Creed contact, Byron battle ends in another A.J. Allmendinger Austin achievement

Sheldon Creed hoped to finally turn around his abysmal luck in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in Saturday’s Pit Boss 250 at Circuit of the Americas, and looked to be on the right track when he won a stage for the first time and led sixteen laps.

Unfortunately for him, the misfortune continued for another race as contact with A.J. Allmendinger sent him into a spin with fourteen laps remaining. As Creed was left trying to salvage position, Allmendinger faced off against fellow Cup Series driver William Byron and scored his eleventh series win on a road course and second in a row at COTA.

“Hate that I had contact with Sheldon, he got under me, I was trying to stay off him,” Allmendinger explained.

Creed, who eventually recovered to finish ninth, told FOX Sports shortly after, “I’d seen him and I thought I gave him enough room, but I don’t know. I feel like if I’m leading and I give him a little room that he can’t overdrive a corner, I need to watch it. I really don’t know. I could have came down on him.”

With Creed out of contention, Byron became Allmendinger’s biggest opponent but was too far back to close the gap. Allmendinger’s eleven road course victories are the most in Xfinity Series history and complements his two at the Cup level for a baker’s dozen total. Zane Smith‘s win in the Truck event earlier in the day meant both NASCAR support divisions saw their 2022 COTA winners repeat.

“I spent a lot of years not winning anything so I’m going to celebrate every one of them like it’s my last one,” Allmendinger continued. “You never know. As much pressure as I put on myself, I’m always going to try to live up to it.”

Elsewhere in the field, Alex Labbé finished fifteenth in replacement duty for the suspended Josh Williams. Preston Pardus suffered a broken suspension in the first race for family-run Pardus Racing.

Cameron Lawrence and Baltazar Leguizamón, who were hoping to make their Xfinity débuts, were among the four who failed to qualify.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	1	10	A.J. Allmendinger*	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	46	Running
2	9	17	William Byron*	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	46	Running
3	3	19	Ty Gibbs*	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	46	Running
4	2	18	Sammy Smith	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	46	Running
5	8	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	46	Running
6	11	11	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	46	Running
7	14	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	46	Running
8	15	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	46	Running
9	4	2	Sheldon Creed	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	46	Running
10	7	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	46	Running
11	26	9	Brandon Jones	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	46	Running
12	27	16	Chandler Smith	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	46	Running
13	18	88	Miguel Paludo	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	46	Running
14	25	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	46	Running
15	23	92	Alex Labbé	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	46	Running
16	29	78	Anthony Alfredo	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	46	Running
17	34	31	Parker Retzlaff	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	46	Running
18	20	26	Kaz Grala	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	46	Running
19	22	24	Connor Mosack	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	46	Running
20	32	43	Ryan Ellis	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	46	Running
21	21	27	Jeb Burton	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	46	Running
22	33	02	Kyle Weatherman	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	46	Running
23	31	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	46	Running
24	13	08	Aric Almirola*	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	46	Running
25	36	45	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	46	Running
26	38	28	Kyle Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	46	Running
27	6	20	John Hunter Nemechek	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	46	Running
28	24	91	Josh Bilicki	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	46	Running
29	30	53	Brad Pérez	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Chevrolet	46	Running
30	35	38	Joe Graf Jr.	RSS Racing	Ford	46	Running
31	5	48	Parker Kligerman	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	46	Running
32	10	00	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	45	Running
33	37	6	Brennan Poole	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	29	Steering
34	28	25	Brett Moffitt	AM Racing	Ford	27	Engine
35	16	44	Sage Karam	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	23	Engine
36	19	50	Preston Pardus	Pardus Racing	Chevrolet	16	Suspension
37	12	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	13	Engine
38	17	07	Carson Hocevar*	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet	7	Transmission
DNQ		66	Cameron Lawrence	MBM Motorsports	Ford
DNQ		74	Baltazar Leguizamón	CHK Racing	Chevrolet
DNQ		4	Garrett Smithley	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet
DNQ		35	Parker Chase	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Toyota

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points