Almirola scores victory; Tempers flare between Custer and Chandler Smith

Aric Almirola was all business Saturday afternoon at Martinsville Speedway as the veteran racer, who is driving part-time this year for Joe Gibbs Racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, marched to a dominant victory in the National Debt Relief 250. After finishing seventh victory in his Xfinity Series career, Almirola had high praise for his team and the car they brought to the track on Saturday.

Almirola was disappointed on Friday when he felt his car was on its way to lunch during training. But the team pulled together, made some changes and they won the race.

“Wow. What a great race car,” Almirola exclaimed. “So proud of Tyler (Allen, crew chief) and all the guys on this team. We had a great car here in the spring and we made a few adjustments to it because, to be honest, I wasn’t completely happy with it in the spring. We showed up yesterday and we were terrible. I thought, oh no, what did we do, and they went to work last night and came up with a bunch of changes to the car. It was just like that today what I wanted.”

With the win, Almirola’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team advances to the NASCAR Xfinity Series Owners’ Championship 4.

“Thank you, God,” Almirola said. “There’s so much more to it than just me and this race team. I’m so lucky and blessed to have this opportunity with so many partners – Go Bowling. I hate it – they’ve been such a great partner of mine for so long, and we didn’t take them to victory lane. I’m grateful to everyone at TRD, Toyota. Our GR Supra was fast – faster than the Xfinity internet today. We’re going to race for an owners championship in Phoenix.

In total, Almirola led 150 of the 250 laps, winning stages 1 and 2 on his way to overall victory in Saturday’s race. Almirola crossed the finish line 0.587 seconds ahead of JR Motorsports driver Sammy Smith, who looked to move into Championship 4 with a win. While he stalked Almirola in the closing laps, he simply had nothing for the Tampa, Florida native.

The victory marks Almirola’s third victory of the season, and the 40-year-old won both NASCAR Xfinity Series events at Martinsville Speedway this year.

As Almirola performed his celebratory burnouts on the front stretch of the 0.526-mile short track, emotions were running high on pit road in third place. Chandler Smith faced fourth-place finisher Cole Custer and even threw a punch at his competitor during the heated argument. The punch didn’t land, as evidenced by a smile on Custer’s face, but Custer’s move late in the race, which thwarted Smith’s attempt to win, did land.

Here’s the move Custer made on Smith, who was in second place at the restart at the end of the race, with Custer right behind him on the outside lane:

Custer says the move he made on Smith was due to the way Smith raced him for the win a few weeks ago at Kansas Speedway, ironically another race won by Almirola.

“I mean, I think he’s angry, but what goes around, goes around,” Custer said after Saturday’s race at Martinsville. “He ended up putting us in the fence a few times this year. He used his bumper on me, so I used my bumper on him. It is what it is. You know, you go racing. For a championship you get into these situations. , and I don’t mind doing this to him, because he did it to me too.”

Although Smith has harassed Custer a few times this year, Smith says he was frustrated because he felt like he and Custer had made up when Smith contacted him to apologize after Kansas. The apology fell on deaf ears after Smith bumped and pushed Custer’s bumper for five laps at Martinsville before finally knocking him out of the way.

In addition, Creed also had a berth in Championship 4 that he was still in contention for, the Owners Championship. After their argument, Smith downplayed the importance of the Championship 4 berth for Custer.

“He thought he was a must-win for the owners – which he was – but at the end of the day I understand his father plays a high role at SHR (Stewart-Haas Racing), so he probably appreciates that. a lot, but at the end of the day I’m a driver. I’m in a must-win situation. That wasn’t the case at the time and he didn’t even try to make the corner. Granted, I moved him the lap before, but the five laps before that I knocked his bumper off. I gave him mercy before I finally sent him, and then he doesn’t even try to give me a chance going into the first corner. I think it was kind of a chicken move. It is what it is.”

Custer ultimately failed to clinch a Championship 4 berth for his Stewart-Haas Racing team with Almirola’s victory.

However, Custer, the defending NASCAR Justin Allgaier.

By not winning Saturday night’s race, Chandler Smith was one of four NASCAR Xfinity Series Round of 8 Playoff drivers eliminated at the end of the event. Sammy Smith, Sam Mayer and Rookie of the Year candidate Jesse Love were all eliminated from the Playoffs on Saturday night in Martinsville.

The next race of the NASCAR Xfinity Series is the final race of the season, the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday, November 9. That race will air on The CW with coverage beginning at 7:30 PM ET. The Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of the race.