Aric Almirola gets physical with Alex Bowman in overtime to win Xfinity Series race at Phoenix

An overtime restart was exactly what Aric Almirola needed to have an opportunity to win the Xfinity Series race at Phoenix. The semi-retired NASCAR driver got very physical on the last lap with Alex Bowman as the cars came to the line.

Aric Almirola is having a lot of fun racing these Xfinity Series events. It helps that he picks up wins regularly, though. Despite Justin Allgaier dominating this race, the overtime was too much for him to handle.

Is this a clean move for the win? All is fair late in the race? Or is this a move made in poor taste after such a clean race all afternoon?

WHAT. A. FINISH!! pic.twitter.com/T9HrPc20Xn

— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) March 9, 2025

Last night, the NASCAR world online got a bit upset by the move that Brent Crews made on Butterbean Queen for the win in overtime. Is this situation similar enough to be upset about? I would argue that it is.

Allgaier was the most dominant car. Bowman was dominant early and started on the pole. Nick Leitz wrecking with four laps to go threw a wrench in the plans for those two teams. Allgaier was comfortably on his way to the win prior to that caution.

This race was so clean. It wasn’t the most exciting, but there was good racing through the field. Again, Allgaier dominated. He has led so many laps at that track in the last two years yet he still doesn’t have a win to show for it. Remember last season Allgaier inexplicably wrecked from the lead late?

Aric Almirola and Joe Gibbs Racing will be happy. But I’m not sure this is a popular move with the public at large.

Alex Bowman reacts to Aric Almirola move

After the race, Bowman talked about the last-lap incident. He was hoping Almirola would give him more space.

“I would’ve hoped that he would’ve given me a lane on exit but he just exited like I wasn’t there. Which, he was better than us for sure. But just tried to capitalize on that restart, trying to win the race and got shoved in the fence and the race car’s destroyed. 

“Bummer for that but hats off to the HendrickCars.com crew, everybody did a really good job. It’s my first time working with Adam and that was a lot of fun. Wish Mr. Hendrick got a win there.”

Bowman got loose and his brakes weren’t the best. But that last overtime restart was tough. He knows it is part of the sport.

“I was just really loose in. I kind of melted the brakes off the thing behind the 7 earlier on the last run,” he continued. “Couldn’t get into the corner like Aric could. I don’t know if he had me aero loose into 1 or if I just got loose myself but I about spun out down there. I figured my best bet was going to the outside there trying to get off the corner. And there was no lane there anymore. Bummer but you’ll have that in big-time auto racing.”