CONCORD, N.C. — Connor Zilisch scored his 10th victory of the season, while Sammy Smith turned a “Hail Mary” into a spot in the next round of the Xfinity playoffs Saturday at the Charlotte Roval.
Zilisch led 61 of the 68 laps in a race extended by overtime.
Smith and Carson Kvapil both advanced Saturday, joining JR Motorsports teammates Zilisch and Justin Allgaier in the Round of 8.
Smith, who finished third, had to wait about 10 minutes after parking on pit road for NASCAR to confirm the results.
Smith was 21 points below the cutline when he pitted four laps from the scheduled distance but a caution for Sage Karam’s incident gave Smith and his team new hope.
“We got lucky with that ‘Hail Mary’ move Phil (Bell, the team’s crew chief) pulled,” Smith said.
” … It was something on our bingo card when we talked about it, if we were that far out … pit and just hope for a caution,” Smith said.
Smith beat Taylor Gray for the final transfer spot by one point. Gray fell from sixth to 13th in the overtime.
Austin Green finished second, scoring his best Xfinity finish in 19 career starts. After Smith, Kaz Grala placed fourth, matching his best Xfinity finish for the fourth time. Connor Mosack finished fifth to match his best Xfinity result.
The four drivers who failed to advance were Gray, Nick Sanchez, Austin Hill and Harrison Burton.
Hill lost all his playoff points when he needed a waiver to be playoff eligible after NASCAR suspended him one race for wrecking Aric Almirola at Indianapolis. By getting the waiver, Hill lost all the playoff points he earned in the regular season. That put him behind the rest of the of playoff field in the round.
Stage 1 winner: Connor Zilisch
Stage 2 winner: Jesse Love
Next: The Round of 8 begins at 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday Oct. 11 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
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