AJ Allmendinger wins Las Vegas Xfinity race

AJ Allmendinger took the lead on a restart with 13 laps to go and pulled away to win Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The victory is the sixth of Allmendinger’s Xfinity career and second on an oval. This is the third consecutive season he’s won a race.

Allmendinger led 44 of the 200 laps.

Daniel Hemric, who led a race-high 74 laps, placed second for the eighth time in his career. He was followed by Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Brandon Jones. Austin Cindric rallied from losing a lap because of a flat tire in the second stage to finish fourth. Noah Gragson finished fifth.

The race was slowed by eight cautions for 45 laps.

STAGE 1 WINNER: Austin Cindric

STAGE 2 WINNER: Daniel Hemric

WHO HAD A GOOD RACE: Josh Berry tied his career high with his seventh-place finish. … Former IndyCar driver Santino Ferruci finished 13th in his second career series start. … Tommy Joe Martins finished a season-high 15th.

WHO HAD A BAD RACE: Riley Herbst‘s race ended after Ty Dillon lost control of his car and hit Herbst. Herbst finished last in the 40-car field. In the season’s first four races, he’s placed 26th, 39th, 11th and 40th. Herbst said: “It just sucks. People spin in front of you. It’s happened probably the last three weeks where people have started wrecking in front of me and there’s no place for me to go, so something has got to change.” … Ryan Sieg finished 38th after he spun and had the front of his car damaged when he went through the grass. He’s finished 27th or worse in three of the season’s first four races.

NOTABLE: Reigning series champion Austin Cindric is the only driver to finish in the top five in all four Xfinity races this season.

NEXT: The series races at 5:30 p.m. ET March 13 at Phoenix Raceway on FS1.

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AJ Allmendinger wins Las Vegas Xfinity race originally appeared on NBCSports.com