Saturday's motors: Noah Gragson wins Xfinity Series race at Talladega in triple OT

Talladega, Ala. — Noah Gragson held off Jeffrey Earnhardt in triple overtime to win the Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday for his second victory of the season.

Gragson restarted fourth on the outside of the second row but inherited the lead when JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier ran out of gas and pulled out of traffic. Gragson had to work the No. 9 Chevrolet all over the wide Alabama superspeedway to hold off traffic and deny Earnhardt his first career victory.

Earnhardt, the grandson of the late Dale Earnhardt, started from the pole in the No. 3 Chevrolet. His runner-up finish was a career-best.

AJ Allmendinger finished third for Kaulig Racing and earned a $100,000 bonus as the highest-finishing eligible driver in Xfinity-sponsored program. He was followed by teammate Landon Cassill as Chevrolet drivers took the top four spots and 18 of the top 25.

“This JR Motorsports team, they never quit,” Gragson said. “We had four really fast cars. Came down to fuel strategy and there was one point where I was like ‘Oh man, I can’t get up there, we just don’t have the car fast enough.’ But you know, we never quit.”

Gragson is scheduled to run the Cup race on Sunday for Beard Motorsports but desperately wanted to head to Talladega Blvd., the party strip in the infield notorious for its debauchery. The Talladega infield parties had been on pause the last two years because of the pandemic and only resumed this weekend.

“Talladega Boulevard sounds a lot better right now,” Gragson said. “We’re going to have some fun. Let’s go celebrate, maybe get some (Mardi Gras) beads and maybe we’ll have some fun tonight.”

The race went to the first overtime when the eighth caution came out following a restart with four laps remaining in regulation. Sam Mayer was in the second row and on a run when he wiggled into Austin Hill, the leader in the bottom lane. Hill had had dominated the race and led 67 laps, but the contact from Mayer sent both spinning down the apron and hard into the interior wall.

It sent the race into overtime and Allmendinger had just surged into the lead when a four-wide line of traffic went bad and Sheldon Creed, who was fourth on the restart, wrecked with Caesar Bacarella for the ninth caution and a second overtime.

Allmendinger had complained before the first attempt at overtime that he was “tapped out” and exhausted, and he had no relief in sight. The 10th caution sent the race into a third overtime and forced drivers to desperately begin saving fuel for all the unexpected additional laps.

It bit Allgaier as he ran out of gas just as the race was set to resume for the final two-lap push to the finish.

Ryan Sieg in fifth was the highest-finishing Ford driver and Brandon Jones in 26th was the best of the Toyota group.

Ty Gibbs returned to competition after the Xfinity Series off weekend and a pair of controversial races in his rearview mirror. He was criticized for moving teammate John Hunter Nemechek on the final lap to win at Richmond, and then vilified for fighting rival Sam Mayer on pit road at Martinsville while still wearing his helmet.

As his grandfather, team owner Joe Gibbs, watched from atop his pit box, Gibbs was collected in a race-ending crash with all three of the Toyotas fielded by Joe Gibbs Racing. The 19-year-old said he “kind of got out of shape” as he closed in on Sieg and it caused him to hit Daniel Hemric.

“Sorry for everyone involved. It was a sucky deal,” Gibbs said. “We struggled a little bit in Daytona and we came back here and were fast. We picked up a lot. It was a pretty good hit, but I’m OK.”

Busch's future with JGR

The only active multiple champion at NASCAR’s top level has no idea where he’ll be driving next year. But if it’s not in the Cup Series, Kyle Busch can land a ride with his 6-year-old son.

“Brexton Busch’s truck driver,” the two-time champion quipped Saturday about his plans.

Busch has been sponsored by M&M’s since he joined Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008, but the company informed the team ahead of the season that it was leaving NASCAR at the end of this year. That started a sponsorship search at JGR that will be key in retaining Busch, who won last week at Bristol to tie Richard Petty with a victory in 18 consecutive seasons.

Busch was matter-of-fact following Saturday qualifying at Talladega Superspeedway about his future in the No. 18 Toyota.

When would he like to know his 2023 plans?

“Yesterday.”

Is he antsy about the uncertainty?

“I’m not getting antsy about it. If it happens, it happens. If it don’t, it don’t. Goodbye.”

Wait, so leaving JGR is an option?

“Ask Joe Gibbs.”

Gibbs has not been made available to reporters since Busch’s win at Bristol, where he was accompanied last Sunday night by JGR vice chairman Coy Gibbs.

“So, I don’t deal with the sponsorship stuff directly,” Coy Gibbs said. “I kind of stick on the competition side. But we’ve got a couple people we’re talking to, so we’re excited about that, excited about the leads. I think any time you win, it helps.”

Deciphering Busch’s curt remarks Saturday was at times a slippery slope. When Busch was asked if JGR can’t find any funding for him if there would be another Cup seat open for Busch, he answered “probably not.” But when pressed to clarify if that meant he’d retire, Busch grew visibly frustrated.

“Really? I mean, what are we doing?” he said.

Busch has been with JGR for 14 years; the team signed him and M&M’s following his firing from Hendrick Motorsports. He’d been with Hendrick since he was 18, but the team found him untamable and cut him loose when Dale Earnhardt Jr. became available.

Gibbs snapped up Busch and has been rewarded with two Cup championships with the driver. Busch leads all active drivers with 60 Cup wins, and he’s won 223 victories across NASCAR’s three national series.

He’s part of a four-driver lineup at JGR alongside veterans Denny Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 winner, former champion Martin Truex Jr. and Christopher Bell, who is in his second full season with the team.

But Busch spends a fair amount of time working on his son’s budding race career, and he and his wife, Samantha, are expecting a daughter via a surrogate next month.

Xfinity

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Noah Gragson held off Jeffrey Earnhardt in triple overtime to win the Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday for his second victory of the season.

Gragson restarted fourth on the outside of the second row but inherited the lead when JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier ran out of gas and pulled out of traffic. Gragson had to work the No. 9 Chevrolet all over the wide Alabama superspeedway to hold off traffic and deny Earnhardt his first career victory.

Earnhardt, the grandson of the late Dale Earnhardt, started from the pole in the No. 3 Chevrolet. His runner-up finish was a career-best.

AJ Allmendinger finished third for Kaulig Racing and earned a $100,000 bonus as the highest-finishing eligible driver in Xfinity-sponsored program. He was followed by teammate Landon Cassill as Chevrolet drivers took the top four spots and 18 of the top 25.

“This JR Motorsports team, they never quit,” Gragson said. “We had four really fast cars. Came down to fuel strategy and there was one point where I was like ‘Oh man, I can’t get up there, we just don’t have the car fast enough.’ But you know, we never quit.”

Gragson is scheduled to run the Cup race on Sunday for Beard Motorsports but desperately wanted to head to Talladega Blvd., the party strip in the infield notorious for its debauchery. The Talladega infield parties had been on pause the last two years because of the pandemic and only resumed this weekend.

“Talladega Boulevard sounds a lot better right now,” Gragson said. “We’re going to have some fun. Let’s go celebrate, maybe get some (Mardi Gras) beads and maybe we’ll have some fun tonight.”

The race went to the first overtime when the eighth caution came out following a restart with four laps remaining in regulation. Sam Mayer was in the second row and on a run when he wiggled into Austin Hill, the leader in the bottom lane. Hill had had dominated the race and led 67 laps, but the contact from Mayer sent both spinning down the apron and hard into the interior wall.

It sent the race into overtime and Allmendinger had just surged into the lead when a four-wide line of traffic went bad and Sheldon Creed, who was fourth on the restart, wrecked with Caesar Bacarella for the ninth caution and a second overtime.

Allmendinger had complained before the first attempt at overtime that he was “tapped out” and exhausted, and he had no relief in sight. The 10th caution sent the race into a third overtime and forced drivers to desperately begin saving fuel for all the unexpected additional laps.

It bit Allgaier as he ran out of gas just as the race was set to resume for the final two-lap push to the finish.

Ryan Sieg in fifth was the highest-finishing Ford driver and Brandon Jones in 26th was the best of the Toyota group.

Ty Gibbs returned to competition after the Xfinity Series off weekend and a pair of controversial races in his rearview mirror. He was criticized for moving teammate John Hunter Nemechek on the final lap to win at Richmond, and then vilified for fighting rival Sam Mayer on pit road at Martinsville while still wearing his helmet.

As his grandfather, team owner Joe Gibbs, watched from atop his pit box, Gibbs was collected in a race-ending crash with all three of the Toyotas fielded by Joe Gibbs Racing. The 19-year-old said he “kind of got out of shape” as he closed in on Sieg and it caused him to hit Daniel Hemric.

“Sorry for everyone involved. It was a sucky deal,” Gibbs said. “We struggled a little bit in Daytona and we came back here and were fast. We picked up a lot. It was a pretty good hit, but I’m OK.”