TALLADEGA, Ala.: Ryan Sieg put up an overtime fight in Saturday afternoon’s United Rentals 250 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway trying to deliver his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series win, but for the second time this season, the RSS Racing driver had to settle for second.
Sieg, aboard his No. 39 SciApps Ford Mustang, showcased speed throughout the 98-lap race, but when a multi-car accident ignited on Lap 92 in Turn 1, it set up for a two-lap dash to the finish with Sieg restarting inside the top-10.
By the time the field circled back to the white flag, Sieg had hustled to fourth, hoping to find the suitable lane and help to surge him forward.
With a line developing in the top lane, Sieg drifted down to the bottom in front of Leland Honeyman Jr. but tucked underneath the bumper of Sammy Smith, trying to run down leader Riley Herbst.
Sheldon Creed arrived on the scene on the backstretch after getting detached from his teammate Chandler Smith. Sieg drifted up a little, allowing the bottom lane to briefly merge into the middle lane.
By the exit of Turn 3, Creed’s help propelled Sammy Smith and Sieg out of the lead pack, and they left to defend the win amongst the three veterans.
Entering the trioval, Sammy Smith and Sieg were able to fend off Chandler Smith. Sieg took a wide turn right in an attempt to swipe the win away from JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith while also protecting his position. The effort wasn’t enough, as Sieg trailed the Xfinity Playoff driver by 0.177 seconds at the start-finish line.
The runner-up finish was Sieg’s third top-five of 2024 and fourth of his career. He also finished second at Talladega in October 2020 in a race won by Justin Haley.
“The No. 8 (Sammy Smith) in front of me was about all I could see,” said Smith. “I was trying to do what I could do to try to get something going. I thought he was gonna go high right there, but he didn’t block the top, so I went up top, and he kind of stayed down there. I was gonna go to the bottom, but Timmy Fedewa was guiding me through all that.”
Sieg, the Tucker, Ga. native, discussed an eventful day for his RSS Racing team. Still, he was proud of the team’s ability to recover after riding around for most of the season’s series’ final superspeedway race.
“From all the issues we started out with, to come up second is pretty good,” added Sieg. “These are so tough. We were kind of just riding around most of the day and then tried to be there at the end and win the thing. We’ve been so good here and just haven’t been here at the very end.”
Still winless in 363 starts, Sieg is determined to put his family-owned team in the winner’s circle eventually.
“One of these times, it’s gonna be us going to Victory Lane, but all in all, it was a great day for Sci Aps and Ford,” expressed Sieg. “We had a good car. We just have to keep it up.”
The 37-year-old driver did believe for a moment that Saturday’s race may finally have been the day.
“Yeah, of course,” Sieg said. “It was fast enough. It was good. I was doing all I could do.”
Follow Chris Knight on X (Twitter) @Knighter01 or email at [email protected].
