Late Flat Tire Causes Setback To Alfredo In Wine Country

Anthony Alfredo leads a pack of cars Saturday at Sonoma Raceway. (Rusty Jones/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

SONOMA, Calif. – A strong Saturday at Sonoma Raceway that was highlighted by stage points ended in a disappointing final result for Anthony Alfredo and Young’s Motorsports.

Alfredo kicked off the weekend at the 1.99-mile, 12-turn natural road course in a big way, posting top-10 pace in Friday practice and backing it up with a 13th-place qualifying effort in the No. 5 DUDE Wipes Chevrolet.

He ended stage one in sixth, banking five bonus points toward his NASCAR Xfinity Series regular season total, and the 25-year-old from Ridgefield, Conn., was challenging for a top-15 finish in the closing laps of the Pit Boss/FoodMaxx 250 when he suffered a flat left-front tire.

The puncture forced Alfredo to nurse his car home and dropped him to 23rd in the finishing order, after spending more than half of the race running 15th or better.

Alfredo strove to look at the positives from the afternoon, however, as his team finally found more of the speed they’ve been looking for after several races where bad luck plagued them throughout.

“We definitely had the speed we’ve needed here lately over the weekend at Sonoma Raceway, and just having that pace was a huge relief to all of us at Young’s Motorsports,” Alfredo reflected. “Finishing sixth in the first stage after staying out to get some stage points was great for us, and we had a solid DUDE Wipes Chevrolet throughout the rest of the race.

“Unfortunately, we were running inside the top 15 with five to go and the left front tire went flat. It had a small puncture, and I don’t know how it held enough air to get to the checkered,” he added. “If there was one more lap, we definitely wouldn’t have finished, but it barely made it back to the finish line. We missed out on a few spots there, so I do hate that part of it, but just glad we were able to bring it home with some points.

“I’m already excited for Dover. It’s one of my favorites next week and up in the Northeast … so always great to have a chance to race in front of a crowd that’s a bit closer to home for me.”

Despite the late fade back, Alfredo maintained 21st in the regular season standings, 179 back of 12th-place Jeb Burton in the battle to qualify for the Xfinity Series playoffs.

Though there are seven races left to do so, Alfredo knows he needs a win in order to qualify for the postseason, with still two strong opportunities coming up at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) Int’l and Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway during the month of August for his team.

“We’re not giving up on it,” he noted. “We made the playoffs our goal at the beginning of the season and that’s still what we’re aiming for, even if the circumstances are a tad tougher now. The mission hasn’t changed.”

Next up for Xfinity Series teams is Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway, the one-mile, high-banked concrete oval known as the Monster Mile where Alfredo finished a track-best ninth last year with Our Motorsports.

Broadcast coverage of the BetRivers 200 from Dover airs Saturday, July 19 at 4:30 p.m. ET, live on The CW, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.