AVONDALE, Ariz. – The penultimate NASCAR Xfinity Series at ISM Raceway brought drama and emotion front and center for the Whelen Trusted to Perform 200.
All said and done, Christopher Bell rocketed from his 38th place starting position and advanced to the Championship 4 with a clutch victory, his seventh of the 2018 season.
Bell will be joined by Texas winner Cole Custer, Daniel Hemric and JR Motorsports’ Tyler Reddick for the title fight in next Saturday’s Ford EcoBoost 300.
On the flip side, four other drivers were eliminated. Justin Allgaier, Austin Cindric Elliott Sadler and Matt Tifft will all head to Homestead fighting for a win in the season finale, instead of the coveted title.
Considered one of the late bloomers in Saturday afternoon’s race, Matt Tifft potentially was one restart away from his first Xfinity Series win and a punch to the Championship 4.
A huge block by Bell on the final restart, however, kept his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet at bay and keeping the Hinckley, Ohio native out of Victory Lane and out of the championship hunt.
After the race, Tifft said his No. 2 Go Green Chevrolet became too tight to contend with teammate Hemric and Bell for his first career win.
“I’m really proud of my team,” Tifft said. “This weekend we’ve had really good speed and I knew it was going to turn into something pretty here good today. That last run, we didn’t need the caution. That extra heat cycle on tires I think just tighten us up too much.
“I knew the way the stages played out and the penalty we had earlier, we were going to have to win. I thought we had a chance, but that last caution, the 20 (Bell) really took off and I just got a little bit too tight there. So, valiant effort. Like I said before the race, we were going to have to down swinging being on offense and that’s all you can do.”
Austin Cindric said on Saturday he was “tired of being pushed around” by his competitors, and he did some pushing of his own aboard his No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang for Team Penske,
but even though an aggressive Cindric had speed, he was no match for Bell in a must-win situation.
Cindric settled for fourth, his sixth top-five run of the year.
“I needed track position and a long green flag run,” he said. “We had an awesome Discount Tire Ford Mustang today, something definitely capable of winning the race today and locking us into Homestead, but we didn’t quite get what we needed to going to that third stage.
“I was just relying on track position from there on out and got three cautions we didn’t need, but I’m just really thankful to be in these Playoffs and in this system. I’m excited for Homestead next week. I think we’ve got a really good shot at going out there and being a surprise winner.”
In his final Xfinity Series season as a full-time driver, Elliott Sadler approached the Whelen 200 as an opportunity to have a clean race and move onto the Championship 4.
Unfortunately, for Sadler, his No. 1 Hunt Bros. Pizza Chevrolet made contact with lap car Chad Finchum early in the race and damaged to the front-end of his JR Motorsports car.
Sadler could never recover from the handling setback or a hefty presence at the front. Even though, the Emporia, Va. native settled for 11th, he won’t compete for his first series’ championship and will instead seek his 14th series’ victory.
“I made too many mistakes today to give my guys an opportunity,” Sadler said. “It’s all on me. My guys work too hard and deserve to be a part of this Championship 4 at Homestead, but I just didn’t pull my part through.
“It’s going to be an emotional week. I have one race left, and my wife and kids are coming to Homestead, and we’ll make the most of it, but it’s definitely going to be hard to look my guys
in the eye, knowing we’re not part of the championship.”
After finishing second in the spring at ISM Raceway, Justin Allgaier picked up where he left off Saturday winning the first two stages – but the five-time Xfinity Series winner saw his day go flat after getting together with John Hunter Nemechek in the late stages of the race – which caused significant right-front damage to his No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet.
Despite multiple pit stops, Allgaier was able to hustle back inside the top-10, but inside the final 20 laps of the race, the brakes began to fail on his JR Motorsports Chevrolet – sending the Riverton, Il. native plummeting through the field and eventually finishing 24th, one lap in the arrears.
“It’s extremely disappointing,” Allgaier said. “But we did everything we could in the first two stages. We had a really fast Brandt Camaro. We had a lot of trouble today, seeing our pit stall. It was really difficult to see where we were at and navigate that. I lost us some spots on pit road.
“Ultimately, put ourselves in a bad position. Got some damage and we lost the brakes there at the end. At that point it was just about survival, finishing the race and getting as many points as we could gain.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
