Thrilling Overtime: Aric Almirola’s Dominance at Martinsville Speedway

Aric Almirola’s dominance was evident at Martinsville Speedway as he won Saturday night’s Xfinity Series race after a dramatic overtime restart. He also secured the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus. Sam Mayer finished second in what was a season-best performance for him, while points leader Chandler Smith impressed by coming from starting 37th to finish third. Carson Kvapil, making his Xfinity debut with JR Motorsports, finished in fourth place, and Justin Allgaier completed the top five.

Throughout the race, Almirola led for 148 of the 251 laps but lost the lead to Mayer with seven laps remaining. However, a caution resulted in a thrilling overtime finish. On the final restart from the outside front row, Almirola managed to regain the lead and pull away to claim his fifth career Xfinity Series victory. The Dash 4 Cash drivers eligible for a $100,000 bonus at Texas next week are Mayer, Smith, Allgaier, and Creed.

One standout performance was Chandler Smith’s third-place finish which gave him an impressive average finish of 3.28 through seven races. This ties him for the second-best finish in series history. Additionally, JR Motorsports had a strong showing by placing three drivers in the top five: Sam Mayer who finished second, Carson Kvapil who came in fourth and Justin Allgaier who completed fifth respectively. Josh Williams also had a good night by finishing tenth for his first top ten with Kaulig Racing.

On the other hand, some drivers encountered difficulties during the race including Brandon Jones who missed a shift on a restart at the beginning of the second stage causing a pile-up that damaged several cars including Austin Hill’s car among others. Hill and Parker Retzlaff were eliminated due to this incident while Corey Heim and AJ Allmendinger sustained damage but were able to continue racing