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  • Confidence Is High for Aric Almirola

    Confidence Is High for Aric Almirola

    Aric Almirola is off to the strongest start of his career, as he sits 10th in points and is currently in position for the Playoffs.

    After leaving Richard Petty Motorsports last year, it was announced in November of 2017 that Aric Almirola would replace Danica Patrick in the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Fusion driving for Stewart-Haas Racing. After the opening 10 races of the season, Almirola finds himself in the top 10 in the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup driver points standings and is currently in position to qualify for the Playoffs. In perspective, the No. 10 team’s previous best result in points was 24th in both 2014 and 2015. This year, they have two top-10 finishes and were one turn away from winning the iconic season opener Daytona 500. The team has finished no worse than 13th, which came at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

    Almirola placed a third fastest time during a final run at the end of the first practice at Auto Club Speedway and securing a 1-2-3 result for Stewart-Haas Racing alongside teammates Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer, respectively. Regardless of the recent rains, all the Cup teams are experiencing high speeds and fast times.

    “It’s crazy how gripped up these cars are and how fast we’re going at this race track,” he said when I asked him about the grip from the recent rains and no other series racing here lately. “Usually, you think about coming to Auto Club Speedway and you think about slipping and sliding around, but here in qualifying trim it is insane how fast we’re going.”

    One concern about Almirola visiting the 2-mile oval was the familiar yet rough and bouncy backstretch. Last year, Almirola was involved in a fiery crash with Joey Logano and Danica Patrick. Entering Turn 1, Logano had a brake rotor snap in half, which pulled his car into Patrick’s and the two crashed into the outside wall. With oil on the track behind them, Almirola could not turn in time to avoid the collision. His impact into Logano’s car was heavy enough to pick the rear wheels up off the ground. Medical personnel had to lift Almirola through the roof after cutting it open and took him to a local hospital. After evaluations, Aric had broken his back, and the violent wreck caused the driver to miss roughly eight weeks of Monster Energy Cup Series competition.

    Despite the history of his back injury, Aric was relieved the surface caused no issues with his back and that he’s never felt better.

    “Surprisingly well,” Alrimola said with a hint of relief. “The very first test that I did on the seven-post shaker rig after I broke my back to make sure that my back felt OK enough to get back in the race car was we ran the track mapped file from Auto Club Speedway because it’s the roughest race track that we go to. So six weeks after I broke my back, I went to Ford’s seven-post shaker rig and sat in my race car on that shaker rig with the car running a mock lap around this race track and I remember thinking to myself, ‘Holy cow, is it really that rough?’ And then we showed up back here and the answer is yes, it really is that rough. But my back feels great.

    “Thank you for asking. I feel like I am better than 100 percent. I feel like I’m more physically fit and in better shape than I was pre-accident just because after my accident, I had to be really diligent with my rehab and my physical therapy just to be able to hurry up the process to be able to get back in the car, so I feel like right now I’m probably in the best shape of my life.”

    Despite the successful practice session this morning, Almirola has yet to finish in the top-10 at Fontana. His previous best finish was 11th three years ago but has only finished in the top-20 two other times (14th and 19th). However, this isn’t stumbling his confidence level at all.

    “Every race car driver at this level has been really good at everything they did before they got here or else they wouldn’t have gotten here,” Almirola stated. “It is gonna take a while to build my confidence back up and get to where I need to be to. I’ve historically not run well at Vegas. I’ve historically not run well at Atlanta. Phoenix has been an OK track for me, but to go to those race tracks and produce the results that we have had me really excited about the race tracks coming down the pipe that I feel like are race tracks that I’ve excelled at even with the slightly underfunded team and not the best race cars.

    “I’ve still been able to run well and produce results at those race tracks, so I’m excited to see what we can accomplish when we get to those kinds of race tracks.”

    The No. 10 Stewart-Hass Racing team missed qualifying, despite finishing third in first practice on Friday, and will start 27th for Sunday’s race. The NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series waves the green flag for the Auto Club 400 on Sunday, March 18 at 12:30 p.m. local time.

  • Aric Almirola Destined For Richmond Victory; Richard Petty Returns to Racetrack

    Aric Almirola Destined For Richmond Victory; Richard Petty Returns to Racetrack

    Aric Almirola and Trent Owens are determined and destined to win at Richmond International Raceway (RIR) this weekend; especially after it was announced that Richard Petty, team owner of Richard Petty Motorsports, will be returning to the racetrack for the first time since the tragic and unforeseen passing of his wife, Lynda Petty.

    “It’s going to be great to have our leader back at the race track,” Almirola expressed on Wednesday. “He is the name and the face of our company, and all the guys on the race team and myself included look up to him and enjoy having him around at the race track and having him inside hauler and talking to us after practice and getting his perspective on what he sees with other race cars and with our race cars throughout practice.”

    Almirola attended an appearance with Petty in Nashville, Tennessee on Tuesday and he found ‘The Kings’ attitude to be repaired and prepared for Richmond this weekend.

    “I know (Petty is) itching to get back,” Almirola further explained. “You can’t take the racer out of that guy. He’s not going to sit at home and just sit around and do nothing.”

    Owens, who is the nephew of Petty, also is confident that Petty returning will allow everyone at the organization to take a deep breath and refocus on the task at hand, winning.

    “I think it will be good medicine,” Owens said Wednesday. “When something like that happens, you kind of want to hide for a little bit and just get your feelings straight. But he’s been by the shop and been in good spirits, and I think he’s doing very well considering.”

    “We look forward to definitely getting him back to the race track and getting him back into race mode.”

    Now, with the relief of having the boss back, Almirola and crew chief Owens turn their undivided attention to Richmond, where they’ll hope to deliver their first victory of the season, which would undoubtedly be an emotional one – for multiple reasons

    “I always get excited about going to Richmond,” Almirola commented during a press conference held on Wednesday morning. “I like the racetrack a lot, and then besides the racetrack, it’s a big weekend for us with Smithfield Foods headquarters being right there nearby in Richmond, and we get a lot of people come out from Smithfield headquarters, and it’s just a big weekend, and it’s a lot of fun.”

    “The racetrack is where I made my first (NASCAR) Nationwide (Series) start, and I just got a lot of good memories from there, and I’ve always run well it seems like, so I’m excited about going to Richmond this weekend.”

    Almirola, 30, finished eighth last season at Richmond after starting a dismal 34th position- his first top-10 at the difficult speedway.

    “I think I have a really good understanding of what it takes to run good at Richmond, and I’ve had good runs there,” Almirola expressed about his wisdom within Richmond. “You know, last spring we ran pretty good there.  I think we finished in the top 5 or maybe top 10, I’m not sure, and then in the fall race I thought we had an even better car than we had in the spring race, and we had an incident on pit road on a green flag stop that ended up getting a couple laps down and hurt our day.”

    He’s completed in five Nationwide Series races at Richmond finishing a track-best seventh during the 2011 season with JR Motorsports. This weekend, he’s hoping to utilize that running his previous experience at RIR to help drive him into victory lane.

    “Richmond is a place that I actually have a lot of laps at,” Almirola further commented. “The very first time I ever got to drive a truck, it was a two-day test at Richmond back in 2004 and I’ve done a lot of testing there in trucks and Nationwide cars and even Cup cars back when we were allowed to go test, and I made my first Nationwide start there.  I think I’ve run quite a few Nationwide races there, and I’ve made quite a few Cup starts there.”

    Owens, who joined his Uncle Petty’s operation at the beginning of this season, is also expecting a good placing this weekend, despite the demands being a crew chief calls upon throughout the course of this weekend.

    “Really looking forward to (the) race (at Richmond),” Owens commented during the press conference. “Our short track program seems to be in a decent direction this year.  We’ve got some work to do on our mile-and-a-halfs, but really looking forward to getting in front of the Smithfield folks and putting on a good show.”

    “Practice is so tough here, the tires wear out at Richmond but that does provide for good racing.  You really want to be good off the hauler and just kind of work on a few things, maybe mock up some practice changes that duplicate your race stuff.  But practicing during the day, racing at night at a place like Richmond is just so much different.”

    Almirola and Owens are hoping for success in just their ninth race together, however, they also both understand the ultimate achievement isn’t to win, but it’s to help re-boost Petty’s confidence and moral, even in the toughest of moments.