After a late caution prompted an overtime finish in the desert, Aric Almirola outlasted Justin Allgaier and edged out Alex Bowman at the line to win the GOVX 200 from Phoenix Raceway.
Almirola captured his eighth NASCAR Xfinity Series win and his first at Phoenix.
“I just knew I needed to get from there to here first,” Almirola victoriously said. “I knew I was going to use him up a little bit, but was trying to win the race. I feel like it was warranted. I didn’t feel like I did anything overly egregious. I just throttled up, and it was a drag race to the start-finish line.”
“I would have hoped he would have given me a lane on exit,” Bowman said post-race. “He just exited like I wasn’t there. He was better than us for sure, but I was just trying to capitalize on that restart and try to win the race. I got shoved into the fence, and the race car is destroyed. Bummer for that, but hats off to the HendrickCars.com crew.”
WHAT. A. FINISH!! pic.twitter.com/T9HrPc20Xn
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) March 9, 2025
Allgaier won stage two, led a race-high 130 laps and seemed destined to go to victory lane before a lap 198 caution wiped away his lead and sent the race into overtime.
“I don’t think you could do anything differently,” he told The CW post-race. “Just proud of our team, everybody on this Brandt Professional Agriculture Chevrolet did a great job. To unload with the speed we had and to race the way we did, I was really proud, … I’d like to have that one back.”
Brandon Jones finished third followed by Ryan Sieg, driving a backup car, in fourth and Allgaier in fifth.
Taylor Gray, Sam Mayer, Christian Eckes, Jesse Love and Nick Sanchez rounded out the top 10 in sixth through 10th, respectively.
Polesitter Bowman dominated stage one as he led wire-to-wire to claim the stage victory. Almirola followed Bowman to the stage end in second, while Allgaier charged from his starting position of 14th to third in the opening 45-lap segment. Connor Zilisch finished fourth, while Sheldon Creed rounded out the top-five finishers in stage one with a fifth-place finish.
In a departure from the first stage, Bowman was immediately challenged for the lead by both Allgaier and Almirola to open stage two. While the racing at the front intensified, an incident inside the top 10 changed the day for a few contenders when Austin Hill hit the inside wall and shot back up the track to collect Creed and Dean Thompson.
With the field reset after the first major incident of the race, the excellent battle for the lead resumed, as Bowman, Almirola and Allgaier swapped the lead among themselves for much of stage two, even allowing fourth-place runner Jones to close in and join the battle before Allgaier finally took control and pulled away to secure the stage two win.
With a stage win in his back pocket, Allgaier again opened up a healthy lead to start the third and final stage. With Allgaier set on cruise control out front closing in on the finish, it became clear the only thing that could stop the defending series champion would be a caution.
Similarly to last year in this same event, a late caution foiled Allgaier’s chances to secure a smooth and easy victory when Nick Leitz lost a tire out of turn 4 and spun down the frontstretch to prompt a caution with only two laps remaining and cause an overtime finish.
Allgaier restarted inside row 1 on the overtime restart as the control car with Almirola to his outside. When Allgaier slid up on the bottom and took both front-row contenders out toward the wall in turn 1, it was Jones and Bowman who were able to sniff the lead from the second row.
Bowman emerged from the four-wide scrum in the first set of corners as the leader and took the white flag with Almirola on his heels.
Entering turn 3 in the outside line, Bowman left Almirola just enough space to squeeze underneath him. As Almirola throttled off turn 4, he leaned on Bowman and carried him up into the outside wall. As the pair crossed the line side-by-side, Almirola squeezed past Bowman to claim the victory.
Xfinity Results from Phoenix
The NXS will return to action next Saturday, Mar. 15, from Las Vegas Motor Speedway with coverage available on The CW starting at 4:30 p.m. ET.
