Noah Gragson edges out Cindric for Dead On Tools 250 victory, clinches Final Four spot

It took a drag race to the finish for Noah Gragson to lock his spot in the Championship Round, but he is now in contention for his first NASCAR Xfinity Series title. Gragson edged out Austin Cindric to win Saturday’s Dead On Tools 250 at Martinsville Speedway by just .064 seconds, making him one of four drivers to race for the championship alongside Cindric, Daniel Hemric, and A.J. Allmendinger.

Cindric, the reigning champion and pole-sitter, and Gragson dominated the race as they respectively led 64 and 153 of 250 laps. The former dominated the opening stage as he led every lap to win, while Cindric did the same for Stage #2.

The incidents began to mount in the third and final segment; compared to just two on-track cautions across the first two stages (Stage #2 was entirely green), there were four times as much in Stage #3. One such caution on lap 244 came after Justin Haley‘s brakes caught fire and blew his right-front tyre, causing him to spin and eliminating him from title contention.

Ty Gibbs led the way for much of Stage #3 until he was turned by Gragson and impacted by Joe Gibbs Racing team-mate Harrison Burton, dealing damage to the latter’s playoff run. Gragson assumed the lead until JGR’s Hemric passed him on lap 232. Hemric, who was still seeking his first career win, saw his hopes disappear with Riley Herbst spinning Josh Berry on lap 250 to set up overtime.

A poor restart by the inside line enabled Gragson to propel into first with Cindric in tow. Cindric closed the gap in the final corners and was able to pull alongside Gragson, but could not complete the overtake. The win is Gragson’s third of 2021, a career high, and means he has won at all three short tracks on the Xfinity schedule (Bristol in 2020 and Richmond in September). He had won at Martinsville in the Camping World Truck Series in 2017, which also locked him into that year and series’ final round.

“It’s been a rough, rough season,” said Gragson. “We had a couple of wins there, at Darlington and Richmond. After that deal last weekend (crash at Kansas), I was pretty fired up. I told my guys we still have an opportunity. We’re still in it.”

Cindric will fight for his second straight championship while Gragson, Allmendinger, and Hemric are gunning for their first.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	9	9	Noah Gragson	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	257	Running
2	1	22	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	257	Running
3	7	18	Daniel Hemric	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	257	Running
4	11	8	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	257	Running
5	5	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	257	Running
6	8	19	Brandon Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	257	Running
7	3	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	257	Running
8	25	36	Alex Labbé	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	257	Running
9	18	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	257	Running
10	16	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	257	Running
11	22	92	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	257	Running
12	23	4	Landon Cassill	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	257	Running
13	12	2	Myatt Snider	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	257	Running
14	30	26	Colin Garrett	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	257	Running
15	32	07	Joe Graf Jr.	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet	257	Running
16	28	17	J.J. Yeley	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet	257	Running
17	31	48	Jade Buford	Big Machine Racing	Chevrolet	257	Running
18	38	90	Preston Pardus	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	257	Running
19	13	02	Brett Moffitt	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	257	Running
20	10	20	Harrison Burton	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	257	Running
21	37	61	Stephen Leicht	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	257	Running
22	27	0	Jeffrey Earnhardt	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	257	Running
23	34	99	Ryan Ellis	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	257	Running
24	36	66	David Starr	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	257	Running
25	26	23	Natalie Decker	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	257	Running
26	33	78	Akinori Ogata*	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Toyota	257	Running
27	2	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	257	Running
28	29	31	Josh Berry	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	256	Running
29	35	5	Matt Mills	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	255	Running
30	39	52	Spencer Boyd*	Jimmy Means Racing	Chevrolet	254	Running
31	14	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	253	Running
32	21	6	Ryan Vargas	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	249	Running
33	4	11	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	222	Brakes
34	24	47	Kyle Weatherman	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet	221	Running
35	20	15	Bayley Currey*	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	212	Running
36	17	68	Brandon Brown	Brandonbilt Motorsprots	Chevrolet	204	Accident
37	15	10	Jeb Burton	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	194	Accident
38	6	1	Michael Annett	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	192	Accident
39	40	74	Mike Harmon	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet	38	Overheating
40	19	44	Tommy Joe Martins	Martins Motorsports	Chevrolet	36	Rear Gear

Bold – Currently in playoffs
Underline – Eliminated from playoffs
Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for Truck points