Aric Almirola‘s victory Saturday at Martinsville Speedway helped nab Cole Custer a shot on the Xfinity Sequence championship after a heated race which will have earned the defending champion enemies in subsequent week’s finale.
Almirola is operating a part-time schedule for Joe Gibbs Racing so he wasn’t playoff eligible. AJ Allmendinger and Austin Hill had already certified for the playoffs, so there have been two open slots for six drivers.
The win by Almirola, his third of the season, allowed the ultimate two slots within the championship race to be selected factors. Almirola, over a closing 16-lap dash to the end, needed to maintain off each Sammy Smith and Chandler Smith, both of whom would have made subsequent Saturday’s title-decider at Phoenix Raceway with a win at Martinsville.
“Wow. What a tremendous race automobile,” Almirola mentioned. “It was so connected. It might simply do every part I wished it to. That is such a particular place. That is by far my favourite racetrack.
“We’re going to go race for an homeowners’ championship in Phoenix.”
Within the driver championship, the ultimate two spots went to Custer, the reigning Xfinity Sequence champion, who completed fourth, and Justin Allgaier, who completed fifth.
Chandler Smith and Custer had battled for place late within the race in a manner that infuriated Smith and induced him to confront Custer after. The heated confrontation led to Smith throwing a punch at Custer.
Custer mentioned the 2 have been feuding a lot of the season, whereas Smith intimated he’ll race Custer laborious subsequent Saturday.
“I am in a must-win scenario. He was not at that second, and he did not even attempt to make the nook,” Chandler Smith mentioned. “Granted I moved him the lap earlier than, however I am beating his bumper off for the 5 laps earlier than that. I gave him grace, earlier than I lastly shipped him, after which he does not even attempt to give me an opportunity going into flip one. It’s what it’s.”
It wasn’t Custer’s solely dust-up of the race: Custer tangled early with Allmendinger and it ended with Allmendinger crashed.
The 2 have been racing simply 12 laps into the race and Custer was making an attempt to get previous Allmendinger. Custer gave him a shove that wiggled him out of line. Allmendinger then tried to power his manner again to the underside of the monitor. He ended up crashing.
“I needed to go, he wasn’t going to take it, took himself out,” Custer mentioned on the radio.
Allmendinger, like Chandler Smith, appeared displeased with Custer.
“Cannot wait to get to Phoenix,” was Allmendinger’s terse response to the incident.
And, when informed that Custer had mentioned Allmendinger wrecked himself, Allmendinger once more deflected.
“We will go win a championship, so that is the mindset,” Allmendinger mentioned. “It is all good.”
The Related Press contributed to this story.
