STEWART-HAAS RACING
Ambetter Health 302
Date: Oct. 19, 2024
Event: Ambetter Health 302 (Round 30 of 33)
Series: NASCAR Xfinity Series
Location: Las Vegas Motor Motor Speedway (1.5-mile oval)
Format: 201 laps, broken into three stages (45 laps/45 laps/111 laps)
Race Winner: AJ Allmendinger of Kaulig Racing (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Cole Custer of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner: Justin Allgaier of JR Motorsports (Chevrolet)
SHR Race Finish:
● Riley Herbst (Started 7th / Finished 7th, Running, completed 201 of 201 laps)|
● Cole Custer (Started 2nd / Finished 8th, Running, completed 201 of 201 laps)
SHR Points:
● Cole Custer (2nd with 3,072 points, 16 out of first)
● Riley Herbst (10th with 2,126 points)
Playoff Standings(with two races to go until Championship 4):
- AJ Allmendinger (3,063 points) 1 Win
- Justin Allgaier (3,088 points) +32 Point
- Cole Custer (3,072 points) +16 Points
- Chandler Smith (3,064 points) +8 Points
- Austin Hill (3,056 points) -8 Points
- Jesse Love (3,051 points) -13 Points
- Sam Mayer (3,041 points) -23 Points
- Sammy Smith (3,011 points) -53 Points
SHR Notes:
● Herbst earned his 13th top-10 of the season and his sixth top-10 in 11 career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Las Vegas.
● This was Herbst’s fourth straight top-10 at Las Vegas. He won last October and finished eighth in March.
● Herbst finished third in Stage 1 to earn eight bonus points and ninth in Stage 2 to earn two more bonus points.
● Herbst led once for four laps increasing his laps led total at Las Vegas to 107.
● Custer earned his 20th top-10 of the season and his seventh top-10 in nine career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Las Vegas.
● Custer has never finished outside of the top-12 in nine starts at Las Vegas.
● This was Custer’s third straight top-10 finish at Las Vegas. He finished second in March.
● Custer won Stage 1 to earn 10 bonus points and one playoff point. He finished sixth in Stage 2 to earn five more bonus points.
● Custer led twice for 31 laps increasing his laps led total at Las Vegas to 147.
Race Notes:
● AJ Allmendinger won the Ambetter Health 302 to score his 18th career NASCAR Xfinity Series victory, his first of the season and his first at Las Vegas. His margin over second-place Ryan Sieg was .156 of a second.
● There were seven caution periods for a total of 31 laps.
● Twenty-four of the 38 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● Justin Allgaier remains the championship leader after Las Vegas with a 16-point advantage over second-place Cole Custer.
Sound Bites:
“I thought it was good the first stage and the second stage I made a really bad decision on restarts, but, overall, I thought we got it better and better. It was just difficult. We haven’t really raced into the night here in a long time, so that was hard to keep up with the track, but, overall, I thought it was an okay day.” –Riley Herbst, driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang Dark Horse
“It was a solid day. I wish we had a little bit more, but it was a solid points day. We can take that and move on to the next one at Homestead. I wish we had this No. 00 3D Systems Ford Mustang Dark Horse just right to go win today, but it just didn’t quite have the long run speed.” –Cole Custer, driver of the No. 00 3D Systems Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the Credit One NASCAR Amex Credit Card 300 on Saturday, Oct. 26 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The race begins at 4 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by CW and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
