How many different twists and turns could Monday night’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Alsco 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway take? In the end, it was Kyle Busch who took another trophy — his 97th-career in the Xfinity Series — but the path to this win was not an easy one.
On the final green-white-checkered restart of the night, Busch had the lead, but Austin Cindric got a much better restart, and actually took the lead going into turns one and two.
It looked like Cindric may hold off Busch, but Busch pulled a power side draft move down the backstretch of the final lap to get by for the lead.
As they came off turn four, Daniel Hemric slid past Cindric for second, while Busch cruised to the win.
Busch was the dominant car in the race, but with around 50 laps left, Busch was busted for speeding on pit road. He lost a lap while serving his penalty, but a series of cautions not long after got him back on the lead lap and back in contention.
Behind the trio of Busch, Hemric and Cindric was Ross Chastain in fourth. Chastain looked to be a threat for the win, but he slammed the wall late in the event after sliding in oil that was put down by Timmy Hill’s blown engine on lap 152.
Justin Allgaier slapped the wall and cut a tire, but also managed to rally back for a fifth-place finish.
Brett Moffitt got a hard-fought sixth-place finish for Our Motorsports, while Michael Annett, Brandon Brown, Harrison Burton and Myatt Snider rounded out the top-10 finishers.
The hardest luck story of the race definitely had to be journeyman racer Tommy Joe Martins. Martins, who drives for himself in the No. 44 car, was in position for his first-career top-10 finish in the closing laps, but when Noah Gragson spun on lap 199, he collected Martins, who went hard into the inside wall.
Martins’ race was done and he would be credited with a 24th-place finish.
Post-Race Stat Pack:
