Part-timer Aric Almirola isn’t eligible to win the Xfinity Series driver’s championship, but he will be racing for a title at Phoenix after winning the Martinsville grandfather’s clock on Saturday night.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver secured a spot in the owners Championship 4 for the No. 20 car, which has been shared with a roster of drivers this year.
Almirola has been the exclusive driver in the playoffs and the Martinsville win was his second at the track this year and third of the season.
The 40-year-old made it look easy by sweeping all three stages and spoiling any win-and-your-in chances for his competitors chasing the driver’s championship.
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That includes Chandler Smith who finished third and ended up missing out on the Championship 4 after scuffling with Cole Custer in the third stage.
Smith pulled a bump-and-run pass on a slower Custer on lap 220 in an effort to chase down Almirola in the 250-lap race, but Custer returned the favor after a lap 227 restart and essentially took him out of contention for the win.
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After the race, Custer suggested it was also payback for similar run-ins earlier this season and the defending Xfinity Series champion showed little regret.
“Obviously, he wasn’t happy, but what goes around comes around,” Custer said. “He put us in the wall a few times this year. He used the bump-and-run on me. I used the bump-and-run on him.”
Having been denied a shot at the championship, Smith confronted Custer and took a swing at him on live TV.
“I was planning to do a lot more than that, to be completely frank with you,” Smith said in his post-race interview.
“I was extremely pissed off. I gave him five laps before that caution came out. I beat his bumper off and never shipped him or anything. The laps were winding down, and I was in a must-win. The 20 started to drive away — he was really good all day — I can’t waste any more time with him.”
The drivers that made it to the Championship 4 are Austin Hill and A.J. Almmendingrer — who won at Homestead-Miami and Charlotte, respectively — Custer and Justin Allgaier.