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Aric Almirola Survives Overtime At Martinsville To Secure Win And $100K Dash 4 Cash Bonus

by Hunter Thomas April 6, 2024 1 comment

RIDGEWAY, Va. – Aric Almirola dominated the DUDE Wipes 250 at Martinsville Speedway and secured his fifth NASCAR Xfinity Series victory and the $100K Dash 4 Cash bonus in NASCAR Overtime.

Almirola was the class of the field all race long, winning Stage 1 and finishing second in Stage 2. The driver of the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 He Gets Us Toyota led a race high 148 laps, but when contact between Ryan Ellis, Jeb Burton and Myatt Snider clogged up the exit of Turn 4, Almirola was forced to defend his day’s performance with a three-lap shootout.

“The handling of our car went away,” Almirola said. “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.”

On the final restart of the night, Almirola shared the front row with Sam Mayer, who restarted on the bottom side. Sheldon Creed moved Mayer up the track and attempted to make a three-wide effort for the lead with Almirola on the high side. The Hail Mary move didn’t work out for Creed, and it slowed Mayer down tremendously, allowing Almirola to take a commanding lead. After the field took the white flag, the caution came out, and Almirola was declared the race winner.

“Everybody just automatically assumes that you are going to win,” Almirola said. “With all the experience in Cup, and going to Xfinity, everybody assumes – Cup veteran, getting in the best cars in the garage – he’s going to win. That is a lot of pressure, so just thankful to be able to do that and kind of get that checkmark, and to be able to do it at Martinsville – a place I absolutely love.”

JR Motorsports’ Mayer held on to finish second despite heavy pressure from behind. The runner-up finish surprisingly marks Mayer’s first top-five finish of the season. The effort is a sigh of relief after coming off a disappointing 30^th at Richmond Raceway.

Chadler Smith piloted his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 81 Wheelers Toyota to a third-place finish after starting the race in 37^th. Smith entered the night coming off a victory at Richmond. Smith has now finished inside of the top-five in all of the races this season except for the race at Circuit of the Americas. He has a commanding 35-point lead over Cole Custer in the standings.

“It was really wild,” Smith said. “I definitely had the good Lord looking down on me tonight – just helping me guide through all of that traffic there. There was a point with that big pileup where the 9 (Brandon Jones) missed a shift – I was going to take the top, and I ended up taking the bottom and that could have ended our night right there. Just really, really proud of everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing. All of the men and women that put this thing back together last night working through the hours of the night.”

In his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut, Carson Kvapil finished fourth. Justin Allgaier rounded out the top-five. Completing the top-10 was Creed, Sammy Smith, Custer, Jesse Love and Josh Williams. New Zealand native, Shane van Gisbergen finished 11^th.

The caution flew on 11 occasions for 68 laps. The largest crash of the night occurred on the Stage 2 restart, when Brandon Jones missed a shift. The field stacked up and before it was all over, 14 drivers piled up in Turn 1.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series will visit Texas Motor Speedway for the Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 on Saturday, April 13. Live coverage will broadcast on FS1 at 1:30 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Hunter Thomas/TheFourthTurn.com