The NASCAR Xfinity Series headed out west for their first stop on the west-coast swing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. When the Xfinity Series drivers and teams arrived on Thursday, it was sunny skies and the usual Vegas temperatures. However, when race day on Saturday arrived, the Boyd Gaming 300 was in jeopardy due to the threat of rain increasing throughout the day. They always say, if you want rain, bring a NASCAR race to your town and it will rain.
Just shortly after drivers fired their engines, the skies opened up and created a delay. After the 50-minute track drying effort, cars got on-track for the first time since Friday afternoon as qualifying was canceled. Only 50 laps and the first stage were completed before the rain returned to the track. NASCAR dried the track for what felt like the longest rain delay ever. Then, there looked liked to be some light at the end of the tunnel, as the track was ready at 10:30 p.m. ET. However, Mother Nature had other plans and completely washed out any progress that NASCAR had made. This forced the Xfinity Series officials to postpone the race to Sunday, one-hour after the Cup Series race.
Once Sunday came, the Xfinity Series drivers were able to get the rest of the 150 laps remaining completed. While there were only five cautions for 28 laps and not much action occurred in this race, there were some drivers that had and needed a great run after a dismal week at Daytona last weekend.
Here are this week’s Power Rankings following the Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
- Chase Briscoe – Briscoe completely dominated and waxed the field in Sunday night’s race. After starting second, it didn’t take him long to get the lead. In fact, Briscoe led the last 25 laps of the first stage before taking the stage win. One day later, the Indiana native continued to have a great car and consistently remained up front. Briscoe had an intriguing battle with Ford Performance teammate Austin Cindric, while also battling with Justin Allgaier at times for the lead. Though, the No. 98 Stewart Haas Racing team was the team to beat in this race. It seemed like nothing could stop Briscoe. Once the final pit stops cycled out, Briscoe led the final 36 laps to score his third career Xfinity Series victory. A dominant showing by Briscoe and the No. 98 team.
Previous Week Ranking – Second - Harrison Burton – A quiet race for Harrison Burton and the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Dex Imaging Toyota. Burton never challenged for the race win or lead, but had a strong car to fight for a top-five finish. He ran as low as 20th, however, that was mainly due to pit stops cycling out. Burton’s mid-race run was a seventh-place car. The JGR driver was able to finish seventh and sixth in both stages, respectively. A late-race caution might’ve helped Burton to challenge for the win, but ultimately, had to settle for a fifth-place finish.
Previous Week Ranking – Third - Austin Cindric – After a disastrous run last week at Daytona by finishing 25th due to a crash, Cindric had a great run this week at Vegas and almost pulled off the win. He led a couple of times early in the stages and narrowly grabbed a stage win in the second stage. Cindric led 16 laps from laps 149 to 164 but was passed by eventual race winner Briscoe. The Team Penske driver tried all he could to run Briscoe down late in the finish but ran out of time to do so. Cindric finished second at the end of the night after leading 39 laps.
Previous Week Ranking – Not Ranked - Noah Gragson – Noah Gragson and the No. 9 JR Motorsports team had an interesting night out in Las Vegas. The hometown driver started seventh thanks to qualifying being rained out but had a unique moment on lap 163. Gragson accidentally made contact with the No. 21 of Myatt Snider on the frontstretch, which sent Snider spinning. After this happened, Snider and his team were certainly unhappy with the No. 9 of Gragson. Despite the incident, Gragson finished fourth after finishing eighth in Stage 1. However going forward, Snider will make it a lot tougher for Noah to pass them whenever those two are racing.
Previous Week Ranking – First - Ryan Seig – As the race concluded, Ryan Seig and the No. 39 team was the story of the night after having a stellar run late in the going. The team finally started to show some progress in the second stage by finishing seventh, but really started to make some noise late. Sieg never got to lead any laps, though he was running inside the top five and as high as second at one point. Even with the reported vibration from Sieg’s car, they still managed to run inside the top five. After the final pit stop of the night for may teams, Sieg needed a late-race caution as he was the only that had a set of unused tires left. Unfortunately, the break never came and Sieg was left with a third-place finish. Still, this was a great run by a small team who are bound to do big things in 2020.
Fell Out
- Myatt Snider- It was a forgettable night for Myatt Snider in Las Vegas. Snider was sent to the rear of the field after going to a back-up car after crashing in practice on Friday afternoon. There was some progress being made as he was able to finish 10th in Stage 2 and was starting to have a good race as the laps wound down. However Snider was caught up in a spin by Noah Gragson on the frontstretch. While this certainly didn’t take him out of the race, Snider was relegated to a 16th place finish.
Previous Week Ranking- Fourth - Timmy Hill – It was a rough outing for Timmy Hill and the No. 61 HRE team Sunday night. Hill finished 26th, five laps down.
Previous Week Ranking- Fifth
