By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
With eight laps to go Sunday at Dover International Speedway, Aric Almirola was looking smooth en route to victory in the Gander Outdoors 400.
Leading by a healthy margin over Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kurt Busch, it was Almirola’s race to lose.
That was until a caution flew with seven laps to go after teammate Clint Bowyer cut a tire and pounded the wall in his No. 14. Not only would this eliminate Almirola’s lead, but it would cause pit strategy… not in Almriola’s favor as the leader.
“They’re going to do the opposite of whatever we do,” Almirola said of the pit road situation. “If we stay out, we’re a sitting duck on old tires. We rolled down pit road and we see a few stay out, a few take tires and next thing we know, we’re restarting sixth.”
From three rows back, the No. 10 Ford had three laps to pounce to the race lead. Wasting no time, Almirola jumped to the outside in Turn 1 and was coming with a full head of steam into Turn 2 until contact was made between himself and Brad Keselowski.
“Track position is so tough, so hard to pass here,” he said. “On that restart, I went to where they weren’t, to the top, and the No. 11 moved up to block me. I bounced off the fence and got into Brad and we tore up a lot of racecars. I hate that for everybody involved.
“I could have been conservative and probably run third or fourth like Kurt [Busch]. They don’t give away trophies for ‘Woulda, Coulda, Shouldas.’ You have to actually win the races. That seems to be a challenge for us. We’ve had so many opportunities and have been so close.
“I’m frustrated, mad, angry.”
With a damaged Ford, Almirola limped to pit road for repairs until restarting to finish 13th. Following difficult losses at Chicago and New Hampshire this summer, Almirola knows he’s with a winning group.
“We had a great car,” he said. “It was firing off on the restarts really fast and to come get four tires and be on offense — putting ourselves in position to be on offense — we put ourselves in position.
“This one is going to be a tough one. We’ve just battled some sort of demons all year we can’t get past. I don’t know what it is.”
Leaving Dover 10 points below the cutoff line with two races remaining in the Round of 12, the playoff position is only one portion of what makes Sunday’s defeat so deep.
Riding a winless drought that dates back to 2014, Almirola has gone through the lowest of lows in his Monster Energy Cup Series career. From injuries, struggling rides and late nights, Almirola is more than ready to put it in the rearview with a win for Stewart-Haas.
“I want that. I want that for our team, our sponsors. I want to go to Victory Lane,” he said. “That’s what I get paid to do. I’m frustrated that’s not us. That’s a hard one to swallow. Kevin [Harvick] had the car to beat, and when he had his misfortune, it put the race in our lap. It just didn’t happen.”
