For the second time in 2024, Aric Almirola celebrated with his family on the frontstretch at Martinsville Speedway.
Almirola led 150 laps — besting his total from April when he led 148 — in Saturday’s National Debt Relief 250, winning his third race in 13 starts over the course of the 2024 season. The win is the seventh of Almirola’s Xfinity Series career, and puts the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 into the Championship Four for the Xfinity Series Owners Championship.
“We had a good car here in the spring, and we made a few changes because I wasn’t totally happy with it,” Almirola told NBC Sports. “We showed up yesterday and we were awful. They (the No. 20 team) went to work last night and came up with a lot of changes to make to the car. It was so hooked up today, it was doing everything I wanted it to.”
“This is such a special place. This is by far my favorite racetrack.”
As Almirola celebrated, Cole Custer and Chandler Smith — who traded paint late in the race — exchanged pleasantries, with Smith initiating a fistfight that was quickly broken up.
