Road America results from August 27, 2017 featuring the NASCAR Xfinity Series
Today, the NASCAR Xfinity Series makes a rare Sunday appearance. It’s an off-week for the Cup Series. The spotlight is on the NXS drivers and the Elkhart Lake, WI road course.
View full NASCAR Road America results below
Many drivers were prying for rain today. Even more were praying for a lack of rain. There’s no rain tires in use, yet. But when one of these drivers end up off-track they’re going to find a whole lot of water hiding in the grass.
10 laps in stage 1. Another 10 in stage 2 and 25 in the final stage. Austin Cendric and James Davison lead the field up the hill and to the green.
Stage 1
Green flag, Austin Cendric gets the jump on the inside. Long straight aways at Road America. Light side draft, Davison pulls Cendric back to him. Davison sweeps around the outside in turn 1.
Lap 5, Scott Lagasse Jr has beached it in turn 5. He tried to pass two cars at the entry. The other two cars, hit the brakes. Lagasse tried to out brake the both of them. He missed the corner completely, looped it and slid backwards into the sand. He can’t get out, caution.
Many cars hit pit road. Elliott Sadler and Brendan Gaughan included. The hood is going up on the Gaughan machine. Why? They are taking everything related to a rain setup, out of the car. Many teams took a gamble on a rain setup or a partial rain set. There’s no rain here today.
After last week in Bristol, Gaughan needs to win today. Last week he stated, “We’re gunna win that sucker.”
Related: Brendan Gaughan is mad at Jeb Burton after Bristol
Green flag, Davison is clear by a car length at the flag stand, two car lengths by turn 1. Justin Marks gets to the inside of Cendric. Cendric gives him the bumper in turn 2!
Marks sideways and back to 4th. Marks is back to the rear bumper of Cendric in turn 6. To the inside, Cendric wisely let’s him go.
1 to go, James Davison is cruising. He wins stage 1.
Stage 1 Results: 1. James Davison; 2. Justin Marks; 3. Austin Cendric; 4. Brennan Poole; 5. Justin Allgaier; 6. Ryan Reed; 7. Matt Tifft; 8. William Byron; 9. Christopher Bell; 10. Sheldon Creed;
Stage 2
The front runners hit pit road. Davison is in first and out first. The crew goes to work on the Cendric machine. He suffered some nose damage during the bump n run. Davison, too fast exiting!
Green flag, Elliott Sadler and Brennan Poole lead the field to green. Daniel Hemric has a run on both of them from row two. He looks to the inside. 3 wide into turn 1. Hemric moves to 2nd but Sadler powers by on the outside to take the lead. Poole had a narrow entry to the corner, he had to check up a lot more.
Turn 5, Poole and Ben Kennedy to the inside of Hemric. That was short lived.
Lap 14, caution. Ryan Sieg has cut a tire. Rubber bits have been scattered across the track.
Green, Daniel Hamric gets anther run from row two. This time he glues his car to the back bumper of Elliott Sadler. Instead of making it 3 wide, he pushes himself up to 2nd.
Hemric looks to the outside of Sadler at the entry to turn 5. Salder has to pinch his entry, his exit speed suffers. Hemric crosses to the inside on exit. With more exit speed, Hemric moves to the lead.
3 to go in stage 2, Poole is on pit road. At the front, Sadler has a run on Hemric. He pulls to the inside, so does Hemric. It’s a big block. Salder gives him a bump. It doesn’t effect Hemric but Sadler slips. He falls to 4th.
2 to go, Allgaier has a run on Sadler into turn 1. He looks to the inside but he hits the brakes and bails. Ryan Reed was planning to slip through with Allgaier. He was already late on the brakes, Allgaier braking early didn’t help. Reed goes around.
1 to go, trouble! Davison looks to the inside of Marks. Ross Chastain put his nose between them up the hill. Marks wasn’t aware of the 3 wide situation.
As he came across the track, he was hooked by the front nose of Chastain. This sent Marks into Davison and sent Davison off track and into the wall. Marks then slid through turn 5, as did Chastain. Davison bounced off the wall and continued, heavy damage.
Daniel Hemric wins stage 2 at Road America.
Stage 2 Results: 1. Daniel Hemric; 2. Ben Kennedy; 3. Elliott Sadler; 4. Justin Allgaier; 5. JJ Yaley; 6. Matt Tifft; 7. Jeremy Clements; 8. Brendan Gaughan; 9. Casey Mears; 10. Blake Koch;
Stage 3
Slow, slow restart. Green flag, Hemric gets the jump and leads the field out of turn 1. Sadler was on his bumper into turn 1 but he gets swallowed on the exit.
Lap 27, Brennan Poole has looped it. he continues. Hemric and Kennedy are on pit road. Penalty! Hemric, too fast entering. Brandon Jones, too fast exiting. Lap 29, Cendric is on pit road.
15 to go, Ryan Reed has a flat tire. He’s scattering rubber all over the track. He pulls to an escape route and back to the pits.
10 to go, Jeremy Clements is the leader. He leads Michael Annett by 2.6 seconds. Cendric runs 10th. Hemric is all the way back in 20th. Clements and others will need to pit one more time.
More trouble for Ryan Reed. He used up all of the tracks limits and then some. He ran it through the grass on corner entry, then ran wide and into the wall on corner exit. He continues.
9 to go, Clements is on pit road. The lead is passed off to Michael Annett. Justin Marks and Annett will need to pit before this race ends. Annett to pit road as it Justin Marks. Matt Tifft picks up the lead.
Cendric has a flat! He hits pit road.
6 to go, Tifft leads. Brendan Gaugan runs 2nd. However, Jeremy Clements is flying on fresh rubber. He looks to the outside of Gaughan in turn 5. Via fresh rubber, he makes the outside pass work.
5 to go, Tifft leads Clements by 5.6 second. Clements is turn laps 1-1.5 seconds quicker. He’s going to catch him with 1 lap to go in this race!
4 to go, the #40 of Tim Cowen is off track. He’s stuck. No yellow yet. He just missed his braking point. He gets it re-fired.
3 to go, Tifft leads by 1.7 seconds. Clements has never won a race in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, he’s got a great shot today in his family owned car.
2 to go, Tifft leads by 1.2 seconds. Tifft has a lapper ahead. He looks to the inside on entry. He’s around but advantage Clements, he caught him on exit. Clements is there in turn 5. On his bumper. Clements looks to the inside in turn 8, he wheel hops. Tifft gives him room to collect it and holds the lead on exit. Great racing!
Coming to the white flag, Clements uses all the run off room leading into the final corner. He’s got a run. He dives to the inside. Late braking, Clements is sideways on the brakes. He slides into Tifft. Contact! They both spin! Clements loops it and continues. He’s still the leader! Tifft continues as well, he maintains 2nd.
Jeremy Clements wins at Road America!
View full Road America results below.
On the cool down lap, Tifft takes a swing at Clements with his hand out the window. No contact, he just wanted to make him aware that he was mad.
Jeremy Clements from victory lane, “I don’t even know what to say. I’m just shocked. I mean, this is a car built in 2008. Everything we got is old and used. I just can’t believe it.”
“It’s like… Is this real? It’s pretty neat to win at Road America. It’s one of my favorite road courses.”
Related: Jeremy Clements takes full blame for Road America contact
Road America Video Highlights
August 27, 2017
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Road America Results
August 27, 2017
NASCAR Xfinity Series
1. Jeremy Clements
2. Matt Tifft
3. Michael Annett
4. Brendan Gaughan
5. William Byron
6. Cole Custer
7. Justin Marks
8. Blake Koch
9. Casey Mears
10. Parker Kligerman
11. Justin Allgaier
12. Josh Bilicki
13. Elliott Sadler
14. Ross Chastain
15. Daniel Hemric
16. Austin Cendric
17. JJ Yaley
18. Ben Kennedy
19. Christopher Bell
20. Ryan Sieg
21. Ryan Ellis
22. Dakoda Armstrong
23. Scott Lagasse Jr
24. Spencer Gallagher
25. Brandon Jones
26. Dexter Bean
27. Garrett Smithley
28. David Starr
29. Nicolas Hammann
30. John Graham
31. Brennan Poole
32. Joey Gase
33. Dylan Lupton
34. Stephen Young
35. Ryan Reed
36. Tim Cowen
37. James Davison
38. Sheldon Creed
39. Ernie Francis Jr
40. Jeff Green
