Aric Almirola delivers a daring technique to win the NASCAR Xfinity Sequence race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday evening within the Meals Metropolis 300.
BRISTOL, Tenn. – Benefitting from a split-second late race technique determination, veteran Aric Almirola held off a mightily-motivated subject to assert the win in Friday evening’s Meals Metropolis 300 NASCAR Xfinity Sequence Playoff opener at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.
Almirola Delivers Daring Technique
Whereas operating second to the sequence’ championship chief, Connor Zilisch, when a warning flag flew with 36 laps remaining, Almirola watched Zilisch pull onto pit street for recent tires. As an alternative of following him into the pits as his crew anticipated, Almirola abruptly pulled his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota again on observe on the final second.
He then needed to out-run, out-maneuver, and out-last the competitors – a number of on brisker tires – within the closing laps to assert his second victory of the season and ninth of his profession. A former full-time NASCAR Cup Sequence driver who’s now competing part-time within the Xfinity Sequence with Gibbs, Almirola finally beat Haas Manufacturing unit Group driver Sheldon Creed to the checkered flag by 0.381 seconds – marking a sequence document fifteenth runner-up end for Creed, who continues to be racing for his first profession win.
“Simply bored with getting beat by these guys, I figured I’d attempt my possibilities with the lead,” Almirola mentioned of his race-winning pit technique determination. “They’ve been so quick, and so they fireplace off so quick on new tires, and I simply didn’t suppose I might beat them straight up on new tires. It took me about 20 laps to get going, so I believed my greatest likelihood was to remain out on previous tires.
“We watched the final two or three races right here and noticed how the nine-car with [driver] Noah Gragson win with like a 100 laps on his tires,” added Almirola, whose No. 19 JGR Toyota is racing for the proprietor’s championship. “So, I made a decision to remain out after they mentioned pit.”
Creed handed his Haas Manufacturing unit Group teammate Sam Mayer with a lap remaining however was unable to catch as much as Almirola. JR Motorsports driver Carson Kvapil completed fourth adopted by his teammate Zilisch, who was attempting to turn out to be the primary driver in sequence historical past to win 5 consecutive races.
Zilisch’s fifth-place end, nonetheless nonetheless resulted in a sequence document giving him 15 consecutive top-five showings. He has a sequence greatest 9 victories on the season and maintains a 32-point benefit over one other JR Motorsports teammate, Friday’s race pole sitter and reigning sequence champion Justin Allgaier, who completed sixth and earned a sequence greatest eleventh stage win.
“It was a superb day, simply so onerous these choices on the finish as a result of no matter you do, everybody else goes to do the other,” the 19-year-old rookie Zilisch mentioned. “We had a extremely good day with our WeatherTech Chevrolet, obtained additional up above the [Playoff] cutoff line and we’ll transfer on to subsequent week and carry on constructing.”
Harrison Burton, Christian Eckes, Jeremy Clements, and Brennan Poole spherical out the highest ten. Three rookies are represented within the group. The highest seven finishers had been all playoff drivers. Ten of the 12 playoff opponents completed 14th or larger.
Sammy Smith went into the race ranked sixth within the Playoff standings. However he took the most important championship hit of the evening. He suffered an early downside with solely 55 laps into the race. Smith’s No. 8 JR Motorsports Chevrolet needed to retire to the storage for an engine subject. He’s now twelfth at 24 factors under the cutoff line. Two races are remaining on this opening spherical.
“Unlucky state of affairs,” Smith mentioned. “Very disillusioned for the crew. Labored so onerous and to probably not have a shot was irritating. We’ll simply need to do our greatest the following two weeks within the Playoffs and see.”
Past Zilisch and Allgaier, Mayer is now 50 factors off the lead. Kvapil is 69 again, whereas Burton, in fifth place, is now separated from tenth-place Taylor Grey by solely six factors.
Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love and rookie Nick Sanchez are the primary drivers under the cutoff line. Each are three factors behind Grey. Love’s veteran teammate Austin Hill is 16 factors again. Smith drops into the twelfth slot after spherical one of many seven-race title run.
Subsequent Up
The sequence holds its second of the three opening spherical Playoff races on Sept. 27 at Kansas Speedway (4 p.m. ET on USA Community, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Almirola is the defending race winner.
