By AMANDA VINCENT
John Hunter Nemechek broke the stranglehold Austin Hill had on victory lane early in the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season by winning The LiUNA!, the third race of the season, Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“Hats off to all the guys on this No. 20 team for Joe Gibbs Racing. Man, it’s awesome to come back out here and win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series,” Nemechek, a NASCAR Cup Series regular, said. “It feels so good to win here in Las Vegas.”
Pole sitter Cole Custer finished second. Nemechek’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Chandler Smith, finished third. Hill finished fourth, and Riley Herbst was fifth.
“Hat’s off to my team,” Custer said. “There was a point in the race where I didn’t know what to do. It was loose. It was tight. It was just kind of a handful, and we had to manage it. They kept working on it all day, and I think the track came to us a little bit, and they just did a great job. I can’t thank everybody enough on our team for fighting so hard. Everybody at Production Alliance Group, I wish we could have gotten a Ford Mustang Dark Horse in victory lane, but hopefully, we can get ‘em next week in Phoenix.”
Nemechek and Smith combined to lead 173 laps of the 200-lap race with Nemechek leading a race-high 99 laps
The JGR duo traded the lead back-and-forth around the halfway point of the race. Smith was the leader when Parker Retzlaff stalled, bringing out a caution, only the second for an on-track incident, on lap 124. Nemechek, then, beat his teammate off pit road for the lead.
On lap 142, Herbst took second from Smith.
Nemechek gave up the lead to pit during a cycle of green-flag stops on lap 169. The cycle was a lengthy one, but Nemechek cycled back to the lead when Josh Williams finally pitted on lap 190.
Smith swept the two 45- lap stages, both with Nemechek in second.
Smith dominated the first 45-lap stage on his way to the stage win. He started the race on the front row, and after taking the lead from Custer on lap one, he led the entire opening stage.
Justin Allgaier started in the back after a flat tire in qualifying. He was up to seventh by stage-end. He got up to 14th by the time the yellow flag waved for the first time for a Retzlaff/Sam Mayer crash on lap eight and cracked the top-10 on lap 20.
Smith took his second stage win at lap 90 by taking the lead from Nemechek on the last lap of the stage.
The JGR duo lost positions on pit road after stage one. Nemechek was third for the restart, and Smith was seventh after a slow stop. Hill restarted with the lead after being the first off pit road.
Nemechek took the lead on lap 55, and Smith got up to second by lap 61.
A.J. Allmendinger finished The LiUNA! in sixth. Ryan Sieg was seventh, Sammy Smith eighth, and JR Motorsports drivers Brandon Jones and Allgaier rounded out the top-10.
