Chandler Smith, driver of the #81 Mobil 1 Toyota, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond Raceway on March 30, 2024 in Richmond, Virginia. (Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images)
Courtesy NASCAR Communications / By Holly Cain
Chandler Smith led a Joe Gibbs Racing sweep at Richmond (Va.) Raceway Saturday afternoon cruising to a 4.495-seconds victory over teammates Aric Almirola and Tanner Gray in the ToyotaCare 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race.
It marks back-to-back wins in this race for Smith – answering his first career Xfinity Series victory last Spring – and he led the final 60 laps in the No. 81 JGR Toyota, 76 laps on the day for his third career win, second of the season. It was his teammate Almirola, who won both Stages and led a race best 95 of the 250 laps in his No. 20 JGR Toyota, but the former fulltime NASCAR Cup Series driver ultimately could not catch Smith, who pulled away in the closing laps.
“Never give up, never give up,” said Smith, who has top-10 finishes in all six races this year. “This car was not good. Stage 1 wasn’t good, but we were able to do some strategy there with this No. 81 Supra in Stage 2.
“Back here winning races on a consistent basis and took over the points lead too, I’m just blessed,” he added.
For his part Almirola acknowledged he just didn’t have what he needed to catch the 21-year old Georgia-native in the closing laps. He’ll have another chance at victory next week as he’s in the car again at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
“We just got a little bit too loose,” Almirola said. “The run before that in Stage 2, when I took off my car was really, really good. At the end, it just felt a little tight and that last run for whatever reason, different set of tires or what, I let Chandler go and when I started to just creep back to him, I didn’t have anything to go with.
“I was too loose in and couldn’t get throttle down on exit. Hate that to win both stages and feel like we had the dominant car and then to let it slip away there at the end, is disappointing.”
The JGR team can also take pride in its third-place finish – considering it was the 19-year old Gray’s series debut. NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series full-timer Corey Heim was fourth followed by series rookie Jesse Love.
It was also a big outing for renowned late model racer Bubba Pollard, punctuating his series debut with a sixth-place finish in the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet – particularly impressive considering Pollard started 37th.
“I just got behind in qualifying there and it made for a long day,” Pollard said. “But these guys gave me a great race car, JR Motorsports.
“I needed that long green flag run just to get in a rhythm. This place is tough, it’s technical and probably one of the toughest places I’ve been to, and I’ve been to a lot of places.
“I’m happy with it. I enjoyed it and had fun and hopefully the fans enjoyed it too.”
Big Machine Racing’s Parker Kligerman, Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill, JR Motorsports Sammy Smith and reigning series champion Cole Custer rounded out the top-10. The 20-year old Parker Retzlaff, who won his first career pole position Saturday, finished 16th in the No. 31 Jordan Anderson Chevrolet and led a career high 27 laps.
With their work, Smith, Almirola, Love and Kligerman have qualified for next week’s Dash 4 Cash event at Martinsville Speedway, and the highest finisher of the four Dash 4 Cash drivers in the race will collect an extra $100,000 bonus.
With the win, Smith takes a 10-point driver standings lead over Hill to next Saturday’s DUDE Wipes 250 (7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). John Hunter Nemechek is the defending race winner.
NASCAR Xfinity Race – ToyotaCare 250
Richmond Raceway
Richmond, Virginia
Saturday, March 30, 2024
1 Chandler Smith
2 Aric Almirola
3 Taylor Gray(i)
4 Corey Heim(i)
5 Jesse Love #
6 Bubba Pollard
7 Parker Kligerman
8 Austin Hill
9 Sammy Smith
10 Cole Custer
11 Justin Allgaier
12 Josh Williams
13 Riley Herbst
14 AJ Allmendinger
15 Shane Van Gisbergen #
16 Parker Retzlaff
17 Kyle Weatherman
18 Matt DiBenedetto
19 Josh Bilicki
20 Leland Honeyman #
21 Garrett Smithley
22 Logan Bearden
23 Kyle Sieg
24 Jeremy Clements
25 Dawson Cram #
26 Jeb Burton
27 Ryan Ellis
28 Brennan Poole
29 Anthony Alfredo
30 Sam Mayer
31 Hailie Deegan #
32 Ryan Sieg
33 Blaine Perkins
34 Joey Gase
35 Sheldon Creed
36 Patrick Emerling
37 Brandon Jones
38 Ryan Vargas
