With Poole out of contention, the focus turned to Daniel Hemric and Cole Custer as chance to race in Miami for the championship was on the line.
Custer holding the tiebreaker with his fifth place finish at Texas one week ago raced right in front of Hemric for the final position and looked to be headed to South Beach for that title shot as the laps began to wind down.
With two laps to go, Christopher Bell looked to play the role of spoiler as No.18 caught Hemric and looked all but certain to give Custer the single point he needed to secure his spot.
Then off of turn four, Bell passed Hemric but also passed Custer. Giving the two playoff drivers a chance to settle it amongst themselves and Hemric one last breath in the fight.
When the checkered flag fell Custer and Hemric finished seventh and eighth, respectively. Giving Hemric the ticket to Miami by the slimmest of margins, one single point.
After the race, Hemric approached Custer’s car and shook his hand. The two showing signs of great sportsmanship and respect for one another.
“That’s what the playoffs are all about.” Hemric said. “So intense man, I’m so proud of these guys and the solid pit stops all day. That kept a little faith in our souls for the rest of the race and gave us track position. We struggled taking off, but taking two tires there at the end was just enough to be able to fire off with a little bit more speed.”
“It got a little nerve wracking caught us, I knew what I needed to do with the No.00. The No.18 had such a big run if he was going to pass me, he was going to have to pass both of us. Fortunetly it worked out that way. It was an awesome time racing with Cole, all year all these guys. This is what it’s all about, having these moment’s and being able to rise up. Now we get to race for a championship.”
For Custer and the first year NXS team for Stewart-Haas Racing, there was disappointment but also optimism for the accomplishments of the season.
“I knew I needed to beat him, I guess we needed to beat him by another car to advance.” Custer said. “We were alright all day, we just needed a little bit more to really compete with the top-three guys. It sucks, the short tracks weren’t our strong suit all year but the mile and a half’s were.”
“We just had a lot of bad luck in the first two races in this round. I know Daniel had some bad luck, too. If we didn’t have those two flats, I think we would have transferred in there. It sucks, we were really fast at Homestead when we tested, we’re going to try to win that race.”
“It’s good that we battled hard and we made up a lot of points and we did our jobs. We did the best we could have done with what we had, overall we aren’t in the championship 4. For a first year team, we came a long way. From the first race here in Phoenix back in March to now, we are ten times better. Next year we’ll go and get them, we will get there next year for sure.”
Ryan Blaney swept both stages and led 146 laps en route to his seventh runner-up runner up finish this season with Erik Jones and Christopher Bell completing the top-five.
Daniel Hemric, Blake Koch, Cole Custer, Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon and Justin Allgaier round out the top-10.
Byron with the win automatically locks himself into the championship four.
While his other JRM teammates lock themselves in on points after strong showings in the Round of Eight with Daniel Hemric following suit to make it an entire Chevrolet packed final four.
Eliminated from championship contention include Cole Custer, Matt Tifft, Cole Custer and Brennan Poole.
Those four drivers will fight for the NASCAR XFINITY Seires championship during the Ford EcoBoost 300 next Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM).
