By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
Entering Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway in a hole to make the Championship 4, Aric Almirola was full of frustration following the 500-miler.
Starting the race from the rear of the field, Almirola jumped as high as third in the running order as his No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford showed potential for victory.
The late stages, however, turned his day outside the top five. One close call occurred alongside the No. 22 of Joey Logano, where Almirola broke loose and nearly wrecked in Turn 3.
With Logano already locked into the Championship 4, Almirola took offense to Logano’s aggressive driving.
“The [No.] 22 just went down in Turn 3 and put it right on my door and about wrecked us both,” Almirola said. “I will have to talk to him. He just continues to make things harder on himself.
“If that is the way he wants to race me when he is already locked into Homestead and we are out here fighting for our lives, that is fine. When Homestead comes around if I am not in, he will know it.”
Falling to finish eighth, Almirola sits 57 points back entering the elimination race next weekend at ISM Raceway. His speed from Texas gives him hope to contend in the desert.
“We were a third-place car and that restart there, we were finally in position,” he said. “We fought all day from the back, started at the tail and worked diligently all day to get up front and finally got ourselves in position to at least have a shot and race with those guys.”
For Logano, the close call wasn’t much of a deal.
“I haven’t talked to him,” Logano said of Almirola. “I don’t know what is going on. We were still racing at the end of the race and got hit in the left rear in Turn 3.
“There is no outside lane in [Turns] 3 and 4. The tire that Goodyear brought here doesn’t allow a second lane to really work so I was just trying to hang strong up there. It is just racing.”
With one race to decide Almirola’s championship fate, he already has one goal in mind come Homestead.
“I will just make it really difficult on him,” he said. “He made it really difficult on me today which was really unnecessary. He could have run fourth, fifth, 11th, it doesn’t matter. He is still going to go to Homestead and race for a championship, it is just not smart.
“I am fired up. Let’s go.”
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