If there‘s ever a venue poised to bring its A-game action following last Saturday evening’s race at Martinsville Speedway, the NASCAR Xfinity Series should be in good shape with Saturday‘s Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 (3 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Darlington Raceway.
The venerable 1.366-mile track has a fantastic history of high drama and important races.
Reigning Xfinity Series champion, driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, Justin Allgaier shows up at Darlington with the championship lead by 41 points over Haas Factory Team driver Sam Mayer in second and 47 points over Richard Childress Racing‘s Austin Hill in third, who collected his second win of the season at Martinsville and joins Allgaier as the only other driver to win multiple races this season.
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Sixth in the championship is 18-year-old Connor Zilisch, driver of the No. 88 JRM Chevrolet, who announced Thursday he will make his second Cup Series start for Trackhouse Racing in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Memorial Day weekend.
Five different drivers have won the last five Darlington Xfinity Series races. Allgaier is the defending spring race winner and his three trophies at the “Track Too Tough to Tame” are the most among full-timers. He is on an eight-race streak of top-10 finishes at Darlington — one away from matching Hall of Famer Mark Martin‘s record.
Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Brandon Jones is the only other full-time series driver with a Darlington victory in 2020. Last year, Allgaier beat Hill to the checkered flag by a full 3.4 seconds. Mayer finished fourth. RCR has never won an Xfinity Series race at Darlington but has five runner-up finishes — two from Hill.
Of note, the Stage 1 winner has gone on to win four of the last five races at the track.
The series is coming off an emotionally charged short-track event at Martinsville, where Hill led only the last lap to claim the win — surging forward after aggressive contact between race leaders JGR‘s Taylor Gray and JRM’s Sammy Smith derailed their days.
Both Gray and Smith were subsequently penalized this week for actions at Martinsville — after the race (Gray) and for contact during the race (Smith).
MORE: NASCAR to discuss Martinsville incidents with Xfinity drivers before Darlington
A handful of Cup Series drivers will be on the Xfinity Series grid this week, including Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain and Christopher Bell, who won last year’s Xfinity Series race at Darlington in the fall from the pole position.
Practice is scheduled for 10:05 a.m. ET on Saturday morning followed immediately by qualifying at 11:10 a.m. ET. The CW App will air both sessions.
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