Myatt Snider took the lead on the second overtime restart and held off Tyler Reddick to score his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series win Saturday.
It marks the second week in a row the series has had a first-time winner after Ty Gibbs’ victory last week on the Daytona road course.
“I love you guys,” Snider said on the radio to his team. “Never forget your first one.”
MORE: Tyler Reddick’s second-place disqualified
MORE: Race results
Brandon Jones finished second with Reddick’s car disqualified. Jones was followed by Daniel Hemric, Jeb Burton and Austin Cindric.
Snider’s restart in the second overtime made amends for his restart in the first overtime. He was the leader and spun the tires, losing the lead to Reddick before the caution came out for AJ Allmendinger’s spin.
“It’s just amazing to finally be in this position of having won a NASCAR Xfinity race,” Snider said.
Snider, the son of NBC Sports broadcaster Marty Snider, had the chance to win after Noah Gragson’s bad luck at Miami continued. Saturday marked the third consecutive Miami race Noah Gragson lost in the final laps.
David Starr had a tire go down and hit the wall. Gragson, coming up on Starr, slammed into the back of Starr’s car as it slowed, ending Gragson’s race.
“What are you going to do?” Gragson told FS1. “You’ve got dip---- in the way every single week.”
Starr was on the lead lap and running 12th when he had the tire go down. Gragson finished 34th. Starr finished 22nd.
Last year, Gragson led the most laps in both Miami races and lost both in the final laps.
Shortly before Gragson’s misfortune, Brett Moffitt was second when he hit the wall with eight laps left in the scheduled distance and cut a tire, forcing him to pit. Moffitt finished eighth.
STAGE 1 WINNER: AJ Allmendinger
STAGE 2 WINNER: Austin Cindric
WHO HAD A GOOD RACE: Jeb Burton’s fourth-place finish is his third consecutive top five to open the season. ... Austin Cindric’s fifth-place finish is his third consecutive top five to open the season.
WHO HAD A BAD RACE: Harrison Burton’s engine went up in smoke under caution. He finished last in the 40-car field. He had finished in the top six in each of the first two races of the season. ... Justin Allgaier came up the track and made contact with Riley Hebst, putting Allgaier in the wall, ending his race. He finished 39th. He has not finished better than 26th in the first three races of the year and been eliminated by a crash twice this year.
NOTABLE: Former IndyCar driver Santino Ferruci, making his first Xfinity start, finished 30th.
NEXT: The series races at 4:30 p.m. ET March 6 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on FS1.