As with their Truck Series brethren, the NASCAR Ford teams had a rough go at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Xfinity Series race on May 25th, 2024. Only one Ford Mustang Dark Horse race car finished inside the top 10 – the No. 39 Mustang of Ryan Sieg, who brought it home in seventh place.
When an early caution flag waved, Sieg elected to stay out, saving a set of fresh tires for later on. However, while this played out in the favor of the ultimate winner, Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 17 Chevy Camaro SS, Sieg just didn’t have the speed to keep pace with the leaders and quietly finished just inside the top 10.
Riley Herbst, driver of the No. 98 Mustang, didn’t have nearly as good of a day. He tangled with AJ Allmendinger, driver of the No. 16 Camaro, and hurtled toward the inside wall.
“I haven’t seen a replay. I passed him twice cleanly,” Herbst said . “I slid him, racing at Charlotte. It’s fast, it’s hot. I think next week at Portland is his favorite track. So we’ll see what happens. He had a run off the top, which is fine. And he could’ve tried to slide me back and get some momentum, but instead he just caught my left rear and hooked me. So, it’s unfortunate, but probably unfortunate for him.”
Then, Cole Custer, driver of the No. 00 Mustang, was not happy after a run-in with Austin Hill, driver of the No. 21 Camaro. The two were racing inside the top five, slamming doors several times before Custer hit the wall and came down across the track, striking Hill’s race car and causing Hill to cut a tire. Hill then ran into Custer, forcing the No. 00 NASCAR Ford into the wall and incurring critical damage that forced his retirement from the race as he spun and hit the inside wall.
“He tried to kill me on the backstretch and just held it full throttle until he wrecked our car and killed the rear clip,” Custer said of the incident.
| Finish | Start | Car Number | Driver | Team | Laps Run | Laps Led | Car |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 30 | 17 | Chase Elliott(i) | HendrickCars.com Chevrolet | 200 | 18 | Chevrolet Camaro |
| 2 | 10 | 9 | Brandon Jones | Menards/CharBroil Chevrolet | 200 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro |
| 3 | 16 | 8 | Sammy Smith | Pilot Flying J Chevrolet | 200 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro |
| 4 | 13 | 1 | Sam Mayer | Tire Pros Chevrolet | 200 | 44 | Chevrolet Camaro |
| 5 | 11 | 16 | AJ Allmendinger | LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet | 200 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro |
| 6 | 2 | 33 | Kyle Busch(i) | BetMGM/Rebel Bourbon Chevrolet | 200 | 34 | Chevrolet Camaro |
| 7 | 21 | 39 | Ryan Sieg | Sci Aps Ford | 200 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 8 | 36 | 11 | Josh Williams | Alloy Employer Services Chevrolet | 200 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro |
| 9 | 1 | 20 | Ty Gibbs(i) | He Gets Us Toyota | 200 | 27 | Toyota TRD Supra |
| 10 | 18 | 30 | Noah Gragson(i) | Auto Parts Centres Ford | 200 | 9 | Ford Mustang |
| 11 | 27 | 91 | Kyle Weatherman | MyRadar/DriveSmartWarranty.com Chevrolet | 200 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro |
| 12 | 15 | 19 | Taylor Gray(i) | Operation 300 Toyota | 200 | 0 | Toyota TRD Supra |
| 13 | 24 | 51 | Jeremy Clements | Spartan Waste/Fox Sports 98.3 Chevrolet | 200 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro |
| 14 | 12 | 31 | Parker Retzlaff | FUNKAWAY Chevrolet | 200 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro |
| 15 | 29 | 97 | Shane Van Gisbergen # | Focused Health Chevrolet | 200 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro |
| 16 | 17 | 5 | Anthony Alfredo | Dude Wipes Chevrolet | 200 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro |
| 17 | 5 | 27 | Jeb Burton | Puryear Tank Lines Chevrolet | 200 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro |
| 18 | 3 | 81 | Chandler Smith | QuickTie Toyota | 200 | 0 | Toyota TRD Supra |
| 19 | 34 | 28 | Kyle Sieg | Night Owl National Contractors Ford | 199 | 5 | Ford Mustang |
| 20 | 32 | 15 | Hailie Deegan # | AirBox Ford | 199 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 21 | 38 | 14 | JJ Yeley | Engine Parts Plus Chevrolet | 199 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro |
| 22 | 33 | 4 | Dawson Cram # | TeamJDMotorsports.com Chevrolet | 199 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro |
| 23 | 25 | 42 | Leland Honeyman # | Professional Builders Supply Chevrolet | 199 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro |
| 24 | 20 | 6 | Garrett Smithley | TeamJDMotorsports.com Chevrolet | 199 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro |
| 25 | 8 | 21 | Austin Hill | Bennett Transportation Chevrolet | 198 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro |
| 26 | 14 | 38 | Matt DiBenedetto | Viking Motorsports Ford | 198 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 27 | 22 | 43 | Ryan Ellis | MacLean Power Systems Chevrolet | 198 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro |
| 28 | 4 | 2 | Jesse Love # | Whelen Chevrolet | 198 | 14 | Chevrolet Camaro |
| 29 | 37 | 92 | Natalie Decker | Bikini Zone Chevrolet | 196 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro |
| 30 | 35 | 7 | Patrick Emerling | Liberty Brew Chevrolet | 191 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro |
| 31 | 23 | 44 | Brennan Poole | Macc Door Systems Chevrolet | 190 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro |
| 32 | 6 | 0 | Cole Custer | Fanttik Ford | 184 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 33 | 9 | 7 | Justin Allgaier | Hellmann's/Round Canopy Team Chevrolet | 176 | 40 | Chevrolet Camaro |
| 34 | 26 | 26 | Dean Thompson(i) | MCM Transportation Toyota | 137 | 0 | Toyota TRD Supra |
| 35 | 31 | 29 | Blaine Perkins | AutoParkit.com Ford | 135 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 36 | 7 | 18 | Sheldon Creed | Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Toyota | 119 | 9 | Toyota TRD Supra |
| 37 | 28 | 48 | Parker Kligerman | Spiked Lite Coolers Chevrolet | 71 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro |
| 38 | 19 | 98 | Riley Herbst | Monster Energy Ford | 29 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
# – Rookie
i – Points ineligible
* – Part-time driver
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Comment
25 Chevy’s and 6 or 7 Fords, what do you expect, speed costs money and numbers matter, General Motors I assume has 3 times the budget that Ford, easy answer.