Race report

NASCAR O'Reilly Phoenix II

William Byron finds Phoenix redemption with Xfinity win

William Byron was going to have the chance to race for the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship regardless, but he earned the trip in the best way possible.

Jim Utter

Edited: Nov 12, 2017, 1:40 PM

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Race winner William Byron, JR Motorsports Chevrolet

William Byron, JR Motorsports Chevrolet

Ryan Blaney, Team Penske Ford

William Byron, JR Motorsports Chevrolet

Ryan Blaney, Team Penske Ford

Byron used a two-tire pit stop to claim the lead and held off Ryan Blaney to win Saturday’s Ticket Galaxy 200 at Phoenix Raceway, his fourth series win of the season but first since July at Indianapolis.

The win guaranteed Byron a spot in the Championship 4 but he had already clinched a spot by points earlier in the race.

The four drivers who will compete for the series championship next weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway are Byron, Elliott Sadler, Justin Allgaier and Daniel Hemric.

Read Also:

Championship 4 grid set for the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Phoenix

“I don’t know how we it – grinded all day,” Byron said. “It was a great job by the team and a great pit call by Dave (Elenz, crew chief). We’re so ready to go to Homestead.

“It got robbed from me last year (in the Truck series) here in Phoenix, so this makes up for that. Awesome job.”

Byron’s pit crew was among those at JR Motorsports that were without a fast majority of their regular team members after a plane on which they were traveling had to make an emergency landing in Arkansas earlier Saturday.

Stage 2

The second stage turned out to be just like the first.

Blaney easily held off Jones to claim the stage victory, with Jones coming in nearly a second behind.

Hemric finished third, Allgaier was fourth and Bell completed the top-five.

Blaney maintained his lead after pit stops during the stage break, followed by Jones, Custer, Hemric and Bell.

On Lap 105, Alex Bowman had rebounded from his penalty and moved back into the Top 10, passing Ty Dillon for the position.

Five laps later, Bowman dropped down on pit road for an unexpected stop. “Shaking like hell,” Bowman said over his team radio.

Stage 1

Blaney and Jones engaged in a back-and-forth battle for the lead before Blaney emerged with the Stage 1 victory over Bowman.

Jones finished third, Hemric fourth and Allgaier completed the top-five.

During pit stops during the stage break, both Brandon Jones and Bowman were penalized for uncontrolled tires on pit road. Blaney maintained the led on the restart on Lap 68.

Playoff contender Brennan Poole saw his championship hopes disappear when he was involved in a wreck on Lap 23 in Turn 2. Poole tried to drive underneath the lapped car of Caesar Bacarella.

“It’s killed. We have no right-front,” Poole said over his team radio. “We’re done.”

Poole entered the race ranked fourth among the eight remaining playoff drivers. His team attempted repairs and he went back on the track, but almost immediately hit the wall and returned to the garage.

“I saw (Bacarella) go in and we were going to kind of go to the top to go around him and he slid up so I tried to go to the bottom,” Poole said. “Bad luck, bad circumstances. I guess I could have been a little more cautious there, but just trying to get up there to get some stage points and keep moving forward.”

On the first lap, Gaughan got loose in Turn 3, made contact with Michael Annett and spun out to bring out the first caution of the race.

Here's highlights from the race:

Cla#DriverManufacturerLapsTimeLaps Led 1 9 united_states William Byron Chevrolet 200 -- 16 2 22 Ryan Blaney Ford 200 0.960 146 3 20 Erik Jones Toyota 200 1.545 34 4 18 Christopher Bell Toyota 200 3.658 5 21 Daniel Hemric Chevrolet 200 4.833 6 11 Blake Koch Chevrolet 200 4.958 7 00 Cole Custer Ford 200 4.962 8 42 united_states Alex Bowman Chevrolet 200 5.263 9 2 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 200 5.922 10 7 Justin Allgaier Chevrolet 200 6.221 11 19 Matt Tifft Toyota 200 8.148 12 98 Casey Mears Ford 200 8.933 13 3 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 200 9.041 14 16 Ryan Reed Ford 200 10.650 15 33 united_states Brandon Jones Chevrolet 200 10.682 16 5 Michael Annett Chevrolet 200 11.434 17 23 Spencer Gallagher Chevrolet 200 12.282 18 1 Elliott Sadler Chevrolet 200 13.221 19 4 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 200 15.005 20 14 J.J. Yeley Toyota 200 15.419 21 39 Ryan Sieg Chevrolet 200 16.188 22 24 united_states Corey Lajoie Toyota 199 -1 23 51 Jeremy Clements Chevrolet 199 -1 24 07 Ray Black Jr. Chevrolet 199 -1 25 0 Garrett Smithley Chevrolet 197 -3 26 90 canada Mario Gosselin Chevrolet 197 -3 27 01 Harrison Rhodes Chevrolet 195 -5 28 40 Carl Long Chevrolet 194 -6 29 99 united_states David Starr Chevrolet 190 -9 30 8 Caesar Bacarella Chevrolet 190 -10 31 78 ireland John Graham Chevrolet 188 -12 32 62 Brendan Gaughan Chevrolet 179 -21 33 52 Joey Gase Chevrolet 169 -31 34 89 Morgan Shepherd Chevrolet 47 -153 35 15 Joe Nemechek Chevrolet 44 -156 36 13 united_states Carl Long Toyota 37 -163 37 38 Jeff Green Chevrolet 30 -170 38 48 Brennan Poole Chevrolet 25 -175 39 74 Mike Harmon Dodge 19 -181 40 93 Gray Gaulding Chevrolet 6 -194

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