October 12 at 4 p.m. ET and can be viewed on the CW Network.