2023 Wawa 250 Powered by Coca-Cola

Race details
Race 24 of 33 of the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series
Date	August 25, 2023
Official name	22nd Annual Wawa 250 Powered by Coca-Cola
Location	Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Florida
Course	Permanent racing facility 2.5 mi (4.0 km)
Distance	110 laps, 275 mi (442 km)
Scheduled Distance	100 laps, 250 mi (400 km)
Average speed	124.779 mph (200.812 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing
Time	49.256
Most laps led
Driver	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing
Laps	36
Winner
No. 7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network	USA
Announcers	Rick Allen and Steve Letarte
Radio in the United States
Radio	MRN

The 2023 Wawa 250 Powered by Coca-Cola was the 24th stock car race of the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series, and the 22nd iteration of the event. The race was held on Friday, August 25, 2023, in Daytona Beach, Florida at Daytona International Speedway, a 2.5 miles (4.0 km) permanent quad-oval shaped superspeedway. The race was originally scheduled to be contested over 100 laps, but was extended to 110 laps due to several NASCAR overtime attempts. In a wild race that saw numerous wrecks with under 10 laps to go, Justin Allgaier, driving for JR Motorsports, would hold off Sheldon Creed in a photo finish to earn his 21st career NASCAR Xfinity Series win, and his second of the season. Allgaier would beat Creed by 0.005 of a second, tying the fourth closest finish in Xfinity Series history.^[1] To fill out the podium, Creed, driving for Richard Childress Racing, and Daniel Hemric, driving for Kaulig Racing, would finish 2nd and 3rd, respectively.

Background

The race will be held at Daytona International Speedway, a race track located in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States. Since opening in 1959, the track is the home of the Daytona 500, the most prestigious race in NASCAR. In addition to NASCAR, the track also hosts races of ARCA, AMA Superbike, USCC, SCCA, and Motocross. It features multiple layouts including the primary 2.5 miles (4.0 km) high speed tri-oval, a 3.56 miles (5.73 km) sports car course, a 2.95 miles (4.75 km) motorcycle course, and a .25 miles (0.40 km) karting and motorcycle flat-track. The track's 180-acre (73 ha) infield includes the 29-acre (12 ha) Lake Lloyd, which has hosted powerboat racing. The speedway is owned and operated by International Speedway Corporation.

The track was built in 1959 by NASCAR founder William "Bill" France, Sr. to host racing held at the former Daytona Beach Road Course. His banked design permitted higher speeds and gave fans a better view of the cars. Lights were installed around the track in 1998 and today, it is the third-largest single lit outdoor sports facility. The speedway has been renovated three times, with the infield renovated in 2004 and the track repaved twice — in 1978 and in 2010. On January 22, 2013, the track unveiled artist depictions of a renovated speedway. On July 5 of that year, ground was broken for a project that would remove the backstretch seating and completely redevelop the frontstretch seating. The renovation to the speedway is being worked on by Rossetti Architects. The project, named "Daytona Rising", was completed in January 2016, and it cost US $400 million, placing emphasis on improving fan experience with five expanded and redesigned fan entrances (called "injectors") as well as wider and more comfortable seating with more restrooms and concession stands. After the renovations, the track's grandstands include 101,000 permanent seats with the ability to increase permanent seating to 125,000. The project was completed before the start of Speedweeks.

Qualifying

Qualifying was held on Friday, August 25, at 3:00 PM EST.^[2] Since Daytona International Speedway is a superspeedway, the qualifying system used is a single-car, single-lap system with two rounds. In the first round, drivers have one lap to set a time. The fastest ten drivers from the first round move on to the second round. Whoever sets the fastest time in Round 2 wins the pole.^[3] Austin Hill, driving for Richard Childress Racing, would score the pole for the race after advancing from the preliminary round and setting the fastest time in Round 2, with a lap of 49.256, and an average speed of 182.719 mph (294.058 km/h).^[4]

Race results

Stage 1 Laps: 30

Stage 2 Laps: 30

Stage 3 Laps: 50

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Austin Hill 919 1 2 Justin Allgaier 892 (-27) 1 3 John Hunter Nemechek 891 (–28) 4 Cole Custer 817 (–102) 5 Sam Mayer 755 (–164) 6 Josh Berry 733 (–186) 2 7 Sheldon Creed 683 (–236) 8 Daniel Hemric 679 (–240) 2 9 Chandler Smith 675 (–244) 1 10 Parker Kligerman 643 (–276) 1 11 Riley Herbst 623 (–296) 12 Sammy Smith 609 (–310) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 12 positions are included for the driver standings.

References