Lining Them Up
The weather was cold and the coats came out on the east coast. Brandon Jones qualified on the pole for the Dude Wipes 250 in Martinsville, Virginia. Cole Custer also qualified on the front row. Sheldon Creed, Jeb Burton, and Justin Allgaier rounded out the top five.
Additionally, Aric Almirola started in sixth, Jesse Love in 11th, Matt DiBenedetto in 14th.
Last week’s winner at Richmond Raceway, Chandler Smith, started way back in 37th after hitting the wall in practice.
To make things more interesting, the Dash 4 Cash returned at Martinsville with Aric Almirola, Jesse Love, Parker Kligerman, and Chandler Smith running for an extra $100,000.
Despite their qualifying efforts, Jones and Allgaier were sent to the rear before the race for unapproved adjustments. The first two stages were 60 laps, and the last stage was 130 laps.
Continued Speed
Custer took the lead into turn three, but Kligerman got stuck on the outside and lost many spots early. Almirola continued his speed from last week as he made moves to start the race.
The first caution came out for Dexter Bean. He got help from Garrett Smithley who got pushed up the track from a dive bomb by Sammy Smith.
Custer, Creed, and Almirola restarted the race from the front three spots. Almirola took second from Creed. Meanwhile, Sam Mayer and Anthony Alfredo battled for fifth with Mayer ultimately taking the spot.
Allgaier and C. Smith sliced through the field after starting from the rear. Almirola caught up to Custer and used his experience to get past him for the lead. Hailie Deegan brought out the caution off of the nose of Brennan Poole. Deegan pinched Poole a bit which caused him to shoot up the turn.
All of the JR Motorsports’ cars dove onto pit road for tires and fuel. Almirola and Custer restarted again on the front row while Creed passed Custer for second.
Burton and Alfredo got together fighting for the sixth position. Alfredo was able to gather it up and get by Burton. Creed tried his best but could not get past Almirola who won the stage.
Destruction
As the JRM cars pitted mid-way through stage one, they resumed the lead for stage two. A huge pileup right at the restart brought out the caution. AJ Allmendinger, Leland Honeyman, Jeremy Clements, Parker Retzlaff, and Dawson Cram stacked up. After chaos ensued, the red flag was brought out to clean the track.
S. Smith and Mayer restarted the race and Smith charged out in front.
Custer got stuck on the outside and lost several spots. Then, Kligerman cut a left front tire which brought out the next caution. He went a lap down in the pits.
S. Smith strong armed the lead back upon the restart. However, Mayer slipped a bit and got knocked out of the groove. He fell to ninth. Carson Kvapil, in his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut, battled with Creed for fourth. Allgaier made his way through the field with ease and took the lead with with eight to go in the stage. Allgaier looked much faster, and S. Smith gave up the lead. C. Smith made up a lot of ground and moved into eighth. Almirola passed Smith and surged into second. Allgaier was able to build a gap on Almirola and won stage two.
Stage 3
Almirola was the first driver off of pit road and reclaimed the lead. He was able to scoot away on the restart. Shane Van Gisbergen got physical with Burton and the contact pushed him out of the groove. C. Smith gave his teammate, Creed, some bumper but to no avail.
While all this was going down, Almirola drove away to a second gap. C. Smith, after many attempts, got around Creed. Meanwhile, Allgaier passed Jones for fifth.
Riley Herbst showed speed. While he sat in eighth, he was running laps matching the leaders speed.
With 80 laps to go in the stage, the caution came out for debris on the track. Everyone came down pit road to get tires after about 50 laps on the old set. Almirola, Creed, Custer, C. Smith, and Allgaier come out in the top five off of pit road. Kligerman was out of tires so he was forced to assume the lead by not going into the pits. He did a great job on launch but Almirola took back the lead.
Cautions Continue
C. Smith shoved Custer into the wall and scampered off, but then the caution came out for Smithley.
C. Smith was able to get into the front row on the choose cone before the restart to line up alongside Almirola. After battling for several laps, Almirola was able to get past C. Smith. Creed was able to get by C. Smith as well. He showed Creed the bumper by moving him out of the way for the pass.
Mayer jumped on the chance and passed Creed as well. With the battle going on for second, Almirola drove off to a more than two second lead.
Then the ninth yellow of the night came out – this time for Ryan Sieg. Almirola chose the top lane on the restart with Smith underneath him and they both had a great restart. C. Smith passed Almirola on the inside lane, but Almirola shoved him out of the way for the lead.
Mayer moved Almirola out of the way for the lead. Then the tenth caution came out for a pile up on the front stretch and Burton’s car was totaled in the crash.
Overtime in Martinsville
Mayer and Almirola restarted on the front row. Creed forced his way into a three-wide situation, but Almirola got into the lead. The white flag waved and caution came out as Herbst spinning. With that, Almirola won in Martinsville!
