Four Straight Top 15s Have Alfredo ‘Firing On All Cylinders’

Anthony Alfredo (42) races Corey Day at Texas Motor Speedway. (Rusty Jarrett/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

FORT WORTH, Texas – It took them a bit to get their program fully in gear, but Anthony Alfredo and Young’s Motorsports have started to hit their stride in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Alfredo wheeled the No. 42 Chevrolet to a 12th-place finish in Saturday’s Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 at Texas Motor Speedway, his fourth straight top 15 and a result that tied the team’s best-ever finish on an intermediate oval.

It was a major step forward for the Young’s organization, made more impressive by the fact that Alfredo survived a mid-race scare that nearly took him out of the race entirely.

Alfredo was running 16th on the lap-98 restart that kicked off the final stage when Kaulig Racing’s Josh Williams hit the infield grass on his inside, losing control and coming across the groove right in front of Alfredo’s front bumper. A 12-car melee erupted as a result.

The contact not only sent Alfredo spinning into turn one, it also damaged the left side of the splitter and forced the Young’s team to make repairs so Alfredo could get back in the mix.

Despite the chaos, Alfredo stayed on the lead lap and was able to capitalize on strategy during green-flag pit stops in the final stage, when he stayed out long and caught a caution with 45 laps left when Justin Allgaier crashed on the frontstretch.

Running sixth at that point and with an opening to pit for the final time, Alfredo did just that and opened up the ability to stay out for track position in the event of a late yellow.

When Corey Day crashed with 13 to go, that play became reality for the Ridgefield, Conn., native.

Alfredo was one of six drivers who held serve on older tires late in the going, lining up on the outside of the third row for a seven-to-go restart.

Though he was swarmed by those behind him with fresher tires, Alfredo hung tough in the middle groove until Sammy Smith’s crash off turn four slowed the pace again and sent the race into overtime.

From there, Alfredo survived the two extra periods that followed en route to his 12th-place result, the third year in a row he’s finished inside the top 15 in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.

It was a good day that Alfredo tipped afterward could have been even better if not for the damage he sustained early in the final stage.

“I really feel that we had a top 10 car,” Alfredo said. “The tough part was having to come up with a strategy to flip our track position after getting that damage during the big restart crash on the frontstretch. The crew did a fantastic job repairing the damage and keeping us on the lead lap, but the handling was never quite the same after that and it was a bit of a struggle.

“We never gave up, though, even when the cards looked against us,” he added. “The timing of the caution during green-flag pit stops really played to our benefit late in the race, allowing us to stay out and play with a little better track position. It wasn’t quite a top 10 in the end, but the gamble paid off.”

The Texas result allowed Alfredo to continue his climb up the series standings. In the past four weeks, Alfredo has jumped from 27th to 20th and now sits less than 100 points outside the playoffs with 14 regular season races remaining.

It’s a visible sign that Alfredo and company have finally established the rhythm and performance they hoped to have from the outset of the season.

“We’re firing on all cylinders now,” he noted. “We need to keep this momentum up, and if we can do that, I still believe this team is capable of making a run at a playoff berth.”

Alfredo and the rest of the Xfinity Series field get two weeks to recharge before the next race at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway. In three prior Charlotte Xfinity starts, Alfredo has a best finish of 16th, earned last year when he was with Our Motorsports.

Broadcast coverage of the BetMGM 300 at the 1.5-mile CMS quad-oval is slated for Saturday, May 24 at 4:30 p.m. ET, live on The CW, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.