XFINITY: Contact from Alfredo knocks Stefan Parsons out of race, sets up dramatic LASTCAR title battle between Mayer and Cram
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
PHOTO: Luis Torres, @TheLTFiles
Stefan Parsons picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Saturday’s XFINITY Series Championship Race at the Phoenix Raceway when his #45 Prime Bites Mini Muffins Chevrolet crashed after 61 of 213 laps.
The finish, which came in Parsons’ 67th series start, was his first of the season and first in a XFINITY Series race since June 24, 2023 at Nashville, 51 races ago. In the XFINITY Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 15th for the #45, the 403rd from a crash, and the 654th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 47th for the #45, the 1,403rd from a crash, and the 1,972nd for Chevrolet.
This year, Parsons has focused more attention on the Truck Series, where he began the year with veteran team owner Charlie Henderson for a part-time effort. He began the year with a tremendous 6th-place finish – a career-best in that series – then followed it up with a 9th in Texas and an 8th at Talladega. Unfortunately, that Talladega race also saw him tangle with Norm Benning on pit road when Benning was also driving a former Henderson truck. Parsons’ only XFINITY start this year was also star-crossed as, two months ago at Bristol, the Alpha Prime Racing team discovered the engine had hydra-locked. The team completed the engine change in time for Parsons to join the race on Lap 14, after which he climbed to 33rd.
For the Phoenix finale, Parsons would run double-duty, racing for Niece Motorsports in the Truck Series on Friday, then again with Alpha Prime in XFINITY for Saturday. Both times, he’d be driving a part-time entry for a multi-car organization. On Friday, he drove Niece’s part-time #44 with Parsons’ sponsor popsells.com from his previous ride at Henderson Motorsports. He finished 23rd after he was collected in the night’s biggest crash on the backstretch, causing his hood to come unhooked and cover his windshield. For Saturday, Parsons drove Alpha Prime’s #45 with sponsorship from team co-owner Caesar Bacarella’s Alpha Prime supplement company. This time, the marketed product was their new line of Prime Bites Mini Muffins. Equipped with a leased ECR engine, Parsons showed speed early, jumping from 29th of the 38 entries in opening practice to a solid 14th in qualifying – best of the three Alpha Prime entries – with a lap of 27.386 seconds (131.454mph).
Parsons was not involved in the spectacular practice accident that occurred when teammate Brennan Poole dropped fluid from his #44 Macc Door Systems Chevrolet in Turns 1 and 2. After so many drivers in all three series struggled with those corners, this fluid made them impassible, sending multiple cars careening into the outside wall. Scrambling for backup cars were Brandon Jones in the #9 Menards / Klearvue Cabinetry Chevrolet, Parker Kligerman in the #48 Big Machine Spiked Coolers Chevrolet, Aric Almirola in the #20 He Gets Us Toyota, and most significantly, Championship Four contender Justin Allgaier in the #7 BRANDT Chevrolet. While Jones earned 33rd on the grid to Kligerman’s 31st, both Allgaier and Almirola deliberately ran conservative laps in qualifying. Allgaier’s 37th-best lap of 30.261 (118.965) was 3.429 seconds slower than 36th-place Garrett Smithley in the #53 Dozer Winch Parts.com Ford, but was still another 4.722 seconds ahead of Almirola’s 34.983 (102.907mph) which put the #20 last on the grid.
The backup cars incurred Almirola, Allgaier, Kligerman, and Jones tail-end penalties prior to the start, joined by another Championship Four driver in 9th-place starter A.J. Allmendinger for unapproved adjustments to his #16 Celsius Chevrolet, plus 15th-place Sammy Smith for an engine change on the #8 Pilot / Flying J Chevrolet. When the field was finally reset for the green flag, Allgaier was 38th and last across the stripe, 3.41 seconds back of the lead to Almirola’s 3.335 in 37th with the rest of the tail end ranked as follows with (P) indicating the penalized drivers:
31) 16-A.J. Allmendinger 2.84 (P)
32) 8-Sammy Smith 2.952 (P)
33) 35-Joey Gase 2.965
34) 48-Parker Kligerman 3.095 (P)
35) 53-Garrett Smithley 3.129
36) 9-Brandon Jones 3.278 (P)
37) 20-Aric Almirola 3.335 (P)
38) 7-Justin Allgaier 3.41 (P)
At the end of Lap 1, Jones, Almirola, and Allgaier had made quick work of Smithley, putting his #53 back in 38th, now 4.979 behind the lead and 0.183 behind the now 37th-place Jones. By Lap 3, Greg Van Alst had slipped to 37th in his #14 Prescott Tire Pros Chevrolet, and by 0.086 second, he held off Smithley to keep the #53 in last. By Lap 5, Van Alst built up a 0.259 second advantage which grew to 0.334 on Lap 7, then shrank again to 0.293 on Lap 8. “It’s not driving that bad,” said Smithley over the radio. “We’re just getting destroyed off the corner.” The gap between these final two drivers grew to 0.629 on Lap 12, then 1.357 on Lap 15 before Smithley was first to be lapped on the 22nd circuit. Smithley held the spot through the end of Stage 1 on Lap 46, when he remarked, “I wish I can tell you more, but driving wise it's really not that bad - the longer we went, the better it got.”
Smithley came in for adjustments under the caution, and after a momentary delay at the end of his stop, returned to the track. For the Lap 55 restart, he remained in 38th, one lap down, but now behind the RSS Racing teammates of Ryan Sieg in the #28 Sci Aps Ford and Blaine Perkins in the #29 Ashurst American Honey Ford. The duo dropped Van Alst back to 37th by Lap 59, but three laps later, trouble broke out in front of them. At the time, Stefan Parsons was in a side-by-side battle for 20th, racing to the inside of Anthony Alfredo’s #5 Dead On Tools Chevrolet. Just past the stripe, Parsons squeezed Alfredo into the outside wall. Alfredo followed Parsons, expecting him to cut off the corner as he gave him a bump in response. But when Parsons didn’t come up, Alfredo clipped Parsons’ right-rear instead, sending Parsons hard into the outside wall. As the field scattered behind, Van Alst was spun by another car and slammed the inside wall. As Smithley passed Van Alst under caution, the #14 briefly held last place until he turned the car around and made it down pit road. Parsons attempted to do the same, but the rear clip of his Chevrolet was destroyed, and he stopped on the approach to Turn 1. Parsons climbed out, his night done. The tow truck brought his car to the team’s hauler, where the crew wanted to see if it could still roll when they bolted on shop wheels and loaded up for the night.
Van Alst after damage suffered in the Parsons wreck. (PHOTO: Luis Torres, @TheLTFiles)
Cram comes close, but falls a single bottom-five finish short of taking LASTCAR title from Mayer
Assured a last-place finish, pending the results of post-race inspection, Parsons’ retirement whittled down the list of remaining contenders for the 2024 LASTCAR XFINITY Series Championship. Coming into the race, Sam Mayer held the lead as one of seven drivers who scored two last-place finishes in the 2024 season. That list shrank to five in qualifying after Kyle Weatherman and Akinori Ogata weren’t entered. Parsons’ accident also eliminated Matt DiBenedetto, Patrick Emerling, and Riley Herbst, who each needed to finish last in the race to take the title from Mayer.
The only remaining challenger to Mayer was Dawson Cram in the #92 Trade With The Pros Chevrolet. Cram was the only driver who didn’t need to finish last to win the title – a bottom-five finish would be enough to force a bottom-ten tiebreaker, which Cram would win so long as Mayer didn’t also finish 34th or worse. Cram dropped to 35th on Lap 3, and during the first stage was in a tight race with Emerling’s #07 MMI Tank Chevrolet. By Lap 43, it was Emerling – tlast in the spring Phoenix race – who seemed best positioned to take last place, holding 36th to Cram’s 31st. And while Emerling briefly held 37th on Lap 51, he was eliminated after Parsons’ wreck.
On Lap 67, still under the Parsons caution, Cram dropped to 36th with Parsons still the only driver out of the race. Van Alst continued three laps down, soon to be joined by Alfredo, who was held two laps for an aggressive driving penalty due to his tangle with Parsons. Alfredo’s penalty lifted Cram to 35th, still in the Bottom Five. Cram reached 32nd on Lap 69, then 31st on Lap 91 and 29th on Lap 101. Meanwhile, Van Alst pulled behind the wall on Lap 111 for additional repairs, staking a further claim to his 37th spot. Cram reached 32nd on Lap 118, fell back to 34th on Lap 120, and was soon raced hard by Smithley. On Lap 135, Van Alst returned to the track 32 laps down, but pulled behind the wall again on Lap 141, locking up 37th. Cram made a stop on Lap 148, at which point he was now 35th, four down. He then incurred a speeding penalty in Section 18, which didn’t cost him another lap.
On Lap 153, Josh Williams had trouble on his #11 Alloy Chevrolet and dropped five laps down in 36th, lifting Cram to 34th. Alfredo then wrecked hard on Lap 155, lifting Cram back out of the Bottom Five into 33rd. With Alfredo now out along with Van Alst and Parsons, there were now just two spots left in the Bottom Five. Joining the battle was Jeffrey Earnhardt, who by Lap 167 had lost five laps due to a lengthy stop for repairs to his #26 Synergy Modular Toyota. This split the now 33rd-place Cram from 35th-place Williams, each on their own laps. By Lap 176, Earnhardt’s car trailed smoke and went to the garage, done for the night. As Williams passed Earnhardt to take 34th, Cram was still one spot – and one position – out of the Bottom Five. With just 20 to go, that gap increased to two laps.
Then, with just two laps to go, Smithley got into Leland Honeyman, Jr.’s #42 Distributor Wire & Cable Company Chevrolet, causing Honeyman to spin and draw the caution. This put the race into overtime, during which Cram was now scored just one lap ahead of Williams. The decisive moment came on the first overtime restart, when Parker Retzlaff was sent spinning out of a tight pack of traffic in Turns 1 and 2, sending his #31 Funkaway / Realtree Chevrolet spinning backward into the outside wall. The five laps of caution were just enough to drop Retzlaff behind both Cram and Williams, securing the 34th spot. Unable to take the Bottom Five, Cram went on to finish 32nd ahead of 33rd-place Williams, handing Mayer – who finished 11th – the LASTCAR XFINITY Series Championship.
The race was won by Riley Herbst, who took the green flag as one of the contenders for the LASTCAR championship, and left it with a walk-off win for the closing Stewart-Haas Racing’s XFINITY program. Finishing 2nd was the backup car of Justin Allgaier, who overcame both the practice crash, taking the green in last place, and two costly mid-race penalties to wrestle his first championship from the grip of first Cole Custer, then Austin Hill.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
38) #45-Stefan Parsons / 61 laps / crash
37) #14-Greg Van Alst / 108 laps / suspension
36) #5-Anthony Alfredo / 152 laps / crash
35) #26-Jeffrey Earnhardt / 169 laps / engine
34) #31-Parker Retzlaff / 204 laps / crash
2024 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL
1st) Joey Gase Motorsports, JR Motorsports (4)
2nd) Alpha Prime Racing, DGM Racing, Jordan Anderson Racing, Kaulig Racing (3)
3rd) AM Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing, Mike Harmon Racing, RSS Racing, SS-Green Light Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing (2)
4th) Motorsports Business Management (1)
2024 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL
1st) Chevrolet (22)
2nd) Ford (7)
3rd) Toyota (4)
2024 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL
