What a dramatic finish it was to the Xfinity playoff opener in Kansas. The NASCAR veteran, the Joe Gibbs racing part-timer, Aric Almirola, stole the show by playing the first spoiler of the 2024 season. This is Almirola’s 2nd Xfinity win and his career’s 6th. However, it did not come before he ran down championship favorites, Cole Custer and Chandler Smith.

Both the drivers had an intense battle on track before exchanging leads in the final few laps. In the tussle, the two drivers made contact and exchanged heated words after the race. But eventually, Custer took P2 and Smith had to be settled with the 3rd position finish. However, this was just one battle among the many that Kansas saw, some more detrimental than others!

Austin Hill sabotages Riley Herbst’s start to the playoff campaign

Here’s what happened on the track. At the end of stage 2, Austin Hill was trying to block Sheldon Creed, but in that attempt, he made contact with Tony Stewart’s driver in the #98 car. Hill’s right front bumped with Riley Herbst’s left rear, leading to his car spinning into the infield grass. Not only did it ruin the balance of Herbst’s car, but it also cost him a crucial stage point in the playoff opener. Eventually, Hill finished 7th and Herbst finished 1oth in the race. Here, take a look at what happened between the two:

Post the incident, naturally, Herbst was upset, as he said on the radio, “I run him down from a straightaway back, pass him cleanly and what does he do? He wrecks me.” The #98 Team replied, “Yeah, he’s a hack.” However, post the race Richard Childress’s driver explained his version of what happened on the track, he said, “Trying to get up in line really tight behind the 98 cause I was going to try to block the 18 cuz I knew the 18 had a run. Obviously, it’s coming to the stage end for points and every point matters, so right as I looked down I hit him like as I looked down and turned him across my nose. It was 100% my fault.”

Both Austin Hill and Herbst are friends on and off the track. The #21 felt remorse for his mistake and talked it out with Herbst in the pit lane after the race. According to Hill, he told Herbst that if the#98 plans to seek revenge, he’ll understand. “Riley and I, we’ve always raced each other very clean very well. Him and I work really well together like on the super Speedways and everything, so hopefully it doesn’t hurt our friendship going forward. And how we work together on the racetrack but bummer deal that it happened to somebody like Riley. I really admire him a lot,” Hill added.

With so much at stake, such moments are bound to happen. After cooling down, although frustrated, Herbst too understood that Hill’s move was unintentional. Post the race, Herbst said, “Just frustrating, but glad we came home with a top 10 and rallied back. Probably had a fourth-, fifth-, sixth-place car but didn’t get that, didn’t get any second-stage points because we got spun. Frustrating, to say the least… We’re friends, we respect each other and race each other with a lot of respect, but he made a mistake which cost us a lot of points.”

The dramatic incident had an equally dramatic effect on the playoff standings. Herbst is now only a single point above the cutoff line in the 8th position. Whereas Austin Hill is in the 3rd position with a cushion of +26 points. The race winner Cole Custer is leading the standing after his intense battle with Chandler Smith on the track, who is in P2 in the standings. In the long list of drivers who are frustrated with each other were also AJ Allmendinger and Sammy Smith.

The heated exchange between AJ Allmendinger and Sammy Smith

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Smith’s rivalry with Allmendinger reached a boiling point early in the race. Allmendinger’s aggressive move on lap 2 sent Smith spinning into the turn 4 wall, causing significant damage to his car. The incident severely compromised Smith’s race, and he was forced to settle for a disappointing 22nd-place finish, unable to maintain the lead lap. Smith finds himself below the cutoff line with a massive -23 points deficit.

Smith was frustrated at Allmendinger. Post the race, he said, “There’s not much to it really, [Allmendinger] kind of just drove through me on lap 2 or whatever. I don’t get it. It’s frustrating, it’s just lap 2, and he packs me full of air through the whole corner and then he expects me to not be loose.” Post the race, the two had a chat where Allmendinger told him that he was loose and hence one thing led to another.

Allmendinger explaining his version of the story said, “It’s racing early in the race,. [Smith] was free. I was getting run into. I would never want to do that on purpose. There’s nothing I’m going to say to make it better. He’s got the right to be mad. I tried to do everything I could to stay off of him. He was so loose right in front of me, but I get it.”

Allmendinger too stayed out of the top 10 finishing 17th. He is in the 10th position in the playoff ranking, -13 points below the cutoff line. Justin Allgaier in 9th, and Parker Kligerman in 11th wrap up the drivers currently in the bubble. Hopefully, all those who missed out on points today can get some redemption in the next Talladega race. 

Who do you think will be the first four to be eliminated from the playoffs? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.