RICHMOND, Va. – Aric Almirola had one of the fastest cars in the field on Saturday night at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway. Unfortunately, his No. 43 Smithfield Foods / Waffle House Ford Fusion wasn’t the fastest when it counted most.
Almirola hoping to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup for the second consecutive year by far held close to the same pace as eventual winner Matt Kenseth during long green-flag runs, but when the caution flew with 25 laps left, not even strategy on pit road compensated for the impending 17-lap shootout.
The Tampa, Florida native restarted third, but lost a position to Joey Logano shortly after the restart, which shut the door from attacking the Joe Gibbs Racing duo of Kenseth and Kyle Busch.
Almirola, who started 24th would finish fourth in the Federated Auto Parts 400 and despite a 26th-place finish from Paul Menard, the driver he was chasing to earn a spot into the Chase, he fell 17 points behind when the checkered flag flew.
“I am disappointed for sure,” said Almirola, who can now finish as high of 17th in the championship point standings come Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway in November.
“We have a really great race team at Richard Petty Motorsports and great sponsors. We had Waffle House on the car tonight and I told all the guys if we won we would go get free waffles but we just came up short. I am really proud of all my guys.”
Still, despite being defeated, the performance on Saturday night was a confidence booster for the RPM team, who maneuvered their best finish since a fifth at Dover (Del.) International Speedway since May 31.
“It is tough. This is what we race for,” added Almirola. “We race to win races. We race to run for a championship. This race team, we got to do it last year and we had an engine failure at Chicago and feel like we had a lot more to show in the Chase last year. We wanted another shot at it really bad. We have a really, really good race team and am disappointed we didn’t get Smithfield and Ford into the Chase again.”
Even though a victory won’t count towards the bigger picture moving into the final 10-race stretch on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series tour, Almirola can carry their momentum moving forward and look for a redemption when the Chase starts next Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway.
A stout No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford Fusion saw Almirola rocket inside the top-five in last September’s race, but a short time later, his engine seized. Fast forward 12 months, points aren’t as important, but the desire to do well is and that’s what Almirola and his team are after.
“We worked our guts out all year long and tonight was no different,” Almirola sounded. “I feel we have overachieved this year and really maximized our results week in and week out. I am disappointed to come up a few spots short but we gave it all we had and that is all we can do.”
No, Almirola didn’t earn a spot into the Chase for the Sprint Cup, but they’ll remembered for not going down without a fight and that’s commendable.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
