Last night, Part-time NASCAR Xfinity driver and NBC Sports Broadcaster AJ Allmendinger won the Atlanta race.
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The 38-year-old driver held off last race winner Noah Gragson to take his 1st win of the season in the EchoPark 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Additionally, AJ scored his first win in an oval track and his fourth win in the Xfinity Series.
After the race, AJ said, “Oh my God, oh my God, I won on an oval. Do you like that? Whoo!”. He added, “This is Atlanta. The car was awesome on long runs, probably better than the driver early. Once I got in the lead, I was just trying to hit my marks, which is hard to do.”
NEWS: @AJDinger's No. 16 car clears post-race inspection at @amsupdates.
The win is official. pic.twitter.com/o8ZtAxUxft
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) June 7, 2020
Earlier in the race, Austin Cindric led the race for 68 laps and won the first two stages. However, he was penalized for speeding in his last pit stop. The penalty put him out of contention and he finished at the 16th spot.
After that, AJ inherited the lead following the final restart and fought off strong challenges from Gragson and Justin to win the race. Kaulig Racing’s Justin Haley finished third followed by Daniel Hemric and Harrison Burton at the fourth and fifth spots.
AJ Allmendinger qualifies for the next week’s NASCAR Xfinity Dash 4 Cash race
AJ was not supposed to race in Homestead-Miami but after his win, NASCAR confirmed that he is eligible to take part in the ‘Dash 4 Cash’ challenge. The announcement ended all suspicion around whether he can take part in the challenge as a part-time driver or not.
NEWS: @AJDinger, @NoahGragson, @Justin_Haley_ and @DanielHemric qualify for next weekend's #Dash4Cash race at @HomesteadMiami.
The $100,000 bonus will be awarded during Sunday's #XfinitySeries race. (12:00 PM ET | @FS1) pic.twitter.com/qZZtkIZgwi
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) June 7, 2020
After that, Kaulig Racing boss Chris Rice revealed that the team will certainly put Dinger in a car at Homestead for the ‘Dash 4 Cash’ race. He said, “I haven’t told AJ this yet, but we will be running the second race at Homestead next Sunday with the Ellsworth Advisors Chevrolet with A.J. Allmendinger starting dead last because we will not run the first race (Saturday), we’ll run the second race.”
Rice added, “Allmendinger said he had a tee time, but that gives Kaulig Racing two chances to run for $100,000. So yeah, we’ll be there with A.J.”
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