Aric Almirola elected not to pit with 36 laps remaining and held on to win Friday night’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Food City 300 Playoff opener at Bristol Motor Speedway.
As the race leaders pitted for fresh tires after a caution flag with 39 laps remaining, Almirola elected not to pit his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and was able to hold off the drivers on fresher tires by .381 seconds over Sheldon Creed to capture his second victory of the Xfinity Series season and ninth of his career.
“Yeah, just tired of getting beat by those guys. I figured I would try my chances with the lead. They’ve been so fast, and the fire off so fast on new tires. I just didn’t think I could beat them straight up on new tires. It took me about 20 laps to get going. I thought my best chance was to stay out on old tires. Seth (Chavka, crew chief) and I watched the last two or three races here, and we saw where the 9 car, with Noah Gragson, won with like 100 laps on his tires, so I decided to stay out when they said pit.”
Almirola said.
“But in all seriousness, this has been a heavy week. I’ve thought a lot about that this week. I have incredible opportunity here to represent Young Life and so many kids that give their life to Jesus Christ because of Young Life. This race car has J.D. Gibbs name on it. J.D. played such a pivotal part in my life – not just my career, but my life. We’ve shared a lot of stories about J.D. over the years. This is just so cool to get this car to victory lane with his name on it. This is pretty awesome. I can’t wait to celebrate with my team, and my guys and family. I just want to make sure all of the praise and glory goes to God.” Almirola added.
Creed moved into second place on the final laps to capture another runner-up finish.
“I had to make it exciting at least. I kind of knew I wasn’t gonna get there. You’re not gonna spook Aric, but maybe if I could have got him to see me and lift, I don’t know. It was more for the show I guess, but I’m happy with a second and to come out plus on points, I’m just proud of everybody at Haas Factory and Ford, Roush Yates Engines, everybody back at the shop, Road Ranger, Pit Boss, Friends of Jaclyn, Haas Automation, Gene and Joe Custer – just appreciate everyone’s hard work.” Creed said.
Sam Mayer finished third, and Carson Kvapil finished in fourth.
“We were really solid today. I’m really proud of everybody at Haas Factory. This Audibel Ford Mustang was certainly as fast as Xfinity mobile, and we were just a little bit short. If we didn’t get that damage, I think we could have taken it to him, but the toe was knocked in a ton, so I just had no turn there at the end. At the end, I was just kind of holding on, but to hold on to what we had was really solid, so I’m really proud of these guys, and that’s the start of the playoffs you want.” Mayer said.
Connor Zilisch finished fifth and came up short while trying to become the first Xfinity series driver in history to win five consecutive races, but he did capture an Xfinity record of 15 consecutive top-five finishes.
“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.”
Polesitter Justin Allgaier finished sixth, Harrison Burton seventh, Christian Eckes eighth, Jeremy Clements ninth, and Brennan Poole rounded out the top 10 finishers.
Sammy Smith went to the garage early on lap 55, with an engine problem, and finished 37th and now sits 24 points below the cutoff line.
“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.”
After Bristol, Connor Zilisch holds a 32-point lead in the Xfinity series standings over Justin Allgaier, 50 points over Sam Mayer, 69 points over Carson Kvapil, and 76 points over Harrison Burton.
The race featured seven caution flags for 60 laps, and seven lead changes among six drivers.
Up Next:
The NASCAR Xfinity Series heads to Kansas Speedway for the Kansas Lottery 300 on Saturday, September 27th at 4:00 pm ET on CW Network.
Race Results
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
| Pos | St | No | Driver | Team | Laps | S1 | S2 | S3 | Points | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 19 | Aric Almirola (P) | Young Life Toyota | 300 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 52 | Running |
| 2 | 10 | 0 | Sheldon Creed (P) | Road Ranger Ford | 300 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 35 | Running |
| 3 | 2 | 41 | Sam Mayer (P) | Audibel Ford | 300 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 50 | Running |
| 4 | 11 | 1 | Carson Kvapil # (P) | Bass Pro Shops/Clarience Tech Chevrolet | 300 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 42 | Running |
| 5 | 4 | 88 | Connor Zilisch # (P) | WeatherTech Chevrolet | 300 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 52 | Running |
| 6 | 1 | 7 | Justin Allgaier (P) | BRANDT/Precision Build Chevrolet | 300 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 49 | Running |
| 7 | 7 | 25 | Harrison Burton (P) | AirBox Ford | 300 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 38 | Running |
| 8 | 12 | 16 | Christian Eckes # | Celsius Chevrolet | 300 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 29 | Running |
| 9 | 26 | 51 | Jeremy Clements | All South Electric Chevrolet | 300 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 28 | Running |
| 10 | 18 | 44 | Brennan Poole | Macc Door Systems Chevrolet | 300 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 29 | Running |
| 11 | 22 | 20 | Brandon Jones (P) | Menards/Tuscany Toyota | 300 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 26 | Running |
| 12 | 16 | 26 | Dean Thompson # | Thompson Pipe Group Toyota | 300 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 30 | Running |
| 13 | 20 | 48 | Nick Sanchez # (P) | Pickers Vodka Chevrolet | 300 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 25 | Running |
| 14 | 5 | 54 | Taylor Gray # (P) | Operation 300 Toyota | 300 | 9 | 7 | 0 | 29 | Running |
| 15 | 6 | 18 | William Sawalich # | Soundgear Toyota | 300 | 10 | 8 | 0 | 26 | Running |
| 16 | 15 | 4 | Parker Retzlaff | Overlook at Farm Meadows Chevrolet | 300 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21 | Running |
| 17 | 17 | 17 | Corey Day | HendrickCars.com Chevrolet | 300 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 | Running |
| 18 | 19 | 27 | Jeb Burton | AJ Transport Chevrolet | 300 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | Running |
| 19 | 21 | 21 | Austin Hill (P) | Bennett Transportation Chevrolet | 300 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 | Running |
| 20 | 28 | 11 | Brenden Queen(i) | Action Industries Chevrolet | 300 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Running |
| 21 | 30 | 28 | Kyle Sieg | Shannon Speck’s Electric Ford | 300 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16 | Running |
| 22 | 27 | 42 | Anthony Alfredo | Dude Wipes Chevrolet | 300 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | Running |
| 23 | 8 | 39 | Ryan Sieg | Sci Aps Ford | 299 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 18 | Running |
| 24 | 25 | 99 | Matt DiBenedetto | Viking Motorsports Chevrolet | 299 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | Running |
| 25 | 9 | 2 | Jesse Love (P) | Whelen Chevrolet | 299 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 18 | Running |
| 26 | 31 | 10 | Daniel Dye # | Champion Container Chevrolet | 299 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | Running |
| 27 | 24 | 24 | Jeffrey Earnhardt | ForeverLawn Toyota | 299 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | Running |
| 28 | 33 | 45 | Josh Williams | TruShine Car Wash Chevrolet | 298 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | Running |
| 29 | 32 | 91 | Josh Bilicki | Sugarlands Shine Chevrolet | 296 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | Running |
| 30 | 34 | 14 | Logan Bearden | T3 Vodka Chevrolet | 296 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | Running |
| 31 | 37 | 32 | Austin Green | 3Dimensional.com Chevrolet | 295 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | Running |
| 32 | 23 | 70 | Leland Honeyman | Ohio Logistics Chevrolet | 294 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | Running |
| 33 | 35 | 7 | Carson Ware | CreaBitty Chevrolet | 288 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | Running |
| 34 | 38 | 31 | Blaine Perkins | Warrior Health Foundation Chevrolet | 287 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | Running |
| 35 | 36 | 53 | Joey Gase | NFPA Chevrolet | 268 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | Axle |
| 36 | 13 | 35 | Stefan Parsons(i) | David’s Electric Chevrolet | 81 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Accident |
| 37 | 14 | 8 | Sammy Smith (P) | Pilot Chevrolet | 56 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Engine |
| 38 | 29 | 71 | Ryan Ellis | Anew Solutions Chevrolet | 55 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Oil Cooler |
NASCAR Xfinity Series Standings after Bristol
| Pos | Driver | No | Points | Behind | Next | Wins | Stage Wins | Playoff Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Connor Zilisch # (P) | 88 | 2116 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 10 | 65 |
| 2 | Justin Allgaier (P) | 7 | 2084 | -32 | 32 | 3 | 11 | 36 |
| 3 | Sam Mayer (P) | 41 | 2066 | -50 | 18 | 1 | 3 | 16 |
| 4 | Carson Kvapil # (P) | 1 | 2047 | -69 | 19 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| 5 | Harrison Burton (P) | 25 | 2040 | -76 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 6 | Brandon Jones (P) | 20 | 2039 | -77 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 13 |
| 7 | Sheldon Creed (P) | 0 | 2038 | -78 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 8 | Taylor Gray # (P) | 54 | 2034 | -82 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| 9 | Nick Sanchez # (P) | 48 | 2031 | -85 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| 10 | Jesse Love (P) | 2 | 2031 | -85 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 13 |
| 11 | Austin Hill (P) | 21 | 2018 | -98 | 13 | 3 | 6 | 0 |
| 12 | Sammy Smith (P) | 8 | 2010 | -106 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 9 |
