Aric Almirola gets win, valuable owner points for family-owned RSS Racing

SONOMA, CALI. — Aric Almirola earned a win and valuable owner points for the family-owned RSS Racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race Saturday at Sonoma.

Almirola held off A.J. Allmendinger and Kyle Larson, who finished second and third.

Larson dominated the race and led 53 of 79 laps.

With 18 to go, a caution for Jeffrey Earnhardt crashing in turn 10 erased Larson’s 11-second lead.

Several drivers stayed out after pitting under green, including Alex Labbe who lost the lead to Almirola on the lap 64 restart.

Larson shuffled back to third but soon passed Allmendinger and ran down Almirola.

With six laps to go, it seemed almost inevitable the Hendrick Motorsports driver would move by Almirola and the No. 28 RSS Racing car.

“I hit the inside tires and just knocked the toe out. It didn’t handle the same after that,” Larson told FS1 post-race.

Almirola held on and won his first Xfinity Series race since Talladega in May 2017. It’s also his first NASCAR win since the July 2021 Cup Series race in New Hampshire.

“Hell yea, guys! I guess I can road race after all,” Almirola said over the radio.

Almirola celebrated in victory lane with his Cup Series crew pitting him and RSS owner Rod Sieg who excitedly greeted him at the window.

Rod and his family debuted RSS Racing in 2009 in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. They moved up to the Xfinity Series in 2014 and finally earned a NASCAR win Saturday.

While Stewart-Haas Racing was a big help for RSS Racing, RSS is the winning team and will get a big points boost.

Each year, the top 20 teams in Xfinity Series owner points get extra money. Entering Sonoma, the No. 28 team was 27th in owner points, -64 points to 20th. After earning 53 points Sunday, the team is 23rd in points, -28 to 20th.

The full race results are as follows:

With a variety of drivers, they scored seven top-10 finishes in 246 Truck Series starts in 2009-13. In 2014, they scaled back and moved up to the Xfinity Series full-time.

In the Xfinity Series, RSS Racing found their home. Right off the bat, Ryan Sieg battled Kasey Kahne and Regan Smith for the win at Daytona in July 2014.

In 2015-18, Ryan Sieg picked up five non-draft-track top-10 finishes at places like Kansas, Charlotte, Texas and Iowa, where he finished second in 2017.

Sieg also made the playoffs in 2016 and repeated with breakout years in 2019 and 2020.

In 2019, he earned two top-5s and 12 top-10s, then seven top-5s and 11 top-10s in 2020.

The team rebounded in 2022 and earned two top-5s, 12 top-10s and a playoff berth after struggling in 2021.

This year, the team has earned just four top-10s — two from Ryan, one from Almirola and one from Joe Graf Jr — but they now have a NASCAR win to their name.