By AMANDA VINCENT
Saturday’s ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway will be the kickoff of the 2023 Dash 4 Cash program in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Sammy Smith, Justin Allgaier, Daniel Hemric and Sam Mayer will contend for the first $100,000 bonus of this year’s edition of the program.
Smith, Allgaier, Hemric and Mayer qualified for the Richmond bonus by finishing in the highest four positions among Xfinity Series regulars March 25 at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. The top-three finishers in that race were NASCAR Cup Series regulars. The Dash 4 Cash program is open only to drivers who race full-time and collect points in the Xfinity Series.
“It’s a good feeling to get qualified in again,” Mayer said. “Last year, I got in at COTA with a last-lap pass, and this year, I got in with a last-lap pass again. It’s super-cool to get back into it, even if it was by the skin of my teeth. And last year, I won the $100,000 at Richmond, so it was worth every ounce of pushing that it took. Hopefully, I can do it again this year.”
The highest finisher among Smith, Allgaier, Hemric and Mayer at Richmond will win the first bonus of this year’s program and will be eligible to race for the second bonus April 15 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. The next three highest-finishing Xfinity regulars in the Richmond race also will contend for a the bonus at Martinsville.
The 2023 Dash 4 Cash program will continue April 22 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway and April 29 at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway. Rules and qualifying for the bonuses continue through each race of the program.
“I’m Just excited to have the opportunity for another year to be part of such an awesome program that Xfinity has carried on,” Allgaier said. “It means a lot to the drivers and teams and has become very prestigious among those of us in the NXS garage.”
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