Tickets punched and punches thrown—it was Martinsville after all, and in Saturday’s National Debt Relief 250, Aric Almirola made Martinsville Speedway his personal playground.
Leading 150 of 250 laps in a No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota that was the clear class of the field, Almirola won his second race in his second NASCAR Xfinity Series start at the 0.526-mile short track and earned a spot for his car in the series owners’ Championship 4.
In the process, Almirola denied JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith and JGR’s Chandler Smith a chance to advance to the Championship 4 Race for the drivers’ title.
Pulling away after a restart on lap 235, the part-time Xfinity Series driver beat runner-up Sammy Smith to the finish line by 0.587s, with Chandler Smith trailing in third.
With Almirola winning the race, Justin Allgaier (fifth Saturday) and defending series champion Cole Custer (fourth) qualified for the Nov. 9 Championship 4 Race at Phoenix on points, joining Round of 8 race winners AJ Allmendinger and Austin Hill.
Jesse Love (12th Saturday) and Sam Mayer (30th) were eliminated from the Playoffs along with the two Smiths, though Chandler gave a parting shot in the form of a punch to Custer, with whom he had tangled on the race track.
A bump-and-run moves @CSmith_Racing into second as the yellow comes out for @BrandonJonesRac.
Less than 30 to go at @MartinsvilleSwy! #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/Bi5iyRudHf
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) November 2, 2024
For Almirola, who won at Martinsville in April in his first Xfinity attempt, the victory was the third of the season in 13 starts and the seventh of his career.
“We had an amazing car here in the spring, and we made a few tweaks to it,” said Almirola, who also swept the first and second stages. “I wasn’t totally happy with it, honestly, in the spring. And we showed up and we were awful. I was like ‘Oh, no, what did we do?’
“They went to work last night and came up with a lot of changes to make to the car, and it was so hooked up today. It would just do everything I wanted it to. This is such a special place. This is by far my favorite race track. I’m just so thankful.”