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Aric Almirola, driving the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, made the pass for the win with just three laps remaining, overtaking Cole Custer and collecting his sixth career win. It was an impressive comeback for Almirola, who had to pit with a cut tire after getting into the wall earlier the event.
“I’m worn out,” smiled Almirola, who is part-time in the Xfinity Series after retiring from NASCAR Cup competition. “That was a long, hard day at the office. Especially for a guy who has been sitting on the couch. I knew we had such a great Toyota GR Supra. I was able to get by everybody on the long run and I just pushed too hard there when we had the issue on pit road and I got into the fence, cut the right-rear tire down.
“I knew I had to put my head down and go to work after that. We got lucky to get the caution when we did. We were out of tires so the fact that it went green there to the end — and that’s where we were strong. We were really strong on the long run. It just worked out.”
Race winner Aric Almirola, Joe Gibbs Racing, He Gets Us Toyota Supra celebrates his win
Photo by: Nigel Kinrade / NKP / Motorsport Images
The run the finish was set-up by a caution with around 55 laps remaining when a wayward tire rolled pit road during green-flag stops. Custer restarted with the race lead, but he was under pressure from the get-go with Chandler Smith in hot pursuit.
With 44 laps to go, Smith got under Custer and squeezed him up the track. Custer got against the wall and warned about payback on the radio. As the run went on, Smith’s car faded while Custer began to surge as he ran right against the outside wall With 18 laps left, he finally got alongside and the two cars touched down the frontstretch, but Smith somewhat held the lead.
It wasn’t until ten laps to go when Custer finally got to his outside exiting Turn 4, taking the lead. Unfortunately for Custer, the battle allowed Almirola to close in. He dispatched one Joe Gibbs Racing driver, only to have to fend off another. Almirola was clearly faster and snatched the lead away with an inside pass on the frontstretch.
Custer ended the race second, Smith third, Connor Zilisch fourth and Sheldon Creed fifth. Brandon Jones, Austin Hill, Shane van Gisbergen, Jesse Love and Riley Herbst rounded out the rest of the top-ten.
There were several drivers frustrated after the race. Custer and Smith shared words over their contact while Herbst approached Hill over getting spun out at the end of the second stage. There was also an animated discussion between Sammy Smith and A.J. Allmendinger as those two playoff drivers got together in the early laps.
Custer warns of payback
While the matter seems settled between Hill and Herbst, the issues between Custer and Smith seem far from over.
“Definitely burned our stuff up trying to get by him [Smith],” said Custer. “It really made me mad when he put us in the fence on that restart. He’s gonna pay the consequences for that and I’m gonna race him how he races me.”
Asked about the post-race conversation, Custer again repeated his warning: “They’re gonna pay for the consequences (of that). Everyone wants to try and talk afterwards and at the end of the day, he put me in the fence and he’s gonna pay for it.”
Looking at the playoff picture, it was a disastrous opening playoffs race for Justin Allgaier, who entered as the top seed. He leaves one point below the cut-line after a mid-race crash left him with 36th-place finish. Allmendinger is 13 points out, Parker Kligerman 15 points behind, and Sammy Smith 23 down.
