Aric Almirola won his third NASCAR Xfinity Series race this season doing so at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday. He swept the night by leading all three stages enroute to victory. And, if he was a full-time competitor in NXS, he would have punched his ticket into the Championship Four.
However, Almirola is only racing part time in the No. 19 Toyota of Joe Gibbs Racing. The win still bodes well for JGR to pursue the much-coveted Owner’s Championship.
Almirola’s win denied all Round of 8 drivers an opportunity to lock themselves into the final four positions for the driver’s championship. Two races remain, Talladega Superspeedway and Martinsville Speedway, to decide who the final four drivers to see who wins the championship at Phoenix Raceway.
Win Didn’t Come Easy
Almirola started fourth and would battle drivers such as points leader Connor Zilisch, playoff contenders Justin Allgaier and Jess Love during the race as all four traded the lead at times. Just as it looked like Zilisch was going to race his way to win No. 11, a caution waved for a spinning Dean Thompson on lap 172 of 201.
This brought all the leaders to pit road for final adjustments, tires and fuel. Zilisch and the No 88 Chevrolet team led everyone off pit road for the final restart with 23 laps remaining. When the green flag waved, Almirola and Zilisch turned it into a circular drag race battling for the lead.
Zilisch returned to the top spot and remained there until nine to go. As his No. 88 Chevrolet started to get loose in the turns, Almirola took advantage and put his No. 19 Toyota out front.
He would stay in the lead to handily capture his third victory.
“Our car was really good, but the longer I ran the tighter the car got,” Almirola said. “I was just struggling on that long run at the beginning of Stage 3. Finally, on that last restart, I just took off incredibly tight and I couldn’t get going.
“The No. 48 (Nick Sanchez) slowed my momentum down. I finally got clear of him and was able to chase the No. 88 down. He was pretty loose and I was able to capitalize on that.”
Trading Places and Paint
Rookie phenom and points leader Zilisch finished where he started, in second, while leading 34 laps. Twice during the race, he and Almirola make contact competing for the lead. The good news for them it wasn’t significant enough to spin each other out or cause enough damage to end their race.
Zilisch leaves Las Vegas with the points lead and is now 82 markers to the good. Adding to their stress of a loose race car was bad audio transmissions between driver and crew chief Mardy Lindley on the team radios.
“The frustration just comes from how much this (racing) means to me,” Zilisch said. “When you have a chance to lock yourself in for Phoenix you have to take it. I gave it my all, I drove as hard as I could.
“I just need to do a better job. I just could not draft the line. We just really struggled to move around and we just didn’t have what it took. So, we’ll just go back to the drawing board. Leaving here plus 82 (points) is good, it could be a lot worse.
“But, having another win sticker on this car would have been a lot better.”
It’s Talladega Time
Next up for the NXS is the 2.66-mile trioval of Talladega Superspeedway. That’s a race where anything can happen on any lap. The trick is to survive until the checkered flag and not have your playoff chances end spinning down the frontstretch in a multi-car wreck.
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