SONOMA, Calif. (AP) — Aric Almirola won the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ inaugural race at Sonoma Raceway on Saturday night, capitalizing on a late restart and an even later mistake by Kyle Larson.
Almirola drove his Ford to the first-ever victory for RSS Racing, his first career road course victory, his fourth career Xfinity victory and his first in the series since 2017. RSS Racing has a partnership with Stewart-Haas Racing.
“It’s been a really tough year on the Cup side, and to come out here and get to celebrate with my kids, that is so special,” Almirola said. “So excited to share this Victory Lane here.”
A.J. Allmendinger finished second ahead of Larson, who had dominated the entire Xfinity weekend until Almirola snatched the victory in the series’ first race on this winding, hilly course at the base of Northern California wine country.
Larson dominated practice and qualifying for the race on the NASCAR track closest to his hometown in the Sacramento suburbs. His best practice time was more than a second faster than the rest of the field, and he comfortably won the pole Saturday.
Larson led 39 of the 45 laps in the first two stages, and he was running a full 13.5 seconds ahead of Allmendinger when a caution came out with 19 laps to go for Jeffrey Earnhardt, who badly missed the entry to Turn 10. Larson restarted in third, got around Allmendinger and spent several laps on Almirola’s bumper.
But Larson made a major mistake on Sonoma’s big hairpin with seven laps to go. He clipped a tire barrier and badly missed the turn because the steering was briefly knocked out of his hands, falling back into third and creating an insurmountable deficit.
“I just got too greedy,” said Larson, who led 53 of the 79 laps overall. “I was really tight on the lefts and really loose on the rights. … (RSS Racing) really deserves a win, but we all found a way to lose. Just bummed and mad at myself.”
Almirola, Allmendinger and Larson are three of the eight Cup Series drivers who ran the Sonoma Xfinty race.
Ty Gibbs finished fourth and Parker Kligerman was fifth. Series points leader John Hunter Nemechek finished 16th.
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