It was an eventful run for newcomer Anthony Alfredo in the Shady Rays 200 at Kentucky Speedway. Making his eighth NASCAR Xfinity Series start of his career and of this season, Alfredo rallied from early steering issues to notch a sixth-place result under the lights at the Bluegrass State following an eventful race highlighted with late chaos.
By virtue of a random draw, Alfredo was set to start in 11th. When the field fired the engines and rolled off pit road, Alfredo radioed steering issues to his No. 21 Alsco/Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro. Alfredo’s crew was able to repair the issue and as he hit the track, he was allowed to retain his 11th-starting spot since it was a safety issue that was being addressed prior to the race.
When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Alfredo dodged an opening lap crash and kept his car intact to run inside the top 10 through the competition caution on Lap 15. When the first stage concluded on Lap 30, Alfredo had worked his way into the top five. Throughout the second stage, Alfredo struggled in keeping pace with the leaders as he fell out of the top 10 early, but he was able to work his way back to finish in 10th. Over the second half of the race and the final stage, Alfredo, again, kept his No. 21 Chevrolet intact through a number of restarts and cautions as he was running in the top 10. Following an overtime restart, Alfredo was scored in sixth and battling Chase Briscoe and Michael Annett when a caution for a final lap multi-car wreck froze the field and concluded the race. With his sixth-place result, Alfredo has finished in the top 10 five times in his eighth series race of the season and of his career, all while driving Richard Childress Racing’s No. 21 car.
“When something like [the power steering issues] happens, you get your game face on, you get strapped in, you’re ready to go,” Alfredo said. “That, kind of, throws you for a loop a little bit, but my RCR guys did a great job helping get [the steering issues] fixed so we didn’t go a lap down and we were able to keep our starting position there, which was huge for us. We got into the top five. I think we finished first stage in the top five. All the guys at Richard Childress Racing back at the shop, here on the road, the pit crew did a great job all night. [They] Brought me a really fast Alsco Chevrolet Camaro. I think we’ll be able to make it even better for tomorrow, but I was pretty happy with it tonight. We got it a little bit behind there. We ended up going the wrong way on one adjustment in the second stage. I just had to hang on, it was super loose. We got it fixed, got back up there and at the end there, made the most of those two last restarts and got a top five.”
Alfredo will make his ninth Xfinity Series start, second of the week, in RCR’s No. 21 car at Kentucky Speedway on July 10, which will air at 8 p.m. on FS1.
