Race Results | Xfinity Series Points
Race 19 of 33: Ambetter Get Vaccinated 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Track Specs: 1.058-mile \oval / 200 laps
Weather: Cloudy, 74 degrees
Race Winner: Christopher Bell
Allgaier's Finish: 2nd
Berry's Finish: 8th
Gragson's Finish: 15th
Mayer's Finish: 39th
Justin Allgaier
Justin Allgaier and the No. 7 BRANDT Professional Agriculture team proved a strong force in Saturday’s Ambetter Get Vaccinated 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Allgaier ultimately took the checkered flag with a stout second-place effort that was far from easy, as he was forced to hold off multiple challenges for the runner-up position in the closing laps. The No. 7 team was the highest finishing Chevrolet on the day with Allgaier earning his third runner-up finish and eighth top five of the 2021 season.
Stage One Finish: 6th
Starting fifth on the grid, Allgaier fired off with a solid balance in his No. 7 machine. The early stages of the race were spent feeling out exactly what the car had to offer. Allgaier commented that it was “good on entry, tight in the center and loose off,” but he was happy with the drive off the corners. With passing at premium the veteran settled in and rode in eighth until the competition caution on lap 20. He then improved two more positions once back up to speed to close out Stage One in sixth.
Stage Two Finish: 5th
Following a routine pit stop during the previous stage-ending caution, Allgaier restarted eighth but made quick work of the competition and claimed the fifth spot soon after. It became a matter of pace at this point with many competitors struggling to pass on the bottom around the 1-mile oval. Allgaier reported that with a snappy corner exit, it was a challenge for him to get back to the throttle. Still, he held serve and finished Stage Two in fifth.
Final Stage:
A lighting fast pit stop, courtesy of the No. 7 BRANDT Professional Agriculture team, helped propel Allgaier two more positions to third prior to the start of the final stage. Allgaier leveraged the track position even further and slid into second once back to green-flag racing. He briefly held off a challenge for the position from the No. 18 of Daniel Hemric but still lacking rear stability eventually drifted to third.
When a caution slowed the field on lap 150, crew chief Jason Burdett brought Allgaier to pit road for four tires, fuel and adjustments. Restarting in third, Allgaier quickly shot to second and to the rear bumper of leader Christopher Bell. Although Allgaier mounted a spirited volley and raced side-by-side with Bell for a time, Bell prevailed and the No. 7 BRANDT Professional Agriculture Chevy settled for second. That position didn’t come easy, either. Allgaier had to thwart several attempts from the No. 18 car for the position in the closing laps to ultimately stake claim to the runner-up spot.
Bell won the race. Following Allgaier to the line was Hemric, Austin Cindric and Harrison Burton.
Justin Allgaier, driver No. 7 BRANDT Professional Agriculture Chevrolet team
“Our BRANDT Professional Agriculture team did an excellent job in pits today. Jason (Burdett, crew chief) made good adjustments all day. The guys did a great job keeping up, I just wish I knew what I needed there. I don’t know that anybody in the field had anything for the 54 car.
“[New Hampshire] is difficult but it's fun. We'll go back home and keep working on it.”
Josh Berry
Josh Berry drove the No. 1 Pilot Flying J Spicy Chicken Sandwich Chevrolet from 21st at the start to eighth at the finish of Saturday’s Ambetter Get Vaccinated 200 for NASCAR Xfinity Series machines at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Berry was filling in for Michael Annett in the No. 1 as he recovers from surgery for a stress fracture in his leg. Berry’s finish was a solid one for the No. 1 team’s owner-points position, and Annett goes into the two-week Olympic break 12th in the NXS playoff standings, 32 points ahead of 13th-place Riley Herbst with seven races to go in the regular season. Annett is 11th in driver points following the event.
Stage One Finish: 10th
Berry started 21st for the 200-lap event after NASCAR applied its mathematical formula earlier in the week, and began to move forward as soon as the green flag waved to start the day. Over the first 10 laps, Berry advanced the Pilot Flying J Spicy Chicken Sandwich Chevrolet six positions to 15th and was 13th at lap 20 when the competition caution waved. Berry told crew chief Mike Bumgarner that his No. 1 Chevrolet was tight on entry and even tighter later in the long NHMS corners and his splitter was in contact with the track surface. Berry stayed on the track during the caution flag and lined up 13th for the restart at lap 26. Contact among the field coming to the green stacked up the field, but Berry was able to avoid any damage and emerged in 12th position. When the green waved again at lap 30, Berry was again able to advance, taking 11th on lap 32 and cracking the top 10 two circuits later. At lap 37, eight laps from the end of the 45-lap Stage One, Berry rose to ninth place and he would finish there, earning two valuable stage points. Under caution, Berry told Bumgarner that he was still tight on entry and in the center of the corner. On pit road, Bumgarner and the Pilot Flying J pit crew bolted on four fresh tires, added fuel and made two chassis adjustments to loosen Berry up for Stage Two. A pair of cars stayed out on the break, and Berry returned to the track in 14th position.
Stage Two Finish: 7th
On the restart, Berry employed the same strategy as in Stage One by making gains early. Five circuits following the green flag, Berry was back in the top 10 and took ninth place at lap 58. Three laps later, Berry got past JR Motorsports teammate Noah Gragson for eighth, and at lap 65 the Tennessee native swept into seventh position. Berry would maintain seventh for the remainder of Stage Two, adding four more stage points to his total for the day. In preparation for the pit stop at the stage break, Berry told Bumgarner that the tight condition had gotten better, but he still needed more help. On pit road, Bumgarner made another chassis adjustment and an air-pressure adjustment on the four fresh tires Berry received. The Pilot Flying J pit crew gained their driver one position on the exchange, and Berry began the final segment in sixth position
Final Stage:
When the green flag waved to start the final 101-lap segment of the day, Berry lost one position in the race to Turn 1 to run seventh, but took sixth place back four laps later. He would stay on the cusp of the top five until lap 110, when he was overtaken by Harrison Burton and Justin Haley into Turn 3. Immediately afterward, Berry radioed to Bumgarner that he was on the splitter harder than he had been and that affected his ability to both get into and out of the corners. Settling into eighth position, Berry put his head down and clicked off laps near the pace of the leaders and eventually overhauled a fading Burton for seventh at lap 126. As the field strung out and lapped traffic became more prevalent, Berry lost seventh to Burton at lap 130. He stayed eighth, chasing AJ Allmendinger until lap 147 when Allmendinger snapped loose and Berry was able to get past. The caution flag waved for a single-car accident at lap 149, and Berry reported his car was still on the splitter a good bit. The caution allowed Berry to come down for his final set of sticker tires at lap 151, with fuel and an air-pressure adjustment, and he maintained seventh place for the run to the checkered flag.
When the green flag waved for the final time with 45 laps remaining in the race, Berry was in a fight for position with Myatt Snider, and he fell to eighth position four laps later. He would maintain that position until the checkered flag. For Berry, it was his ninth top-10 result in 16 NXS starts this season.
Christopher Bell won the race ahead of JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier, Daniel Hemric, Austin Cindric and Harrison Burton. Haley was sixth, with Snider, Berry, Brett Moffitt and Herbst rounding out the top 10.
Josh Berry, driver No. 1 Pilot Flying J Spicy Chicken Sandwich Chevrolet team
“Big thank-you to Michael (Annett), Pilot Flying J and JR Motorsports for letting me drive this Spicy Chicken Sandwich Chevrolet today. We were pretty tight, on the splitter most of the day as well, but Bummy (crew chief Mike Bumgarner) made a good call on the last stop to help loosen it up. This track reminds me of a big Martinsville, and we had a chance at a top-five finish at times today. Best of luck to Michael as he recovers.”
Noah Gragson
Noah Gragson and the No. 9 Bass Pro Shops/TrueTimber/Black Rifle Coffee team were working on a solid top-10 finish on Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway before contact with another car sent the young Nevada driver up the track and into the Turn 3 wall with 41 laps remaining in the Ambetter Get Vaccinated 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series event. Gragson recovered after making light contact and eventually finished 14th on the day.
Stage One Finish: 11th
Gragson began the day from third place on the starting grid after NASCAR applied its mathematical formula earlier in the week, but discovered his No. 9 Bass Pro Shops/TrueTimber/Black Rifle Coffee Chevrolet was loose from the waving of the green flag. Gragson fell three positions to sixth on the first lap of the 45-lap Stage One and continued to drop, eventually settling out in 10th position five laps later after getting stuck on the bottom groove in the tight corners at either end of NHMS. By the time the competition caution waved at lap 20, Gragson had regained ninth position, telling crew chief Dave Elenz that the loose condition was causing his rear tires to chatter. As the field came down the front straightaway for the restart to continue Stage One, the front of the field stacked up and caused a chain-reaction crash that began on the bottom lane behind Gragson. On the ensuing lineup to go back to green-flag racing, Gragson chose the top line for the restart. This time the field restarted without incident, but Gragson lost two positions on the initial break to run 11th. He briefly regained the top 10 for two laps, but fell out of the top 10 again at lap 34 and finished Stage One in 11th place. Gragson reiterated to Elenz that his No. 9 Camaro was on the loose side, and Elenz called him to pit road for four tires and fuel. The Bass Pro Shops/TrueTimber/Black Rifle Coffee team gained a position with a quick stop, and Gragson returned to the track for Stage Two in 10th.
Stage Two Finish: 9th
On the Stage Two restart, Gragson chose the top line again and was soon up to eighth position, though he battled back and forth in a clot of cars that included JR Motorsports teammate Josh Berry and Jeb Burton. Gragson stayed in eighth until lap 73, when Harrison Burton passed for the position, leaving him ninth. The young driver finished Stage Two at lap 90 in ninth position and told Elenz that his car started out better than in Stage One, but by the time Stage Two ended, the rear end of his Camaro was looser than before. Elenz responded with four tires and fuel on the Stage Two pit stop and sent Gragson out in 17th for the final segment.
Final Stage:
Starting from midway through the field, Gragson used his fresh rubber to pick off several positions in the early going. At the end of the first lap of green-flag racing, Gragson had moved up to 13th position and was 12th the next time under the flag stand. Six laps later at lap 106, Gragson was 11th, and seven laps later he broke back into the top 10. With 82 laps remaining in the 200-lap event, Gragson had climbed up to eighth and was running there on lap 149 when a single-car accident in Turn 4 brought out the yellow flag. Gragson told Elenz his Bass Pro Shops/TrueTimber/Black Rifle Coffee Chevrolet was getting better, and Elenz called him down pit road for his final set of sticker tires and fuel at lap 151. Gragson re-entered the race in 10th position.
On the restart at lap 155, Gragson and Allmendinger were dicing off Turn 2 and contact was made. A lap later, Allmendinger got into the rear of Gragson’s car and pushed him well past the entry to Turn 3. Gragson went high into the corner and turned to avoid the outside wall, hitting it with the right rear corner of his Camaro. The incident, which did not draw a caution flag, dropped Gragson out of the top 10 and down to 15th, with damage to the bodywork. Over the remaining laps, Gragson maintained 15th position despite conversation about bringing him to pit road to fix the damage. He stayed out and finished the race there. With seven races remaining in the regular season, Gragson remains eighth in driver points and is solidly above the cut line in the playoff standings.
Christopher Bell won the race, with JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier, Daniel Hemric, Austin Cindric and Harrison Burton the rest of the top five.
Noah Gragson, driver No. 9 Bass Pro Shops/TrueTimber/Black Rifle Coffee Company Chevrolet team
“The Bass Pro Shops/TrueTimber/Black Rifle Coffee Chevrolet was just too much on the loose side all day long, and that made it difficult to make the moves we needed to get to the front. The car was the best it had been all day when we had that incident in Turn 3. New Hampshire has never been one of my better tracks, but we made gains today in that regard. We’ll take our two weeks off and be ready to roll at Watkins Glen.”
Sam Mayer
Sam Mayer, driver of the No. 8 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, started from the ninth position for his debut at the 1.058-mile oval of New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Mayer settled in to the 15th position until a lap-27 restart saw the inside line checking up and the No. 8 was unable to avoid the carnage, relegating the 18-year-old to a 39th-place finish in Saturday afternoon’s Ambetter Get Vaccinated 200 at New Hampshire.
Stage One Finish: 39th
Mayer lined up for his first NXS race at New Hampshire in the ninth position after the field was set through NASCAR’s mathematical formula earlier in the week. Settling in to the 15th position, Mayer was set on learning the 1.058-mile facility along with the balance of his JR Motorsports Chevrolet. The first caution flew on lap 20 for NASCAR’s competition caution as Mayer ran in the 16th position. The 18-year-old Franklin, Wis. native lined up from the inside of row seven for the ensuing restart. As the green flag waved, the inside row started checking up and the accordion effect began to happen. Unable to avoid the check up from the cars in front, Mayer’s No. 8 Chevrolet suffered front end damage that was declared too severe to continue, relegating the No. 8 with a 39th-place finish.
Sam Mayer, driver No. 8 JR Motorsports Chevrolet
“The season so far hasn’t gone the way any of us had planned. This entire team is better than what we have been so far. These guys continue to work their butts off and I can’t thank them enough for sticking with me. We will regroup through these next two off weekends and come back stronger in Watkins Glen.”