Noah Gragson wins rain-shortened Kansas Lottery 300

Winning a race because you were the leader when it started raining is anticlimactic, but Noah Gragson will gladly accept any victory.

Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway did not even reach the halfway point when rain struck the track. As the first two stages had already been completed, NASCAR elected to end the event after 93 of 200 laps and awarded the win to Gragson, who was leading at the time as the Stage #2 winner. It is Gragson’s fifth NASCAR Xfinity Series win of the year, which ties him with Ty Gibbs for the most among all drivers in 2022, and second in a row.

Gragson took the lead shortly after the restart on lap 76, which was set up by Jeremy Clements‘ spin. He remained the leader when rain hit on lap 83 and resulted in a caution, but NASCAR elected to resume shortly after as there were only five laps left until the stage’s conclusion.

Gibbs clashed with Gragson’s JR Motorsports team-mate Justin Allgaier in the battle for second, which the latter won.

“I feel like we were just got into a weird restart line, but when the three guys stayed out, I just picked the wrong one,” Gibbs said. The “three guys” referred to Austin Hill, Brett Moffitt, and Ryan Sieg who decided against pitting prior to the late restart. “I thought it was the right one and it wasn’t.

“Then we went back racing and off of (turn) four I made contact with Justin. I felt like I hit the wall hard, and I didn’t, and I got mad then whipped it down and hit him in the door; and the stupid part is it hurt my car more than it hurt his. I feel like his car is okay, but they’re going to have to put a door on it when they get back to the shop and that’s just inexcusable for me, and I’m very disappointed in my actions and I apologise to them. I thought it was worse honestly than it was when I watched on TV it wasn’t. So, I apologise to Jason (Burdett, Allgaier’s crew chief), Justin, and Dale (Earnhardt Jr., JRM owner) and the whole group, the whole #7 group, and I just can’t be doing that stuff. It was my fault, I just felt like I hit the wall harder than I did, and I came back down and hit him and I just can’t be doing that.”

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	5	9	Noah Gragson	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	93	Running
2	9	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	93	Running
3	2	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	93	Running
4	1	19	Brandon Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	93	Running
5	15	48	Ross Chastain*	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	93	Running
6	4	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	93	Running
7	10	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	93	Running
8	11	18	Sammy Smith	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	93	Running
9	8	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	93	Running
10	16	07	Brett Moffitt	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	93	Running
11	3	2	Sheldon Creed	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	93	Running
12	6	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	93	Running
13	14	10	Landon Cassill	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	93	Running
14	13	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	93	Running
15	7	11	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	93	Running
16	12	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	93	Running
17	20	02	Brandon Brown	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	93	Running
18	22	23	Anthony Alfredo	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	93	Running
19	21	31	Myatt Snider	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	93	Running
20	37	68	Kris Wright*	Brandonbilt Motorsports	Chevrolet	93	Running
21	17	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	92	Running
22	28	66	J.J. Yeley	MBM Motorsports	Ford	92	Running
23	31	08	David Starr	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	92	Running
24	29	36	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	92	Running
25	27	45	Rajah Caruth*	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	92	Running
26	34	78	Stefan Parsons*	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	92	Running
27	35	26	Derek Griffith	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	92	Running
28	25	44	Howie DiSavino III	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	92	Running
29	26	77	Dillon Bassett	Bassett Racing	Chevrolet	92	Running
30	36	35	Joey Gase	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Toyota	92	Running
31	24	91	Mason Massey	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	91	Running
32	33	5	Garrett Smithley	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	91	Running
33	38	6	Ryan Vargas	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	91	Running
34	32	38	C.J. McLaughlin	RSS Racing	Ford	91	Running
35	23	4	Bayley Currey	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	90	Running
36	18	34	Jesse Iwuji	Jesse Iwuji Motorsports	Chevrolet	89	Running
37	30	47	Brennan Poole*	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet	73	Transmission
38	19	27	Jeb Burton	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	51	Engine
DNQ		13	Akinori Ogata	MBM Motorsports	Toyota

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