Aric Almirola captured a thrilling NASCAR Xfinity Series victory in Saturday’s GOVX 200 at Phoenix Raceway, executing a decisive last-lap pass on Alex Bowman during NASCAR Overtime to secure the win by a mere 0.045 seconds.

The Tampa, Florida native has now experienced both sides of last-lap drama in the first four weeks of the 2025 season, this time ending up in Victory Lane after a perfectly timed move. Though Almirola led only 25 laps throughout the race, his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota had the necessary speed to stay competitive with Justin Allgaier, who dominated much of the event with a race-high 130 laps led.

The complexion of the race changed dramatically when Nick Leitz’s late spin forced what appeared to be an easy victory for Allgaier into overtime. On the ensuing restart, Allgaier slid up the track into Almirola’s door, creating an opening for Bowman to make a bold four-wide move through the middle of the pack to seize the lead.

Almirola quickly recovered to second position and spent the final lap hunting down Bowman’s HendrickCars.com Chevrolet. As they entered the final set of corners, Almirola dove to the inside, slid up the track and pushed Bowman into the wall before winning the drag race to the finish line.

“I just knew I needed to get from there to here first. I knew I was going to use him up a little bit, but trying to win the race,” Almirola explained in Victory Lane. “You know, I feel like it was warranted. I didn’t think I did anything overly egregious. I just throttled up, and I knew it was going to be a drag race to the start-finish line.”

The victory marks Almirola’s seventh win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and his fourth since rejoining Joe Gibbs Racing at the start of last season. His path to this opportunity was unexpected, as he revealed: “I didn’t know what I was doing two weeks before Daytona. I was planning on just helping at JGR, and volunteering at church, and I got a call to go run some races.”

Bowman, making his only scheduled Xfinity Series appearance of the season, finished second, matching his best result in the No. 17 Chevrolet from the Indianapolis Road Course in 2022. The Cup Series regular expressed disappointment with the outcome: “I mean, I would have hoped that he would have given me a lane on exit, but he just exited like I wasn’t there. Which, he was better than us, for sure, but I just tried to capitalize on that restart and try to win the race, and got shoved into the fence.”

Brandon Jones scored his first top-five finish since last May at Charlotte with a third-place result, while Ryan Sieg made an impressive comeback in a backup car to finish fourth—his first top-five at Phoenix Raceway. Justin Allgaier, despite his dominance for much of the race, had to settle for fifth.

The championship standings remain tight following Phoenix, with Jesse Love holding a slim two-point advantage over Justin Allgaier. Sam Mayer, Austin Hill, and Sammy Smith complete the current top five in points.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series continues next weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday, March 15, with coverage beginning at 4:30 PM ET on The CW, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images