WATCH: Huge Last Lap Crash in NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff Race at Talladega as Justin Haley Wins

Published 10/04/2020, 1:24 AM EDT

Follow Us

USA Today via Reuters

The Talladega race weekend delivered as promised. It started off on Saturday with a thrilling NASCAR Xfinity Series playoff race. Justin Haley won the race under caution and booked his place in the Round of 8 of the Playoffs.

America’s Favorite Video Today

Haley earned the lead for the first time on the second-last lap and raced to the top from the 10th place in the final 10 laps. With his victory, Haley also became just the third driver to win a hat-trick of superspeedway races in the Xfinity Series. The other two drivers are Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Chase Briscoe dominates the race, but wrecks

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

Chase Briscoe led the race for most of it. With two laps to go, Haley was right there, and the two fought for the lead. Haley grabbed the lead, and soon after, contact with Noah Gragson sent him into the wall. Briscoe fell to 19th place as Haley continued his surge.

Haley, followed by Michael Annett and Ryan Sieg, took a lead over the rest of the field as the final lap began. Then, in a chaotic incident behind them, a multi-car wreck brought out the caution and that secured Haley’s win.

The Quint-Essential NASCAR Newsletter

Huge chaos on the final lap in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race

Trending

Get instantly notified of the hottest NASCAR stories via Google! Click on Follow Us and Tap the Blue Star.

Follow Us

Harrison Burton, Brandon Brown, AJ Allmendinger, and Brett Moffitt were running in close quarters. Allmendinger’s No. 16 car then got turned into the No. 20 car of Harrison Burton and both spun.

Burton’s No. 22 then made contact with the No. 2 car of Moffitt and sent him into the wall, heavily wrecking him as well. Myatt Snider also caught up in the wreck and his day ended. A couple of other cars were also collected in the crash, thereafter.

After the race, Haley admitted he was surprised to get the lead. “Once I got to the lead, I was pretty confident, but I don’t even know how I got to the lead,” Haley said.

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

USA Today via Reuters

Smart thinking from Justin Haley

He expressed that some good guessing and quick thinking on his part helped him greatly.

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

When I got to fifth behind Burton, I was like, ‘Alright, I’m going to ride here and let everyone race, split up, and then I’m going to get a good draft and get up there.’ That’s exactly what happened. A good bit of guessing,” he added.

Annett finished 0.234 seconds behind Haley, but it did not matter. He was disqualified during post-race inspection. Sieg, who finished third, was promoted to second.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE :

ADVERTISEMENT

Written by:

Aayush Majumdar

1,006Articles

One take at a time

Aayush Majumdar is a NASCAR content strategist, a Tennis Writer, and a sports analyst at EssentiallySports. He is well-tenured as a tennis and NASCAR writer, with over 900 articles across both sports. After pursuing a Post Graduate program in Sports Management, Aayush explored various roles in Sports Media, including a Sports Reporting role at a leading English daily.
Show More>

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

EDITORS' PICK

America’s Favorite Video Today