Late caution allows Almirola to get track position and hold off road course aces Allmendinger and Larson to win DoorDash 250
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Eric Thompson (Shamboozled.com)
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
SONOMA-Sports have a way of shocking you no matter what it is or how long you’ve been watching.
That shock came with just 17 laps to go when the No. 45 car of Jefferey Earnhardt spun in the esses causing a late caution. All of this buried Kyle Larson who had the most dominant car all day in the middle of the field, something he hadn’t done all day.
It also gave Aric Almirola the lead on older tires. He was able to hold off a hard-charging Larson and AJ Allmendinger for the final seven circuits to win the DoorDash 250, which was the NASCAR Xfinity Race ever at Sonoma Raceway.
“We both at one point hit the tire barrier,” Allmendinger said of the incident with Larson at turn 11. “There’s a lot of grip right it gets the tire barriers down there and if you can hit it right, you really make up some time. But I caught it a little bit and when he caught it it looked like I thought it broke the right front it looked like it knocked the steering wheel out of his hands because he I mean, he made a hard left so you know and that’s that’s all credit to Aric for, for trying to force us into mistakes.”
In those final few laps, Larson and Allmendinger were battling hard off of turn 11. Then, Larson was forced into the wall which caused him to lose his speed and handling.
The incident also made it so Allmendinger could hold off Larson, something he had been unable to do all day long.
“Just choked up the left lane and had me in kind of a bad spot and I lost the spot to Aric and Aj and just had to work from there,” Larson said of the incident at turn 11 that caused him the lose the spot and become a non-factor at the end of the race. “But I still had a great shot to win there I just got a little too greedy.”
In the race, Almirola twice for just 17 laps. This is also the first win for RSS Racing in their time in the Xfinity Series. That locks them into the owners’ NASCAR Xfinity playoffs as well.
“Yeah, it’s huge for a race team like that,” Almirola explained. “What it does for them and the points and the owners’ points and what it does, you know, for their organization is huge.”
The win is also Almirola’s fourth in 104 NASCAR Xfinity Series starts. This was his second start this year after running at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas back in March.
Allmendinger was solid all day long but lacked the speed needed to win. In the race, he led twice for a total of 2 laps.
“We just weren’t good enough,” Allmendinger added. “We weren’t good enough all weekend. You know, I was pushing hard and you know, this place is real difficult. There’s a fine line of pushing too hard and using your stuff up and then getting into a rhythm there.”
Larson finished in third and led a race-high 53 laps at his home race track. At one point, Larson held a 13-second advantage over second place before the caution came out.
Ty Gibbs finished fourth and Parker Kligerman was fifth as the first NASCAR Xfinity Series regular in the field.
Leaving Sonoma, John Hunter Nemechek holds the points lead by 4 points over Austin Hill. The NASCAR Xfinity Series will now take a week off before going to Nashville Superspeedway on June 24th.
