Aric Almirola Wins Inaugural Xfinity Race at Sonoma

Aric Almirola claims victory for Ryan Sieg Racing in the Door Dash 250, the first Xfinity Series race at Sonoma Raceway.

Kyle Larson led all 20 laps in Stage 1 and took the stage win, Justin Allgaier was the highest Xfinity Series regular in 4th.

Although there’s no stage cautions on road courses this year, Josh Berry’s car lost power in Turn 7, bringing out the first yellow flag of the evening on Lap 20.

Austin Hill, John Hunter Nemechek, Sage Karam, and Riley Herbst made a pit stop before the end of Stage 1, restarting inside the Top 4 to begin Stage 2.

Hill would lead 3 laps before losing the lead to Larson on lap 28. The #17 HendrickCars.com Camero wouldn’t look back and won Stage 2 by over 10 seconds on AJ Allmendinger.

The second caution of the race would come out on lap 60 for Jeffrey Earnhardt’s automobile crashing in Turn 10.

Alex Labbe and Daniel Suarez stayed out as the rest of the field came in and put on their last set of tires, leading the field to the green with 15 laps to go.

Suarez would be penalized for jumping the restart, Aric Almirola would take the lead throughout the chaos across the field.

AJ Allmendinger would move into 2nd place before Larson passed him with 14 laps to go. Larson would close the gap on Almirola for the next handful of laps.

With 8 laps to go, Larson would make contact with the tires in turn 11, causing him to lose a position to Allmendinger.

Aric Almirola would go on to win by 1.8 seconds over AJ Allmendinger and Kyle Larson. Parker Kligerman finishes 5th as the highest Xfinity regular driver.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series will be off next week before returning to Nashville Superspeedway on Saturday, June 24th for the Tennessee Lottery 250 at 3:30 PM ET on USA.