Aric Almirola locked Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20 Toyota into the NASCAR Xfinity Series owners’ Championship 4 by winning Saturday’s (Nov. 2) National Debt Reflief 250 at Martinsville Speedway. Almirola finished ahead of JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith by .587 seconds for his second win of the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season.
Chandler Smith and Cole Custer finished third and fourth, respectively, but there was no love lost as the two of them raced aggressively with each other. The two argued on pit road after the race, with Smith throwing a swing at Custer.
With this result, Custer locked himself into the Championship 4, affording him a chance to defend his Xfinity Series title.
Justin Allgaier was the final driver to advance to Phoenix Raceway for the championship race by way of points, finishing fifth tonight.
Sheldon Creed, Anthony Alfredo, Parker Kligerman, Jeb Burton and Myatt Snider rounded out the top 10
Las Vegas Motor Speedway winner AJ Allmendinger suffered a flat tire early while fighting with Stewart-Haas Racing’s Riley Herbst and Custer for 10th. The flat sent the Kaulig Racing No. 16 into the wall, causing heavy damage to the right front of the car. Allmendinger finished 37th.
A second caution for Snider spinning opened up differing strategies in the field.
Two more successive cautions would fly late in stage one for a spinning Leland Honeyman and another for a crash between polesitter Parker Retzlaff and playoff driver Sam Mayer after the third driver in the outside line, Josh Williams, accordioned into Mayer to trigger the crash.
A short sprint to the stage one finish originally scored Custer as the stage winner. After a video review, Almirola was declared the stage one winner.
The JGR teammates of Chandler Smith and Almirola battled closely for the lead, but JRM’s Sammy Smith surged to second by Chandler Smith during the 32-lap green flag run.
The sixth and lone stage two caution for a spin by Mason Maggio set up a battle between Ryan Sieg on 60-lap-old tires and Almirola on fresh tires, where Almirola would claim the stage two win in the closing laps of the stage.
William Sawalich would go around in turn 1 early in stage one, but once green-flag racing continued, Creed and Almirola fought it out for the lead for multiple laps side-by-side.
Creed slid out of the groove and into a battle for second with Custer, who had to recover from being off strategy after stage one.
Mike Harmon…
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