Aric Almirola Dominates to a Win at Martinsville

After stepping away from full-time racing at the end of 2023, Aric Almirola reunited with Joe Gibbs Racing for a part-time schedule. He wanted to chase after a win that he worked hard for with the team, and the same car number. Almirola would finally claim that one win with JGR on Saturday night at Martinsville.

Back in 2007, Denny Hamlin was scheduled to run the NASCAR Xfinity Series (then the Busch Series) race at The Milwaukee Mile, but he was late getting to the track, so Aric Almirola started the race in the No. 20 that day, then Hamlin would take over during the race and go on to get the win. Almirola was credited with the win since he started the race, but he felt like that first career win was always tainted since he did not run the full race.

“Man, this is so awesome,” Almirola said. “To win for Joe Gibbs Racing. I’ve had an asterisk next to a win for Coach (Joe Gibbs) for 17 years, and this is so awesome to finally put a real win banner up inside the shop at Joe Gibbs Racing.”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you, Coach, for calling me and giving me this opportunity to have some fun and still scratch the itch of racing but still get to spend a lot of time with our family.”

Almirola led for 148 of the 251 laps but almost lost out on a win until getting some help from his teammate during the final restart. Almirola’s teammate, Sheldon Creed, went three-wide for the lead with Almirola and Sam Mayer. This allowed to slow down Mayer and Almirola to take the lead with two laps to go and take the checkered flag. 

“Man, those restarts here are just ruthless,” said Mayer after the race.

“Painful. Obviously, the 20 was really, really good today. It was good that I was able to keep up and be as fast as them and pass all those JGR cars there at the end and march up to the front. That’s the first time I’ve done that here…

“But at the end of the day, we needed a ‘W’, and I got one I feel like stolen from me there a little bit.”

Chandler Smith would end up in third, followed by Carson Kvapil who made his Xfinity debut, and Justin Allgaier came home in fifth. Sheldon Creed, Sammy Smith, Cole Custer, Jesse Love, and Josh Williams rounded out the top ten. Shane van Gisbergen would finish 11^th in his first Martinsville race. 

Aric Almirola also won the Dash 4 Cash bonus as the highest finisher among four eligible drivers. Since he is not racing in Texas next weekend, the four Dash 4 Cash drivers in Fort Worth are Sam Mayer, Chandler Smith, Justin Allgaier, and Sheldon Creed.