Alfredo Swept Up In Late Crash After Glen Brake Issues

Anthony Alfredo (5) leads a pack of cars Saturday at Watkins Glen International. (Danny Hansen/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – Anthony Alfredo’s afternoon at Watkins Glen International came unraveled late Saturday after he was eliminated in a multi-car crash with two laps left in regulation.

Though Alfredo struggled through most of the Mission 200 at the Glen with brake issues, he was still in contention for a top-15 finish during a lap-81 restart, before he sustained terminal front-end damage after colliding with another car as the middle of the pack went sliding out of control in turn one.

The contact cracked the radiator on Alfredo’s No. 5 Ferguson Chevrolet Camaro, before he also impacted the right-side guardrail at the bus stop chicane while trying to limp his car back to pit road.

Alfredo ended up 34th, just his second DNF in 25 NASCAR Xfinity Series races this season after already tying his career mark in top fives (two) and setting a new season-best in top 10s with six.

At the 2.45-mile Watkins Glen road course, however, such a day wasn’t meant to be after having to fight his brake pedal from the end of the first stage on.

“We missed the balance a little to start the day, and once we had the brake issue at the end of stage one, we just had to ride out the rest of the race,” Alfredo explained. “We still put ourselves in position for at least a shot at a top 15 at the end, but that big pileup in turn one left us with nowhere to go. When the 8 (Sammy Smith) slid across the track in front of the 21 (Austin Hill), it collected us both.

“The crash itself wasn’t as bad as it looked,” he added. “I couldn’t see well, but the team was directing me back to the pits to see if we could repair the car. My spotter in the bus stop told me to turn right, and he just misjudged it by quite a bit. I figured that he didn’t tell me to go straight because someone was stopped ahead of me, or there was another good reason, and as a driver you have to put trust in your spotters and listen to what they say.

“Obviously, it was a difficult situation for them to help me get back around the track from the stands, but this team will continue to fight, and we’ll move on to Bristol and try to win our way into the playoffs like Chase Briscoe did a few weeks ago in the Cup Series.”

Alfredo has had a stranglehold on 15th in the Xfinity Series standings since Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway at the end of June, but being 180 points out of the playoffs with one race remaining before the postseason begins, he’ll have to win the regular season finale at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in order to qualify for the 12-driver playoff field.

The 25-year-old from Ridgefield, Conn., has a career-best mark of sixth on Bristol’s concrete high banks, earned during his rookie season in September of 2020 with Richard Childress Racing.

Broadcast coverage of the Food City 300, the final regular season race for the Xfinity Series field, is slated for Friday night, Sept. 20 at 7:30 p.m. ET on CW Network, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.

Bristol marks the debut of The CW as the exclusive television home of the NASCAR Xfinity Series, airing the final eight races of the year before broadcasting the full season beginning in 2025.

NBC Sports’ commentary crew of Rick Allen, Steve Letarte, and Jeff Burton will shift to The CW to help close out 2024, with next year’s CW booth crew to be announced at a later point.