From last place, Smith advances in Xfinity playoffs

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Sammy Smith jumped from last in the Xfinity Series playoff standings to the first driver to move on to the second round by winning Saturday’s race in overtime at Talladega Superspeedway.

It was the first win of the year for the JR Motorsports driver, who was 12th in the 12-driver playoff field at the start of the race. Four drivers will be cut from the field next Saturday on the hybrid road course/oval at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Smith, who has two career wins, snapped a 56-race losing streak after picking team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s brain about racing at Talladega. Earnhardt won six Cup Series races at the Alabama superspeedway.

“We sat down with him Wednesday, wasn’t a whole lot, just kind of some of the stuff he’d do in those situations,” Smith said. “But, man, it feels very good to win here.”

Smith was in second when the race restarted with a two-lap sprint to the finish as it marked the 13th time this season an Xfinity Series race has gone to overtime. The front four broke away from the pack, and it became a race for the win among Smith, Riley Herbst and Chandler Smith.

But there was so much jockeying for position, and the four found themselves darting all around the track seeking a drafting partner. Sammy Smith finished .177 seconds ahead of Ryan Sieg, who is not a playoff driver.

Herbst led a trio of playoff drivers in finishing third ahead of Sheldon Creed and Chandler Smith.

The standings headed into next Saturday’s race at The Roval show the series’ top names in danger of elimination. Justin Allgaier, the top seed at the start of the playoffs, is below the cutline along with AJ Allmendinger, Shane Van Gisbergen and Parker Kligerman.

All were contenders to win Saturday at Talladega until each was collected in a late accident.

“I don’t know what the points are, we’ll see how far in the hole we are,” Van Gisbergen said of heading into The Roval in danger of elimination.

Allmendinger is 4-for-4 on the hybrid road course/oval at Charlotte Motor Speedway, site of next week’s elimination race when four drivers will be dropped from the field.

NASCAR announced during the race that if the event could not be completed by 6:15 p.m. local it would be declared over and official. NASCAR placed a time limit on the 250-mile event because Talladega does not have lights.