By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
Brad Keselowski. Austin Dillon. Now, it was Aric Almirola who was challeneged with the task of racing with an illness in the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.
Suffering from a stomach bug throughout Saturday night, Almirola managed to wheel his No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford into the top five at Texas Motor Speedway in the late goings of Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500.
Slowly climbing from his No. 10 at the end of the long day, Almirola was far from 100 percent after 500 miles.
“When the flu pops up, you just have to fight through it,” Almirola said. “I was sick all last night. I was up all night, I didn’t get any sleep, throwing up, I had a bad stomach bug. I’m really tired. I just feel really weak.”
Despite the achy conditions, Almirola was a top-five contender late before losing spots due to a late turn of strategy and green-flag pit stops. Almirola still came home seventh, his career-record sixth straight top-10 finish in 2019.
Additionally, Sunday was his ninth top 10 in the last 10 Cup races dating back to Texas last fall.
“I’m proud of everyone on this Ford. We had a good car,” Almirola said. “It
Almirola was disappointed by a lack of tire wear, making it tougher to come back from an issue.
“The tires just don’t fall off,” he said. “They keep running and running and running. We were running on 70-lap tires as fast as we were running right after a restart.
“I’m ready to get some sleep.”