Aric Almirola triumphs in Las Vegas, punches No.19 JGR team’s ticket to the Phoenix finale

Aric Almirola held off a charging Connor Zilisch and won the Focused Health 302 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The result makes the part-time JGR driver eligible for the owner's championship at Phoenix Raceway.

Almirola began on the second row and led a race-high 107 laps to clinch Saturday's Xfinity Series race. Much of his competition came from Connor Zilisch, who began ahead of him and went on to lead 34 laps of his own.

Nonetheless, Almirola swept both stages and overcame the 19-year-old with ten laps to go. They even made mild contact on the closing laps.

NASCAR reporter John Newby reported on the result and wrote,

"Aric Almirola wins the Las Vegas Xfinity Series race. The No. 19 will compete for the Owner's Championship at Phoenix."

The result marks Aric Almirola's third win after 14 starts this season, as well as his tenth career win in the Xfinity Series. He previously finished runner-up in the spring race at Las Vegas.

JR Motorsports currently leads the owner's championship with 14 combined wins coming from Connor Zilisch's No.88 team and Justin Allgaier's No.7 team. Richard Childress Racing trails them at third with Austin Hill's three wins this season.

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Aric Almirola details his fight with Connor Zilisch

In a post-race interview with CW Sports, Aric Almirola went over his intense battle with Connor Zilisch during the closing laps. The No.19 driver noted that he had to manage handling issues in the final stage.

"I'm having so much fun. This is the time of my life," he said," man, so our car was good. Our car was really good. But the longer I ran, the tighter I got and I was just struggling on that long run in the beginning of stage three and finally that restart there. I just took off incredibly tight and I couldn't get going." "The 48 kind of slowed my momentum down and finally I got clear of him and was able to go chase the 88 down. He looked pretty loose and I was able to capitalize on that," he added.

Aric Almirola's post-race interview at Las Vegas. Source:@X/TheCWSports

Aric Almirola began his win counter at Phoenix Raceway, which gives him solid odds for the championship finale. The 41-year-old later suffered a heavy blow from an intentional wreck caused by Austin Hill at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He found the hit comparable to his 2017 crash that left him with a back injury. That incident had sidelined him for eight weeks, following which Almirola decided to retire from full-time racing.

This time around, the JGR driver returned to action at Daytona International Speedway and recorded a mid-pack finish, but his playoff race at Bristol saw him retain the top step.

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Edited by Vignesh Kanna