What’s Happening?
JR Motorsports has long-been a powerhouse at the superspeedways and tonight was no different. All four cars were fast and in the top five during a long green flag run that could have gone to the finish. However, some questionable moves late in the game put an end to any hope of one of their teams walking out with the trophy.
Austin Hill was leading the race with four JRM cars lined up behind him. If everything had gone according to plan, it is likely that Hill would have been a sitting duck as the train of JRM cars blew by him. Instead, however, it was Allgaier who went into business for himself and torpedoed the plan.
You Need To Know:
- The move that really made the first domino fall in JRM’s misfortunes tonight was a questionable move by Allgaier (No.7) to ditch his teammate, Josh Berry (No. 8), and go for the lead.
- T. J. Majors, spotter for Josh Berry, warned his driver to be patient and wait until the last lap to make a move on Hill. Allgaier called an audible in the plan and dipped down under Berry with 3 laps to go. This, in turn, caused Berry to get shuffled back in the pack, thus cutting up the JRM stranglehold.
- JRM is a popular team in NASCAR fandom, the team being owned by 15-time NASCAR Most Popular Driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Following Allgaier’s move, Josh Berry in the No. 8 ran out of fuel under caution and was forced to give up his track position to pit. This left only Justin Allgaier and Sam Mayer (No. 1) out front for JRM as Brandon Jones was spun on the backstretch earlier in the race.
Allgaier and Mayer lined up nose to tell, a luxury of the choose rule which now be implemented on all NASCAR tracks, save for superspeedways. After the white flag had flown, Allgaier rocketed out front leaving a lot of room for momentum to build behind him. This caught Sam Mayer up to the back bumper of Allgaier who attempted a failed block which got Mayer out of line. When Mayer attempted to get back into line, he was turned across the nose by eventual race winner, Austin Hill (No. 21) for RCR.
In the carnage, Mayer flipped upside down, landing on his roof but was back right side up as he slid his destroyed #1 Chevy into the infield grass.
Main Characters
Driver of the No. 1 Chevy for JR Motorsports, Sam Mayer, was a key player in the incident that that ended the race under caution. The No. 1 Camaro flipped upside down while attempting to get back in line on the backstretch.
Fortunately, he was okay and had this to say following the wild ride:
Justin Allgaier, driver of the No. 7 car for JRM, got into a little bit of a scramble earlier on in the race but was able to continue. Between he and Austin Hill, they had the fastest cars all night.
It wasn’t long before he was back out front:
As the race wore on, fuel became a concern in the 7 pit:
Driver of the No. 8 Bass Pro Shops Chevy was also very fast tonight and in race-winning conditions as he led the JRM train behind Austin Hill before being shuffled back and running out of gas.
This was Brandon Jones’ first race with the No. 9 JRM crew as he replaced Noah Gragson who went on to the Cup Series, driving the No. 42 for the King’s and the Goat’s Legacy Motor Club. He was having a very good night as well, showing off his new JRM horsepower to the field until he spun while trying to block Berry, mowing through the infield grass.
The Menards pit box was not a happy place tonight…
Around the Garage
Team owner and semi-retired racer, Dale Earnhardt Jr. got sick to his stomach watching the carnage unfold for his cars at Daytona:
The team also added that Mayer was checked and released from the infield care center:
Team co-owner, Kelly Earnhardt also chimed in:
Sam Mayer’s post-race Twitter commentary:
From The Officials
This is the photo NASCAR racing officials used to determine the winner tonight following the Mayer wreck:
In The Stands
Twitter user, Jack calls out Allgaier’s greed in this Tweet:
Clabel also forces their frustrations for Allgaier:
J Smith joined the dogging on Allgaier:
It seems to be unanimous:
On Your Screen
OUT OF THE GROOVE host, Eric Estepp breaks down JRM’s downfall tonight:
Eric Estepp surprised again with another rare recap the Xfinity Series race:
YouTuber, MDK, also reported on JRM’s fall at Daytona:
In the end, what seemed like a perfect storm for JRM was unraveled by a series of missteps.