Blaine Perkins (No. 31) battling Anthony Alfredo (No. 42) for on-track position exiting Turn 1 at Circuit of the Americas on March 1, 2025. (Photo Credit: John Arndt | The Podium Finish)
DEL VALLE, Texas — Blaine Perkins marked his 25th birthday with style, achieving his second career top 10 finish in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in a gutsy Saturday afternoon race at Circuit Of The Americas.
The newly signed driver in the No. 31 Werner Chevrolet Camaro for Jordan Anderson Racing began the weekend by qualifying 18th during Friday’s qualification session, which would put him in the eighth starting row alongside rookie contender Nick Sanchez for the fifth annual Focused Health 250.
Perkins began his afternoon hovering outside the top 10, filing into the top 15 for most of the opening stage of the race.
Trouble first arose on Lap 18 when road course specialist Baltazar Leguziamón, making his Xfinity Series debut, experienced a mechanical failure while exiting Turn 20. This incident led to the first caution of the day. Race leader Connor Zilisch attempted to short-pit, but received a penalty for pitting after the caution lights had turned on, signifying that pit road had been closed. As a result, William Byron took advantage and won the opening Stage as it ended under caution. Because of Zilisch’s misfortunes, Perkins gained one position, moving from 14th to finish 13th in the first Stage of the race.
After a slow pit stop and an issue with Perkins’s cool suit inside the car, the No. 31 had to restart in 33rd place at the beginning of Stage 2. He began his climb back through the field once again.
Perkins climbed the ladder back up to 27th as the green-and-white-checkered flag came out on Lap 40, giving the Stage 2 victory to Harrison Burton in the No. 25 Ford for AM Racing.
As pit stops were underway, Perkins gained a lot of ground during his stop, allowing him to restart in 12th as the race got back underway on Lap 46.
As the race rolled onto 20 laps to go, Zilisch fought Corey Heim inside the top 5 when the driver of the No. 88 Weathertech Chevrolet “hip-checked” Heim in the left door, sending the No. 24 Upper Deck Toyota Supra for a spin. Perkins was running in 12th and rolled by the incident all over the back bumper of Christian Eckes with no issues.
Perkins cracked the top 10 for the first time all day on Lap 46 after falling in line behind the No. 42 of Anthony Alfredo, who like Perkins, was having a quiet and underrated day.
Anthony Alfredo (No. 42) running ninth over Blaine Perkins (No. 31) and Nick Sanchez (No. 48) going down the front stretch at Circuit of the Americas. (Photo Credit: John Arndt | The Podium Finish)
The door opened up slightly more to the Bakersfield, California native when Alfredo went for a spin off the track while running ninth, giving Perkins the opportunity to take the spot.
Perkins faced two final challenges during his tumultuous day within the final 10 laps as he battled the No. 9 of Ross Chastain, who scooted by and drove up into eighth behind Carson Kvapil. Kvapil’s solid run unfortunately came to an end when he suffered a flat right front tire after locking the front tires up while duking out for the race lead with his teammate, Zilisch.
As the field hit the white flag, Perkins went to battle one last time with yet another rookie contender in William Sawalich. Perkins gave way to Sawalich as they entered Turn 16, shuffling Perkins back to 10th.
As Zilisch drove to his second career win in his seventh start in the Xfinity Series, Perkins drove to his second career top 10, his first since the Martinsville fall race in 2022 while driving the No. 02 for Our Motorsports.
“It was a long day in the car, first hot race of the year, but that’s what we train for,” said Perkins in a post-race interview after going through plenty of ups and downs throughout the afternoon, including, as previously mentioned, his cool suit failing early in the event.
“Just a big thank you to everyone at Jordan Anderson Racing and Bommarito Autosport. Those guys gave me one hell of a car. It makes my job really fun. We’ve shown speed, and now it’s finally nice to put a whole race together and get the finish we deserve.”
Perkins ran the highest of the three Jordan Anderson Racing machines on Saturday, as both Jeb Burton (No.27) and road course expert Austin Green (No.32) finished 25th and 26th, respectively, when the checkered flag flew.
With the 10th-place finish, Perkins heads to Phoenix Raceway next Saturday, March 8, sitting 24th in the Xfinity Series standings.
