By Summer Bedgood, Managing Editor
The big hit. The flames. The scorched racecars and torn sheet metal.
And the whirring of helicopter blades transporting one of the on-track competitors to a local hospital.
Aric Almirola’s horrific crash at Kansas Speedway a year ago has stuck in the minds of just about anyone who was there to witness it (and even some who weren’t). For the 34-year-old driver, though, it is the last thing on his mind.
“I show up to the race track every weekend and just go and focus on trying to get my car handling the way I want it to and fast and ready to go race for that weekend,” Almirola said during a media availability on Friday. “Every weekend is a different challenge because it’s a different track, but I never really let my mind drift back to that place, if you will. When I came back here in the fall, it was probably a little bit more top of mind coming back here just a few months after breaking my back here in May when we came back in October. But then to go through that weekend and we ran really well and I think we finished ninth, so to come back here and kind of get somewhat of redemption on the race track and sort of put that to bed and come here and run as well as we did and run top 10 I think it’s a non-issue. I don’t even really think about it. I have to think about it because you guys ask about it, but I don’t think about it.”
Now, Almirola returns to the same racetrack, but with a lot of “new” — he’s with a new race team, in a new number, with a new crew chief — and with all of that has come a renewed sense of confidence and optimism.
“I think my confidence is pretty high,” said Almirola. “I’d say last year, not that I didn’t have confidence, but I was always unsure on what I was gonna get. Last year, life was like a box of chocolates. You never knew what you were gonna get from week to week. This year, I know what I’m gonna get. Every week I know I’m gonna show up with a car that I know is gonna be fast and that it’s up to Johnny and myself to do the best that we can to make it a race-winning car. We have the product. We have the potential to have a race-winning car each and every week and we can see it internally amongst our teammates. We can look at what they have and that’s just gonna take time for Johnny and myself to continue to grow together and build a notebook together.
“You’ve got to remember that Johnny is going on week 11 or week 12 of being a brand new crew chief,” he continued. “He was never crew chief in the Truck ranks and was never a crew chief in the XFINITY ranks, so having him and him being as new to it as it is, it’s gonna take him time to continue to evolve and develop. We’ve got a new lead race engineer that’s young and that’s one of the things that I think is so cool is that our team is really built for the future. We’ve got a bunch of young guys on our team and we’re all really fired up and we’re all young and ambitious and I think as we continue to build and get better and better together, the future looks bright for us and we’re off to a good start even so. Even these first 11 weeks we’re just a few points out of 10th in the points. We’ve had four top 10s, so we’re doing things well, but we see that there’s so much more potential out there for us.”
Indeed, Almirola’s four top 10s in 11 races puts him on pace to match — if not outdo — his previous season-high top 10 finishes of seven in 2014.
After suffering a compression fracture of his T5 vertebra in the spring race at Kansas Speedway last season, Almirola missed seven races in order to recuperate.
Almirola moved from driving the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford to the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford over the offseason.
Now, returning to the same racetrack, Almirola finds himself with one of the strongest organizations in the MENCS. The four-car organization has earned five races in the first 11 races (won by Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick), and three of the four are inside the top 10 in points. As Almirola stated, he is just a smidge outside the top 10.
Though the No. 10 team is bringing up the rear for SHR, Almirola isn’t feeling any additional pressure and believes success — including victories — will come with time. This is due, in large part, to team co-owner Tony Stewart.
“I think, for me, Tony is just a great calming voice because I sit back and I look at the success that all of my teammates are having and while, yes, we are running good and we are on pace to make the Playoffs, we’ve got an average finish of whatever they said, 12.5, so we’re doing good things, but human nature is greed,” Almirola explained. “You always want more, so if you would have told me going into the year before the season even started at Daytona that by Kansas in May we would be 11th in points, three points out of 10th and have an average finish of 12th, I would have probably said, ‘All right. That’s awesome. I’ll take it.’
“But then you go through the year and you watch the 4 car run as good as they have and you watch the 14 car win Martinsville and run up front, and you watch the 41 car run up front, and we have too, but we haven’t always been as competitive as those cars,” continued Almirola. “Human nature is greed, so I get to where I want more. I want to win and we’re only 11 races in, so Tony has been just a very calming voice. He’s been like, ‘Be patient. Your time is coming. Your group is young. Your group is new. You’re new to the organization. You’re meeting our expectations and then some.’ So that’s just reassuring and it’s a confidence-builder for me. Even though I want more and I’m greedy and I want to win and I want to run in the top five every week, they’re satisfied and they’re happy with where we’re at as a race team and that just allows me to not feel pressure and to be overly anxious and to just concentrate on continuing to build that foundation with Johnny and the 10 team and to get to where we need to be to run like Harvick and Bowyer and Kurt.”
With that said, Almirola still feels the Playoffs are a realistic goal this year.
“I think we went into the year hoping to be a team that’s capable of running for a championship and making the Playoffs and I think we’re on target for that,” continued Almirola. “We knew that the beginning of the year there would be some growing pains and we’d go through some ebbs and flows, but I feel like overall as a whole our company is a championship-caliber company and all three of our other cars are showing speed and doing the things that they need to do to make the Playoffs and we need to do our part and so far we are.”
For Almirola, that drive continues this weekend at Kansas Speedway, in what may be his best chance to win at this track. He led 69 laps back in 2012 and finished ninth in the fall race last year.
Aric Almirola Returns to Site of Back Injury With Renewed Optimism
By Summer Bedgood, Managing Editor
The big hit. The flames. The scorched racecars and torn sheet metal.
And the whirring of helicopter blades transporting one of the on-track competitors to a local hospital.
Aric Almirola’s horrific crash at Kansas Speedway a year ago has stuck in the minds of just about anyone who was there to witness it (and even some who weren’t). For the 34-year-old driver, though, it is the last thing on his mind.
“I show up to the race track every weekend and just go and focus on trying to get my car handling the way I want it to and fast and ready to go race for that weekend,” Almirola said during a media availability on Friday. “Every weekend is a different challenge because it’s a different track, but I never really let my mind drift back to that place, if you will. When I came back here in the fall, it was probably a little bit more top of mind coming back here just a few months after breaking my back here in May when we came back in October. But then to go through that weekend and we ran really well and I think we finished ninth, so to come back here and kind of get somewhat of redemption on the race track and sort of put that to bed and come here and run as well as we did and run top 10 I think it’s a non-issue. I don’t even really think about it. I have to think about it because you guys ask about it, but I don’t think about it.”
Now, Almirola returns to the same racetrack, but with a lot of “new” — he’s with a new race team, in a new number, with a new crew chief — and with all of that has come a renewed sense of confidence and optimism.
“I think my confidence is pretty high,” said Almirola. “I’d say last year, not that I didn’t have confidence, but I was always unsure on what I was gonna get. Last year, life was like a box of chocolates. You never knew what you were gonna get from week to week. This year, I know what I’m gonna get. Every week I know I’m gonna show up with a car that I know is gonna be fast and that it’s up to Johnny and myself to do the best that we can to make it a race-winning car. We have the product. We have the potential to have a race-winning car each and every week and we can see it internally amongst our teammates. We can look at what they have and that’s just gonna take time for Johnny and myself to continue to grow together and build a notebook together.
“You’ve got to remember that Johnny is going on week 11 or week 12 of being a brand new crew chief,” he continued. “He was never crew chief in the Truck ranks and was never a crew chief in the XFINITY ranks, so having him and him being as new to it as it is, it’s gonna take him time to continue to evolve and develop. We’ve got a new lead race engineer that’s young and that’s one of the things that I think is so cool is that our team is really built for the future. We’ve got a bunch of young guys on our team and we’re all really fired up and we’re all young and ambitious and I think as we continue to build and get better and better together, the future looks bright for us and we’re off to a good start even so. Even these first 11 weeks we’re just a few points out of 10th in the points. We’ve had four top 10s, so we’re doing things well, but we see that there’s so much more potential out there for us.”
Indeed, Almirola’s four top 10s in 11 races puts him on pace to match — if not outdo — his previous season-high top 10 finishes of seven in 2014.
After suffering a compression fracture of his T5 vertebra in the spring race at Kansas Speedway last season, Almirola missed seven races in order to recuperate.
Almirola moved from driving the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford to the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford over the offseason.
Now, returning to the same racetrack, Almirola finds himself with one of the strongest organizations in the MENCS. The four-car organization has earned five races in the first 11 races (won by Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick), and three of the four are inside the top 10 in points. As Almirola stated, he is just a smidge outside the top 10.
Though the No. 10 team is bringing up the rear for SHR, Almirola isn’t feeling any additional pressure and believes success — including victories — will come with time. This is due, in large part, to team co-owner Tony Stewart.
“I think, for me, Tony is just a great calming voice because I sit back and I look at the success that all of my teammates are having and while, yes, we are running good and we are on pace to make the Playoffs, we’ve got an average finish of whatever they said, 12.5, so we’re doing good things, but human nature is greed,” Almirola explained. “You always want more, so if you would have told me going into the year before the season even started at Daytona that by Kansas in May we would be 11th in points, three points out of 10th and have an average finish of 12th, I would have probably said, ‘All right. That’s awesome. I’ll take it.’
“But then you go through the year and you watch the 4 car run as good as they have and you watch the 14 car win Martinsville and run up front, and you watch the 41 car run up front, and we have too, but we haven’t always been as competitive as those cars,” continued Almirola. “Human nature is greed, so I get to where I want more. I want to win and we’re only 11 races in, so Tony has been just a very calming voice. He’s been like, ‘Be patient. Your time is coming. Your group is young. Your group is new. You’re new to the organization. You’re meeting our expectations and then some.’ So that’s just reassuring and it’s a confidence-builder for me. Even though I want more and I’m greedy and I want to win and I want to run in the top five every week, they’re satisfied and they’re happy with where we’re at as a race team and that just allows me to not feel pressure and to be overly anxious and to just concentrate on continuing to build that foundation with Johnny and the 10 team and to get to where we need to be to run like Harvick and Bowyer and Kurt.”
With that said, Almirola still feels the Playoffs are a realistic goal this year.
“I think we went into the year hoping to be a team that’s capable of running for a championship and making the Playoffs and I think we’re on target for that,” continued Almirola. “We knew that the beginning of the year there would be some growing pains and we’d go through some ebbs and flows, but I feel like overall as a whole our company is a championship-caliber company and all three of our other cars are showing speed and doing the things that they need to do to make the Playoffs and we need to do our part and so far we are.”
For Almirola, that drive continues this weekend at Kansas Speedway, in what may be his best chance to win at this track. He led 69 laps back in 2012 and finished ninth in the fall race last year.