At the top and bottom of the NASCAR Xfinity Series standings, there are plenty of unresolved issues with two races left in the regular season.
Those issues should gain considerable clarity, however, after Saturday‘s Pacific Office Automation 147 at Portland International Raceway (7:30 p.m. ET on CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
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In the battle for the Regular Season Championship, Justin Allgaier holds a three-point lead over JR Motorsports teammate Connor Zilisch, a seven-time winner this season.
Zilisch, who got a major assist from relief driver Parker Kligerman in his victory last Friday at Daytona, has accumulated 36 playoff points. Allgaier has 24, and no other driver in the series has more than eight.
Nevertheless, the race for the regular-season title can‘t be characterized as a two-driver affair with two events remaining before the 12-driver playoff field is set. Though Sam Mayer, who is highly skilled on road courses, has only eight playoff points, he is only 26 points behind Allgaier in the regular-season standings.
Despite posting just one victory, Mayer has stayed close with consistent performances, equaling Allgaier‘s totals for top fives (12) and top 10s (15) in 24 starts.
“Yeah, it‘s great to be consistent and all, but you want to win, because when it comes to the playoffs, the bonus points you get are the only thing that matters,” said Mayer, who ran third on the winding 1.967-mile Portland road course in 2023 and won the pole last year before finishing 28th.
“We‘re going to keep working on that. We have two more shots at it, and I think we‘ll be good at both of those races, so it‘s just a matter of getting the job done. The ‘W‘ is the only thing on the mind right now.”
MORE: Xfinity entry list: Portland
To get the win, however, he‘ll have to beat Zilisch, who has won three road-course races this season and five of the last six races overall.
At the bottom of the standings, there are still four playoff spots to be decided. Harrison Burton currently leads cousin Jeb Burton by 36 points for the final postseason berth.
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