Justin Allgaier, Darrell Wallace Jr. in multicar wreck in Xfinity race

The eighth caution of the Kansas Lottery 300 could have big implications in the Xfinity Chase. A six-car accident on Lap 165 involved Chase drivers Justin Allgaierand Darrell Wallace Jr.

Brandon Jones appeared to make contact with Allgaier entering Turn 1. Allgaier’s No. 7  shot up the track and collected a few cars, including former Chase driverRyan Sieg and Cole Custer.

Ryan Reed, another Chase driver, was scored as being involved, though he did not receive any serious damage.

Wallace was shown wincing as he got out of his No. 6 Ford in the garage.

“Pretty hard hit, just unfortunate,” Wallace told NBCSN. “We were making some good calls and leading some laps and trying to run our own race. People want some wild race in the next three. Here you go. Took out some Chase drivers.”

The Chase received another twist with 24 laps to go when Brendan Gaughan got loose from side drafting with Ross Chastain and went careening through the infield grass.

The Kansas Lottery 300 is the first race in the second round of the Xfinity Chase. The series will be off the next two weeks before resuming at Texas Motor Speedway on Nov. 5.

Xfinity Series Spotlight: Darrell Wallace Jr.

Darrell Wallace Jr. caught a break at the right time.
Starting in go-karts around 2002, Wallace had a fast racing progression. From karts to Bandoleros and Legend cars, Wallace was competing in Late Models by 2009. And up until that point, Wallace was doing so with the financial backing of his parents, Darrell Wallace Sr. and Desiree.
“We had a small business that was able to get us to 2009,” Wallace told NBC Sports, “and we were able to get that far. They spent a quarter of a million dollars in 2008, so that was a lot for them.”
Wallace ended up signing a development deal with Joe Gibbs Racing. He made his way into the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East with the Drive for Diversity program. Wallace won six races between 2010-12 and earned 2010 Rookie of the Year honors.
In 2012, Wallace went full-time in the Camping World Truck Series under the tutelage of Gibbs driver, Kyle Busch. After two full seasons and five wins, Wallace again made a move. This time, it was to the Xfinity Series, where he now competes for Roush Fenway Racing. Although he has yet to break into victory lane, Wallace is championship eligible after advancing into the second round of the inaugural Xfinity Chase.
As for the journey, Wallace admits, “Kind of the right spot at the right time.”
The following Q&A has been edited and condensed
NBC Sports: On your website, it says your interest in racing was by chance, what does that mean?
Wallace: I started racing when I was nine, but my dad bought a Harley Davidson and he wanted to trick it out and make it look good and the guy who did that, Chris Rogers, he had a bike shop. He raced out of the back of his shop, so we became good friends, and he invited us out to one of his races. We were sitting in the stands, and my dad was like, ‘Hey, you want to try it?’ So it was just one of those going out to watch and ended up buying a go-kart.
NBC Sports: How important was signing with Joe Gibbs Racing, in addition to participating in the Drive for Diversity program?
Wallace: The way it worked out was 2008 had a really good year; 2009 is when we signed on with JGR, and they gave us a little financial backing with the Late Model stuff, but that ended up being our worst year in Late Models. I don’t know why. We ran about half a season there and called it quits so then we were trying to figure out what’s the next step. JGR had their (K&N Pro Series) East program going on at the time, but they had Max Gresham and Brett Moffitt driving. So they didn’t really have anything, but they looked into the Drive for Diversity deal for us. We did some research and saw that Andy Santerre was running the whole deal, and we’re like, ‘Well, hell yeah, we’ll go over there and run that.’ It was kind of a blessing that we did because those two great years with the Drive for Diversity program really helped my career launch.
NBC Sports: Do you have a racing story you like to tell or one that stands out?
Wallace: Got a lot of good stories; got a lot of bad ones, too. I ran over my dad when we were go-kart racing. We were at Concord Speedway, and Chris (Rogers) and my dad were out there, and I leveled my dad at like 45 miles per hour. I thought I killed him and he comes hobbling up and says, ‘All right, let’s keep going.’ So that one’s probably the scariest one I’ve had. The best one is probably Dover. The first Dover (September 2010) I was scared. Driving into the corners like, ‘Heck no.’ Had motor problems, and we were in a Rookie of the Year battle with Cole Whitt. He blew a right front tire Lap 27; I blew a right front tire Lap 37. So we locked up the Rookie of the Year title.
Going back (in September 2011) I’m like, ‘Here we go with this place again’ and that’s when my mom lost her uncle. We took my name off the door, and I just put a piece of tape down and wrote his name on there. It was pretty special because we went out and won both practices, sat on the pole (by) two-tenths and won the race. So I think that was a pretty special weekend. That’s one of my favorite stories.
NBC Sports: Take me back to the Camping World Truck Series race at Talladega when you had that really bad accident in 2013, is that the most scared you’ve been behind the wheel?
Wallace: Yeah, I think so. When I hit for some reason there was a flash of like an actual car going down the highway, which I don’t know why that crossed (my mind), but it was like, ‘Holy crap.’ I had no brakes and was sliding towards I think it was Jeb Burton’s pit stall. Kyle (Busch) come down into me; hit the wall head-on, and I went back down heading straight for their pit box and closed my eyes and come to stop. Didn’t hit the wall. Then my spotter was like, ‘Put it in reverse, we still gotta finish,’ so I threw it in reverse not having brakes, so I’m gassing on it and John Wes (Townley) beats me by inches and then I don’t know how I stopped. I don’t know if I hit the wall or if it just kind of come to a stop. But that one was pretty scary.
NBC Sports: How did your love of instruments start and did you teach yourself how to play the drums?
Wallace: Mom says I was banging on pots and pans since I was two, so I had an itch for it. In middle school, you could try out for band when you got to seventh grade and you had to write down three things you wanted to play. Drums were my top one and think I put like saxophone and trumpet. Well, I didn’t get chosen for the drums but it ended up working out. The first year it was more of both Snare (Drum) and then when you have a Bass Drum, the one that sits on a stand and put your arm on it and just hit it with a mallet.
I took over that role in eighth grade, and everybody knew that was MY spot. But growing up, I got into the heavy metal stuff in about seventh grade and it took me listening to stuff and shutting out the words. Yeah, you don’t know what they’re saying unless you pull up the lyrics and read along, but it’s easy for me to listen to the drums and be like, ‘Oh, it’s kind of cool how he’s doing footwork.’ Now I’ve got my own little kit just trying to get better, and it’s fun to do.
NBC Sports: Have you always been very outgoing and open to sharing things on social media?
Wallace: Yeah, but (Ryan Blaney) is not. That’s more of me pushing him, ‘Hey, this is going out Twitter.’ Like that video of Chase (Elliott) I posted after the Georgia – Tennessee football game I said, ‘Hey bud, just so you know this is going on Twitter.’ That stuff, I’ve always been post it and get it in trouble later instead of worry about the consequences right away. But I’ve always been like that and the crazy stuff we’ve done, I think all you guys have seen it.
NBC Sports: Is there anything in particular you like to shoot when doing photography? 
Wallace: Really anything; a lot of time-lapse stuff. It’s always fun looking at the clouds and see what they’re doing because every three to four seconds it changes shapes. I haven’t picked up my camera in a while but I’m always looking at buying new equipment, and I don’t even use it. It’s weird and not smart decisions but it’s still fun to look at how to be better and how to take better pictures. We did a photo shoot recently for the Coca-Cola racing team, and people will think, ‘Oh, you just like to look at yourself’ and I’m like, no it’s really cool how you get these kind of shots. So I can sit there at a photo shoot and be there for hours trying to figure out what in the hell they are doing. I got to do stuff with NASCAR at the racetrack, like shoot the All-Star Race a couple of years ago. Shot the Xfinity race (at Charlotte) a few years ago as well.
NBC Sports: How is Darrell Wallace afraid of the dark?
Wallace: When you grow up and watch scary movies non-stop. I’ve had a love for scary movies but they scare the hell out of me …
NBC Sports: So do you keep the lights on all the time?
Wallace: No, I have a process that I need to film to share with you guys. So in my house, the living room has big high ceilings and it has a ceiling fan, but it doesn’t have a light. You have to use two lamps and then my stairs are right beside me; so I’ll get up and turn on my stairway light then go turn off my lamps. Walk up the steps, turn on my hall light, turn off my stair light; walk to my bedroom, look behind me, turn off my hallway light, close my door and go to bed. It’s a process. I don’t trust looking in the dark because your eyes start fixing to the dark and you start seeing stuff.

Ty Dillon eliminated from Xfinity Chase:“We were terrible today”

CONCORD, N.C. — The difference was one point for Ty Dillon.

Dillon was the first driver out of a transfer spot when the Xfinity Series Chase cut the field from 12 to eight Sunday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the Drive for the Cure 300. After finishing 11th, one lap down, team owner Richard Childress apologized on the team’s radio to his grandson after the checkered flag.

“Gave you a piece of (expletive), sorry about that. Man, we just go try to win some races.”

Dillon told NBCSN: “We were terrible today and didn’t give ourselves much of a shot. For whatever reason, our car was not the same today … It’s heartbreaking. We couldn’t even stay on the lead lap. It’s very upsetting. I wanted this championship so bad. It hurts.”

Crew chief Nick Harrison also didn’t hide his disappointment.

“We didn’t have a car fast enough today capable of making it,” he told NBC Sports in the garage. “Disheartening, but part of it. Just got to keep our head up, move on, try to win some races before the year’s up.”

Dillon entered Sunday’s race needing to make up three points to advance. A crash in the Chaser opener at Kentucky Speedway and a 27th-place finish put the team last on the Chase grid. Second place last weekend at Dover International Speedway closed the gap, however, Dillon wound up needing his competitors to have trouble in Charlotte.

Two did in Brennan Poole and Darrell Wallace Jr., but it wasn’t enough. While Poole was eliminated after finishing 18th, Harrison gave credit to Wallace’s team for making up the necessary ground. Dillon, Harrison said, didn’t have a car fast enough to build the gap he needed even though he finished nine spots ahead of Wallace.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Austin Dillon said of his younger brother. “I hate it for him. I don’t know what else we could have done. As a whole, RCR is struggling in the Xfinity Series now. We’ve just got to give him a better car (and) he makes it into the next round.’’

Austin Dillon, who was running a spot ahead of his younger brother, got the free pass on what was the race’s final caution on Lap 185. That left Ty Dillon unable to get on the lead lap and have the opportunity to gain any more positions – and points – that could have helped him advance.

As for what he’ll tell his brother, Austin said, “Go out and try to win races. From right here, it’s nothing fun about it. I wish he was going on to the next round. He really deserves it. It’s just a bummer. The 44 (JJ Yeley) and 48 (Poole) got into it back there, and it made the 44 pit too. And that was another position that he lost. I don’t know. Not good.’’

Harrison will share the same sentiment with his driver when the two sit down and talk about the first round of the Chase.

“I think you just have to move forward and keep your head up and be big boys,” Harrison said. “We’ve had an up and down season, definitely want to get some wins and have been close, we just haven’t. That wreck in Kentucky put us in a hole that we really didn’t need; we could have used our consistency to try and get us is, but we got in a hole, and we didn’t run good enough today to advance.”

WITH XFINITY SERIES' MILITARY TRIBUTE, WALLACE, IWUJI SHARE BOND

When the idea first surfaced of honoring active military units on the windshields of NASCAR XFINITY Series cars at Friday's Firecracker 250 Powered by Coca-Cola (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), someone asked Jesse Iwuji which driver's car he'd like his last deployment station, USS Comstock, featured on.

Iwuji, the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West driver in his first full season who also is in active service in the U.S. Navy until 2017, didn't hesitate: Darrell Wallace Jr.

"I've followed him a lot and I really love what he's done in the series," said Iwuji, who will attend this weekend's races at Daytona.

Like Wallace, Iwuji is African-American and a lifelong race fan. Like Wallace, Iwuji is trying to make a name for himself in the sport.

Like Wallace, Iwuji has shown great promise, but still is searching for his first win this season.

With so many similarities, somehow when Wallace first heard that his No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford would honor Iwuji at Daytona International Speedway for Friday's race, his predominant thought settled on the major difference between the two drivers.

"I didn't know he was a Navy Lieutenant, so that's really cool," Wallace said.

Many XFINITY Series drivers will learn new facts about the units displayed on their race cars this weekend. Part of 'NASCAR: An American Salute,' the program honoring military units and installations is a counterpart to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series' tribute during the Coca-Cola 600 over Memorial Day weekend where cars featured names of service men and women who died while in active duty.

Several XFINITY Series teams have direct connections to the units, such as driver Elliott Sadler, whose windshield will be adorned with Fort Campbell's "3RD BCT 101ST ABN" to honor JR Motorsports employee Lee Langley, who served for six years at the Army base as an infantry team leader in the 101st Airborne Division.

And then there's Iwuji and Wallace. The two drivers met a couple times in the past year that Iwuji has been driving professionally, but rather than discuss Iwuji's six years of active duty in the Navy, each time the two settled on their shared passion: racing. Iwuji peppered Wallace with questions about how he prepares for races, and how he manages the full-time job of driving.

"I'm still brand new and still learning a lot," said Iwuji, who earned his first top 10 in his fifth start, "so I definitely have a long way to go."

Sometimes, Wallace has the same feeling. But after 14 XFINITY Series races this season, Wallace has five top 10s and two top fives. He's currently ninth in the driver's standings, with seemingly a fairly secure spot in the 12-driver XFINITY Chase.

But he's also winless. His second-place finish at Dover in May was a career best -- and it was just enough to leave Wallace yearning for more.

"We're knocking on the door for our first win," Wallace said. "We need to clean up some areas that we're lacking in right now. We're kind of treating this (Daytona) as a test session because we have the Chase format. We can go to the race track and bring a different package to try each and every weekend. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. ... Hopefully we can get a win to lock us into the Chase, and then win a Chase race each and every segment, and then put ourselves in a position to win the title, win the title and everybody's happy."

It seems a simple formula, though Wallace also knows there are significant strides to be made in the second half of the season.

It all starts with this weekend's race, when he'll have USS Comstock plastered atop his windshield.

"Hopefully it brings us some good luck, and hopefully it makes us 'military strong' so we can muscle some guys out of the way and get our first win," Wallace said.

Watch LIVE: NASCAR America at 6 p.m. ET: Darrell Wallace Jr., season recap and more

Today’s episode of NASCAR America airs from 6 – 7 p.m. ET on NBCSN and feature Xfinity Series driver Darrell Wallace, who will help preview this weekend’s race at Iowa Speedway.

Carolyn Manno hosts with Parker Kligermanfrom Stamford, Connecticut. They are joined by Dale Jarrett, Steve Letarte and Bubba Wallace from NBC Charlotte.

On today’s show:

• Rapid fire with Dale Jarrett and Steve Letarte as we reflect on the season so far.  Find out which driver has stood out most through the first 15 Sprint Cup races and the driver who is outside the top 16 with the best chance to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

• Darrell Wallace Jr., driver of the No. 6 Ford Ecoboost Mustang for Roush Fenway Racing in the Xfinity Series joins the show. We’ll look back on some of Bubba’s most memorable moments on social media. Jarrett will critique Wallace’s golf swing and Kligerman will reveal Bubba’s best bromance.

• Kligerman jumps into the NBCSN iRacing simulator with Wallace playing “crew chief” with a preview of what to expect in Sunday’s Xfinity Series race at Iowa Speedway.

• David Ragan calls into NASCAR America and shares his family’s racing history in today’s edition of My Home Track.

If you’re not near a TV, you can watch online or on the NBC Sports app via at the NASCAR stream on NBC Sports.

If you plan to stream the show on your laptop or portable device, be sure to have your username and password from your cable/satellite/telco provider handy so your subscription can be verified.

Once you enter that information, you’ll have access to the stream.

Click here at 6 p.m. ET to watch live via the stream.

NASCAR debuts campaign to promote diversity, inclusion and equality

NASCAR debuted a public service announcement Friday that features some of its drivers, including six-time champion Jimmie Johnson, and promotes diversity, inclusion and equality within and outside of sports.

The video can be seen here.

The video comes about two months after North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed House Bill 2 into law. The law, driven by the issue of which bathroom transgender people can use, repealed local LGBT anti-discrimination laws. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said earlier this month that the league is looking at “alternatives” for the 2017 All-Star Game, which is scheduled to be held in Charlotte, North Carolina, should the law not be changed.

NASCAR Chairman Brian France stated April 21 in a meeting with The Associated Press Sports Editors that “any discrimination, unintended or not … we don’t like that.”

Other drivers joining Johnson in the video are Joey Logano, Aric Almirola, Kyle Larsonand Darrell Wallace Jr. NASCAR partnered with the Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality (RISE) with the campaign. France is a founding member of the RISE Board of Directors. The initiative was founded by Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross.

“Discrimination has no place in our society, which is why we have partnered with RISE and Stephen Ross to help put an end to intolerance in sports,” France said in a statement. “With the help of our talented drivers who support this important message, we want to reinforce our sport’s unwavering commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion.”

Last year, NASCAR was among various sports organizations that expressed its objections to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act signed by Indiana Gov. Mike Pence in March 2015. Gov. Pence signed an amended law last year.

Social Roundup: Xfinity drivers invade Philadelphia to promote Pocono

Believe it or not, the Xfinity Series has never raced at the “Tricky Triangle” of Pocono Raceway.
This year, the series debuts at the Pennsylvania track on June 4. To help promote the race, NASCAR sent four drivers – Darrell Wallace Jr., Ryan Reed, Brennan Poole, Brandon Jones and Ty Dillon – to Philadelphia for a day to promote the Pocono 250.

The day included Ty Dillon doing a burnout in the streets of Philadelphia and ended with Wallace throwing out the first pitch of a Philadelphia Phillies baseball game.

Here’s a look at how the day unfolded in the City of Brotherly Love.

Darrell Wallace Jr. tops first Xfinity Series practice at Talladega

Roush Fenway Racing swept the top two spots in the Xfinity Series’ first practice for Saturday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway.

Darrell Wallace Jr. led the session with an average speed of 192.413 mph. He was followed by teammate Ryan Reed at 192.355 mph.

Filling out the top five were Ty Dillon (191.827), Matt Tifft (191.670) and Austin Dillon (190.061).

There were no accidents during the session. The second Xfinity Series practice is set for 1:30 p.m. ET.

Speed chart