Pocono Raceway up next for Xfinity Series, with only one former winner in field
With eight races still remaining to set the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series Group of 12 playoff contenders, there are certainly several drivers already establishing themselves as front-runners and several others outside the cutoff line looking to make a push in this crucial time of the season.
Entering Saturday‘s Explore The Pocono Mountains 225 (5 p.m. ET on USA Network, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Kaulig Racing driver Landon Cassill holds a 61-point advantage over the field for the 12th and final playoff position — 61 points ahead of Brandon Brown, 63 points ahead of Sheldon Creed and 69 points up on Anthony Alfredo.
RELATED: Complete Pocono at-track schedule | Xfinity Series standings
This weekend could be a good opportunity for a new race winner. There have been six different race winners in the six Pocono races to date, and there is only one former winner on the entry list this weekend — NASCAR Cup Series regular Cole Custer, who won the Xfinity race there in 2019.
A handful of drivers entered have won in other series at Pocono, however. Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Brandon Jones has a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race win in 2020. And Ty Gibbs (2020), Riley Herbst (2017) and Justin Allgaier (2008) all have past ARCA Menards Series victories on the Pocono 2.5-miler.
Allgaier, winner of last weekend‘s thrilling race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, certainly brings momentum with him to Pocono with victories in three of the last eight races. That kind of strong summer showing, plus some misfortune from other season frontrunners, has moved Allgaier now into second place in the series driver standings, just 16 points behind points leader A.J. Allmendinger.
Both Allmendinger and the series‘ winningest driver of 2022, Ty Gibbs, suffered problems at New Hampshire. Allmendinger was 20th and Gibbs, who has four victories this season, was 21st. With a 35th-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the previous race, it marks the first time in the 19-year-old Gibbs’ young career he has had two-consecutive finishes of 20th or worse.
Gibbs has fallen to third place in the standings and now trails Allmendinger by 28 points in what looks like a three-driver race for the regular-season title and those prized bonus 15 playoff points that go with it.
Of note, in the five years that the regular-season championship points bonus has been awarded, no driver has won it twice. Allmendinger is the defending regular-season champion, and Allgaier won it in 2018.
Former two-time Xfinity Series champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. joins Custer as the only other full-time Cup Series driver competing in Saturday‘s Xfinity Series race.
Practice at Pocono is set for 9:35 a.m. ET on Saturday followed immediately by qualifying at 10:05 a.m. ET — both sessions will be televised live on the USA Network.
