Noah Gragson won Saturday’s Xfinity Series opener at Daytona, taking the victory in a three-lap shootout that ended under caution and claiming his first career Xfinity Series win.
The victory comes in his 37th career start.
Gragson, 21, beat Harrison Burton, Timmy Hill, Chase Briscoe and Brandon Jones.
It is JR Motorsports’ third straight win in the season-opening race at Daytona.
“I’m so thankful for this opportunity,” Gragson told FS1. “Man, I’m speechless right now, I didn’t think this would come. … I spent a lot of time with (team owner) Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. this week, talking for about two hours. Wanted to be a better speedway race. He told me ‘go have fun, wreckers or checkers, you got to manage you gaps, be there at the end and just go lead the damn the thing.’ That’s what we did.”
The race ended under caution due to a large wreck on the backstretch on the final lap.
The finish was setup by a wreck on a restart with seven laps to go.
It collected Jeb Burton, Austin Cindric, Ryan Sieg, Brett Moffitt and others. It began after Briscoe took the lead and he moved up to block Gragson as they neared Turn 3. Burton, running behind Gragson, checked up and was turned by Cindric. He bounced off Brandon Jones before turning back into the wall, causing a chain reaction.
The wreck resulted in a seven minute and 50 second red flag.
STAGE 1 WINNER: Jeb Burton led a 1-2-3-4 sweep by JR Motorsports to end the first stage.
STAGE 2 WINNER: Justin Allgaier won the stage under caution following a wreck by Riley Herbst, pole-sitter Myatt Snider and Chris Cockrum on the last lap.
WHO HAD A GOOD RACE: Harrison Burton earned his best finish in 10 Xfinity starts and his second top five … Timmy Hill earned his best finish and his first top five in 185 career Xfinity starts. It came hours after his MBM Motorsports team received a L2 level penalty for an improper body modification, which included a six-race suspension for his crew chief
WHO HAD A BAD RACE: Caesar Bacarella finished 29th after he spun on his own exiting Turn 4 on the first lap the race … Jeremy Clements finished 28th after the hood on his No. 51 card tore apart on Lap 19 and caused a debris caution … Defending race winner Michael Annett got loose on spun on Lap 38 and collected Austin Hill and rookie Joe Graf Jr in a wreck. Annett finished 11th after he was in the last-lap crash. Hill placed 35th and Graf placed 36th … Justin Allgaier finished 30th after he was involved in a wreck with Josh Bilicki and Clements with 13 laps to go …
WHAT’S NEXT: Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway at 3:30 p.m. ET on Feb. 22 on FS1.
