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Race report

Aric Almirola wins dramatic NASCAR Xfinity race in Kansas

Saturday's NASCAR Xfinity race at Kansas Speedway sees a dramatic three-way fight for the win.

Aric Almirola, driving the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, made the pass for the win with just three laps remaining, overtaking Cole Custer and collecting his sixth career win. It was an impressive comeback for Almirola, who had to pit with a cut tire after getting into the wall earlier the event.

"I'm worn out," smiled Almirola, who is part-time in the Xfinity Series after retiring from NASCAR Cup competition. "That was a long, hard day at the office. Especially for a guy who has been sitting on the couch. I knew we had such a great Toyota GR Supra. I was able to get by everybody on the long run and I just pushed too hard there when we had the issue on pit road and I got into the fence, cut the right-rear tire down.

"I knew I had to put my head down and go to work after that. We got lucky to get the caution when we did. We were out of tires so the fact that it went green there to the end -- and that's where we were strong. We were really strong on the long run. It just worked out."

Race winner Aric Almirola, Joe Gibbs Racing, He Gets Us Toyota Supra celebrates his win

Race winner Aric Almirola, Joe Gibbs Racing, He Gets Us Toyota Supra celebrates his win

Photo by: Nigel Kinrade / NKP / Motorsport Images

The run the finish was set-up by a caution with around 55 laps remaining when a wayward tire rolled pit road during green-flag stops. Custer restarted with the race lead, but he was under pressure from the get-go with Chandler Smith in hot pursuit.

With 44 laps to go, Smith got under Custer and squeezed him up the track. Custer got against the wall and warned about payback on the radio. As the run went on, Smith's car faded while Custer began to surge as he ran right against the outside wall With 18 laps left, he finally got alongside and the two cars touched down the frontstretch, but Smith somewhat held the lead.

It wasn't until ten laps to go when Custer finally got to his outside exiting Turn 4, taking the lead. Unfortunately for Custer, the battle allowed Almirola to close in. He dispatched one Joe Gibbs Racing driver, only to have to fend off another. Almirola was clearly faster and snatched the lead away with an inside pass on the frontstretch.

 

Custer ended the race second, Smith third, Connor Zilisch fourth and Sheldon Creed fifth. Brandon Jones, Austin Hill, Shane van Gisbergen, Jesse Love and Riley Herbst rounded out the rest of the top-ten.

There were several drivers frustrated after the race. Custer and Smith shared words over their contact while Herbst approached Hill over getting spun out at the end of the second stage. There was also an animated discussion between Sammy Smith and A.J. Allmendinger as those two playoff drivers got together in the early laps.

Custer warns of payback

While the matter seems settled between Hill and Herbst, the issues between Custer and Smith seem far from over. 

"Definitely burned our stuff up trying to get by him [Smith]," said Custer. "It really made me mad when he put us in the fence on that restart. He's gonna pay the consequences for that and I'm gonna race him how he races me."

Asked about the post-race conversation, Custer again repeated his warning: "They're gonna pay for the consequences (of that). Everyone wants to try and talk afterwards and at the end of the day, he put me in the fence and he's gonna pay for it."

Looking at the playoff picture, it was a disastrous opening playoffs race for Justin Allgaier, who entered as the top seed. He leaves one point below the cut-line after a mid-race crash left him with 36th-place finish. Allmendinger is 13 points out, Parker Kligerman 15 points behind, and Sammy Smith 23 down.

Cla Driver # Manufacturer Laps Time Interval Pits Points
1 A. AlmirolaJoe Gibbs Racing 20 Toyota 200

2:28'42.489

  7  
2 C. CusterStewart-Haas Racing 00 Ford 200

+0.660

2:28'43.149

0.660 6  
3
C. SmithJoe Gibbs Racing
81 Toyota 200

+4.588

2:28'47.077

3.928 6  
4
C. ZilischJR Motorsports
88 Chevrolet 200

+7.426

2:28'49.915

2.838 6  
5 S. CreedJoe Gibbs Racing 18 Toyota 200

+13.407

2:28'55.896

5.981 6  
6 B. JonesJR Motorsports 9 Chevrolet 200

+14.757

2:28'57.246

1.350 7  
7 A. HillRichard Childress Racing 21 Chevrolet 200

+15.657

2:28'58.146

0.900 6  
8 S. van GisbergenKaulig Racing 97 Chevrolet 200

+17.663

2:29'00.152

2.006 8  
9
J. LoveRichard Childress Racing
2 Chevrolet 200

+18.198

2:29'00.687

0.535 7  
10 R. HerbstStewart-Haas Racing 98 Ford 200

+20.611

2:29'03.100

2.413 6  
11 J. WilliamsKaulig Racing 11 Chevrolet 200

+21.100

2:29'03.589

0.489 6  
12 P. KligermanBig Machine Racing Team 48 Chevrolet 200

+22.154

2:29'04.643

1.054 6  
13
S. MayerJR Motorsports
1 Chevrolet 200

+22.945

2:29'05.434

0.791 6  
14 M. DiBenedettoRSS Racing 38 Ford 200

+22.958

2:29'05.447

0.013 7  
15
A. AlfredoOur Motorsports
5 Chevrolet 200

+26.998

2:29'09.487

4.040 7  
16 R. SiegRSS Racing 39 Ford 200

+31.461

2:29'13.950

4.463 7  
17 A. AllmendingerKaulig Racing 16 Chevrolet 199

+1 Lap

2:28'44.735

1 Lap 7  
18 B. PooleAlpha Prime Racing 44 Chevrolet 199

+1 Lap

2:28'44.902

0.167 6  
19 R. EllisAlpha Prime Racing 43 Chevrolet 199

+1 Lap

2:28'49.949

5.047 7  
20 J. YeleySS-Green Light Racing 14 Ford 199

+1 Lap

2:28'50.945

0.996 7 17
21
P. RetzlaffJordan Anderson Racing
31 Chevrolet 199

+1 Lap

2:29'12.525

21.580 6  
22
S. SmithJR Motorsports
8 Chevrolet 199

+1 Lap

2:29'14.460

1.935 14  
23 J. BurtonJordan Anderson Racing 27 Chevrolet 198

+2 Laps

2:28'46.010

1 Lap 7  
24
K. SiegRSS Racing
28 Ford 198

+2 Laps

2:28'47.912

1.902 6  
25
L. HoneymanYoung's Motorsports
42 Chevrolet 198

+2 Laps

2:28'54.834

6.922 6  
26 K. WeathermanDGM Racing 91 Chevrolet 197

+3 Laps

2:28'44.005

1 Lap 7  
27 J. ClementsJeremy Clements Racing 51 Chevrolet 197

+3 Laps

2:28'57.595

13.590 9  
28
B. PerkinsRSS Racing
29 Ford 197

+3 Laps

2:29'13.299

15.704 6  
29 R. VargasMike Harmon Racing 74 Chevrolet 196

+4 Laps

2:28'53.978

1 Lap 7 8
30
E. PatrickSS-Green Light Racing
07 Chevrolet 196

+4 Laps

2:29'06.571

12.593 8 7
31
C. HeimSam Hunt Racing
26 Toyota 195

+5 Laps

2:28'47.526

1 Lap 7  
32 J. GaseJoey Gase Motorsports 35 Chevrolet 194

+6 Laps

2:27'23.357

1 Lap 9  
33
L. BeardenAM Racing
15 Ford 190

+10 Laps

2:29'03.299

4 Laps 11  
34
D. DyeKaulig Racing
10 Chevrolet 189

+11 Laps

2:28'48.744

1 Lap 7  
35
D. CramDGM Racing
92 Chevrolet 174

+26 Laps

2:16'52.818

15 Laps 8  
36 J. AllgaierJR Motorsports 7 Chevrolet 73

+127 Laps

1:04'45.196

101 Laps 6  
37
B. PerezAlpha Prime Racing
45 Chevrolet 61

+139 Laps

47'59.847

12 Laps 4 1
38
T. GrayJoe Gibbs Racing
19 Toyota 45

+155 Laps

31'21.879

16 Laps 3
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