By Aaron Bearden, Motorsports Editor
JOLIET, Ill. — Aric Almirola had the strongest car and put together one of the best drives of his 11-year Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career at Chicagoland Speedway.
So after two loose wheels relegated him to a 25th-place finish, the Stewart-Haas Racing newcomer was understandably frustrated.
“We’ve just gotta execute,” Almirola said afterward. “We’ve got to put a whole race together. That’s the difference between being good and being great.”
Almirola started Sunday’s Overton’s 400 in sixth, but he quickly made his way forward. The Floridian made rose to second during the opening round of pit stops, and when teammate Clint Bowyer was caught speeding on pit road from the lead Almirola was able to rise into the race lead.
From that moment through the middle of Stage 2, Almirola found himself in contention for the victory. He snagged the first stage win of his career in Stage 1, fending off a challenge from teammate Kevin Harvick, and led a career-high 70 laps at the 1.5-mile oval.
All seemed well, but a round of pit stops in the middle of Stage 2 brought an unexpected snag.
Almirola was in the lead on Lap 142 when he was forced to pit with what was later confirmed to be a loose wheel. The stop dropped the 34-year-old to 26th, a lap down from the field.
Despite the setback, Almirola rallied. At the midway point of the final stage he found himself back inside of the top 15. By the time his final planned stop arrived during a caution at lap 209, Almirola was back inside of the top 10.
A top five seemed feasible, but moments later Almirola reported another loose wheel. He tried to ride it out for a few laps, but was ultimately forced to pit under green again.
“It was getting so violent, I couldn’t ride it out,” Almirola said. “It was really, really bad.
“I tried. I went a couple extra laps, hoping and praying for a caution. But it was getting so violent that I had to come.”
This time he wouldn’t recover. He emerged from the pit area a lap down in 27th, and the absence of another caution meant Almirola rose no further than 25th by race’s end.
Arguably the best car Almirola had ever driven led to his second-worse finish of the season.
“That’s the best car I’ve ever had compared to the competition,” Almirola said. “It was just so fast. (John Klausmeier, crew chief) and all of these guys did an amazing job. Our Smithfield Ford Fusion was excellent, especially out in clean air. It was just incredibly fast.”
But while he was pleased with his No. 10 Ford’s speed, Almirola saw the opportunities he and his team have to improve moving forward.
“We’ve gotta be flawless on pit road,” he said. “I’ve got to do my part, too. Today we just had two loose wheels on two separate instances, and you can’t have that, especially one races like this that go green forever. Really, really frustrated, but the good news is our cars are fast. So we can build on that.”
Pit Gun Problems
Upon first impression, the culprit for Almirola’s loose wheels appeared to be a familiar figure from earlier in the year – one of the spec Paoli pit guns. While the two loose wheels were on different sides of the car – both right and left – they were both affiliated with the rear tires.
“It was ultimately our rear gun,” Klausmeier said. “We had our backup gun on our front, and the RPMs kind of fluctuated throughout the race.
“We thought we had it fixed. The changer didn’t feel like he was going fast, so I think ultimately it just came down to the gun. We just need to figure out what went wrong and why it is.”
The issue was Almirola’s first with pit guns this season, though it was far from the first seen overall.
Drivers from multiple teams noted issues with the Paoli-issued spec pit guns earlier in the year, including Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch. The gun woes were largely fixed in April, when NASCAR mandated the use of nitrogen in them after discovering that teams were utilizing other gases.
Klausmeier claimed he would work with Paoli to discover the cause of Sunday’s issues.
“We worked with Paoli trying to (identify) the issues and trying to figure out what we need to do on our end and make things better,” he said. “That’s what we’ll do here. We’ll go download and move forward.”
The crew chief also took a moment to acknowledge the stellar performance of his driver.
“(Almirola) did an awesome job – everything he needed to,” he said. “We’ve been good on the intermediates. It just stinks because our worst finish all year is 25th, so it’s kind of a tough deal.
“He did a great job, and we just need to execute and put it all together.”