By: Ashley McCubbin

As Kurt Busch said, “Let’s get Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. on the hotline” as it’d be interesting to see what he has to say following the NASCAR Xfinity Seires race. While one of his JR Motorsports drivers went to victory lane, it was thanks to contact with another.

Battling for the lead with five laps to go, Noah Gragson would get loose underneath Justin Allgaier, resulting in contact that sent Allgaier up the track, followed by going around and into the inside wall. The No. 9 Plan B Sales Camaro went on to win, while the No. 7 Suave Men Camaro wound up deep in the running order.

Although many will point fingers at Gragson for the contact, it was ultimately a product of short track racing and close competition. Fans ask for drivers to be aggressive and go for the win rather than settle, and sometimes mistakes are made in the process resulting in contact. Just ask Chase Elliott, who pulled a similar – yet unsuccessful move, on Joey Logano just the day before.

The incident is ultimately why sayings like the “chrome horn” and “rubbin’ is racing” were invented. Certainly, Allgaier’s feelings are hurt – and rightfully so. Gragson has taken the first step in owning up to his mistake, and in conversation from one driver to another, hopefully he will understand what happened.

You also have to consider that Allgaier made a mistake, missing the corner in turn one and two, which allowed Gragson to close the gap and make the move. If possibly side-by-side when the moment happened, there’s a good chance it would have been role reversal, as well.

The only thing making it worse for Allgaier is his own current situation. He has dominated multiple events and led 912 laps over the course of last season and this year, but yet only scored a single victory in the process. It seems each time he is contention, something happens in the late stages to erase his chance of victory. They say if you put yourself in position enough times it is going to happen, so once the dam is broken, don’t be surprised to see him rip off a couple in a row.

After all, JR Motorsports has been fast as a team this year, placing cars inside the top-10 on a weekly basis and had three of their entries in the top-five at one point on Monday night. Daniel Hemric showed speed alongside Allgaier and Gragson, though a speeding penalty on pit road contributed to placing sixth.

For Gragson, he currently boasts a pair of wins on the season, along with three stage victories to give him the most playoff points of any competitor thus far. It has been well documented already this year, but experience is certainly helping him with turning so-so top-10 runs from 2019 into top-five consistency with opportunities to win in 2020.

While not included in the initial conversation alongside Chase Briscoe, Brandon Jones, and Harrison Burton for the championship, you cannot leave him out any longer.

Exciting racing has been the name of the game right now in the Xfinity Series. This marked the third close finish in their four races since the COVID-19 break, and continues the manta that they have the best package of the three series right now.

Throughout the night at Bristol Motor Speedway, drivers fought for positions throughout the field. Even though the bottom was favored in the beginning half, it seemed these young competitors found the balance of how to make a bump-and-run work to get alongside for position. Combined with setting each other up around the traffic, and you had battles all the way around the half-mile. Then as the top began to come in at the end, it just increased the closeness with several moments of holding your breath three-wide but yet not resulting in incidents.

It’s been said before, but if anybody doubted the future of NASCAR, these young stars are proving you have nothing to worry about.

Small fries are able to shine on the short tracks, and Vinnie Miller certainly proved that. He took the small underfunded B.J. McLeod Motorsports team to the top-10 in the opening stage despite starting mid-pack. While he faded back to 12th at the checkered, there were other small teams that shined. Brandon Brown led the way in seventh, followed by Jeremy Clements and Josh Williams.

Busch Brothers are fast on-track at Bristol, but they are even more fun in the booth. Kyle Busch’s first time broadcasting alongside his brother Kurt certainly proved successful. The pair offered the perfect combination of analysis on what happened, with perspective as to why incidents built to where they did, and the secrets to Bristol. In the same process, it was kept on the fun side of entertainment with a couple jokes throughout for you to enjoy their personalities.

Though there is one longing thought in that Kyle did not share his secret to restarts when Allgaier was able to get the jump on Harrison Burton by running up close to him coming to the green.

EMAIL ASHLEY AT ashley.mccubbin@popularspeed.com

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