MARTINSVILLE, Va. — 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 A.J. 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.
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 [Friday] 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.”
After Chandler Smith executed a bump-and run on Custer for a pass on lap 220, Custer lined up behind Smith on the outside for a restart on lap 227. In a race that produced 13 cautions for 84 laps, Custer shoved Smith’s Camry toward the wall in Turn 1, perhaps denying the latter a chance to race for the win.
After the race, Smith confronted Custer and threw a punch at the reigning champion.
“I was planning to do a lot more than that, to be completely frank with you,” Smith said. “I was extremely [expletive] off. I gave him five laps before that caution came out (for Brandon Jones’ spin on lap 220). I beat his bumper off and never shipped him or anything. The laps were winding down, and I was in a must-win. The No. 20 (Almirola) started to drive away—he was really good all day—I can’t waste any more time with him.
“I finally had a good enough run and pushed him up the race track and went on our way. But I gave him a chance for five laps before that. I think he was the first guy all day that chose the outside lane from third place (for the lap 227 restart). That was very interesting, and he didn’t even give me a chance to make the corner when we got to Turn 1.”
Custer thought that made the drivers all-square, though Smith disagreed.
“Obviously he wasn’t happy, but what goes around comes around,” Custer said. “He put us in the wall a few times this year. He used the bump-and-run on me. I used the bump-and-run on him…
“I don’t know how we’re not even. And then he punched me in the face. I couldn’t really tell if he even punched me in the face, it was so soft.”
Along with Almirola, Hill and Allmendinger, Allgaier put his No. 7 Chevrolet in the Championship 4 for the owners’ title.