Ryan Truex goes back-to-back at Dover, cuts through chaos for first Xfinity win of 2024

Ryan Truex, the hometown favorite, prevailed in a thrilling double-overtime finish in the BetRivers 200 NASCAR Xfinity Series race Saturday at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway, leading only the two final laps to earn back-to-back victories at the 1-mile track.

The New Jersey native and defending race winner started alongside 20-year-old rookie Carson Kvapil on the front row for the final overtime re-start then pulled away to take the lead and ultimately the white flag — signaling one lap to go. An accident elsewhere on track officially ended the race under caution.

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“I can‘t believe it, our car was just good at the end when it mattered, I was so loose all day,” said Truex, 32, the younger brother of NASCAR Cup Series driver Martin Truex Jr. “Shout out to Carson, what an amazing run for what, his second race. I felt a little bad running him up the hill, but you‘ve got to take these things when you can.

“I think I held my breath the last two laps. Love these fans. Love this track.”

While Truex hoisted and will savor the Dover trophy, it was also a great day for Kvapil driving the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. The son of former NASCAR driver Travis Kvapil, finished fourth in his only other series start — at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway earlier this year — giving him a very promising pair of top-five results in as many Xfinity Series races he‘s competed in.

“This is pretty incredible,” Kvapil said. “Definitely felt like we had a fast car going into the day, but to be competing for the win on a green-white-checkered is pretty amazing. We‘ve been in this situation before just not quite at this level.”

For much of the final laps, the outcome looked like it was going to be decided between former Richard Childress Racing teammates Austin Hill and Sheldon Creed. Hill, driver of the No. 21 RCR Chevrolet, and Creed, who now drives the No. 18 JGR Toyota, restarted door-to-door on the front row on a restart with 11 laps remaining. As that pair raced aggressively side-by-side for the lead, Kvapil put his Chevy down low, three-wide and drove past the pair to take the lead with eight laps remaining in regulation.

On the final restart of regulation — with five laps remaining — Hill and Kvapil restarted alongside one another on the front row, but Hill spun out in tight-quarters action between them in Turn 1, necessitating overtime. Kvapil was able to fend off the field on that first restart, only to have another caution come out. On the second restart, he and Truex started alongside each other, but Truex was able to get around Kvapil at the green flag and pace the field for the final two laps.

The race was briefly halted under red-flag conditions for light rain with 34 laps remaining. Stewart-Haas Racing‘s Cole Custer — who led a race-best 95 of the 208 laps — was leading at the time and then decided to pit for tires and fuel during yellow-flag laps just before the cars restarted. He had to restart at the tail end of the field, but the reigning series champion rallied back to a fifth-place finish — able to advance on three ensuing caution periods plus the double overtime.

JR Motorsports‘ Sam Mayer finished third, with Creed fourth followed by Custer. Kaulig Racing‘s AJ Allmendinger was sixth, followed by JGR‘s Chandler Smith, Kyle Weatherman Racing‘s Kyle Weatherman, Our Motorsports‘ Anthony Alfredo and Jordan Anderson Racing‘s Parker Retzlaff.

The ninth-place finish was especially big for Alfredo, earning him the final Dash 4 Cash $100,000 prize — besting Riley Herbst, Jesse Love and Ryan Sieg — in the last event of the four-race incentive program sponsored by Xfinity.

“Really coming into this race, that was our motivation, it wasn‘t something to just be a part of, yeah, I mean this was huge,” Alfredo said. “You don‘t understand how small our budget is compared to these bigger teams. People overlook it because we‘ve been running so well. The last three weeks we‘ve been running top 10, and everyone asks, ‘who‘s your alliance with?’

“… Coming into this race we knew if we could pull it off, we could invest in our team to be that much better.”

Herbst, Love and Sieg all found trouble in their bids for the Dash 4 Cash prize. Sieg’s misfortune came first, when his No. 39 RSS Racing Ford caught fire through the first and second turns. He escaped unhurt but was sidelined after just 25 laps, leaving him 37th in the 38-car field.

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Love, a first-time Xfinity Series winner last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, led 21 laps in the early going. The rookie’s No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet slowed after contact with the No. 20 Toyota of Truex near the start of the final stage, and his Lap 102 pit stop to change a flat left-rear tire shuffled him back in the order. Love finished two laps down in 24th.

Herbst was in solid position to capture the bonus, but late-race contact with Justin Allgaier’s No. 7 Chevrolet sent his No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford spinning through Turn 4, where he collected Sammy Smith and others on Lap 193. He continued with damage and finished 16th.

“I guess the 7 car got back at us from last week, so it is what it is and we‘ll move on,” Herbst said of Allgaier. “Our Ford Mustang Dark Horse was fast. We should have finished third at worst and we finished 16th.”

JR Motorsports‘ Allgaier, a two-time Dover winner, won the opening stage of the race and ran up front — his 39 laps in the lead second only to Custer. He also pitted in the waning laps and managed to rally back to a 17th-place finish.

Smith now leads Custer by a single point in the Xfinity Series championship standings as the series heads into an off week. It resumes racing at the historic Darlington (S.C.) Raceway in the Crown Royal Purple Bag Project 200 on Saturday, May 11 (1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). NASCAR Cup Series regular Kyle Larson is last year’s race winner.

Contributing: Staff reports