Xfinity regular season, Truck playoff opener conclude in Kansas

Tensions ran high at Kansas Speedway as the NASCAR Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series respectively ran their regular season and Round of 10 finales. By the end, as John Hunter Nemechek and Christian Eckes celebrated in Victory Lane, those like Parker Kligerman breathed a sigh of relief while Matt DiBenedetto and Matt Crafton could only begin preparing for 2024.

Kligerman held the twelfth and final Xfinity playoff spot entering Kansas and either needed to win or for someone already locked in to do so. Brandon Jones, who was right behind him in points, tried to steal the win for himself but was no match for Nemechek who led 154 laps to win for the sixth time. Sheldon Creed held off Kligerman for third, but the former was already assured a playoff spot as well and thus made their battle rather meaningless.

“I was the biggest John Hunter Nemechek fan on the planet,” Kligerman remarked. “As I saw the #9 (Jones) fire off, I was like, ‘Oh no! We’ve done all we should do on points. We’re so close. I don’t think I could beat the #20 (Nemechek), but the #9 looks like he might.’ And then obviously the #20 was just so dominant.

“The #2 (Creed) kind of crept up on us and took third. I really wanted third place, but (during) that last run, I had to just be smart, really, really smart, so I drove the smartest race I thought I could drive that put us in a position to not have anything stupid happen, keep us the highest position if we get a late-race restart and go on in the playoffs.”

Although Kligerman will race for a championship in his first season with Big Machine Racing Team, his #48 is not eligible for the owner’s title as Joe Gibbs Racing‘s multi-driver #19 car took that playoff slot via Ryan Truex‘s win at Dover in April. Joe Graf Jr. piloted the #19 at Kansas to his career-high second top ten of the season.

Another quirk in the driver’s versus owner’s playoffs exists at Kaulig Racing. Daniel Hemric qualified for the former in the team’s #11, but their #10 is in the latter courtesy of victories by A.J. Allmendinger and Kyle Larson. For continuity, Kaulig elected to move Hemric to the #10 for Kansas and the remainder of the season.

Creed’s team-mate Austin Hill was fifth as he secured the regular season championship.

Contrary to Nemechek’s domination that left Jones’ playoff hopes in the dust, the Truck race ended in a mad scramble as Eckes passed Zane Smith and Corey Heim in a three-abreast run on the final lap to score his third win of 2023. DiBenedetto, who virtually needed a win to advance barring the highly unlikely scenario of Ben Rhodes finishing twenty-seven spots behind him, capitalised on the last-lap drama to finish third but was eliminated as Rhodes was twenty-fifth.

DiBenedetto is not returning to Rackley WAR for 2024, and will use the final four races to bolster his résumé in free agency.

Crafton’s hopes of a record-tying fourth Truck championship will have to wait another year. He endured a nightmare weekend after a “half-assed job cleaning the race track” caused him to suffer a blown tyre in practice that necessitated racing a backup truck. Starting at the rear, he “busted my butt trying to make something happen” and ended up with two more punctures.

“Trying to get up there and get as many points we could, that part’s on me. 100 percent on me,“ said Crafton. “The practice still had nothing to do with any of us here. It was just a pathetic job of cleaning up.”

Xfinity race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	7	20	John Hunter Nemechek	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
2	4	9	Brandon Jones	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
3	16	2	Sheldon Creed	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
4	15	48	Parker Kligerman	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	200	Running
5	9	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
6	6	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
7	10	25	Brett Moffitt	AM Racing	Ford	200	Running
8	18	11	Derek Kraus	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
9	11	19	Joe Graf Jr.^	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
10	31	26	Kaz Grala	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	200	Running
11	26	31	Parker Retzlaff	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
12	17	27	Jeb Burton	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	199	Running
13	24	92	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	199	Running
14	20	24	Connor Mosack	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	199	Running
15	21	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	199	Running
16	37	08	Mason Massey	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	199	Running
17	23	43	Ryan Ellis	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	199	Running
18	1	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	199	Running
19	27	53	Matt Mills*	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Chevrolet	198	Running
20	29	29	Kyle Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	198	Running
21	25	07	Dawson Cram	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet	198	Running
22	38	28	C.J. McLaughlin	RSS Racing	Ford	198	Running
23	8	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	198	Running
24	36	35	Joey Gase	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Toyota	198	Running
25	34	4	Garrett Smithley	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	198	Running
26	28	66	Leland Honeyman †	MBM Motorsports	Ford	197	Running
27	32	78	Anthony Alfredo	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	197	Running
28	33	6	Brennan Poole	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	197	Running
29	22	45	Rajah Caruth*	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	197	Running
30	14	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	196	Running
31	30	38	Nick Leitz*	RSS Racing	Ford	194	Running
32	12	16	Chandler Smith	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	186	Running
33	35	02	Blaine Perkins	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	140	Brakes
34	5	10	Daniel Hemric^	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	120	Running
35	2	18	Sammy Smith	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	97	Accident
36	3	00	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	60	Accident
37	13	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	20	Accident
38	19	91	Kyle Weatherman	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	19	Accident
DNQ		44	Leland Honeyman †	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet

Bold – Currently in playoffs
^ – Currently in owner playoffs
Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points
† – Honeyman replaced Timmy Hill in the #66 after failing to qualify

Truck race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	8	19	Christian Eckes	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	134	Running
2	16	17	Taylor Gray	TRICON Garage	Toyota	134	Running
3	11	25	Matt DiBenedetto	Rackley WAR	Chevrolet	134	Running
4	15	11	Corey Heim	TRICON Garage	Toyota	134	Running
5	14	38	Zane Smith	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	134	Running
6	17	42	Carson Hocevar	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	134	Running
7	20	52	Stewart Friesen	Halmar Friesen Racing	Toyota	134	Running
8	2	2	Nick Sanchez	Rev Racing	Chevrolet	134	Running
9	21	16	Tyler Ankrum	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	134	Running
10	10	61	Jake Drew	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	134	Running
11	5	35	Jake Garcia	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	134	Running
12	19	24	Rajah Caruth	GMS Racng	Chevrolet	134	Running
13	9	1	Jesse Love	TRICON Garage	Toyota	134	Running
14	1	4	Chase Purdy	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Chevrolet	133	Running
15	13	5	Dean Thompson	TRICON Garage	Toyota	133	Running
16	4	51	Jack Wood^	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Chevrolet	133	Running
17	12	23	Grant Enfinger	GMS Racng	Chevrolet	133	Running
18	3	98	Ty Majeski	ThorSport Racing	Ford	133	Running
19	32	9	Colby Howard	CR7 Motorsports	Chevrolet	133	Running
20	24	32	Bret Holmes	Bret Holmes Racing	Chevrolet	133	Running
21	22	41	Bayley Currey	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	132	Running
22	34	45	Lawless Alan	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	132	Running
23	23	43	Daniel Dye	GMS Racng	Chevrolet	132	Running
24	33	56	Timmy Hill	Hill Motorsports	Toyota	132	Running
25	6	99	Ben Rhodes	ThorSport Racing	Ford	132	Running
26	18	15	Tanner Gray	TRICON Garage	Toyota	131	Running
27	25	02	Kaden Honeycutt	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	131	Running
28	36	33	Chase Janes	Reaume Brothers Racing	Ford	131	Running
29	29	90	Justin Carroll	TC Motorsports	Toyota	130	Running
30	7	13	Hailie Deegan	ThorSport Racing	Ford	130	Running
31	27	12	Spencer Boyd	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	129	Running
32	28	20	Greg Van Alst	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	129	Running
33	31	88	Matt Crafton	ThorSport Racing	Ford	125	Running
34	30	10	Jennifer Jo Cobb	Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing	Chevrolet	125	Running
35	26	22	Mason Maggio	AM Racing	Ford	117	Accident
36	35	04	Spencer Davis	Roper Racing	Ford	1	Suspension

Underline – Eliminated from playoffs