Although the result wasn’t indicative of the performance, NASCAR Xfinity Series rookie contender Nick Sanchez had an impressive showing in Saturday’s Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 at Texas Motor Speedway.
The Miami, Florida-native was able to limp his gold-painted No. 48 Borchetta Bourbon Chevrolet home to a disappointing 20th-place result, after smacking the wall in NASCAR Overtime, an incident that derailed a possible top-five run.
At the time of the incident, Sanchez was well on his way to one of the best results of his Xfinity Series career, after spending the closing portion of Saturday’s event fighting for the victory against Kyle Larson, Austin Hill, and others.
With a third and fourth-place finish in the race’s opening two stages, Sanchez still managed to leave Fort Worth, Texas, with 32 points — equivalent to a top-five result without any stage points.
“Just going 100% and going for the win, and obviously some people had tires, and yeah, just overstepped the limit, paid the price and tore down the fence,” said Sanchez. “It sucks. but it is what it is.”
Although the results aren’t being totally maximized every week, Big Machine Racing has had no shortage of speed throughout the first 12 races of the season, as the team transitions from having Parker Kligerman in the seat for the last two seasons.
Two weeks ago, at Rockingham, Sanchez qualified a career-best third, before winning the race’s first stage and leading a career-high 52 laps. Despite having one of the quickest cars all afternoon, the 23-year-old was relegated to 31st after being involved in a multi-car incident.
Over the last couple of seasons at Big Machine Racing, that kind of speed has gone from being a rarity to being an expectation, and it shows in the mentality of the rookie driver.
“It’s expected every week by my team owner, by myself, this is why I joined this team, to do this, and we’re almost there, [we] just gotta keep on going,” Sanchez added.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series will now have back-to-back weekends off, as drivers and teams look to take what they’ve learned from the early months of the season and apply it.
Sanchez and the No. 48 Chevrolet for Big Machine Racing, currently sit 15th in NASCAR Xfinity Series point standings, less than 25 points below the Playoffs cutline.
When the series returns to action on Memorial Day Weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the site of Sanchez’s debut in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, the Scott Borchetta-owned team will look to continue with its strong pace.
