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Justin Allgaier holds off Aric Almirola to win Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas
NASCAR Cup Series driver Justin Allgaier. Peter Casey-Imagn Images

Justin Allgaier holds off Aric Almirola to win Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas

A week after Justin Allgaier lost in heartbreaking fashion at Phoenix Raceway, the defending Xfinity Series champion held off Aric Almirola to win his first race of 2025 and the 26th of his Xfinity Series career. 

Almirola got the deficit to Allgaier down to as little as two-tenths of a second in the closing laps, but a bobble from Almirola with four laps to go was enough for Allgaier to pull away. 

The victory ensures that Allgaier will return to the Xfinity Series playoffs in 2025, and marks his ninth consecutive season with at least one Xfinity Series victory. The win is also the 90th for Jr Motorsports in Xfinity Series competition. 

"It feels amazing," Allgaier told CW Sports. "Aric and I were going at it, he ran a heck of a race. (I've) been lucky to win a lot of races in my career, and this one means a lot because I feel like we've been so close (recently)."

Almirola, Jesse Love, Austin Hill and Sam Mayer rounded out the top-five, with Brandon Jones, Ryan Sieg, Harrison Burton, Connor Zilisch and Sheldon Creed completing the top-10. 

Other notable finishers in Saturday's race include polesitter Sammy Smith in 14th, Carson Kvapil in 17th, Taylor Gray in 19th, Jeb Burton in 23rd and William Sawalich in 38th. 

The sixth race of the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series season will take place on March 22 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The Hard Rock Bet 300 will go green shortly after 4 p.m. ET on March 22, with coverage on the CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. 

Samuel Stubbs

Hailing from the same neck of the woods as NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin, Samuel has been covering NASCAR for Yardbarker since February 2024. He has been a member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) since October of 2024. When he’s not writing about racing, Samuel covers Arkansas Razorback basketball for Yardbarker

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