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.