(Photo: Josh Jones | The Podium Finish)
LOUDON, N.H. — Aric Almirola had New Hampshire Motor Speedway circled as an opportunity to land in victory lane and clinch a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, but instead, a loose wheel resulted in a crash that ended his day.
Almirola ran as the banner Ford for the majority of the first two stages, only trailing race winner Martin Truex Jr. after starting third. When Almirola came down pit road during a Lap 162 caution, his No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing team elected to take just right-side tires and fuel.
Immediately following the stop, Almirola believed something felt “awkward” with his Ford Mustang, but upon scrubbing his tires before the restart, he said the car felt better. Almirola drove into Turn 1 on the restart to battle with Truex, but the right-rear tire came off the stud and he hit the wall, taking him out of the race.
“I got a good launch in the restart zone, so nothing was showing that it was odd. Then I went down into Turn 1, and as soon as the car loaded up, the right rear just came out from under me,” Almirola said at the infield care center. “It’s really, really hard to put yourself in position week in and week out. Certainly, the 19 car [was] the class of the field, but we were the second-best car and were capable of staying in the mix.
“Oftentimes, the best car doesn’t always win the race, so I felt good about just keeping our car in the mix, staying in the top three. If we did that, when it gets down to the end of the race, anything can happen. I was looking forward to just keep grinding out the race and putting ourselves in a position to win. We certainly had a car capable of doing that and we didn’t get it done.”
(Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)
Almirola, overall, has struggled in the 2023 season, recording just one top 10 through 20 races, which came at Martinsville Speedway. He faces a near-must-win situation to make the playoffs.
New Hampshire, however, is statistically one of Almirola’s best tracks. He won the 2021 race to lock himself into the playoffs after facing a situation similar to this year and contended last year before ultimately finishing several laps off the pace. Almirola viewed the Crayon 301 as one of his best opportunities to win in 2023.
“Our race team is working so hard and we know that these races are ones that we’ve got to capitalize on,” Almirola said. “It’s encouraging to bring fast racecars to the track. It’s encouraging to run in the top five. It’s encouraging to have speed, but it doesn’t do any good when you don’t finish. We have to win one of these next handful of races before the playoffs start, and today was a great opportunity. You don’t get a lot of opportunities.
“I just hate it for Smithfield and Ford, GoBowling, Mobile 1, High Point [and] everybody that supports this program because they deserve better. They deserve to be in victory lane. They deserve to run top five, and we’re not doing it. We just keep having things pop up — mistakes and all those things. We’ve got to be better.”
Almirola stayed 27th in points, 105 below Michael McDowell and the cutline.
