Jeb Burton wins maiden Xfinity race in rain-shortened Ag-Pro 300

Please clap for Jeb Burton because he is now a NASCAR Xfinity Series winner. In Saturday’s Ag-Pro 300 at Talladega Superspeedway, Burton was the leader when the race was called after 90 of 113 laps due to rain.

Austin Cindric started on the pole ahead of Daniel Hemric. Joey Gase, who was running a one-off in a #28 Davey Allison tribute scheme, lost fuel pressure prior to the green flag and had to re-fire the car in the garage before joining the race five laps down.

Cindric led the opening lap before Hemric took the position and pulled off. After Hemric led fifteen laps, the top spot was traded between him, Cindric, Noah Gragson, Justin Haley, and Jason White with none of them leading more than three laps. By the end, Haley—who was seeking his third consecutive Talladega victory—took the stage win. Kaulig Racing team-mate Burton, Gragson, Cindric, Harrison Burton, A.J. Allmendinger, Hemric, Brandon Jones, Brandon Brown, and Justin Allgaier closed out the top ten.

Haley and Jeb Burton led the field to the start of Stage #2. The Kaulig drivers held the top of the leaderboard early in the segment before Cindric took the lead on lap 42. Gragson, who dropped back earlier in the stage and set the fastest lap, climbed back through the order and nabbed the stage win with JR Motorsports team-mate Allgaier in tow. Cindric, Jones, Ty Dillon, Myatt Snider, Hemric, Brett Moffitt, Michael Annett, and Brown also finished in the top ten. Bayley Currey exited the race on lap 34 with an overheating issue.

White retired from the race with a suspension failure between stages. The race resumed with Gragson leading before battling Snider and Cindric led laps. Green-flag pit stops commenced on lap 70 with Cindric giving up the lead to Harrison and Jeb Burton. The cousins pitted shortly after which allowed Brown, Colby Howard, and Ryan Vargas to spend time in front; Vargas led three laps, his first in his Xfinity career. Jeffrey Earnhardt nearly spun as he came onto pit road but avoided going fully around. Josh Berry was not as fortunate as he spun in turn three after a rear tyre went down, resulting in a caution.

The race resumed as a battle of the Burtons began. On lap 84, Joe Graf Jr.‘s tyre went down in turn two and he slid up into Annett and Jones, clipping the former who turned Dillon into Jones; Gase and Caesar Bacarella also went around. The wreck continues Dillon’s streak of poor luck in 2021; despite being in one of the top Xfinity cars, he has been caught in an incident in each of his four starts so far.

During the ensuing caution, rain began to fall on the track and resulted in a red flag. With no time to dry the track before sunset and Talladega not having lights, NASCAR officially ended the race. With Jeb Burton leading, he was declared the winner for his first Xfinity victory in his maiden full-time season.

It is Burton’s first NASCAR national series victory since 2013 in the Camping World Truck Series.

“It’s been a tough road to get to this point,” said Burton. “Just an unbelievable race team. Today, we had Mother Nature on our side, but we had a fast car anyway. We ran up front all day. We’ve been building and building and building, and I feel like I’ve kind of been the weak link the last couple of races, and I need to clean some things up.

“Just the momentum, that’s what I needed. I want to win races. I told them (Kaulig Racing) that I wanted to come there and hang banners.”

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	9	10	Jeb Burton	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	90	Running
2	1	22	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	90	Running
3	11	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	90	Running
4	19	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	90	Running
5	17	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	90	Running
6	4	9	Noah Gragson	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	90	Running
7	18	68	Brandon Brown	Brandonbilt Motorsports	Chevrolet	90	Running
8	5	11	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	90	Running
9	10	2	Myatt Snider	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	90	Running
10	3	20	Harrison Burton	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	90	Running
11	23	44	Tommy Joe Martins	Martins Motorsports	Chevrolet	90	Running
12	2	18	Daniel Hemric	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	90	Running
13	27	66	Timmy Hill	MBM Motorsports	Ford	90	Running
14	14	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	90	Running
15	22	26	Colin Garrett	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	90	Running
16	26	61	David Starr	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	90	Running
17	13	02	Brett Moffitt	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	90	Running
18	20	48	Jade Buford	Big Machine Racing	Chevrolet	90	Running
19	37	15	Colby Howard	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	90	Running
20	32	4	Landon Cassill	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	90	Running
21	30	36	Alex Labbé	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	90	Running
22	33	0	Jeffrey Earnhardt	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	90	Running
23	21	47	Kyle Weatherman	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet	90	Running
24	38	23	Natalie Decker	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	90	Running
25	36	5	Matt Mills	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	90	Running
26	34	78	Jesse Little	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	90	Running
27	31	99	Mason Massey	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Toyota	90	Running
28	15	92	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	90	Running
29	8	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	90	Running
30	39	6	Ryan Vargas	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	90	Running
31	6	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	90	Running
32	12	1	Michael Annett	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	88	Running
33	35	07	Joe Graf Jr.	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet	88	Running
34	24	52	Gray Gaulding	Jimmy Means Racing	Chevrolet	87	Electrical
35	16	54	Ty Dillon	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	87	Accident
36	29	28	Joey Gase	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet	85	Running
37	7	19	Brandon Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	84	Accident
38	28	90	Caesar Bacarella	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	84	DVP
39	40	13	Jason White	MBM Motorsports	Ford	51	Suspension
40	25	74	Bayley Currey	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet	34	Overheating