Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Larson gets wild Xfinity victory
DAYTONA BEACH — A crazy race led to a controversial finish as Kyle Larson won Friday’s 100-lap NASCAR Xfinity Series Coca-Cola Firecracker 250, the preliminary event for Saturday’s NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Coke Zero Sugar 400. But Larson, driving a Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet Camaro, was actually the second car across the finish line. In a two-lap dash to the finish in overtime, rookie Justin Haley — making only his second Xfinity start in the GMS Racing Camaro — dove to the inside of Larson and Elliott Sadler to pass both of them in spectacular fashion just as they reached the finish line. But Haley put two wheels under the inside yellow line during the pass — which is illegal — and NASCAR awarded the race to Larson, with Sadler, driving a JR Motorsports Camaro, second. Third was Christopher Bell in a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry, and fourth was Ryan Blaney in a Team Penske Ford Mustang. Haley was dropped to 18th, the last car on the lead lap.
Veteran driver Sadler was crushed to have, once again, come so close to a Daytona victory to have it snatched away. “It hurts,” he said. It was still a good points day for the Xfinity driver because Larson, as a Cup regular who started in the No. 14 slot in Saturday’s race, is ineligible for Xfinity points. Only Haley felt worse than Sadler because — after looking at replays — he saw he had plenty of room to make the pass without dropping below the yellow line.
Larson finished the race believing he was second to Haley. “He got a huge run on us, and he shot right by us,” Larson said. “I didn’t know Haley was under the yellow line, and I didn’t even think about it until they told me.”
With qualifying rained out, Ryan Preece started on the pole in his Joe Gibbs Camry, but radiator problems put him out early. Larson dominated the relatively uneventful race, winning Stages 1 and 2. The almost inevitable “big one” occurred on Lap 81 going into Turn 2 when Matt Tift’s Camaro hit the Ford Mustang of Austin Cindric. Both cars spun and collected six other cars, including the Camaro of Tyler Reddick. Cindric, the 19-year-old son of Team Penske president Tim Cindric, spun into Reddick’s car and flipped twice, landing on its wheels.
It was the first time Cindric has rolled a car, he said, but certainly not his first crash at Daytona.
“I’ve got to quit going to the infield care center here,” he said. “I know all the people there and their faces.”
The race was stopped to clean up the crash, and when the green flag brought the cars back to life, 13 laps remained, with Sadler and Blaney leading the field. They made it back to the third turn before Brandon Hightower ran into Chad Finchum, then hit Ray Black II, bringing out another caution flag. The laps clicked down under caution with Sadler and Blaney leading the field of 28 cars, down 12 from the 40 that started. The race restarted with seven laps left, with Larson making a bold pass for the lead, coming back from ninth after a slow pit stop.
With three laps left, though, a nine-car crash at the starting line put the field under the sixth caution, which sent the race into overtime with Larson leading Justin Allgaier, Sadler, Haley and Blaney. The race went green on Lap 103, and the race ended on Lap 105 with a jubilant Larson, after learning he won, doing doughnuts in the infield grass. Despite some dramatic crashed, drivers in all the incidents were evaluated in the infield care center and released.
It was a rough night for Florida drivers —– racer and car owner B.J. McLeod of Wauchula had three cars in the race: A Toyota Camry for Tennessee racer Blake Jones, another Camry for Palm Coast driver Black, and a Camaro for Parkland’s Caesar Bacarella. Black and Bacarella collided as they tried to avoid a spinning car on Lap 87. Bacarella finished 38th and Black was able to continue and finished 22nd. Jones finished 37th. McLeod, racing a Camaro for JD Motorsports, finished 36th. Port Charlotte’s Josh Williams, in a DGM Racing Camaro, was 24th. And Alva’s Ross Chastain, a former Orlando Speedworld champion, drove the JD Motorsports Camaro to 26th.