Sharing winning moments with family 'means the world' for Aric Almirola

In a division of NASCAR dominated by young drivers trying to make a name for themselves, 41-year-old Aric Almirola tends to stick out. 

A veteran driver with 460 NASCAR Cup Series starts to his credit, Almirola certainly isn't a young up-and-comer in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. He's been around the block a time or two. 

But Almirola's experience has paid major dividends for Joe Gibbs' Xfinity Series program since he signed on to run a partial NXS schedule with the organization in 2024. A year ago, Almirola won three races. He's matched that total this year in the same number (14) of starts. 

Almirola won Saturday's Focused Health 302 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway by passing and subsequently holding off one of those aforementioned up-and-comers in Connor Zilisch, a 19-year-old phenom who is the title favorite and a 10-time winner in 2025. 

And while a victory for Zilisch would've come with the built-in story of the Xfinity Series rookie clinching a Championship 4 berth, Almirola's story is a timeless classic: the graying veteran proving to the green youngster that he can still lay down the law from time to time. 

Almirola was already competing in Xfinity Series races when Zilisch was born in July 2006. On Saturday, after he had beaten Zilisch to claim his 10th career Xfinity Series win, Almirola sat in the media center at LVMS with his children beside him, living out their father's dream with him. 

"I know that it's just different when my family is here and when they're not," Almirola said in his post-race news conference with his daughter smiling at him. "I absolutely love sharing these moments with them, because eventually, this is going to stop. I don't know when, but at some point, it's going to stop. 

Eventually, I'm going to win my last race. I don't know when. But these moments for them, with my wife, and as a family, these moments will last forever. It means the world to me."

Gibbs and the No. 19 team certainly hope Almirola is yet to win his last race. Almirola's victory on Saturday puts the JGR 19 into the Championship 4 in the Xfinity Series owner standings. 

Almirola was not scheduled to run the Xfinity Series race at Phoenix. That slot on the schedule initially belonged to four-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion Justin Bonsignore. 

Now, it will be Almirola who will drive the No. 19 in the season finale at Phoenix in search of an owners championship. 

"We decided that this week," Almirola said. "We're going to go try and win an owners championship." 

Just the opportunity to fight for a championship in NASCAR is a reality that Almirola says he never imagined when he stepped away from full-time Cup Series competition at the end of 2023. 

"The thing I love about what I'm doing right now is that there's no explanation for why it's happening other than God has His hands in it," Almirola said. "It shouldn't happen. When I announced I was going to retire, nobody had to give me this opportunity. 

The fact that, out of the clear blue, Coach (Gibbs) called me...it just meant the world to me."

The stakes will be high for Almirola at Phoenix in three weeks. After all, he'll be carrying an Xfinity Series operation on his shoulders. But if he were to win the owners title for JGR, he already knows what it would mean. 

"It would be the highlight of my career, honestly. I don't have to have it, but I want it." 

Quotes provided by NASCAR Media unless otherwise noted.