Las Vegas, NV—-To start the race car 16 – Quick Tie Products Inc rookie Chandler Smith won the Pole Award with a lap of 29.489 seconds driving 183.119 mph. This is his first pole in his six Xfinity Series races. Smith will have to keep an eye out for the second place driver in qualifiers – Justin Allgaier as he will start in his third top 10 start of 2023 and his 12th in the past 18 races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Smith was leading the race and with one lap to go coming around turn four, Austin Hill ran him down to win the Alsco Uniforms 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at LVMS on Saturday. Smith ended up coming in 3rd behind Hill and Justin Allgaier. Hill is off to a great start this season as he won the season opener at Daytona International Speedway. This is his first time making it to the winners circle in Las Vegas and 4th time in his career with Richard Childress Racing.
Kyle Busch had a chance to have a triple win here in Las Vegas, but was outran and came in fourth place for the race. He still has a chance to at least make it a double as he competes in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube NASCAR Cup Series at 3:30 pm EST.
Smith led 118 laps and was pretty bummed about losing the race at the very end. He stated in his post race interview, “It is what it is. That’s a tough pill to swallow. There are some things I could have done inside before we started building tight.”
John Hunter Nemecheck was the winner of the first stage but after pitting on lap 74, he lost his track position. Nemecheck led 45 laps and finished 6th behind Austin Hill, Justin Allgaier, Chandler Smith, Kyle Busch, Josh Berry. He felt like he had one of the fastest cars but he just couldn’t execute. After pitting, he ended up in the back but still finished sixth showing you the speed of his car and he will be ready next weekend at Phoenix Raceway on March 11 at 4:30 pm ET.
With this race, Hill leads the points standings ahead of Smith by 12 points Race Highlights: NASCAR Xfinity Series: 2023 Alsco Uniforms 300.
NEXT UP:
Phoenix Raceway, March 11, 4:30 PM ES
