Justin Haley took his second win of the 2020 NASCAR Xfinity Series season in Friday’s WaWa 250 at Daytona International Speedway, but it’s how he won that is the story.
Haley was sitting third behind his two Kaulig Racing teammates Ross Chastain and AJ Allmendinger.
Haley had a huge run, and Chastain threw a block. This gave a bunch of momentum to Chastain. Heading into turns three and four, Chastain got his nose to the inside of Allmendinger. The two made contact and slammed hard into the wall. They collected Michael Annett with them.
As they twisted sheet metal and shot off sparks, the No. 11 car cruised to the finish line for the win.
“Amazing effort by Kaulig Racing,” Haley said after the race. “Obviously, I hate that AJ and Ross got together there. As you guys at home can see Matt Kaulig and Chris Rice, we’ve built a team and a family and we all work as one.”
Gray Gaulding, who just missed out on the Stage 2 win earlier in the night, finished second in dramatic fashion.
Chase Briscoe, Riley Herbst and Harrison Burton made it through the chaos to score top-five finishes.
Chastain ended sixth with an absolutely torn up No. 10 car, while Annett, Austin Cindric, Josh Williams and Jesse Little rounded out the top-10 finishers on the night.
For Chastain, the result of crashing his teammate was horrendous, but he was going for the win.
“Terrible to run into your teammate like that. Must be my fault though. It’s unfortunate, we did everything right all night and we just need a win. The No. 10 car and NutrienAg Solutions, I did everything right to be the best teammate that I could, I haven’t always been. Last lap, I don’t back down and I’m going to go for it.”
This event was wild, as there were four multi-car crashes, including a 13-car melee at lap 39.
Post-Race Stat Pack:
