Half-time NASCAR Xfinity Sequence driver Aric Almirola ran down Playoff chief Cole Custer within the closing laps of Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway and pulled away for his second victory of the season within the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
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 0.660s, with Chandler Smith trailing in third after elevating Custer’s ire by squeezing the No. 00 Ford into the skin wall as Custer chased Smith for the lead—earlier than Almirola made his late-race run.
Energy transfer by @ColeCuster! He’s again to the lead! pic.twitter.com/IEA72wqJG9
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) September 28, 2024
To seal the win, Almirola needed to overcome a brush with the skin wall on Lap 124 and a ensuing minimize tire that compelled him to the pits. 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.
Almirola is the fourth driver to win two races this season within the No. 20 JGR Toyota, becoming a member of 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 arduous there after we had the difficulty on pit street (a sluggish cease), and I obtained within the fence and minimize the right-rear tire down.
“Knew I needed to put my head down and go to work after that. We obtained fortunate to get the warning after we did, and we have been out of tires, so the truth that it went inexperienced there to the top [for the final 49 laps]… that’s the place we have been sturdy. We have been actually sturdy on the lengthy runs.”
After the race, Custer had a quick dialog with Smith and vowed revenge.
“Everyone needs to try to speak 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 imagine Custer ever had place to his outdoors.
“We’re racing for the win and 5 further Playoff factors,” stated Smith, who led 114 laps. “You’ve obtained 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, adopted by Sheldon Creed, who improved his place within the Playoff standings by 4 spots together with his seventh prime 5 within the final 9 races.
Pole winner Brandon Jones, who didn’t make the postseason, was fifth, adopted by Playoff drivers Austin Hill, Shane van Gisbergen, Jesse Love and Riley Herbst.
In one other post-race dialog, Hill apologized to Herbst for lap 90 contact that despatched Herbst’s Ford spinning by the infield grass on the finish of the second stage. In 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 and heads to subsequent Saturday’s Playoff race at Talladega twelfth within the standings, 23 factors under the minimize 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 under the cutoff, respectively.
The shockingly dangerous luck haunting top-seeded Justin Allgaier continued in power 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, however a minimize left-front tire despatched him into the skin wall and out of motion in thirty sixth place.
Allgaier’s exit got here eight days after a sequence of accidents knocked him out of the Meals Metropolis 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway and value him 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 obtained an extended street the subsequent two weeks. I’ve obtained the group that may do it. We’ve simply obtained to go have some luck on our aspect.”
Allgaier fell from first to ninth within the standings and trails Herbst by one level within the battle for the ultimate berth within the Spherical of 8.
Custer now leads the sequence 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 minimize line for the subsequent spherical.
