CONCORD, N.C.: Marco Andretti invaded the NASCAR Xfinity Series this weekend at the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway ROVAL looking to impress his fellow competitors and Big Machine Racing team in Saturday afternoon’s Drive for the Cure 250.
Andretti, the 2022 Superstar Racing Experience (SRX) had just 20 minutes to get acquainted in his No. 48 Big Machine Racing | Spiked Coolers Chevrolet Camaro around the 2.2-mile road course.
After just 10 laps in practice, Andretti sat 30th overall but looked towards his group in qualifying where he picked up more than one second on the race track landing him a spot on his time trials speed into his Xfinity Series debut row 15 and the 30th position.
From the drop of the green flag, Andretti quickly and quietly moved through the field. By the end of Lap 1, he had already picked up two positions, three laps later he had muscled inside the top-25 with a strong pace and a fast No. 48 Big Machine Racing Chevrolet Camaro.
Despite battling a tight race car during Stage 1, Andretti continued to make gains and had moved to 23rd before he had a mistake on the backstretch and spun his race car which dropped him to 36th.
Andretti recovered nicely through a focused attitude and other team’s competitors; he finished his first stage in 24th.
Getting more and more comfortable with his race car, Andretti continued to pick off one position at a time and through a strategy to make their planned pit stop at the end of Stage 2, Andretti entered the top-20 in the closing laps of stage and took the green, white checkered in 14th.
On the restart in the third and final stage, Andretti restarted inside the top-20 and had hoped to find himself in contention for a top-15 finish, however when Jeb Burton spun in Turn 6 on Lap 46, Andretti was in a blind spot and could not see through the smoke and plowed into the Our Motorsports car abruptly ending his day with a 36th-place position.
“Yeah, I didn’t anyone know was sitting in the middle of the track, three cars up,” Andretti explained of the crash.
“Of course, my luck it was the only corner that the spotter could not see. Unfortunately, I didn’t get help there. It was fun up until that point. I needed laps and I just wanted to be out there for this type of carnage and I end up being one of the casualties, it’s a bummer.”
At the moment of impact, Andretti radioed concern about his wrist, which he broke earlier in the season in an SRX competition, but later said he got his thumb caught in the steering wheel.
“My reflexes were a little better this time,” offered Andretti talking about his wrist injury. “I got caught on my thumb, but I got it out. Yeah, I was worried about that.”
Despite less than 65 laps in an Xfinity Series car in his inaugural NASCAR weekend, Andretti said he was starting to enjoy his weekend – but was hoping to just the survive the chaos of the Xfinity Series Playoff race.
“Yeah, it was just starting to be,” sounded Andretti. “Learning the car and the track, it was a pretty steep learning curve but I just wanted to survive. It’s a bummer that we got caught out, but yeah it was definitely starting to get fun there.”
Andretti hinted he’d love to return to the sport in the future, but the circumstances would have to be right.
“I’d love to,” offered Andretti on a plausible Xfinity Series return. “We’ll just have to look at it.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
