Aric Almirola held off all challengers to win the pivotal cutoff race, denying Sammy Smith in second and Chandler Smith in third as they were attempting to win their way into the title-decider.
Almirola, who competes part-time in the Xfinity Series with Joe Gibbs Racing, now has three wins this year and seven in his career. S. Smith was within half a second of him at the very end, but just could not get close enough to make a real lunge.
“What an amazing race car,” smiled Almirola, who locked the No. 2 JGR Toyota into the owner’s Championship 4 via his race win.
For C. Smith, he was left fuming with season-long rival Cole Custer, who did advance and will have a shot to defend his 2023 Xfinity title. He had run down Custer and bumped him out of the way for the second position with about 30 laps left to go in the race. Just as Custer was preparing to return the favor, Brandon Jones went spinning and the caution flag flew. On the restart, Custer did ultimately move Smith in an aggressive bump-and-run that cost both drivers several spots.
Smith was able to rebound back to third, but it simply was not enough. Afterwards, he immediately confronted Custer on pit road. After a heated exchange, Smith attempted to punch Custer and the crews quickly intervened.
“Obviously he’s not happy but at the end of the day, he’s put us in the wall a few times this year and his mistakes caught up with him,” said Custer. “He used the bumper on me, I used the bumper on him. What comes around goes around.”
Speaking about the ‘punch,’ Custer had this reaction: “I can’t even tell if he really punched me in the face. It was so soft.”
While Custer is returning to the Cup Series in 2025, Smith has no ride at any level of the sport. This may have been his last shot at this level of the sport. He told The CW about the issues with Custer: “I was planning to do a lot more than that (punch him), to be completely frank. I was extremely pissed off. I gave him five laps before that caution came out, beat his bumper off. Never shipped him or anything like that.”
But with Smith facing a must-win and time running out, he decided that time was up. “I finally pushed him up the track and went on our way. But I gave him a chance for five laps before that. Well, I think he was the first guy all day that chose the outside lane from third place so that’s very interesting. He didn’t even give me a chance to make the corner once we got to Turn 1.”
Custer believes the two are now even, but Smith obviously disagrees. “He can think we’re even and all, but he’s got the one that has more stakes than I do next weekend as well.”
The two Smiths were eliminated alongside Sam Mayer and Jesse Love. Custer will battle A.J. Allmendinger, Austin Hill, and Justin Allgaier for the championship at Phoenix.
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Cla
Driver
#
Manufacturer
Laps
Time
Interval
Pits
Points
1
A. Almirola Joe Gibbs Racing
20
Toyota
250
2:11’30.319
5
60
2
S. Smith JR Motorsports
8
Chevrolet
250
+0.587
2:11’30.906
0.587
6
45
3
C. Smith Joe Gibbs Racing
81
Toyota
250
+1.210
2:11’31.529
0.623
6
46
4
C. Custer Stewart-Haas Racing
00
Ford
250
+3.169
2:11’33.488
1.959
6
46
5
J. Allgaier JR Motorsports
7
Chevrolet
250
+3.674
2:11’33.993
0.505
6
46
6
S. Creed Joe Gibbs Racing
18
Toyota
250
+4.121
2:11’34.440
0.447
6
41
7
A. Alfredo Our Motorsports
5
Chevrolet
250
+4.722
2:11’35.041
0.601
6
30
8
P. Kligerman Big Machine Racing Team
48
Chevrolet
250
+6.319
2:11’36.638
1.597
6
29
9
J. Burton Jordan Anderson Racing
27
Chevrolet
250
+6.339
2:11’36.658
0.020
6
29
10
M. Snider DGM Racing
91
Chevrolet
250
+7.227
2:11’37.546
0.888
6
27
11
R. Herbst Stewart-Haas Racing
98
Ford
250
+7.749
2:11’38.068
0.522
6
34
12
J. Love Richard Childress Racing
2
Chevrolet
250
+9.480
2:11’39.799
1.731
7
31
13
B. Poole Alpha Prime Racing
44
Chevrolet
250
+9.670
2:11’39.989
0.190
6
25
14
A. Hill Richard Childress Racing
21
Chevrolet
250
+10.548
2:11’40.867
0.878
7
23
15
R. Sieg RSS Racing
28
Ford
250
+10.652
2:11’40.971
0.104
7
31
16
M. DiBenedetto RSS Racing
38
Ford
250
+11.038
2:11’41.357
0.386
7
21
17
J. Williams Kaulig Racing
11
Chevrolet
250
+11.107
2:11’41.426
0.069
8
24
18
R. Ellis Alpha Prime Racing
43
Chevrolet
250
+11.572
2:11’41.891
0.465
7
19
19
B. Perkins RSS Racing
29
Ford
250
+12.062
2:11’42.381
0.490
6
18
20
D. Lupton AM Racing
15
Ford
250
+12.457
2:11’42.776
0.395
6
17
21
K. Sieg RSS Racing
39
Ford
250
+12.967
2:11’43.286
0.510
8
16
22
M. Maggio Joey Gase Motorsports
53
Ford
250
+13.325
2:11’43.644
0.358
9
23
E. Patrick SS-Green Light Racing
07
Chevrolet
250
+13.868
2:11’44.187
0.543
7
14
24
P. Pardus Pardus Racing Inc.
50
Chevrolet
250
+14.228
2:11’44.547
0.360
13
13
25
D. Cram DGM Racing
92
Chevrolet
250
+15.501
2:11’45.820
1.273
11
26
G. Van SS-Green Light Racing
14
Ford
250
+16.197
2:11’46.516
0.696
10
11
27
J. Clements Jeremy Clements Racing
51
Chevrolet
249
+1 Lap
2:11’32.261
1 Lap
7
10
28
S. van Gisbergen Kaulig Racing
97
Chevrolet
249
+1 Lap
2:11’49.482
17.221
9
9
29
B. Jones JR Motorsports
9
Chevrolet
234
+16 Laps
2:07’18.810
15 Laps
8
8
30
S. Mayer JR Motorsports
1
Chevrolet
228
+22 Laps
2:00’53.756
6 Laps
6
7
31
B. Pollard Sam Hunt Racing
26
Toyota
223
+27 Laps
2:11’46.381
5 Laps
8
6
32
G. Smithley Alpha Prime Racing
45
Chevrolet
205
+45 Laps
1:49’27.283
18 Laps
6
5
33
W. Sawalich Joe Gibbs Racing
19
Toyota
164
+86 Laps
1:26’51.722
41 Laps
7
34
L. Bearden Mike Harmon Racing
74
Chevrolet
162
+88 Laps
1:25’26.581
2 Laps
7
3
35
L. Honeyman Young’s Motorsports
42
Chevrolet
56
+194 Laps
29’41.648
106 Laps
5
2
36
P. Retzlaff Jordan Anderson Racing
31
Chevrolet
53
+197 Laps
27’18.375
3 Laps
3
1
37
C. Ware Joey Gase Motorsports
35
Chevrolet
44
+206 Laps
2:10’43.697
9 Laps
10
1
38
A. Allmendinger Kaulig Racing
16
Chevrolet
13
+237 Laps
5’17.496
31 Laps
3
1
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