Kligerman, Hill, Elliott, Big Winners- NASCAR Weekend Recap 07/11/2022

This past weekend gave racing fans no shortage of racing activities between the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series, and the NASCAR Cup Series. While Xfinity and Cup made their second trip out to Atlanta, the trucks made their first trip out to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio.

Parker Kligerman showed the world that he could still get it done despite being a commentator, holding off the hottest driver in the series, Zane Smith, to take the checkered flag for the inaugural O’Reilly Auto Parts 150. It was his third career truck series win and his first since 2017 at Talladega, scoring the win for the No. 75 team and Henderson Motorsports. Kligerman also becomes the series’ 17th-consecutive different winner on a road course.

“It’s hard to put into words, I was pretty emotional on the cool-down lap because this whole team, it’s like a team of second chances,” Kligerman said after the race. “Two years ago, I thought my driving days were done. This team gave me a call, wanting to get back racing and it’s just been a steady improvement.”

“This is a small team that ‘could,’ but we’re not a small team that doesn’t win,’’ Kligerman shouted, turning toward the crowd. “We win.”

Kligerman led 56 of the 67 laps and earned a $50,000 bonus for winning the final race of the Triple Truck Challenge. Which also had Corey Heim winning the first race at Gateway and Ryan Preece winning the second one at Nashville. Mid-Ohio was the final race of the Triple Truck Challenge for 2022.

The owner of Trackhouse Racing, Justin Marks, made his first start in the series since 2018. Marks, who won at Mid-Ohio in the Xfinity race back in 2016, placed 31st in the race that had 36 trucks featured, as his No. 41 Niece Motorsports truck crashed into the Turn 4 tire barrier with 18 laps remaining.

Zane Smith, who won three races this season already, finished second, Carson Hocevar finished third, Stewart Friesen was fourth, and Christian Eckes was fifth. Rounding out the top 10 were Chandler Smith, Kaz Grala, Derek Kraus, Colby Howard, and Hailie Deegan.

For the Xfinity Series, it was Austin Hill earning his second win of the 2022 season, with his first coming a the season opener at Daytona. It was a special one for the native from Georgia native.

“What a car,” Hill said in his post-race interview. “RCR has been working their ever-loving tails off to bring some really fast Chevrolet Camaros. We were a rocket ship all day.”

“We just won at Atlanta, that’s really special. I’ve been trying to win here for a long time. I’ve finished second here three times in a row, twice in a truck, and then earlier in the spring. It’s been owing me one. Finally, we got one in Georgia where I grew up and was raised, about an hour down the road. This is going to be so special, I can’t wait to party.”

Josh Berry finished second, while Ryan Truex, Tyler Reddick, and Daniel Hemric round out the top five. As for the rest of the top ten, Noah Gragson, Justin Allgaier, Landon Cassill, Riley Herbst, and AJ Allmendinger rounded it out, as the race had six cautions throughout.

For the NASCAR Cup Series, it was another Georgia native winning the race, that being a popular one as the siren went off in Dawsonville, Georgia for the 2020 Cup Series Champion, Chase Elliott. The finish was quite an eventful one, as it almost became a feel-good story for Corey Lajoie, driving for a smaller team, Spire Motorsports.

Lajoie was doing all he could in the final few laps to hold off Elliott, but Elliott took the lead with two laps to go. Corey Lajoie attempted to make one last move going into turn one, but Elliott threw the block on Lajoie, which made Lajoie end up in the outside wall and lose control into the No. 45 of Kurt Busch. The caution was then thrown out, in which Elliott was out in front of Ross Chastain at the time of the caution.

“It was nice to have that thing out in the wind for once,” LaJoie told NBC Sports after the race. “I made my move and it didn’t work out. He made a good block, and the siren was ringing in Dawsonville unfortunately. I wish that No. 7 car was in Victory Lane. But if we keep running like this more consistently, that time will come.”

Elliott joins his dad, Bill Elliott, in becoming the second father-son duo to win at Atlanta, the other one being the Earnhardts (Dale Sr and Dale Jr).

“Obviously I knew he was gonna have a big run,” Elliott said in his post-race interview. “I didn’t want to really give him the bottom, and I tried to give it one real, good, aggressive block. I felt like I had enough room to kind of give it a second one, and he was just right there on the right side of my back bumper. So it was far enough to the backside of the bumper to launch me forward. I hate it tore up some cars, but I don’t know what you do. You either go for the win or don’t. I’m gonna choose Option A every day of the week.”

Ross Chastain, who had two wins already in the season, didn’t make any friends this past Sunday either. It started when Chastain got into the back of Martin Truex Jr, turning the No. 19 Toyota and triggering a nine-car pileup. Aric Almirola was so irritated with Chastain’s driving that he angrily remarked “he better hope I don’t see him at Food Lion” during the week. Then near the end of the race, he made contact with Denny Hamlin, renewing tensions from Gateway a month ago.

The Xfinity and Cup Series head next to New Hampshire next week, while the Trucks will be back on July 23^rd at Pocono for their regular-season finale.