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.
Almirola led 150 laps en route to his fourth 2024 win and eighth career Xfinity win.
“What an amazing race car,” Almirola said to The CW. “We had an amazing car in the spring. We made a few tweaks to it because I wasn’t totally happy with it honestly. We showed up yesterday, and we were awful. [The crew] went to work last night and came up with a lot of changes to make to the car, and it was so hooked up today. It would just do everything I wanted it to do.”
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.
“Obviously he’s not happy,” Custer told The CW. “At the end of the day, he’s put us in the wall a few times this year, and his mistakes caught up to him. He used the bumper on me. I used the bumper on him. What comes around goes around is the deal… He kept us from winning a race I feel like at Kansas. I don’t know how we’re not even, and then, he punches me in the face. I can’t even tell if he really punched me in the face it was so soft. At the end of the day, we’ll move on to Phoenix.”
“I was planning to do a lot more than that to be completely frank with you,” Smith said, “I was extremely pissed off. I gave him five laps before that caution came out and beat his bumper off, never shipped him or anything like that. Then finally, the laps are winding down. I’m in a must-win. The 20 is driving away. He was really good all day. I can’t waste any more time with him. I finally got a good enough run and pushed him up the racetrack and went on our way.”
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 Racing’s Dawson Cram had fire bellowing from the brakes of his No. 74 Chevrolet. He pulled behind the wall to get the fire extinguished and avoid causing a caution.
Preston Pardus was spun after contact by Kyle Sieg to end the longest green flag run of the day and drive the field down pit road for final stops.
The aggression in the field would persist as Creed caused two wrecks, one with Williams and Blaine Perkins and the other with Brandon Jones.
Before the Jones caution, Chandler Smith performed a bump and run on Custer right before the caution.
Custer would return the favor, sending the No. 81 deep into turn one on the restart.
Meanwhile, Sammy Smith moved to third while Mayer took race-ending damage to his radiator. The caution would fly final for Sieg spinning after contact with Shane van Gisbergen.
Xfinity Martinsville 2 Results
The championship race at Phoenix will begin on Saturday, Nov. 9 at 7:30 p.m. ET. Broadcasting will be provided by The CW.
About the author
Wyatt Watson has followed NASCAR closely since 2007. He joined Frontstretchas a journalist in February 2023 after serving in the United States Navy for five years as an Electronic Technician Navigation working on submarines. Wyatt writes breaking NASCAR news and contributes to columns such as Friday Faceoff and 2-Headed Monster. Wyatt also contributes to Frontstretch's social media and serves as an at-track reporter, collecting exclusive content for Frontstretch.
Wyatt Watson can be found on Twitter @WyattGametime
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