SMITH VICTORIOUS IN PHOENIX
- burningrubberpodcast
- Mar 12, 2024
- 2 min read
Written By: Lena
21-years old, Chandler Smith won is second Xfinity Series race this past Saturday, also being his first with Joe Gibbs racing.
The first two stage of the race went almost caution free, with only 1/3 cautions being for an accident. The other 2 cautions were for the stage end. The first caution flag waved on lap 6 as Jeremy Clements spun into Josh Williams who collected Dawson Cram and Patrick Emerling. Chandler Smith would win stage 1, looking like the car to beat. At the start of stage 2, Custer would regain the lead off of pit road, as Chandler Smith would fall down to 4th. Custer would go on to win stage 2.
Stage 3 is where the action of the race came full force. At the start of stage 3, Ryan Sieg was caught speeding in sectors 11 & 12 on pit road. Actor turned racer, Frankie Muniz would face a restart violation. On Lap 109, Custer and Chandler Smith make contact while battling for the lead. Custer would drop down to 5th as a result. On lap 138, a debatable caution flag would wave for debris in turn 2 after Hailie Deegan made contact with the wall. During pit stops Anthony Alfredo and Nick Leitz were caught speeding. The caution flag would wave on lap 144 as John Hunter Nemechek made contact with Chandler Smith, resulting in a chain reaction and multi-car pile up. A total of 13 cars were damaged in the incident. One of these cars was the 27 of Jeb Burton which caught on fire during the accident. The red flag, was displayed for clean up.
When the race resumed, Justin Allgaier would gain the lead, which would come with a heart break with 5 laps to go. Allgaier’s left rear tire blew causing the driver to spin, crashing into the wall in turn 2. The race would end in overtime. In the restart, Chandler held off Sheldon Creed, to score Joe Gibbs Racing’s second win of the season.
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