Following Austin Hill's second win of the season at Martinsville in what turned out to be a wreck-filled race, the NASCAR Xfinity Series made its eighth stop of the season in Saturday's running of the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway. It served as the kickoff to NASCAR's Throwback Weekend as drivers and teams pay tribute to the sport's past with retro paint schemes.
Cup Series regular Christopher Bell led the field to the green and led 27 laps in the race. A caution for Kris Wright on Lap 23 mixed the strategy up as some drivers elected to pit for fresh tires at a track that is known for high tire wear. Harrison Burton, one of the drivers that pitted for fresh tires during the first caution, drove his way through the field and won Stage 1
After getting a good launch on the Lap 54 restart, Justin Allgaier dominated and won Stage 2 by a commanding 4.03 seconds over Christian Eckes. Despite an extended 35-second pit stop prior to Stage 2 to repair damage, as well as contact with Jeb Burton and Connor Zilisch on Lap 61, Chase Elliott rallied to the top 10 in the stage driving in his only scheduled Xfinity Series start of the season.
Who won the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 at Darlington?
The final stage was halted three times for incidents, including the last caution of the day for Anthony Alfredo, Josh Williams, Leland Honeyman and Kyle Sieg on Lap 129. The final 12 laps of the 147-lap race went green, with Joe Gibbs Racing's Brandon Jones winning by 1.1 seconds over Elliott. The win snapped a 98-race winless streak for Jones, who had not won since April of 2022 at Martinsville. Jones led 24 laps while Allgaier led a race-high 56 laps. Jones becomes the fifth Xfinity Series regular to win a race this season in the Xfinity Series, joining Hill (two), Allgaier (two), Love (one) and Zilisch (one).
Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 finishing position | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|
Winner | Brandon Jones | 52 |
2nd | Chase Elliott | 0 |
3rd | Justin Allgaier | 53 |
4th | Ross Chastain | 0 |
5th | Carson Kvapil | 37 |
6th | Connor Zilisch | 31 |
7th | Christian Eckes | 43 |
8th | Nick Sanchez | 29 |
9th | Sammy Smith | 28 |
10th | Sheldon Creed | 29 |
11th | Jesse Love | 28 |
12th | Ryan Sieg | 25 |
13th | Harrison Burton | 40 |
14th | Sam Mayer | 23 |
15th | Jeb Burton | 22 |
16th | Austin Hill | 21 |
17th | Daniel Dye | 20 |
18th | Dean Thompson | 19 |
19th | Brennan Poole | 26 |
20th | Parker Retzlaff | 17 |
21st | Jeremy Clements | 16 |
22nd | Ryan Ellis | 15 |
23rd | Matt DiBenedetto | 14 |
24th | Josh Bilicki | 16 |
25th | Christopher Bell | 0 |
26th | David Starr | 11 |
27th | Nick Leitz | 10 |
28th | Blaine Perkins | 9 |
29th | Mason Massey | 8 |
30th | Kyle Sieg | 14 |
31st | Anthony Alfredo | 12 |
32nd | Garrett Smithley | 5 |
33rd | Taylor Gray | 5 |
34th | Greg Van Alst | 3 |
35th | William Sawalich | 2 |
36th | Josh Williams | 1 |
37th | Leland Honeyman | 1 |
38th | Kris Wright | 1 |
Allgaier extended his points lead to 71 points over Sam Mayer as the series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway for the running of the SciAps 300 on Saturday, April 12 (5 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). That race will serve as the third of four Dash 4 Cash races with Hill, Creed, Allgaier and Brennan poole going for the $100,000 bonus as the highest finishing drivers from Martinsville. Current Cup Series driver Cole Custer won the only Xfinity Series race at Bristol last season in September, while Bell was the most recent spring race winner in 2019.