Justin Haley scores first-career Talladega victory

Justin Haley wins at Talladega
Chris Graythen/Getty Images

On a banner day for Kaulig Racing at Talladega Superspeedway, Justin Haley got his first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory and Ross Chastain got the cash.

Haley, who doesn't have a ride locked down for next year, beat teammate Chastain to the finish line by 0.299-seconds at the end of a three-lap dash in Saturday's Unhinged 300 at the 2.66-mile track.

Chastain collected the $100,000 Xfinity Dash 4 Cash bonus as the highest finisher among four eligible drivers—a week after teammate AJ Allmendinger claimed an identical cash prize with a fourth-place run at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

With Allmendinger winning in a part-time role June 7 at Atlanta, Kaulig now has won two of the last four Xfinity Series races in addition to the consecutive cash bonuses.

An emotional Haley climbed from the right-side window of his car after the race, with more than one reason to be choked up by the maiden win. Haley's crew chief during his rookie season, Nick Harrison, passed away unexpectedly on July 21 last year, and Haley celebrated his bond with his former crew chief.

"First of all, I want to dedicate this win to Nick Harrison and the Harrison family, who started this journey with me last year in my rookie year," Haley said. "Losing him was pretty big.

"Just an incredible day. Emotionally, I'm fighting for a ride, fighting for the next time I get in a race car next year, so anytime you can win, it definitely helps."

As for climbing through the "wrong" window, Haley said he was looking for a signature move after winning.

"I'm the littlest guy," said the 21-year-old. "I'm the only one that can do it, and I still struggled."

Ross Chastain pocketed $100,000 in the Xfinity Dash 4 Cash bonus
Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Fortuitously, all three Kaulig drivers were on pit road on Lap 76, when Riley Herbst's spin off the bumper of fifth-place finisher Brett Moffitt's Chevrolet caused the fourth caution of the afternoon. The three teammates restarted up front on Lap 81 of 113 and were contenders thereafter.

Jeb Burton had the lead for the restart with three laps left, but with help from Chastain, Haley pulled away on the final lap. Burton came home third and Austin Cindric grabbed fourth.

"When I saw Justin get free of the 8 car (Burton), I knew it was his race, and I honestly have never been so happy to finish second," Chastain said.

Allgaier triggered the last caution when JR Motorsports teammate Noah Gragson checked up behind Chastain's block on Lap 106.

"It was just disappointing," Allgaier said. "I hate it for everybody at JR Motorsports. Right there, Noah had a really good run to the outside of the 10 (Chastain), and he pulled up to block, and as soon as he did, it started to get (Gragson's) car loose.

"He checked up, and I ran into the back of him. I thought we were going to be OK, and then (JRM teammate) Michael (Annett) got into the back of me."

Harrison Burton's record streak of 10 straight top-10 finishes as a Sunoco rookie came to a violent end in Turn 3 on Lap 97.

Justin Haley (left) leads the pack at Talladega
Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images

The No. 52 Chevrolet of Kody Vanderwal checked up after contact with the car of Jefferey Earnhardt in front of him, turned sideways near the top of the track and chased the No. 20 Toyota of Burton down the track. Contact from Vanderwal's car turned Burton sideways and propelled him nose first into the outside wall.

The cars of Joe Graf Jr., Josh Williams and Colin Grant also were collected.

"It looks like we were all running the top and we were single file, and they checked up really hard," said Burton, who had finished in the top 10 with two wins in the first 10 races of the season. "I don't know if I didn't get checked up in time. It looks like one of them got sideways and then it was just all over.

"It's so hard to tell what's going on. There's so much going on, even when you're running single file. Just a tough day for us. We had a fast race car and trying to make moves work on the bottom. Just kind of got shuffled to the back and from then on, that's just kind of how it went down."

Gragson salvaged a 10th-place result and maintained a 15-point lead over second-place Chase Briscoe in the series standings.

RACE RESULTS

Fin St # Driver Sponsor/Make Laps Led Points Status
1 1 11 Justin Haley LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet 113 16 55 Running
2 9 10 Ross Chastain Nutrien Ag Solutions Chevrolet 113 24 48 Running
3 8 8 Jeb Burton LS Tractor Chevrolet 113 8 38 Running
4 7 22 Austin Cindric MoneyLion Ford 113 8 46 Running
5 20 2 Brett Moffitt(i) Fr8Auctions Chevrolet 113 0 0 Running
6 10 21 Anthony Alfredo DUDE Wipes Chevrolet 113 5 40 Running
7 34 16 AJ Allmendinger Ellsworth Advisors Chevrolet 113 0 30 Running
8 21 7 Gray Gaulding(i) Walk-Ons.com Chevrolet 113 0 0 Running
9 27 36 Alex Labbe Lake Wales HS Class of 2020 Chevrolet 113 0 28 Running
10 5 9 Noah Gragson Hellmann's Drizzle Sauce Chevrolet 113 19 34 Running
11 15 68 Brandon Brown Original Larry's Hard Lemonade Chevrolet 113 0 27 Running
12 2 1 Michael Annett Pilot/Flying J Chevrolet 113 11 36 Running
13 18 4 Jesse Little # Skuttletight Chevrolet 113 0 24 Running
14 13 0 Jeffrey Earnhardt Flexfit 110 Chevrolet 113 0 23 Running
15 32 44 Tommy Joe Martins AAN Adjusters Chevrolet 113 0 22 Running
16 6 19 Brandon Jones Menards/Atlas Toyota 113 0 30 Running
17 17 90 Caesar Bacarella Alpha Prime/Maxim Chevrolet 113 0 20 Running
18 4 98 Chase Briscoe Ford Performance Racing School Ford 113 15 37 Running
19 14 15 Robby Lyons II Sunwest Construction Chevrolet 113 0 18 Running
20 35 99 Mason Massey Gerber Colission & Glass Toyota 113 0 17 Running
21 28 78 Vinnie Miller Koolbox Toyota 113 0 16 Running
22 30 13 Chad Finchum MOHAWK MARKET Toyota 113 0 15 Running
23 16 6 BJ McLeod JD Motorsports Chevrolet 113 0 14 Running
24 19 51 Jeremy Clements Repairables.com Chevrolet 112 1 13 Running
25 25 74 Mike Harmon Back The Blue Chevrolet 112 0 12 Running
26 33 61 Timmy Hill(i) ROOFCLAIM.COM Toyota 106 0 0 Accident
27 31 93 Myatt Snider Louisiana Hot Sauce Chevrolet 105 1 10 Accident
28 12 7 Justin Allgaier BRANDT/TradeMark Nitrogen Chevrolet 105 2 9 Accident
29 36 38 Jeff Green C2 Freight Resources Chevrolet 105 0 8 Accident
30 3 39 Ryan Sieg CMRRoofing.com Chevrolet 101 0 7 Running
31 26 52 Kody Vanderwal # ADVANCED DAIRY SERVICE Chevrolet 95 0 6 Accident
32 11 20 Harrison Burton # Morton Buildings/DEX Imaging Toyota 95 3 9 Accident
33 24 92 Josh Williams Tedlar/General Formulations Chevrolet 95 0 4 Accident
34 23 8 Joe Graf Jr # Bucked Up Energy Chevrolet 95 0 3 Accident
35 39 26 Colin Garrett Rosie Network Toyota 95 0 2 Accident
36 29 47 Tim Viens(i) Patriots of America PAC Chevrolet 90 0 0 Accident
37 22 18 Riley Herbst # Monster Energy Toyota 76 0 1 Accident
38 37 5 Matt Mills J.F. Electric Toyota 65 0 1 Overheating
39 38 66 John Jackson CrashClaimsR.US Toyota 30 0 1 Overheating

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