Aric Almirola spoiled the party in the opening race in the penultimate round of the NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs after leading over half the race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It’s Almirola’s third win of the season in a part-time role for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Connor Zilisch finished in the runner-up position after Almirola caught him with less than 10 laps remaining. The rookie and veteran couldn’t shake each other throughout the race, with Zilisch taking the lead on a late restart before Almirola closed the gap.
Justin Allgaier, Corey Day and Nick Sanchez rounded out the top five. Jesse Love who was up front for a lot of the day came home sixth. Love and Sanchez would have a spat on pit road post race that included a joust of words after hard racing that almost sent both of them spinning.
Haas Factory Team had a roller coaster start to the day and didn’t recover as playoff drivers Sam Mayer and Sheldon Creed only mustered ninth- and 11th-place finishes. Brandon Jones and Carson Kvapil both finished 13th and 15th respectively. Sammy Smith had a disappointing 20th-place result.
“It’s so much fun to be apart of this. Thank you coach [Joe Gibbs], such an awesome honor to race for an owners championships with JD’s name on it,” Almirola told the CW. “That final restart I took off incredibly tight but after chasing the 88 down I was able to capitalize on it.”
After an early caution at the start of the race that bunched the field back together, polesitter Justin Allgaier, Jesse Love and Aric Almirola sailed it into turn 1 three-wide, with the veteran Almirola and Love going back and forth for the better part of the next lap.
Once the driver of the No. 19 cleared Love, he scooted away from the likes of Connor Zilisch, Love and Allgaier en route to winning stage one.
Lots of playoff drivers complained about gremlins through the opening 45 laps. Creed fell like a rock from the drop of the green flag, Mayer wanted information about his oil temperature and pressures and Sammy Smith was despondent about the lack of speed in his car.
Stage two had a little less theatrics with Almirola holding off Love throughout the next 45 laps. Austin Hill almost brought out the caution after clipping the apron but had an amazing save to keep himself going. It was another missed opportunity for the likes of Creed, Smith, and Brandon Jones who all missed out on stage points again.
In the final stage, Almirola, Love and Zilisch continued to fight for the lead. Almirola continued to battled amongst the playoff drivers, including more contact with Zilisch with under 100 laps remaining.
In the final sequence of green flag pit stops, Love and Richard Childress Racing out-maneuvered Almirola and Zilisch to take the lead late. Lapped traffic played a role as the best friends battled one another, giving Zilisch a small lead with roughly 40 laps left.
A Dean Thompson spin with less than 30 to go reset the field for the final dash, as Zilisch and Almirola continued to spark their back and forth.
Zilisch scooted away as Almirola and Nick Sanchez fought each other for second but the veteran wouldn’t be denied. He ran down and overtook Zilisch with less than 10 to go en route to his third win of the season.
Xfinity Race Results at Las Vegas
The Xfinity Series playoffs continues next weekend at 4:00 p.m. ET at Talladega Superspeedway on the CW.
Thomas is in his first year covering NASCAR at Frontstretch. A Bay Area NASCAR fan for over 15+ years, he found his love for the sport through Jeff Gordon.
Thomas has enjoyed several trips to Sonoma Raceway in his time and currently covers college football in the Bay Area, also writing about the California Golden Bears.