KANSAS CITY, Kan. – The opening race in the semi-final round of the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs started off with a spectacular crash in Turn 1 of the Kansas Lottery 300 when Justin Allgaier lost control of his car and collected eight other drivers including two of his Playoff rivals.
When Allgaier got loose in Turn 2, Allgaier slid into Christopher Bell who spun and blocked a portion of the track that saw Austin Cindric pile-in and spin to the bottom of the track directly in the path of Ryan Truex, Michael Annett and Spencer Gallagher.
Cole Custer who started 10th was also collected trying to avoid the carnage as was Ross Chastain. Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL winner Chase Briscoe also received damage in his final race this season with Stewart-Haas Racing.
All but Allgaier, Annett, Bell and Cindric were able to continue with Custer going to the garage for suspension issues at the conclusion of Stage 1.
Allgaier took responsibility for the accident.
“That one’s on me. I’m super disappointed for everybody involved,” he said. “Not only did we wreck our day but a lot of the other competitors. Hate it for those guys. Hopefully, we can get to Texas next week and rebound from it.”
Cindric who desperately needed Playoff points and strong results in the Round of 8 chalked the incident up to a racing deal.
“That was a pretty big hit, bigger than what I was expecting,” Cindric said. “It’s just unfortunate. It looks like just a racing deal there – (Allgaier) got loose under (Bell) and cleared out a few of us up front.
“I’m thankful to still be in the playoffs and still have a shot. I felt like we had a shot to win today. We’ll move on, have a week to think about it, go to Texas. Looks like we’re going to have to win (to advance).”
Bell who entered the race as the points leader with a 43-point advantage over Hemric said he felt like he had a car capable of winning.
“I didn’t really see much of anything. Just kind of driving around there. Just heartbroken,” he said. “This is one of my favorite race tracks we go to and especially after the run I had last year, this is the race that I was looking forward to whenever we started the year back in February. Our Rheem Camry was fast throughout practice and we qualified second, so felt like we were going to be able to contend for the win, but I think this is – actually this is not the first time I’ve been out on the first lap.
“We’ll try and make up for it at Texas and we still got a lot of race tracks that I can win races at, so hopefully we’ll move on from here.”
Despite his fifth DNF of the season, Bell remains optimistic about his title hopes, especially after earning a healthy basket of stage points during the open round.
That’s the beauty of this format. NASCAR’s done such a great job at giving us something to race for during the regular season,” he sounded. “We’ve done our job winning six races this year, so we’ve accumulated some bonus points, so hopefully that can carry us through this bad stretch here and maybe we can find ourselves in victory lane later on in this round. If not, hopefully, the bonus points will get us there.”
Kansas is the first of three races in the last round of events before the Championship 4 event at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway, where the highest four drivers in the point standings will compete for the Xfinity Series championship on Nov. 17.
The series will take a week off next weekend before returning to Texas Motor Speedway on Sat., Nov. 3 and the cutoff race at ISM Raceway (Phoenix) the following week on Nov. 10.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
