Aric Almirola has delivered an important win to Joe Gibbs Racing. He has captured the playoff race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and put the No. 19 team into the Championship 4.
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Almirola is not eligible for the driver's championship, but the team will compete for an owner's title in three weeks at Phoenix Raceway.
Connor Zilisch crossed the line second. Justin Allgaier, Corey Day, and Nick Sanchez delivered top-five finishes at the 1.5-mile Nevada track.
MORE: Almirola wins, full results
.@Aric_Almirola plays NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs spoiler once again, holding off Connor Zilisch to capture victory at @LVMotorSpeedway! pic.twitter.com/5Iynehz0V1
— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) October 12, 2025
The veteran driver delivered the win at a track where he made his Cup Series debut back in 2007. He dominated on Saturday night by leading a race-high 107 laps in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota GR Supra. He swept the first two stages while battling championship contenders.
Yet, Almirola didn't have a smooth path to the win. He had to deal with some handling issues during the final stage, especially on the last restart with 23 laps to go. Almirola fell to third with a tight race car, which forced him to work his way back up to the front of the pack.
Almirola navigated around Sanchez in the closing laps and then he began hounding Zilisch for the lead. He erased a deficit of 1 second while posting faster lap times in the middle lane of the track.
Zilisch struggled to hang on to the lead while dealing with handling issues of his own. His No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet was loose, which made it difficult for the championship leader to hold off Almirola.
The two drivers got side by side with nine laps remaining. They made contact, which got the No. 88 sideways. Zilisch avoided wrecking, but he lost the lead to Almirola. Once he fell to second place, he could not get back into a spot to attempt his own race-winning pass.
There's even more contact! @Aric_Almirola is back at the point! pic.twitter.com/Bph8ACdg2r
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) October 12, 2025
Almirola went on to score his third win of the season while Zilisch moved to 82 points above the Championship 4 cutline.
"I gave it my all," Zilisch told CW Sports after the race. "I drove as hard as I could, but I guess it's all we had today. I mean, I just got to do a better job. I just could not wrap the line. I sucked here in the spring for the same reason."
Zilisch missed out on an opportunity to lock into the Championship 4, so he will now pursue this objective once again next weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, the track where he suffered a back injury earlier this season.
