Clements, who pitted during the second stage break, held a big lead out front until he finally pitted coming to nine laps to go, but behind him the battle for the effective lead was between Cole Custer, Matt Tifft and Austin Cindric.
Custer had leapfrogged the latter two by pitting one lap sooner than the rest of the frontrunners, but eventually, Tifft and Cindric ran down the Stewart Haas Racing young gun and both worked around him.
That meant that when Annett finally concluded the pit stop cycle by coming down for service with eight laps to go, Tifft assumed command out front in the No. 19 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Cindric would have joined him in second, but had a left-rear tire go down coming through Turn 14 and nearly spun, instead diving for pit road and handing Custer the runner-up spot, albeit a full seven seconds adrift of Tifft’s leading car.
Brendan Gaughan passed Custer for the second position moments later, but Clements was flying back through the field. He picked off cars one by one, ultimately diving past Gaughan with six to go before making his winning charge in the closing stages.
Annett was able to overhaul Tifft on the final lap, coming home second in the first race since the tragic passing of Adam Wright, one of the mechanics on his No. 5 JR Motorsports team, last Sunday.
“We had a guardian angel riding with us this whole weekend,” said Annett, referencing Wright. “He wasn’t only a great friend and great mechanic, but an all-around great guy. He was with us every lap we turned this weekend. It was hard to fill the void, because he did the work of so many and kept our spirits up, but we did everything we could.”
“Missed by one spot … we wanted to get him a win, but these guys at JR Motorsports gave me a great car and for not being here in five years … it was a good weekend for us. I hope Adam knows this one was for him and we miss him.”
Tifft held on for a podium finish in third, tying his career-best, but was understandably dejected after just missing out on his first-career win coming to the final lap.
“No matter what, (finishing third) is tough. Obviously getting a third place out of this is nice … but man, you want that first win so bad,” Tifft said. “I was just so close to it … and you feel a lot of things. You’re furious at first for being taken out, but you’ve got to be able to put it behind you.”
“He got a little bit free underneath me and we just went around there. I wish we could have raced it out, but we were really struggling on old tires and getting tighter and tighter. … Our guys did a great job today. They gave me a great car and great strategy. We’ll keep plugging along. That’s all we can do. Like I said, it sucks but we’ll get one soon.”
Justin Marks and Gaughan completed the top five finishers.
William Byron was sixth ahead of Blake Koch, Cole Custer, Casey Mears and Parker Kligerman.
Polesitter and Stage 1 winner James Davison led the first 11 laps of the race Sunday, but sped on pit road during his first pit stop and was relegated to the back of the pack as a results.
After charging his way back to the fringe of the top five in Stage 2, Davison was collected in a multi-car crash on approach to Turn 6, being hit by the spinning car of Marks after Marks was turned by Ross Chastain.
The Australian retired with a damaged radiator and finished 37th.
The NASCAR XFINITY Series returns to action Saturday, Sept. 2 for the Sport Clips Haircuts-VFW 200 at Darlington Raceway, as part of NASCAR’s official throwback weekend.
Full race results can be viewed on the next page…
