TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) — Jeb Burton won his second career Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway in a Saturday crash-fest that had two red-flag stoppages and took more than three hours to complete.
Burton won in double overtime driving for Jordan Anderson Racing, which scored its first career victory when Burton crossed the finish line. Fittingly for this race, multiple cars crashed behind Burton as he took the checkered flag.
And, Burton was unable to do a victory burnout because he broke the transmission on his Chevrolet.
Burton, son of Daytona 500 winner Ward Burton, scored his only other Xfinity victory in 2021 at this same track. His owner, Jordan Anderson, is also a driver and was airlifted out of Talladega last October following a fiery crash in the Truck Series.
The race had 12 cautions and only 19 of the 38 entries finished on the lead lap.
Daniel Hemric’s race ended in the first overtime when he was crashed as the leader trying to throw a block and his car ended up flipped over on its roof. Blaine Perkins earlier in the race was transported to a local hospital for precautionary reasons.
Sheldon Creed finished second and Parker Kligerman was third as Chevrolet swept the podium. Cole Custer in a Ford was fourth and followed by four more Chevy drivers. Kaz Grala in 24th — 11 laps down — was the highest finishing Toyota driver.
There were three laps remaining in regulation when Hemric as the leader drove down the track to block Creed and the contact triggered a massive crash in which Hemric was flipped upside down into traffic and his car landed on its roof.
That sent the race to its first overtime and finally a second overtime in which Burton was the leader on both restarts. He successfully held off Creed, who had strong help from Kligerman.
During the second stage of the race, Perkins was hit by Jade Buford and the collision caused Perkins’ car to go airborne and then barrel-roll at least six times down the track. Although he was able to climb from the wreckage, Perkins was transported to a nearby hospital for precautionary reasons.
During that crash, a tire from the carnage bounced off the hood of Grala’s car and Dexter Stanley spun hard into an interior wall. Stanley’s race was finished, but Grala continued.
The crash caused a stoppage of nearly 12 minutes for NASCAR to make surface repairs to the track.
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