Justin Allgaier wins Daytona dash in 4th-closest Xfinity finish

Sheldon Creed‘s hunt for his first NASCAR Xfinity Series win has been a campaign of disappointments left and right, from losing in last-lap scrambles (multiple times, in fact) to getting spun while fighting for the lead to even having the fastest car set back by a qualifying crash and divine intervention. Perhaps his most heartbreaking defeat took place Friday night at Daytona International Speedway when the difference between victory and yet another runner-up finish was just .005.

Creed escaped a pair of wrecks in overtime to restart second alongside Justin Allgaier for the third attempt. Allgaier initially found the early run while Creed with Daniel Hemric to keep pace before catching the leader on the final lap. He carried his newfound momentum to take the lead along the outside in turn three, but Allgaier had enough speed coming to the finish to beat him by five one-thousandths of a second.

It tied with the 2018 Coca-Cola Firecracker 250 at Daytona for the fourth-closest finish in Xfinity Series history, trailing the .002 set by the 1996 Sears Auto Center 250 at Milwaukee and 1998 Touchstone Energy 300 at Talladega, as well as the .0004 in the 2018 PowerShares QQQ 300 at Daytona.

Allgaier notched his second win of 2023 and first at Daytona.

As characteristic for Daytona, all four non-stage cautions were for crashes that collected multiple cars; a four-car wreck with less than ten laps remaining was the smallest, while lap 43 saw the largest when twelve cars were taken out on the fronstretch. The last of the day on lap 105 saw Josh Williams get airbourne on the backstretch after he got turned into the outside wall before being impacted by John Hunter Nemechek. Trevor Bayne and Austin Hill, who combined to lead 62 laps and Hill won the first leg, were victims of overtime accidents.

Kaz Grala also spun coming to the white flag, but was far enough from the racing surface that NASCAR did not call for a caution.

For the race titled the Wawa 250, sponsor Wawa also appeared on four cars piloted by Natalie Decker, Joe Graf Jr., Brett Moffitt, and J.J. Yeley. All four were involved the quartet of crashes, with only Moffitt reaching the finish in eighteenth.

Jordan Anderson Racing endured the chaos to place all three cars in the top fifteen led by Parker Retzlaff in seventh. The team’s eponymous owner, running his first NASCAR race since his fiery crash in the Truck Series at Talladega in 2022, drove Jeb Burton‘s usual #27 while Burton was in a #22 car wrapped to resemble his father Ward Burton’s 2002 Daytona 500-winning vehicle of the same number. Burton drifted into the pit road wall on lap 93, but salvaged a twelfth. Anderson and Josh Berry wrecked coming to the checkered, though Anderson was still classified fifteenth.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	12	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	110	Running
2	2	2	Sheldon Creed	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	110	Running
3	6	11	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	110	Running
4	5	48	Parker Kligerman	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	110	Running
5	11	00	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	110	Running
6	38	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	110	Running
7	23	31	Parker Retzlaff	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	110	Running
8	20	78	Anthony Alfredo	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	110	Running
9	33	08	Gray Gaulding	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet	110	Running
10	9	10	Justin Haley*	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	110	Running
11	27	45	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	110	Running
12	10	22	Jeb Burton	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	110	Running
13	24	28	Kyle Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	110	Running
14	15	35	Joey Gase	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Chevrolet	110	Running
15	37	27	Jordan Anderson	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	110	Running
16	36	6	Garrett Smithley	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	110	Running
17	13	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	110	Running
18	22	25	Brett Moffitt	AM Racing	Ford	110	Running
19	14	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	110	Running
20	18	26	Kaz Grala	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	109	Running
21	3	18	Sammy Smith	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	109	Running
22	4	16	Chandler Smith	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	109	Running
23	1	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	109	Running
24	16	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	108	Running
25	25	02	Blaine Perkins	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	108	Running
26	32	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	104	Accident
27	21	92	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	103	Accident
28	7	20	John Hunter Nemechek	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	103	Accident
29	8	19	Trevor Bayne	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	103	Accident
30	34	07	J.J. Yeley	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet	98	Accident
31	30	44	Caesar Bacarella	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	92	Accident
32	28	43	Ryan Ellis	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	91	Accident
33	19	4	Kyle Weatherman	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	45	DVP
34	26	38	Joe Graf Jr.	RSS Racing	Ford	42	DVP
35	35	53	Natalie Decker	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Ford	42	Accident
36	17	9	Brandon Jones	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	41	Accident
37	29	24	Connor Mosack	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	41	Accident
38	31	91	Alex Guenette	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	41	Accident

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