The NASCAR Xfinity Series headed to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the opening race of the Round of 8. The two favorites for the title, Justin Allgaier and Connor Zilisch, qualified on the front row, but Aric Almirola stole the show under the lights. Leading 107 of the 201 laps in this race, sweeping all the stages, and taking home the victory to earn the JGR 19 car a spot in the owners’ championship four at Phoenix. Meanwhile, Connor Zilisch further extended his top 5 streak record to 18 by finishing 2nd.
Justin Allgaier dominated the first half of the stage until a caution for debris came out. On the restart, Allgaier was not able to maintain the lead, losing it to Aric Almirola and falling back to 4th.
Connor Zilisch caught up to Almirola to challenge for the stage win, but Almirola maintained the race lead and even pulled away in the closing laps, capturing the stage 1 victory.
1st. Aric Almirola
2nd. Connor Zilisch (P)
3rd. Jesse Love (P)
4th. Justin Allgaier (P)
5th. Ryan Sieg
6th. Austin Hill
7th. Christian Eckes
8th. Sam Mayer (P)
9th. Taylor Gray
10th. Nick Sanchez
Aric Almirola dominated most of the stage and cruised to the stage 2 victory, sweeping the stages at Las Vegas. This stage was rather uneventful, with some passing midpack but no accidents or much battle up front, though Jesse Love’s long-run car tried to challenge Almirola on the final laps.
1st. Aric Almirola
2nd. Jesse Love (P)
3rd. Connor Zilisch (P)
4th. Justin Allgaier (P)
5th. Ryan Sieg
6th. Austin Hill
7th. Christian Eckes
8th. Sam Mayer (P)
9th. Corey Day
10th. Carson Kvapil (P)
The stage saw a fierce battle between Connor Zilisch and Aric Almirola for the race lead, a battle that nearly ended in a crash as Almirola hit the wall and made contact with Zilisch. Both of them kept it straight and had no issues afterwards.
Jesse Love took the lead with 59 laps to go, but Connor Zilisch took it back after a battle with around 30 to go. After Zilisch took the lead and pit stops cycled out, but it didn’t take long for a Thompson spin to bring out a caution that bunched everyone back up.
Zilisch maintained the lead while Jesse Love lost spots on pit road, giving the 2nd spot to Aric Almirola. In a restart with 23 to go, Aric Almirola and Zilisch once again battled for the lead, with Almirola able to hold on to it on the outside for a full lap, but Zilisch then pulled away.
In the closing laps, Aric Almirola was all over the bumper of Connor Zilisch, and after getting a huge run off of turn 2, he was side by side with the 88, but they nearly wrecked as they made contact entering turn 3. Almirola took the lead back from Zilisch with eight laps to go.
With 3 to go, Zilisch closed in again and set up a battle for the win, but couldn’t close the gap enough to attempt a pass, and Almirola pulled away with the lead to win the race at Vegas, his 3rd win of the season, locking the Joe Gibbs Racing car into the owner championship 4.
After the race, there was also a heated conversation on pit road between Jesse Love and Nick Sanchez. Love was not happy with the way he was raced.
1st. Connor Zilisch +82 Pts
2nd. Justin Allgaier +44 Pts
3rd. Jesse Love +20 Pts
4th. Sam Mayer +8 Pts
—- Cutline —-
5th. Brandon Jones -8 Pts
6th. Sheldon Creed -21 Pts
7th. Carson Kvapil -22 Pts
8th. Sammy Smith -24 Pts
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