Twitchy Race Reports

(NEWTON, IA) After just a month off, the Xfinity Series was back in action at the Iowa Speedway for the Elimination Race to determine the 4 drivers who would compete for the 2017 Xfinity Series Championship.

The evening’s actions saw 30 drivers make the show which was relatively clean for the most part. Only 6 yellows flew over the 125 lap event. Following qualifying it was Jared Mogard putting his #01 on the pole followed by Troy Haydt 2nd, Ty Hester 3rd, Alex Giese 4th, and Danny Rodgers rounded out the top 5.

As mentioned there were 8 drivers looking to make the top 4 spots in the Playoff Standings to go race for a Championship in two weeks. The drivers included Sam Maxwell, Jonathan Holstein, Ty Hester, Jared Mogard, Jim Foose, Allan Young, Tom Giannini, and Jason Stewart. With the high stress of the playoff drivers trying to make the final four it would start out in dramatic fashion as point leader going into the event Sam Maxwell had mechanical issues which caused him to have to end the race after only 3 laps into the race.

Maxwell dropping out early was huge in the way the standings took shape and cost Maxwell a shot at the championship. The race went green two different times and the event was dominated by Jared Mogard he would go on to win his 3rd Xfinity Race on the 2017 Season and his 20th career at ASRS. The rest of the top 5 were Devin Serra 2nd, Dominic Lee 3rd, Jason Stewart went from 19th to finish 4th, and lastly Tom Giannini went from 12th to finish 5th. As for the playoff drivers Stewart and Giannini used pit strategy to get themselves top 5 finishes finishing 4th and 5th respectively, Allan Young rallied from 18th to finish 8th, Ty Hester who was caught up in contact racing Danny Rodgers early ended up 13th, Jim Foose was caught speeding on pit road during green flag pit stops and ended up finishing 17th, Jonathan Holstein was caught up a crash and ended up 21st, and Sam Maxwell as stated before had mechanical issues resulting in a 30th place finish.

The Playoff Standings the 4 drivers racing for a Championship will be Jared Mogard, Tom Giannini, Jason Stewart, and the 4th driver based off of a tie breaker is Ty Hester. Hester and Allan Young were tied in the points after Iowa but based on Wins Ty Hester gets the tiebreaker and makes the final 4 that will race for a championship.

The Championship Race for the 2017 Xfinity Series is set to take place in two weeks October 17th from the Chicagoland Speedway for an 84 lap shootout to end the Xfinity Series for 2017. Stay tuned to see who is crowned the Champion!!!!