NASCAR Xfinity championship down to 4 drivers in season finale at Phoenix
NASCAR Xfinity championship down to 4 drivers in season finale at Phoenix
FILE - Justin Allgaier greets fans prior to a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, May 26, 2024, in Concord, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley, File)
FILE - AJ Allmendinger answers questions during NASCAR Daytona 500 auto racing media day at Daytona International Speedway, Feb. 14, 2024, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)
FILE - Austin Hill slaps hands with spectators during driver introductions before a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Aug. 26, 2023, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)
FILE - NASCAR Cup Series driver Cole Custer is introduced before the Crayon 301 NASCAR Cup Series race, July 17, 2023, at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, in Loudon, N.H. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)
FILE - Justin Allgaier greets fans prior to a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, May 26, 2024, in Concord, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley, File)
FILE - Justin Allgaier greets fans prior to a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, May 26, 2024, in Concord, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley, File)
FILE - AJ Allmendinger answers questions during NASCAR Daytona 500 auto racing media day at Daytona International Speedway, Feb. 14, 2024, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)
FILE - AJ Allmendinger answers questions during NASCAR Daytona 500 auto racing media day at Daytona International Speedway, Feb. 14, 2024, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)
FILE - Austin Hill slaps hands with spectators during driver introductions before a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Aug. 26, 2023, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)
FILE - Austin Hill slaps hands with spectators during driver introductions before a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Aug. 26, 2023, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)
FILE - NASCAR Cup Series driver Cole Custer is introduced before the Crayon 301 NASCAR Cup Series race, July 17, 2023, at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, in Loudon, N.H. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)
FILE - NASCAR Cup Series driver Cole Custer is introduced before the Crayon 301 NASCAR Cup Series race, July 17, 2023, at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, in Loudon, N.H. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)
AVONDALE, Ariz. (AP) — All four NASCAR Xfinity championship drivers said the right things heading into the season finale.
Everyone will be respectful of each other on the track, I’m just going to run my race, let the best man win — you get the picture.
That will all change once the green flag drops at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday. A season championship on the line, cars will be bouncing all over the track.
“Everyone here is selfish and wants to win a championship for themselves and their teams,” Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill said on Thursday. “Anyone who says they aren’t is lying. When it comes down to it, elbows will be up and guys will be muscling each other up the track to win a championship.”
Saturday’s race will be new territory for Hill in a pack of contenders who have been through it before.
While the 30-year-old Hill is making his first appearance in the Xfinity championship four, Cole Custer is the reigning champion, Justin Allgaier is making his seventh appearance in nine years and AJ Allmendinger made it this far for the second time.
The chance to win a championship will undoubtedly lead to some hard racing. The race just to make the final four already did at Martinsville last weekend.
Custer was in the center of it.
The Stewart-Haas Racing driver tangled with Allmendinger early in the race, ending his day, and raced Chandler Smith hard at the end. Smith, who could have made the championship four win a win, didn’t appreciate Custer’s on-track bluster and confronted him after the race, landing a slap on the 24-year-old’s face that cost him a $10,000 fine from NASCAR.
Title race or not, Custer may want to look over his shoulder at Phoenix on Saturday.
“At the end of the day I am going to go run my race and see where we end up, and try to maximize the day,” Custer said. “You race how you get raced, and you go from there.”
Allmendinger missed a chance to contend at Martinsville, but had already clinched a spot in the championship with a win at Las Vegas on Oct. 19 — his only win of the season.
The 42-year-old Kaulig Racing driver made the Xfinity playoffs three times, including a fourth-place finish in 2021. Allmendinger is seeking his first championship in an Xfinity and Cup Series career that started in 2007.
“I don’t feel the pressure of the championship like I have in years past,” said Allmendinger, who will return to the Cup Series full-time next year. “Being here as many times as I have and it’s not worked out, you just get this sense of peace of like, I’ve been here before and we’ve not been able to accomplish it, so change the game plan, go into it with a different mindset and we’ll see what happens.”
Allgaier can empathize.
The 38-year-old JR Motorsports driver has won 25 career Xfinity Series races, including two this year, reached the playoffs every year and has finished second in the championship twice — last year and 2020. Allgaier got the 2024 season off to a slow start, but won twice and took fifth at Martinsville to qualify for the championship four.
“There was a time in the middle of the summer where ... we might just have to do something to make the playoffs, let alone worry about trying to go through each round,” Allgaier said. “It’s definitely been an up-and-down year, but I want to win a championship.”
Hill’s season was nearly the opposite to Allgaier’s.
Hill won the first two races, at Daytona and Atlanta, but didn’t take the checkered flag again until the second Atlanta race in early September. Known to ruffle a few fenders with his aggressive driving, Hill added a win at Homestead in the Round of 8 to earn his first shot at the championship four.
“I came to RCR for one thing, one thing only, and that was to win races,” Hill said. “And we’ve been able to do that.”
Now it comes down to one more race — for a championship.
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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing