(NEXSTAR) — Friday Night’s Xfinity Series race at EchoPark Speedway just outside of Atlanta got off to a slow start thanks to a weather delay, pushing the race back over an hour.
When they finally got to racing, there was no shortage of action to go around.
Just four laps in, the first caution came out as Christian Eckes clipped Blaine Perkins, causing a chain reaction crash involving five different vehicles.
On Lap 34, the red flag came out for another lightning delay, and this time the cars were off the track for just over an hour and a half.
Less than a lap after they got back to racing, the caution flag came out again, this time for the second crash of the night as Nick Sanchez tapped Jesse Love and the No. 2 car turned sideways, causing multiple cars to start sliding across the track.
Despite leading the first 37 laps, Sheldon Creed was among the nine cars involved, as was five-time Atlanta winner Justin Allgaier.
With six laps to go, Love was up front, but Sanchez went low to take over the top spot and cleared Love.
With two laps remaining, Sanchez blocked a hard-charging Carson Kvapil and was able to stay up front the rest of the way to secure his first win in the Xfinity Series.
“We spun out early in the race. I mean, it was a wild race,” Sanchez said. “A lot of risky moves on restarts that worked out for me. Once we got control of the race, we never looked back.”
It was a night packed with plenty of drama for Sanchez, but ultimately it was worth the wait as he was able to drive into victory lane for the Focused Health 250.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series heads to Chicago for one of the most unique races of the season – racing right on the streets of the city for The Loop 110.
You can catch that race on The C.W. on Saturday, July 5 at 4:30 p.m. ET.
The post Nick Sanchez secures first Xfinity Series win in action-packed Atlanta race appeared first on WHNT.
