Aric Almirola dominated the evening and then made the pass on the final restart to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday evening. Almirola, who also won the Xfinity Dash 4 Cash bonus, led 149 of 251 laps and won his first NASCAR Xfinity Series race for Toyota.
“The handling of our car went away. I was just kind of holding on there in the end. Our car did not like cycled tires. We had damage on the front and once we got that damage, I felt like oh, no we are out of it – and we weren’t. The car was still decent, and I was able to manage what I had. Just really thankful to Coach (Joe Gibbs) for giving me this opportunity to come back and race for him, and to do it for this organization – all of these people at Joe Gibbs Racing. It is really awesome to come and play, and that is what I really get to do – I get to play, and not a lot of people get to do that and finish their career like that. Just really humbled. Really thankful to Coach, and everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing. Our Toyotas are really fast – any one of our cars can win on any given weekend. I’m just really thankful for the He Gets Us ministry and all of those people to give me this opportunity to semi-retire and still get to come out and race and win.”
- Aric Almirola
It was another stellar night for Joe Gibbs Racing, which has won four of the first seven Xfinity Series races this season. Chandler Smith continued his streak of finishing in the top-10 in every race with a third-place run to extend his points lead to 35, while Sheldon Creed was scored sixth.
Both Smith and Creed are Dash 4 Cash eligible heading into next weekend’s race at Texas Motor Speedway.
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