XFINITY RECAP

• Saturday’s SPARKS 300, Talladega

WINNER: BRANDON BROWN

As he crossed the finish line under caution on a dark race track Saturday,

Brandon Brown surrendered to the emotion of his first victory in the Xfinity Series. “Thank God,” Brown exulted. “We did it. We did it. We won!”

On a day of unexpected victories at Talladega Superspeedway—a track where the unexpected sometimes seems commonplace—brown had a narrow lead three-wide with Justin

Allgaier and Brandon Jones at the previous scoring loop when NASCAR called the fifth caution of the race on Lap 102 for a multicar wreck in Turn 4.

With darkness preventing the resumption of the race, NASCAR

showed the checkered flag to Brown under yellow on Lap 107 of a scheduled 113, with Jones credited with second and Allgaier third.

Daniel Hemric finished fourth, followed by Jordan Anderson, Justin Haley, Jeb Burton and defending series champion Austin Cindric, who clinched a spot in the Round of 8 in the Xfinity Playoff with an insurmountable points edge over ninth-place Jeb Burton.

On final lap of first stage, the cars of Sam Mayer and regular-season champ AJ Allmendinger collided in Turn 3, demolishing both vehicles. Allmendinger took a heavy hit in the points, but he’s still 33 above the cut line heading to Saturday’s Round of 12 elimination race at Charlotte Roval, a

track where he is expected to excel.