Gragson Wins as Earnhardt Finishes 2nd at Talladega

The NASCAR Xfinity Series made a late April trip to Alabama to the infamous Talladega Superspeedway for the Ag-Pro 300. This race also featured an Earnhardt in the Richard Childress Racing #3, that being Jeffrey Earnhardt, the grandson of the late Dale Earnhardt. Not only that, but his crew chief was Larry McReynolds, known as America’s Crew Chief. McReynolds had not been on top of a pit box since 2000, before taking the TV job at Fox Sports. Earnhardt, with a car that had no owner points, scored his first career pole award for the Saturday race. 

Another Earnhardt went home happy, that being Dale Earnhardt Jr, as one of his Jr Motorsports drivers, Noah Gragson, held on to win the race on the final restart, which took three attempts in overtime. Jeffrey Earnhardt meanwhile was able to claw his way up to second place coming off turn four but came up very close to something special. Regardless as Earnhardt parked his No. 3 Chevrolet, there was nothing but smiles all around. Earnhardt received his career-best finish in second, which was previously third in 2019 during his stint with Joe Gibbs Racing. 

“I‘m living the dream here. I‘m just so thankful to get this opportunity,” said Earnhardt after the race. “Thanks to RCR for building this amazing race car. We were fast all weekend long. We just fell a little short there, but congrats to Noah. He‘s good at plate races.”

Noah Gragson earned his seventh career NASCAR Xfinity Series victory, as he is scheduled to run in the Cup Series race on Sunday for Beard Motorsports.

“This JR Motorsports team, they never quit,” Gragson said in his post-race interview. “We had four really fast cars. Came down to fuel strategy and there was one point where I was like ‘Oh man, I can’t get up there, we just don’t have the car fast enough.’ But you know, we never quit.”

Despite that Gragson is running the Cup race on Sunday, he still wants to celebrate this one with a party on the Talladega Boulevard, in which festivities haven’t taken place there in the last couple of years due to the pandemic.
“I‘ve got to run in the Cup race, but the Talladega Boulevard looks a lot more enchanting right now and inviting, so I might have to go out there and then throw some beads, and maybe we’ll have some fun tonight.”

AJ Allmendinger also claimed the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash, finishing the highest of the four drivers eligible. Allmendinger went on to finish third behind Gragson and Earnhardt. In other notes, Daytona winner Austin Hill led a race-high of 67 laps before getting caught up in a late-race wreck. With four laps to go, Sam Mayer lost control of his No. 1 Chevrolet and came down on Hill, knocking his No. 21 Chevrolet to the infield wall and ending his race. Ty Gibbs also had a strong car until he was caught up in a wreck, taking out Daniel Hemric in the process as he described it as he “kind of got out of shape.” Gibbs was closing in on Ryan Sieg but hooked into Hemric in the process. Ryan Sieg and Landon Cassill finished fourth and fifth as well, with Anthony Alfredo, Riley Herbst, Joe Graf Jr, Myatt Snider, and Brett Moffitt rounding out the top 10 in the race. 

The Xfinity Series head to Dover Motor Speedway next Saturday, April 30th at 1:30 PM EST.