As They Began – BetRivers 200
A cloudy day gave the NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers a fast racetrack at Dover Motor Speedway for the BetRivers 200. Brandon Jones was on pole for the BetRivers 200 while Riley Herbst joined him on the front row. Justin Allgaier, Austin Hill, and Sheldon Creed rounded out the top five.
Last week’s winner, Jesse Love, started the race in eighth. Ryan Truex started the race in twelfth after starting in the same position last year and going on to win the race. Carson Kvapil made his second career start in the No. 88 for Jr. Motorsports.
Additionally, Anthony Alfredo, Garrett Smithley, Josh Williams, Jeb Burton, Blaine Perkins, and JJ Yeley were each sent to the rear for unapproved adjustments.
There were 45 laps for stages one and two, and the final stage had 110 laps. The track surface is just over a mile in length, but highly banked in the corners, even so on the straightaways with the surface made of concrete.
Finally, the Dash 4 Cash drivers were Herbst, Love, Ryan Sieg, and Alfredo.
FIRE!
Jones started the race and quickly built a gap over Allgaier who passed Herbst. They filed out with some hard racing peppered around the track. An early caution came out for Yeley as he backed his car into the wall. Hailie Deegan got damage in the wreck.
The race restarted with Allgaier snatching the lead and Jones settled in second behind him. Sieg passed Kyle Weatherman with Truex in tow. Sammy Smith made the pass on Weatherman as well. Cole Custer passed the No. 16 of Allmendinger, when he got loose, for eighth. Then, Allgaier opened his lead over Jones.
Ryan Sieg brought out the second caution when he caught fire. He was able to stop his car and get out safely.
Allgaier had a great restart with under 15 laps left. Love began his path through the field after pitting under yellow. Custer passed Sheldon Creed on the inside, but Allgaier won stage with a commanding lead over Jones and Custer.
Custer won the race off pit road with Hill also gaining spots in second.
Rain?
Before the stage began, Blaine Perkins was towed off the track with an electrical issue. Parker Retzlaff and Love restarted the second stage on the front row, but Love snatched the lead. Jeb Burton was moved a bit by Custer who made a pass.
Shane Van Gisbergen fought on the high side to keep position but was passed by S. Smith, Truex, and Jones. He continued to struggle in the following laps.
Meanwhile, Kaden Honeycutt, making his second Xfinity race of the season did very well running in the 12th position. Custer was able to pass Retzlaff and set his sights on the leader. Custer passed Love with 18 laps left in the stage.
Suddenly, Corey Heim made a green flag pitstop and it appeared something was wrong with the car. Allgaier made up speed late in the stage, but Custer led the last 18 laps and won the stage. With rain on the horizon, most of the cars pitted for tires and fuel.
Not yet!
Custer won the race off pit road with Hill in second, and Allgaier was able to get off pit road in third. Custer restarted the race and Allgaier took second place. However, Allgaier got loose off turn two, but he was able to fight off Hill to maintain second place.
Allgaier, Hill, Herbst, and Love fought for second place. That action allowed the rest of the top ten cars to catch up.
Then, Love caught a bad break with a flat right rear tire. That tire got cut from contact with another car.
Kvapil, on a limited schedule, passed Allmendinger for eighth. With that, Custer pulled out to a more than three-second lead. Truex and Allmendinger passed Chandler Smith for eighth and ninth.
As the rain moved in near the track, the pit stop chatter picked up. The crew chiefs opted to run a little bit longer before pitting to maintain track position.
Creed passed Truex for seventh, but Allgaier seemed to find something as he made up some time on Custer. At the same time, Custer caught lapped traffic which slowed him down. He caught a gaggle of lapped cars and struggled to pass them allowing Allgaier to close the gap. As soon as Custer got passed the lappers, he opened his lead up again.
Then the yellow came out for rain with 41 laps to go in the race. The pits were opened which allowed Herbst to be the first car to pit. The cars were brought down pit road due to the rain picking up. The cars did some laps around the track and Custer pitted with the pits closed. The thought was that the race would resume.
After the Rain Delay
Some confusion led to an additional lap under caution, however, Allgaier and Hill restarted the race on the front row after the rain delay. The green flag dropped with 28 laps left in the race. Allgaier got a great restart. Hill shoved Allgaier into turn three and Kvapil made his way up to third.
Jones got turned by Allmendinger, who bounced off the wall, which brought out the sixth caution. Allgaier pitted for tires and fuel, allowing Hill and Kvapil to restart on the front row with 21 laps left in the race.
Creed into second upon the restart, but Custer made his way back, from pitting under a closed pit, into ninth.
The caution came back out for the seventh time. Taylor Gray was put in the wall off the bumper of Sam Mayer. Creed and Hill sat on the front row for the restart with eleven laps to go. They were side by side for almost a lap, but Creed took the lead. Hill got side by side with Creed. tThen, Kvapil caught up to join the race for the win. Creed and Hill got together and Kvapil passed them for the lead.
Then a Dover-sized big one occurred when Herbst spun out. He took Kyle Sieg, S. Smith, and Brendan Poole with him.
DOVERtime!
Kvapil began overtime on the outside of Hill, but Hill spun in turn one after the restart after running deep into the turn. However, Kvapil ran just as deep which didn’t help Hill.
Then, once again, Kvapil took the top lane for the next restart. This time, Truex was on the inside of him. It was a clean restart but Truex passed Kvapil for the lead and ultimately won the race!
The caution was thrown as Allgaier wrecked, spinning and causing a stack up. Several cars to got into each other.
When the dust settled, Alfredo was the winner of the Dash 4 Cash in the BetRivers 200.
Marvins Thoughts:
The high banking of Dover provided a great race. I am glad NASCAR didn’t call the race because of rain. It seemed like they are less strict with moisture on the track. A few years ago, they would have brought out the track dryers and been delayed for so much longer than today.
Dover is a very fast-paced track that can reward patience and punish aggression. I am a believer that if the NASCAR Cup Series guys ran the Xfinity cars, the product would improve tremendously.
#Dovertime 🙌