September 12, 2025 | By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service

Almirola Wins Bristol Xfinity Playoff Opener on Bold Strategy

BRISTOL, Tenn.—Benefitting from a split-second late race strategy decision, veteran Aric Almirola held off a mightily-motivated field to claim the win in Friday night’s Food City 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff opener at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.

While running second to the series’ championship leader Connor Zilisch when a caution flag flew with 36 laps remaining, Almirola watched Zilisch pull onto pit road for fresh tires and instead of following him into the pits as his crew expected, Almirola abruptly pulled his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota back on track at the last moment.

He then had to out-run, out-maneuver and out-last the competition – several on fresher tires – in the closing laps to claim his second victory of the season and ninth of his career. A former fulltime NASCAR Cup Series driver who is now competing part-time in the Xfinity Series with Gibbs, Almirola ultimately beat Haas Factory Team driver Sheldon Creed to the checkered flag by .381-seconds – marking a series record 15th runner-up finish for Creed, who is still racing for his first career win.

“Just tired of getting beat by those guys, I figured I’d try my chances with the lead,” Almirola said of his race-winning pit strategy decision. “They’ve been so fast and they fire off so fast on new tires and I just didn’t think I could beat them straight up on new tires. It took me about 20 laps to get going so I thought my best chance was to stay out on old tires.

“We watched the last two or three races here and saw how the nine-car with [driver] Noah Gragson win with like a 100 laps on his tires,” added Almirola, whose No. 19 JGR Toyota is racing for the owner’s championship. “So, I decided to stay out when they said pit.”

Creed passed his Haas Factory Team teammate Sam Mayer with a lap remaining but was unable to catch up to Almirola. JR Motorsports driver Carson Kvapil finished fourth followed by his teammate Zilisch, who was trying to become the first driver in series history to win five consecutive races.

Zilisch’s fifth-place finish, however still resulted in a series record giving him 15 consecutive top-five showings. He has a series best nine victories on the season and maintains a 32-point advantage over another JR Motorsports teammate, Friday’s race pole sitter and reigning series champion Justin Allgaier, who finished sixth and earned a series best 11th stage win.

“It was a good day, just so hard those decisions at the end because whatever you do, everyone else is going to do the opposite,” the 19-year-old rookie Zilisch said. “We had a really good day with our WeatherTech Chevrolet, got further up above the [Playoff] cutoff line and we’ll move on to next week and keep on building.”

Harrison Burton, Christian Eckes, Jeremy Clements and Brennan Poole rounded out a top-10 that included three rookies. The top seven finishers were all Playoff drivers. Ten of the 12 Playoff competitors finished 14th or higher.

Sammy Smith, who went into the race ranked sixth in the Playoff standings took the biggest championship hit of the night. He suffered an early problem with his No. 8 JR Motorsports Chevrolet and had to retire to the garage only 55 laps into the race with an engine issue. He’s now ranked 12th – last among the Playoff contenders; 24 points below the cutoff line with two races remaining in this opening round.

“Unfortunate situation,” Smith said. “Very disappointed for the team. Worked so hard and to not really have a shot was frustrating. We’ll just have to do our best the next two weeks in the Playoffs and see.”

Beyond Zilisch and Allgaier, Mayer is now 50 points off the lead and Kvapil is 69 back. Burton, in fifth place, is now separated from 10th place Taylor Gray by only six points.

Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love and rookie Nick Sanchez are the first drivers below the cutoff line – both three points behind Gray. Love’s veteran teammate Austin Hill is 16 points back with Smith dropping into that 12th slot after round one of the seven race title run.

The series holds its second of the three opening round Playoff races on Sept. 27 at Kansas Speedway (4 p.m. ET on USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).  Almirola is the defending race winner.



NASCAR Xfinity Series Race Number 27
Race Results for the Food City 300 - Friday, September 12, 2025
Bristol Motor Speedway - Bristol, TN - 0.533 - Mile Concrete

Total Race Length - 300 Laps - 159.9 Miles

Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Friday, 9/12/2025 @ 09:51 PM Eastern

Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Stage 2 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 3 19 Aric Almirola (P) Young Life Toyota 300 6 4 52 Running 1 34 5
2 10 00 Sheldon Creed (P) Road Ranger Ford 300   35 Running  
3 2 41 Sam Mayer (P) Audibel Ford 300 4 2 50 Running 1 68
4 11 1 Carson Kvapil # (P) Bass Pro Shops/Clarience Tech Chevrolet 300 8 5 42 Running  
5 4 88 Connor Zilisch # (P) WeatherTech Chevrolet 300 2 1 52 Running 2 98 1
6 1 7 Justin Allgaier (P) BRANDT/Precision Build Chevrolet 300 1 3 49 Running 2 95 1
7 7 25 Harrison Burton (P) AirBox Ford 300 3  38 Running 1 4
8 12 16 Christian Eckes # Celsius Chevrolet 300   29 Running  
9 26 51 Jeremy Clements All South Electric Chevrolet 300   28 Running  
10 18 44 Brennan Poole Macc Door Systems Chevrolet 300  9 29 Running  
11 22 20 Brandon Jones (P) Menards/Tuscany Toyota 300   26 Running  
12 16 26 Dean Thompson # Thompson Pipe Group Toyota 300  6 30 Running  
13 20 48 Nick Sanchez # (P) Pickers Vodka Chevrolet 300  10 25 Running  
14 5 54 Taylor Gray # (P) Operation 300 Toyota 300 9 7 29 Running  
15 6 18 William Sawalich # Soundgear Toyota 300 10 8 26 Running  
16 15 4 Parker Retzlaff Overlook at Farm Meadows Chevrolet 300   21 Running  
17 17 17 Corey Day HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 300   20 Running  
18 19 27 Jeb Burton AJ Transport Chevrolet 300   19 Running  
19 21 21 Austin Hill (P) Bennett Transportation Chevrolet 300   18 Running  
20 28 11 Brenden Queen(i) Action Industries Chevrolet 300   0 Running  
21 30 28 Kyle Sieg Shannon Speck's Electric Ford 300   16 Running  
22 27 42 Anthony Alfredo Dude Wipes Chevrolet 300   15 Running  
23 8 39 Ryan Sieg Sci Aps Ford 299 7  18 Running  
24 25 99 Matt DiBenedetto Viking Motorsports Chevrolet 299   13 Running  
25 9 2 Jesse Love (P) Whelen Chevrolet 299 5  18 Running 1 1
26 31 10 Daniel Dye # Champion Container Chevrolet 299   11 Running  
27 24 24 Jeffrey Earnhardt ForeverLawn Toyota 299   10 Running  
28 33 45 Josh Williams TruShine Car Wash Chevrolet 298   9 Running  
29 32 91 Josh Bilicki Sugarlands Shine Chevrolet 296   8 Running  
30 34 14 Logan Bearden T3 Vodka Chevrolet 296   7 Running  
31 37 32 Austin Green 3Dimensional.com Chevrolet 295   6 Running  
32 23 70 Leland Honeyman Ohio Logistics Chevrolet 294   5 Running  
33 35 07 Carson Ware CreaBitty Chevrolet 288   4 Running  
34 38 31 Blaine Perkins Warrior Health Foundation Chevrolet 287   3 Running  
35 36 53 Joey Gase NFPA Chevrolet 268   2 Axle  
36 13 35 Stefan Parsons(i) David's Electric Chevrolet 81   0 Accident  
37 14 8 Sammy Smith (P) Pilot Chevrolet 56   1 Engine  
38 29 71 Ryan Ellis Anew Solutions Chevrolet 55   1 Oil Cooler  

Fastest Lap Bonus:  # 88 lap 186 / 16.024
88                                                                   

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 0 Mins, 8 Secs. Average Speed: 79.861 MPH Margin of Victory: 0.381 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 7, 88, 25, 41, 2, 19, 39, 1, 54, 18
Stage 2 Top 10: 88, 41, 7, 19, 1, 26, 54, 18, 44, 48

Race Comments: Aric Almirola has won the Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway, his ninth victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Prior to the start of the race, the following vehicle(s) dropped to the rear of the field under penalty for the reason indicated: No. 14, 31, 99 (Unapproved Adjustments).

Failed to Qualify: None.

Caution Flags: 7 for 60 laps; Laps: 12-17 (#28, 70, 71 Incident Frontstretch [None]); 77-83 (#2, 17, 35 Incident Turn 2 [42]); 87-98 (Stage 1 Conclusion [91]); 172-184 (Stage 2 Conclusion [42]); 211-218 (#10 Spin Turn 2 [28]); 264-270 (#07, 41 Incident Turn 1 [28]); 276-282 (#54, 25, 27, 42, 16 Incident Frontstretch [17]).

Lead Changes: 7 among 6 drivers; J. Allgaier (P) 1-78; C. Zilisch # (P) 79; H. Burton (P) 80-83; J. Love (P) 84; J. Allgaier (P) 85-101; S. Mayer (P) 102-169; C. Zilisch # (P) 170-266; A. Almirola (P) 267-300.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

Next Race: September 27, 2025 - Kansas Speedway

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CURRENT NASCAR XFINITY SERIES PLAYOFF STANDINGS

POS NO. DRIVER MFR +/-

1 88 Connor Zilisch Chevrolet +85
2 7 Justin Allgaier Chevrolet +53
3 41Sam Mayer Ford +35
4 1 Carson Kvapil Chevrolet +16
5 25 Harrison Burton Ford +9
6 20 Brandon Jones Toyota +8
7 00 Sheldon Creed Ford +7
8 54Taylor Gray Toyota +3

CUTOFF LINE - 4 DRIVERS ELIMINATED AFTER THE CHARLOTTE ROVAL (OCT. 4)

9 48 NicholasSanchez Chevrolet -3
10 2 Jesse Love Chevrolet -3
11 21 Austin Hill Chevrolet -16
12 8 Sammy Smith Chevrolet -24