Michael Annett captured his first career Xfinity Series win in Saturday’s NASCAR Racing Experience 300 at Daytona International Speedway.
Annett led a race-high 45 laps en route to the win, which came in his 230th start.
The JR Motorsports driver had to hold off the field, including his teammate Justin Allgaier, in the race to the finish line in order to take the checkered flag in the season-opening race.
“This is amazing,” Annett said. “I couldn’t do it without these guys. They’ve stuck with me through the hard times when everybody count us out, wonders why I get to drive this car. I think we showed it today. They worked their tails off.
“We got the 1 in Victory Lane. Our slogan this year is ‘One Team, One Dream, One Goal.’ This is one of them, so we’re starting off good.”
Annett has an ARCA win at Daytona in 2008. He’s never led more than 16 laps in a full Xfinity Series season before Saturday.
Allgaier, Brandon Jones, Ryan Seig and Austin Cindric rounded out the top five.
“Today’s race was fairly calm…. I was surprised,” said Allgaier after the expected scramble to the checkered flag never materialized.
Christopher Bell, Jeff Green, John Hunter Nemechek, Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott completed the first 10 finishers.
Jeffrey Earnhardt started on the front row and led the first 29 laps in the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. In the final stage, Earnhardt ran as high as eighth before making a last-ditch effort to compete for the win. Without help from a larger pack of cars, he dropped to 15th on the final lap.
“This was the first time to actually get to race up front like that,” Earnhardt said. “It was a lot of fun. I think we’ll be really good for the rest of the superspeedways. Hopefully, we continue to grow this program and I grow as a driver. We won’t let them get away from us anymore.”
It was a rough day for Cup regular Brad Keselowski, who was expected to be a factor in Saturday’s race. But a roof hatch issue sidelined the Team Penske driver on lap 71 and he was relegated with a 36th-place finish.
“I felt like I was back in the ‘50’s running a convertible here on the beach,” Keselowski said. “That was interesting. The roof, escape hatch, whatever it is called looks like there was a defect from the factory on the body and just nothing we could do.
“The guys tried to fix it but it is in a spot where you can’t get to it and work on it. It is made the way it is made. We are stuck. It is one of those things outside your control and sometimes that is just how things go.”
Justin Haley and Ross Chastain won the day’s first two stages.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series now heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway next Saturday afternoon.
