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Almirola wins Martinsville Xfinity race; Smith punches Custer after the finish

Aric Almirola held off all challengers to win the pivotal cutoff race, denying Sammy Smith in second and Chandler Smith in third as they were attempting to win their way into the title-decider.

Almirola, who competes part-time in the Xfinity Series with Joe Gibbs Racing, now has three wins this year and seven in his career. S. Smith was within half a second of him at the very end, but just could not get close enough to make a real lunge.

"What an amazing race car," smiled Almirola, who locked the No. 2 JGR Toyota into the owner's Championship 4 via his race win.

For C. Smith, he was left fuming with season-long rival Cole Custer, who did advance and will have a shot to defend his 2023 Xfinity title. He had run down Custer and bumped him out of the way for the second position with about 30 laps left to go in the race. Just as Custer was preparing to return the favor, Brandon Jones went spinning and the caution flag flew. On the restart, Custer did ultimately move Smith in an aggressive bump-and-run that cost both drivers several spots.

Smith was able to rebound back to third, but it simply was not enough. Afterwards, he immediately confronted Custer on pit road. After a heated exchange, Smith attempted to punch Custer and the crews quickly intervened.

"Obviously he's not happy but at the end of the day, he's put us in the wall a few times this year and his mistakes caught up with him," said Custer. "He used the bumper on me, I used the bumper on him. What comes around goes around."

Speaking about the 'punch,' Custer had this reaction: "I can't even tell if he really punched me in the face. It was so soft."

While Custer is returning to the Cup Series in 2025, Smith has no ride at any level of the sport. This may have been his last shot at this level of the sport. He told The CW about the issues with Custer: "I was planning to do a lot more than that (punch him), to be completely frank. I was extremely pissed off. I gave him five laps before that caution came out, beat his bumper off. Never shipped him or anything like that."

But with Smith facing a must-win and time running out, he decided that time was up. "I finally pushed him up the track and went on our way. But I gave him a chance for five laps before that. Well, I think he was the first guy all day that chose the outside lane from third place so that's very interesting. He didn't even give me a chance to make the corner once we got to Turn 1."

Custer believes the two are now even, but Smith obviously disagrees. "He can think we're even and all, but he's got the one that has more stakes than I do next weekend as well."

The two Smiths were eliminated alongside Sam Mayer and Jesse Love. Custer will battle A.J. Allmendinger, Austin Hill, and Justin Allgaier for the championship at Phoenix.

Cla Driver # Manufacturer Laps Time Interval Pits Points
1 A. AlmirolaJoe Gibbs Racing 20 Toyota 250

2:11'30.319

  5 60
2
S. SmithJR Motorsports
8 Chevrolet 250

+0.587

2:11'30.906

0.587 6 45
3
C. SmithJoe Gibbs Racing
81 Toyota 250

+1.210

2:11'31.529

0.623 6 46
4 C. CusterStewart-Haas Racing 00 Ford 250

+3.169

2:11'33.488

1.959 6 46
5 J. AllgaierJR Motorsports 7 Chevrolet 250

+3.674

2:11'33.993

0.505 6 46
6 S. CreedJoe Gibbs Racing 18 Toyota 250

+4.121

2:11'34.440

0.447 6 41
7
A. AlfredoOur Motorsports
5 Chevrolet 250

+4.722

2:11'35.041

0.601 6 30
8 P. KligermanBig Machine Racing Team 48 Chevrolet 250

+6.319

2:11'36.638

1.597 6 29
9 J. BurtonJordan Anderson Racing 27 Chevrolet 250

+6.339

2:11'36.658

0.020 6 29
10 M. SniderDGM Racing 91 Chevrolet 250

+7.227

2:11'37.546

0.888 6 27
11 R. HerbstStewart-Haas Racing 98 Ford 250

+7.749

2:11'38.068

0.522 6 34
12
J. LoveRichard Childress Racing
2 Chevrolet 250

+9.480

2:11'39.799

1.731 7 31
13 B. PooleAlpha Prime Racing 44 Chevrolet 250

+9.670

2:11'39.989

0.190 6 25
14 A. HillRichard Childress Racing 21 Chevrolet 250

+10.548

2:11'40.867

0.878 7 23
15 R. SiegRSS Racing 28 Ford 250

+10.652

2:11'40.971

0.104 7 31
16 M. DiBenedettoRSS Racing 38 Ford 250

+11.038

2:11'41.357

0.386 7 21
17 J. WilliamsKaulig Racing 11 Chevrolet 250

+11.107

2:11'41.426

0.069 8 24
18 R. EllisAlpha Prime Racing 43 Chevrolet 250

+11.572

2:11'41.891

0.465 7 19
19
B. PerkinsRSS Racing
29 Ford 250

+12.062

2:11'42.381

0.490 6 18
20 D. LuptonAM Racing 15 Ford 250

+12.457

2:11'42.776

0.395 6 17
21
K. SiegRSS Racing
39 Ford 250

+12.967

2:11'43.286

0.510 8 16
22
M. MaggioJoey Gase Motorsports
53 Ford 250

+13.325

2:11'43.644

0.358 9  
23
E. PatrickSS-Green Light Racing
07 Chevrolet 250

+13.868

2:11'44.187

0.543 7 14
24
P. PardusPardus Racing Inc.
50 Chevrolet 250

+14.228

2:11'44.547

0.360 13 13
25
D. CramDGM Racing
92 Chevrolet 250

+15.501

2:11'45.820

1.273 11  
26
G. VanSS-Green Light Racing
14 Ford 250

+16.197

2:11'46.516

0.696 10 11
27 J. ClementsJeremy Clements Racing 51 Chevrolet 249

+1 Lap

2:11'32.261

1 Lap 7 10
28 S. van GisbergenKaulig Racing 97 Chevrolet 249

+1 Lap

2:11'49.482

17.221 9 9
29 B. JonesJR Motorsports 9 Chevrolet 234

+16 Laps

2:07'18.810

15 Laps 8 8
30
S. MayerJR Motorsports
1 Chevrolet 228

+22 Laps

2:00'53.756

6 Laps 6 7
31
B. PollardSam Hunt Racing
26 Toyota 223

+27 Laps

2:11'46.381

5 Laps 8 6
32 G. SmithleyAlpha Prime Racing 45 Chevrolet 205

+45 Laps

1:49'27.283

18 Laps 6 5
33
W. SawalichJoe Gibbs Racing
19 Toyota 164

+86 Laps

1:26'51.722

41 Laps 7  
34
L. BeardenMike Harmon Racing
74 Chevrolet 162

+88 Laps

1:25'26.581

2 Laps 7 3
35
L. HoneymanYoung's Motorsports
42 Chevrolet 56

+194 Laps

29'41.648

106 Laps 5 2
36
P. RetzlaffJordan Anderson Racing
31 Chevrolet 53

+197 Laps

27'18.375

3 Laps 3 1
37
C. WareJoey Gase Motorsports
35 Chevrolet 44

+206 Laps

2:10'43.697

9 Laps 10 1
38 A. AllmendingerKaulig Racing 16 Chevrolet 13

+237 Laps

5'17.496

31 Laps 3 1
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