Aric Almirola hasn’t competed in a NASCAR Xfinity Series event at Bristol Motor Speedway in eight years (since 2017), but that lack of recent experience didn’t hinder the Tampa, Florida-native in Friday’s Food City 300.
The veteran driver out of the Joe Gibbs Racing stable was able to defend against a hard-charging Sheldon Creed in the closing laps of the 300-lap content, remaining steady for the final 40 laps of the race to collect his ninth win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
Sheldon Creed finished in the runner-up spot on Friday, his 15th second-place finish in the NASCAR Xfinity Series – which allows the Alpine, California-native to continue to extend upon his record of most runner-up finishes without a victory.
Sam Mayer, a teammate to Creed at Haas Factory Team, finished in third, while JR Motorsports teammates Carson Kvapil, Connor Zilisch, and Justin Allgaier finished fourth through sixth. With a fifth-place finish, Zilisch ties Sam Ard as the driver with the most consecutive top-fives in NASCAR Xfinity Series history.
Harrison Burton had a fantastic showing in seventh for AM Racing, while non-playoff drivers Christian Eckes, Jeremy Clements, and Brennan Poole completed the top-10.
The rest of the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff drivers that finished outside the top-10 include Brandon Jones (11th), Nick Sanchez (13th), Taylor Gray (14th), Austin Hill (19th), Jesse Love (25th), and Sammy Smith (37th).
Pos
#
Driver
Laps
Diff
1
19
Aric Almirola
300
2
00
Sheldon Creed (P)
300
0.381
3
41
Sam Mayer (P)
300
0.543
4
1
Carson Kvapil (P)
300
2.101
5
88
Connor Zilisch (P)
300
2.367
6
7
Justin Allgaier (P)
300
3.181
7
25
Harrison Burton (P)
300
3.244
8
16
Christian Eckes (P)
300
4.145
9
51
Jeremy Clements
300
4.251
10
44
Brennan Poole
300
4.629
11
20
Brandon Jones (P)
300
5.672
12
26
Dean Thompson
300
5.839
13
48
Nick Sanchez (P)
300
5.912
14
54
Taylor Gray (P)
300
6.059
15
18
William Sawalich
300
6.366
16
4
Parker Retzlaff
300
7.048
17
17
Corey Day
300
7.175
18
27
Jeb Burton
300
8.208
19
21
Austin Hill
300
8.387
20
11
Brenden Queen
300
8.471
21
28
Kyle Sieg
300
10.602
22
42
Anthony Alfredo
300
10.757
23
39
Ryan Sieg
299
1 lap
24
99
Matt DiBenedetto
299
1 lap
25
2
Jesse Love (P)
299
1 lap
26
10
Daniel Dye
299
1 lap
27
24
Jeffrey Earnhardt
299
1 lap
28
45
Josh Williams
298
2 laps
29
91
Josh Bilicki
296
4 laps
30
14
Logan Bearden
296
4 laps
31
32
Austin Green
295
5 laps
32
70
Leland Honeyman
294
6 laps
33
07
Carson Ware
288
12 laps
34
31
Blaine Perkins
287
13 laps
35
53
Joey Gase
268
32 laps
36
35
Stefan Parsons
81
219 laps
37
8
Sammy Smith (P)
56
244 laps
38
71
Ryan Ellis
55
245 laps
Recommended Articles: