By: Mitchell Breuer

Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway felt like a three-act play.

The first being all about Austin Cindric, who flew to the front at the beginning of the after starting eighth. After the competition caution, he was alone in the decision to take one of his five sets of tires early, which meant he restarted 21st. This was not a problem, as again the driver of the No. 22 drove through the field to win stage one, and go on to dominate and take stage two. However, this was when his dominant day came to end.

During the pit stops before the final segment, Chase Briscoe took the lead and took advantage of it, being able to keep and extend his gap over the field through multiple restarts.His time as leader came to an end after a costly speeding penalty late, meant the No. 98 had to restart 25th with 35 laps to go.Briscoe was not alone though, as fellow front-runners, Cindric and Justin Allgaier also sped and lost track position.

All of this set up A.J. Allmendinger to take the lead, and just as the rest of the leaders had done, take advantage of the track position and clean air to coast to his first oval win in the series.

Kaulig Racing’s big day did not end with Allmendinger’s victory, as Justin Haley (four) and Ross Chastain (seventh) grabbed top-10 finishes. This also means the team will have two eligible for the Dash4Cash next Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Allmendinger was not originally scheduled to compete in the event, but team president, Chris Rice, confirmed in a post-race Zoom press conference that the team will field an entry for him.

The weekend proves to be a continuation of the team’s improvement throughout the 2020 season, as they have had a car finish in the top-10 in every race.

Speaking of the Dash4Cash, Noah Gragson continued his momentum from the win at Bristol Motor Speedway on Monday with a runner-up finish Saturday. The result made him the highest finishing driver eligible for the Dash4Cash, which means he will collect an additional $100K on top of everything else, and have the opportunity to earn another $100k.

Since the series’ return at Darlington, Gragson has proven to be a weekly contender, as he has scored three top-five’s in the four races and led laps in each of the events.This is especially apparent in the points where he currently sits second, four points behind Briscoe.