Aric Almirola wins the NASCAR Xfinity Sequence Submit Season Opener at Kansas Speedway on Saturday afternoon within the Kansas Lottery 300.
KANSAS Metropolis, Kan.— Within the closing laps of Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway, part-time NASCAR Xfinity Sequence driver Aric Almirola ran down Playoff chief Cole Custer. After taking the lead, Almirola pulled away for his second victory of the season within the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
Aric Almirola Wins the NASCAR Xfinity Sequence Submit Season Opener at Kansas
In a Spherical of 12 Playoff opener that ended with a number of sad drivers and a handful of post-race conversations between Playoff contenders, Almirola picked up his first win on the 1.5-mile monitor and the sixth of his profession.
Almirola beat Custer to the end line by 0.660 seconds. Chandler Smith was trailing in third after elevating Custer’s ire. Custer was chasing Smith for the lead when Smith squeezed the No. 00 Ford into the skin wall. Sadly, the incident allowed Almirola to take the lead over Custer.
Almirola needed to overcome a brush with the skin wall on lap 124. And a ensuing reduce tire that pressured him to the pits to seal the win. An opportune warning that interrupted a cycle of inexperienced flag stops on lap 145 was all Almirola wanted to get again on equal footing with the opposite contenders.
Because the fourth driver to win two races this season within the No. 20 JGR Toyota, Almirola joins Christopher Bell, John Hunter Nemechek, and Ryan Truex.
“I’m wore out,” stated Almirola, who handed Custer for the lead on lap 197 of 200. “That was a tough day on the workplace for a man that’s been sitting on the sofa. I simply pushed too laborious there after we had the problem on pit street (a sluggish cease), and I bought within the fence and reduce the right-rear tire down.
“I knew I needed to put my head down and go to work after that. We bought fortunate to get the warning after we did, and we had been out of tires, so the truth that it went inexperienced there to the top (for the ultimate 49 laps)… that’s the place we had been sturdy. We had been actually sturdy on the lengthy runs.”
Cole Custer versus Chandler Smith
Custer had a quick dialog with Smith and vowed revenge after the race.
“Everyone needs to attempt to discuss afterwards,” Custer stated. “On the finish of the day, he put me within the fence, and he’s going to pay for it.”
Smith countered that he didn’t consider Custer ever held the place to his outdoors.
“We’re racing for the win and 5 further Playoff factors,” stated Smith, who led 114 laps. “You’ve bought a really, very legitimate assertion, I perceive, however I additionally wouldn’t change what I did, as a result of I used to be giving myself the most effective shot to win.”
Non-playoff driver Connor Zilisch completed fourth. Behind him is Sheldon Creed, enhancing his place within the Playoff standings by 4 spots along with his seventh top-five within the final 9 races.
Pole winner Brandon Jones, who didn’t make the postseason, was fifth. He’s adopted by Playoff drivers Austin Hill, Shane van Gisbergen, Jesse Love, and Riley Herbst.
Austin Hill versus Riley Herbst and Sammy Smith versus AJ Allmendinger
In one other post-race dialog, Hill apologized to Herbst for the lap 90 contact that despatched Herbst’s Ford spinning by the infield grass on the finish of the second stage. In yet one more tete-a-tete between Playoff drivers, Sammy Smith took AJ Allmendinger to process for early contact that broken Smith’s Chevrolet.
Smith completed twenty second. He heads to subsequent Saturday’s Playoff race at Talladega twelfth within the standings, 23 factors beneath the reduce line for the Spherical of 8.
Allmendinger (seventeenth Saturday) and Parker Kligerman (twelfth) are tenth and eleventh within the Playoff standings, 13 and 15 factors beneath the cutoff, respectively.
The Playoffs Carry One other Unhealthy Day for Justin Allgaier
The shockingly dangerous luck haunting top-seeded Justin Allgaier continued in drive on Saturday. Racing in shut quarters with Creed after a restart on lap 70, Allgaier’s No. 7 Chevrolet broke free, slid throughout site visitors, and nosed into the within wall on the backstretch.
After frantic repairs, Allgaier tried to return to the race. A reduce left-front tire, nonetheless, despatched him into the skin wall and out of motion in thirty sixth place.
Allgaier’s exit got here eight days after a collection of accidents knocked him out of the Meals Metropolis 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway. The end result for Allgaier is that he misplaced the regular-season championship.
“I don’t know if I’ve had a stretch of races which were like these final three or 4 weeks,” stated Allgaier. “We’re not out of it by any stretch. Clearly, that’s why you do all of the work to get all of the bonus factors you’ll be able to.
“We’ve bought an extended street the subsequent two weeks. I’ve bought the crew that may do it. We’ve simply bought to go have some luck on our facet.”
Allgaier fell from first to ninth within the standings. He trails Herbst by one level within the battle for the ultimate berth within the Spherical of 8.
Custer now leads the collection by 5 factors over Chandler Smith, with Hill 15 factors again. Fourth-place Sam Mayer, who ran thirteenth at Kansas, is 28 factors behind Custer and three factors forward of Creed in fifth.
Van Gisbergen and Love are sixth and seventh within the Playoff standings, respectively eight and three factors above the reduce line for the subsequent spherical.
Up Subsequent
The NASCAR Xfinity Sequence will race the second race within the Spherical of 12 this Saturday, October fifth at Talladega Superspeedway. The United Leases 250 begins at 4 pm ET with protection accessible on the CW Community, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
