Electrical Issue Dooms Alfredo’s Hopes For Phoenix Rally

Anthony Alfredo in action at Phoenix Raceway. (Danny Hansen/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

AVONDALE, Ariz. – A day that started off looking like it held extreme promise for Anthony Alfredo and Young’s Motorsports ended in a 32nd-place finish at Phoenix Raceway.

Alfredo posted the second-fastest lap in NASCAR Xfinity Series practice for the GOVX 200, but it all went downhill after that for the No. 42 DUDE Wipes Chevrolet team.

That initial single-lap speed didn’t translate over to qualifying, as Alfredo ended up 24th on the grid at the one-mile desert oval, but he still drove up through the field and ran as high as 13th midway through stage one.

Unfortunately, the handle began to go away as the run wore on, dropping Alfredo back to 29th at the first stage break and leading him to come down for adjustments.

Alfredo briefly rejoined the field, but his car stalled coming back down pit road two laps after the restart, forcing him to the garage area for extended repairs.

An electrical issue was identified as the culprit, and a timely caution on the next restart at lap 62 allowed Alfredo to get back on track without losing too many laps to the rest of the field.

The damage was already done, however. He was 14 laps in arrears at that point and ended up 15 laps down in the end, a gutting result when Alfredo believed “we could have been inside the top 10.”

“To finish outside the top 30 is very frustrating, particularly because Young’s Motorsports gave me another really fast DUDE Wipes Chevrolet,” he noted. “I was really looking forward to getting our first top 10 of the year at Phoenix, and I really believe we could have done so even with how crazy some of the racing was out there in the middle stages.

“If only these gremlins we’ve battled would happen in practice instead of in the race, then I think we’d be much better off on the scoreboard than we have been,” added Alfredo. “It’s been a tough few weeks, but we’re not about to give in.”

Making the speed Alfredo showed even more notable was the fact that the chassis his team brought to the racetrack wasn’t one of the newest cars in their fleet, by a long shot.

“We were fast, and I’d say that’s not bad for a car from 2011!” tipped Alfredo. “It just shows how much work this crew puts in to get us on par with the power teams in the garage area, even when we don’t have near the resources that JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing), JRM (JR Motorsports), RCR (Richard Childress Racing) and others have at their disposal.

“I’ve said it before, we fight as hard as anyone … and at some point, that effort is going to show.”

Alfredo leaves Phoenix 29th in the Xfinity Series’ regular season standings, 45 points back of the playoff cut line, but still with 22 races to make up ground and work his way into postseason contention.

The 25-year-old from Ridgefield, Conn., and the rest of the Xfinity Series field head next to Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway, a track where Alfredo has two top-10 finishes in seven starts.

Broadcast coverage of the LiUNA! 300 is slated for Saturday, March 15 at 4:30 p.m. ET, live on The CW, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.