Aric Almirola stone cold in Sonoma stunner

Kyle Larson is one of the best drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series and motorsport in general, as well as a former Cup winner at Sonoma Raceway. It was not surprising that he would dominate the lower Xfinity Series‘ inaugural trip to his home circuit on Saturday, crushing the field in practice and qualifying before leading the bulk of the race.

What was surprising, however, was that a late restart and rare stumble would do in his hopes of completing the daily sweep. Instead, Aric Almirola was the Cup driver in Victory Lane.

Larson led 53 of 80 laps ad swept both stages, asserting his dominance in such convincing fashion that he was leading the field by over thirteen seconds. Jeffrey Earnhardt‘s crash with fifteen laps remaining set up a restart for which Larson began in the second row behind Alex Labbé and Daniel Suárez, who elected not to pit. While the front row sparred with Almirola, Larson got caught up in a battle for third with A.J. Allmendinger before Larson clipped a stack of tyres in the final hairpin.

With his Cup colleagues fighting each other, Almirola drove off to his fourth career Xfinity win and first in any national series on a road course. The win was also the first for RSS Racing.

“This is so special. It’s hard to explain,” said Almirola. “I know it’s an Xfinity win. It’s not a Cup win, but after COTA, I told Davin (Restivo, Cup engineer) and Drew (Blickensderfer, crew chief), I was like, ‘I really don’t think I should run any more road course races in the Xfinity car. It makes me look like a wanker and I lose self-confidence going into Sunday.’

“But I knew that this race track, this is one I can run good at. I’ve run good here my whole career. I don’t know what it is about this place, but I love racing here.”

Even if in a lower series, Almirola hopes the victory can help turn his fortunes around on the Cup side. Since deciding to put off his retirement plans at the end of 2022, he has endured a difficult 2023 campaign with just one top ten and sitting twenty-fifth in points.

“It’s been a really tough year on the Cup side and to come out here and get a win and get to celebrate,” he continued. “My kids came out. We’re going to spend the week in California for our off week and they’re going to get to go to Victory Lane. That is so special. The pictures we have at home with our family in Victory Lane mean the most to me, so I’m so excited to share this Victory Lane here.”

With Ty Gibbs in fourth, the top four were all Cup regulars.

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