NASCAR Xfinity Series EchoPark Speedway results: Focused Health 250 winner and order

The NASCAR Xfinity Series was at EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway) on Friday night for the running of the Focused Health 250, which saw rookie Nick Sanchez recover from a spin to win his first Xfinity Series race.

How the Focused Health 250 unfolded at EchoPark Speedway

Sheldon Creed led the field to green for the 163-lap, 250-mile race at the 1.54-mile track after the start of the race was delayed by lightning for more than 40 minutes. It did not take long for chaos to ensue when Christian Eckes got into Blaine Perkins battling for 18th on Lap 4, triggering a multi-car crash that also involved William Sawalich, Parker Retzlaff, Josh Williams, Dean Thompson and Kyle Sieg.

Lightning struck once again and brought out the red flag on Lap 36, delaying the race for over an hour. Once cars returned to the track, the Big One hit on the ensuing restart. Sanchez got into Jesse Love on the backstretch battling for third, wiping out several notable drivers including Creed, points leader Justin Allgaier, Sammy Smith, Eckes, Katherine Legge and Ryan Sieg. Taylor Gray was ahead when the caution came out and won an eventful Stage 1.

Stage 2 brought much of the same with a pair of incidents for Sanchez on Lap 68 and Harrison Burton on Lap 81. Sanchez made contact with Matt DiBenedetto trying to side draft down the frontstretch and lost control, while Burton spun down the backstretch, making contact with DiBenedetto and the rear bumper of Daniel Dye. A solo spin from Jeremy Clements on the following restart ended the second stage under caution with Brandon Jones scored as the leader.

Nick Sanchez survives attrition-filled race at EchoPark Speedway: Full finishing order and points results

Three more cautions in quick succession - two of which were for debris - set the stage for a seven-lap dash to the finish. After nearly getting spun into Turn 3 from Aric Almirola, Sanchez surged to second on the restart and made the winning pass over Love on the next lap. No one was able to make a move on Sanchez, who held off fellow rookie Carson Kvapil to win by 0.104 seconds.

It may have gone past midnight on the east coast and concluded around four hours after it started, but Sanchez was left standing tall. The rookie led 18 laps en route to his first Xfinity Series win. With Kvapil in second, Connor Zilisch in fourth and Gray fifth, four of the top-five finishers on Friday night were rookies. Georgia native Austin Hill, who had won five of the last six races at his home track, experienced fuel pickup issues in the opening stage and spent the rest of the night several laps down before finishing 26th.

After a disappointing 31st-place finish following the Big One late in Stage 1, Allgaier saw his points lead trimmed to +63 over second-place Sam Mayer, who moves ahead of Hill after his solid third-place showing. With his win, Sanchez joins Allgaier, Hill, Zilisch, Jones, Smith and Love as the seven full-time drivers in the series to visit Victory Lane this season, putting them atop the playoff leaderboard. Creed and Sieg are currently tied for the 12th and final playoff spot with nine regular-season races remaining.

The Xfinity Series shifts its focus to Chicago for its third attempt at the Chicago Street Course in the running of The Loop 110 on Saturday, July 5 (4:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Cup Series rookie Shane van Gisbergen is the defending race winner.