Local favorite Ryan Truex prevailed in a double-overtime finish in the BetRivers 200 NASCAR Xfinity Series race Saturday at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway, leading only the two final laps to earn back-to-back victories at the one-mile track.
The New Jersey native and defending race winner started alongside Carson Kvapil, 20, on the front row for the final overtime re-start, then pulled away to take the lead and ultimately the white flag — signaling one lap to go. An accident elsewhere on track officially ended the race under caution.
“I can’t believe it, our car was just good at the end when it mattered, I was so loose all day,” said Truex, 32, the younger brother of NASCAR Cup Series driver Martin Truex Jr.
“Shoutout to Carson. What an amazing run for, what, his second race. I felt a little bad running him up the hill, but you’ve got to take these things when you can.
“I think I held my breath the last two laps. Love these fans. Love this track.”
While Truex hoisted and will certainly savor the Dover trophy, it was also a great day for Kvapil driving the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. The son of former NASCAR driver Travis Kvapil had finished fourth in his only other series start at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway earlier this year.
“This is pretty incredible,” Kvapil said. “Definitely felt like we had a fast car going into the day, but to be competing for the win on a green-white-checkered is pretty amazing. We’ve been in this situation before, just not quite at this level.”
For much of the final laps, the outcome looked like it was going to be decided between former Richard Childress Racing teammates Austin Hill and Sheldon Creed.
Hill, driver of the No. 21 RCR Chevrolet, and Creed, who now drives the No. 18 JGR Toyota, restarted door-to-door on the front row on a re-start with 11 laps remaining. As that pair raced aggressively side-by-side for the lead, Kvapil put his Chevy down low, three-wide and drove past the pair to take the lead with eight laps remaining.
On the final restart of regulation — with five laps remaining — Hill and Kvapil re-started alongside one another on the front row, but Hill spun out in tight-quarter action between them in Turn 1, necessitating overtime.
Kvapil was able to fend off the field on that first re-start, only to have another caution come out. On the second re-start, he and Truex started alongside each other, but Truex was able to get around Kvapil at the start and pace the field for the final two laps.
The race was briefly halted under red flag conditions for a light rain with 34 laps remaining. Stewart-Haas Racing’s Cole Custer — who led a race-best 95 of the 208 laps — was leading at the time and then decided to pit for tires and fuel during yellow flag laps just before the cars re-started. He had to re-start at the tail end of the field, but the reigning series champion rallied back to a fifth-place finish — able to advance on three ensuing caution periods plus the double overtime.
JR Motorsports’ Sam Mayer finished third, with Creed fourth followed by Custer. Kaulig Racing’s A.J. Allmendinger was sixth, followed by JGR’s Chandler Smith, Kyle Weatherman Racing’s Kyle Weatherman, Our Motorsports’ Anthony Alfredo and Jordan Anderson Racing’s Parker Retzlaff.
The ninth-place finish was especially big for Alfredo, earning him the final Dash 4 Cash $100,000 prize — besting Riley Herbst, Jesse Love and Ryan Sieg — in the last of the four-race incentive program sponsored by Xfinity.
“Really coming into this race, that was our motivation, it wasn’t something to just be a part of, yeah, I mean this was huge,” Alfredo said. “You don’t understand how small our budget is compared to these bigger teams. People overlook it because we’ve been running so well. The last three weeks we’ve been running top-10, and everyone asks, ‘Who’s your alliance with?’
“… Coming into this race, we knew if we could pull it off, we could invest in our team to be that much better.”
JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier, a two-time Dover winner, won the opening stage of the race and ran up front — his 39 laps in the lead second only to Custer. He also made a pit stop in the waning laps and managed to rally back to a 17th-place finish.
Smith now leads Custer by a single point in the Xfinity Series championship standings as the series heads into an off-week. It resumes racing at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway in the Royal Purple Bag Project 200 on May 11 (1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). NASCAR Cup Series regular Kyle Larson is the defending race winner.
Note
Post-race inspection in the Xfinity Series garage was completed at Dover Motor Speedway without major issue, confirming Truex as the race winner. Officials found the runner-up No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet of Kvapil with one unsecured lug nut in a post-race check. The infraction should result in a monetary fine for No. 88 crew chief Andrew Overstreet in next week’s penalty report.
NASCAR Xfinity Series Race — BetRivers 200
Dover Motor Speedway, Dover, Delaware
Saturday, April 27, 2024
1. (12) Ryan Truex, Toyota, 208.
2. (26) Carson Kvapil, Chevrolet, 208.
3. (20) Sam Mayer, Chevrolet, 208.
4. (5) Sheldon Creed, Toyota, 208.
5. (11) Cole Custer, Ford, 208.
6. (10) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 208.
7. (7) Chandler Smith, Toyota, 208.
8. (6) Kyle Weatherman, Chevrolet, 208.
9. (21) Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet, 208.
10. (17) Parker Retzlaff, Chevrolet, 208.
11. (19) Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, 208.
12. (15) Parker Kligerman, Chevrolet, 208.
13. (23) Ryan Ellis, Chevrolet, 208.
14. (25) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 208.
15. (4) Austin Hill, Chevrolet, 208.
16. (2) Riley Herbst, Ford, 208.
17. (3) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 208.
18. (31) Shane Van Gisbergen #, Chevrolet, 208.
19. (1) Brandon Jones, Chevrolet, 208.
20. (36) Daniel Dye(i), Chevrolet, 208.
21. (28) Leland Honeyman #, Chevrolet, 207.
22. (27) Brennan Poole, Chevrolet, 207.
23. (18) Kaden Honeycutt(i), Chevrolet, 206.
24. (8) Jesse Love #, Chevrolet, 206.
25. (38) Josh Williams, Chevrolet, 206.
26. (37) David Starr, Chevrolet, 206.
27. (24) Kyle Sieg, Ford, 206.
28. (30) Patrick Emerling, Chevrolet, 205.
29. (32) Dawson Cram #, Chevrolet, 205.
30. (35) Garrett Smithley, Chevrolet, 202.
31. (29) Hailie Deegan #, Ford, 200.
32. (16) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 196.
33. (13) Sammy Smith, Chevrolet, Accident, 192.
34. (9) Taylor Gray(i), Toyota, Accident, 183.
35. (22) Corey Heim(i), Toyota, Engine, 85.
36. (34) Blaine Perkins, Ford, Electrical, 47.
37. (14) Ryan Sieg, Ford, Engine, 25.
38. (33) JJ Yeley, Toyota, Accident, 4.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 87.395 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 22 Mins, 48 Secs. Margin of Victory: Under Caution Seconds.
Caution Flags: 10 for 61 laps.
Lead Changes: 11 among 10 drivers.
Lap Leaders: B. Jones 0;B. Jones 1-13;J. Allgaier 14-47;K. Sieg 48;P. Retzlaff 49-51;J. Love # 52-72;C. Custer 73-167;J. Allgaier 168-172;A. Hill 173-188;S. Creed 189-191;A. Hill 192;C. Kvapil 193-206;R. Truex 207-208.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Cole Custer 1 time for 95 laps; Justin Allgaier 2 times for 39 laps; Jesse Love # 1 time for 21 laps; Austin Hill 2 times for 17 laps; Carson Kvapil 1 time for 14 laps; Brandon Jones 1 time for 13 laps; Sheldon Creed 1 time for 3 laps; Parker Retzlaff 1 time for 3 laps; Ryan Truex 1 time for 2 laps; Kyle Sieg 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 7,9,00,18,98,21,81,16,20,1
Stage #2 Top Ten: 00,21,2,31,18,7,98,81,8,20
–By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service. Special to Field Level Media.
