Devon HenryOvertime teed up a thriller of a finish for the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Phoenix Raceway. A four-wide battle through the Phoenix dogleg at the restart with two go saw Tucson native, Alex Bowman, emerge with the lead at his home state track.
In the final lap, former Cup Series driver, Aric Almirola, hunted down the Arizona native and slammed both of the cars into the wall off of turn four. As Bowman was stuck between the wall and the Joe Gibbs Racing machine, Almirola was able to leave Bowman behind and sprint to the line for the checkered flag
At a margin of just .045-seconds, the race will sit in the record books as the second-closest finish in Phoenix Raceway history. Almirola’s victory marks the eighth career Xfinity Series win for the part-time driver who retired from the NASCAR Cup Series two seasons ago.
“I just knew I needed to get from there to here first,” Almirola said, standing by his car at the start-finish line. “I knew I was going to use him up a little bit, but was trying to win the race. I feel like it was warranted. I didn’t feel like I did anything overly egregious. I just throttled up, and it was a drag race to the start-finish line.”
Aric Almirola passes Alex Bowman at the line to win the #GOVX200!!!@ShopGOVX pic.twitter.com/bEjSopgaa4
— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) March 9, 2025
Bowman, the full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver for the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48, was driving the Hendrick No. 17 in his first Xfinity start of the year. After claiming the pole at his home track, the 31-year-old led the first 70 laps of the race, claimed the opening stage of the race, and nearly became the first Arizonan to win a NASCAR at the Grand Canyon State. After the race, he expressed frustration over the last moment contact between his Chevrolet and Almirola’s Toyota.
“I would have hoped he would have given me a lane on exit,” said Bowman. “He just exited like I wasn’t there. He was better than us for sure, but I was just trying to capitalize on that restart and try to win the race. I got shoved into the fence, and the race car is destroyed. Bummer for that, but hats off to the HendrickCars.com crew.”
Brandon Jones came home in third with Ryan Sieg claiming an impressive fourth-place finish. JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier led the majority of the race and was the leader before the overtime restart but had to settle for a fifth-place finish.
The race weekend concludes with tomorrow’s NASCAR Cup Series championship preview with the Shriners Children’s 500. A day full of entertainment kicks off with gates opening at 8:00 a.m. MST. If you can’t make it to Avondale, the green flag will fly at 12:30 p.m. MST on FS1.
