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The 26-race NASCAR Xfinity Series regular season came to an end with the conclusion of Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway where John Hunter Nemechek secured his sixth win of the season.
The result of the final race of the regular season set the 12 drivers playoff grid who will compete against each other for the prestigious NASCAR Xfinity Series championship.
The 11 of the 12-playoff positions were already decided. With no new winner from below the cut-off line at Kansas Speedway, Riley Herbst was cut out from the race of playoffs and the last spot was clinched by Parker Klingerman, after finishing P4 in the regular season finale.
Klingerman, who finished 25 points ahead of Herbst in the final regular-season standings, spoke about qualifying for the playoffs and said:
“I was definitely the biggest John Hunter fan on the last run there. I’m really proud of this whole Big Machine Racing team… We executed at a high level. With what I’ve seen do for the last 12 weeks, I felt like, if we could just get in the Playoffs, and we bring this going forward, we’re going to race for a championship,” as quoted by NASCAR.com.
The potential Xfinity drivers who missed the playoffs this season are Brandon Jones, Brett Moffitt, Parker Retzlaff, Kaz Grala, Ryan Sieg, and Jeremy Clements.
NASCAR Xfinity Series playoff grid: Drivers who made it to the Round of 12
With 12 Xfinity Series drivers now left to battle for the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship, Joe Gibbs Racing driver John Hunter Nemechek who had a breakout season with series-leading six wins grabbed the top spot to begin the Round of 12. Sammy Smith, Jeb Burton, Daniel Hemric, and Parker Kligerman enter into the playoff as the four drivers below the cut-off line for the next round.
See below the 12 drivers who qualified for the 2023 Xfinity Series playoffs:
- #20 - John Hunter Nemechek
- #21 - Austin Hill
- #7 - Justin Allgaier
- #00 - Cole Custer
- #1 - Sam Mayer
- #16 - Chandler Smith #
- #8 - Josh Berry
- #2 - Sheldon Creed
- #18 - Sammy Smith #
- #27 - Jeb Burton
- #10 - Daniel Hemric
- #48 - Parker Kligerman
NASCAR Xfinity Series returns next weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway for the Food City 300, the first race of the 2023 playoff season. The action will go live at 2:30 pm ET on Friday, September 15, 2023.
