Almirola’s late race pass leads him to dominant Focused Health 302 victory, locks team into owners championship race

By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Eric Thompson (Shamboozled.com)

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Las Vegas-Aric Almirola has plenty of experience. This is one of the reasons he is perfect for a part-time seat in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. But it also turns out he’s very good at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the series. After all, he finished second in the spring race. 

However, he avenged the earlier second by being a spot better in Saturday’s Focused Health 302 and by winning dominantly. This victory is his 10th trip to victory lane in the series and his third of the season. 

With the victory, it locks the Joe Gibbs Racing 19 team into Phoenix with a chance to race for the owner’s championship.

“It’s amazing,” Almirola explained of the win and what it’s been like driving for JGR. “I talk about that a lot when I come in here and see you guys, but it is just the best.I mean, I love celebrating with my team.”

Almirola was the most dominant driver in the race as he led a race-high 107 laps over 4 spans. He also swept the stages. But in order to get the victory, he had to pass Connor Zlisch, who had taken the lead thanks to a key pit stop. 

Zilisch is now more than a race clear of the cut line at +82 above the cut line. 

“Yeah, it’s, it’s great to have an 82 point lead to the cut line,” Zilisch said. “It gives us not a lot of comfort, but definitely some comfort going into the next two races. If a guy that’s under the cut line wins a race, it can quickly change the playoff picture. So we got to keep our heads down and keep trying to score points.” 

The rookie phenom was unable to get to the left rear, where he had wanted to pack air on the spoiler to help make the pass. But he was unable to get there. 

“I was doing everything I could,” Zlisch explained. “I just knew that to pass him, I needed to get to his left rear and pack air, and I did everything I could. I just couldn’t quite get close enough.” 

Also in the picture throughout the whole day was Jesse Love, who finished 6th. The three were clearly the class of the field as they battled for the lead all day. But they also battled each other in a clean way throughout the day.

“Yeah, it was awesome to race those guys,” Almirola said. “I felt like stage one, my car was really good. I had what I needed. Stage Two, I was okay, but the two obviously had pace and was running me down at the end.So we needed to make an adjustment. We didn’t quite adjust enough, and we didn’t quite adjust enough. So  stage three, I took off okay, and was able to get back to the lead, but the longer I ran, just they were they were better on the long run, and that was really my strength in the spring race here, our car was really good on the long run, but I just took forever to get going on the short run.”

Finishing third was the March winner and defending series champion Justin Allgaier. He also had a good points day to get to +44 points above the cut line. 

In fourth was Corey Day. This was the best NASCAR National Series result for the California driver. He went from 12th to 4th over the final run after being in the top 10 for the entirety of the race after starting 19th. 

“I think I fired off after the green flag cycle a little tight,” Day said. “That was the first time we fired off in rubber all night. So, we picked it back up there on that caution, and I knew I’d fire off good kind of how I did the rest of the runs. But yeah, the seas parted for me there in (turns) 1 and 2. I don’t know what happened. Someone got together and everyone split, and I was able to turn the middle.”

It also helped that he had previous experience at Las Vegas after racing here in a truck in the same type of race that transitioned from day to night at the finish. 

“Yeah, it’s big,” Day added. “I think it starts in practice. You know, I was able to fire off my first lap of practice and kind of know what to expect. And we went to top of the board there for group one, and it’s a lot easier to get a really good read on your race car when you can fire off and get a, you know, really good read on your averages throughout practice. So, yeah, I feel like that helped a lot. The seat time and going back to places I’ve seen before is really nice for me. It’s just one less thing for me to think about, and it’s definitely paying off.” 

The series will be back in action next Saturday at Talledega in the second race in the round of 8.