Noah Gragson takes United Rentals 200 victory

Noah Gragson‘s 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series season is off to a blazing start. After finishing third in the first race followed by a pair of seconds, he dominated Saturday’s United Rentals 200 at Phoenix Raceway by leading 114 of 200 laps to win his sixth career race.

Gragson qualified second next to Trevor Bayne, who would be his biggest challenge as he dominated the first stage. The lone incident of the segment came on lap 23 when Riley Herbst spun and hit the turn three wall. At stage’s end, Gragson, Brandon Jones, John Hunter Nemechek, Ty Gibbs, Justin Allgaier, Landon Cassill, A.J. Allmendinger, Josh Berry, and Sam Mayer followed Bayne.

“That was probably one of the hardest hits I have taken,” commented Herbst. While certainly a disappointing day for him, the Herbst family saw more luck in nearby Nevada as his uncle Tim finished second overall in the Mint 400. “I thought we had a pretty good Monster Energy Ford Mustang. I went into (turn) three and hit the brake and it hooked a hard right and went to the floor. I don’t know what happened.”

Issues on pit road like a poor stop and speeding penalty dropped Bayne back, and Stage #2 instead saw Gragson battle with Bayne’s Joe Gibbs Racing team-mate Jones for the lead. Mayer, a colleague of Gragson at JR Motorsports, and JGR’s Gibbs clashed on lap 56 as Berry made contact with Gibbs and sent him into a spin, though the field avoided his sideways car. It was the lone caution of the day as the final thirty laps in the stage ran green, during which Gragson fought with Jones before clearing him on lap 70 and leading the rest of the way. Allgaier, Jones, Bayne, Mayer, Nemechek, Allmendinger, Daniel Hemric, Cassill, and Mayer rounded out the top ten.

The final stage was completely green. Although Nemechek had the early advantage, Gragson took the lead on lap 113 and never looked back, only surrendering the position during green-flag stops at the 170-lap marker. With fifteen laps to go, Gragson got by Jones and drove away to the win.

“I thought when we came out of the pits there and were out ahead of [Noah], it was going to be pretty good because aero situations were pretty tough today and it seemed like whoever was leading the race was kind of difficult to pass,” commented Jones. “Noah was leading before we all pitted. We were a little bit faster, so I think they just made some adjustments and got it better.”

Gragson joins Kevin Harvick in 2005 as the only drivers in Xfinity Series history to record top-three finishes in each of the first four races of a season.

Two drivers in the field made their Xfinity débuts: Nick Sanchez finished twenty-sixth, while Parker Retzlaff qualified sixth but a fuel pump issue relegated him to thirty-sixth.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	2	9	Noah Gragson	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
2	5	19	Brandon Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
3	8	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
4	1	18	Trevor Bayne	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
5	11	26	John Hunter Nemechek*	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	200	Running
6	3	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
7	17	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
8	15	11	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
9	22	10	Landon Cassill	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
10	24	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
11	4	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	199	Running
12	16	27	Jeb Burton	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	199	Running
13	26	68	Brandon Brown	Brandonbilt Motorsports	Chevrolet	199	Running
14	9	2	Sheldon Creed	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	199	Running
15	18	02	Brett Moffitt	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	199	Running
16	35	44	Ryan Ellis	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	199	Running
17	12	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	199	Running
18	14	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	199	Running
19	23	36	Alex Labbé	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	199	Running
20	13	4	Bayley Currey	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	199	Running
21	19	99	Stefan Parsons	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	198	Running
22	7	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	198	Running
23	31	91	Mason Massey	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	198	Running
24	25	31	Myatt Snider	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	198	Running
25	32	66	J.J. Yeley	MBM Motorsports	Ford	198	Running
26	28	5	Nick Sanchez	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	198	Running
27	36	07	Joe Graf Jr.	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	197	Running
28	33	48	Jade Buford	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	197	Running
29	38	6	Ryan Vargas	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	197	Running
30	10	92	Kyle Weatherman	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	197	Running
31	29	08	David Starr	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	196	Running
32	20	28	Kyle Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	196	Running
33	27	45	Kaz Grala*	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	196	Running
34	34	35	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Emerlling-Gase Motorsports	Toyota	196	Running
35	30	78	Josh Williams	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	178	Ignition
36	6	38	Parker Retzlaff	RSS Racing	Ford	158	Fuel Pump
37	37	23	Anthony Alfredo	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
38	21	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	20	Accident
DNQ		34	Jesse Little	Jesse Iwuji Motorsports	Chevrolet
DNQ		33	Loris Hezemans	Reaume Brothers Racing	Toyota
DNQ		13	Stan Mullis	MBM Motorsports	Toyota
DNQ		47	Brennan Poole	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet

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