DOVER, Del. – With the beneficiary of two free passes during Sunday’s FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks, Aric Almirola and his No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports team scored their best finish of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.
Their fifth place finish at Dover (Del.) International Speedway was the team’s first top-10 of the year, but more importantly kept the team well-balanced in points after the 13th race of the season.
“I earned my money today that is for sure,” said Almirola. “This Smithfield Ford Fusion was a handful most of the day. It started off extremely tight. Trent Owens and the guys made really good adjustments on the car and got it better and better. Finally we weren’t the lucky dog, we raced and stayed on the lead lap and when the caution came out we got a chance to restart with the leaders. “That was the big break for us. Every time we would get the lucky dog I had to start dead last and 30-40-50 laps the leaders were right back on me.”
Almirola started 23rd, but after receiving the free pass in the first and third cautions of the race, the team was able to fine-tune their No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion and climb into the top-10 within thirty laps of the original scheduled distance.
When three cars crashed two laps from the finish, Almirola sat eighth, but a charge on the first and only green-white-checkered allowed the Tampa, Florida driver to grab three more spots and take fifth, his best career finish at the Monster Mile in seven starts.
Sunday’s effort was the first top-10 for the team since New Hampshire Motor Speedway last September, the second race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Almirola was one of 16 drivers in the Chase after winning his first career win at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway last July.
It was a great day for us, a really good point’s day for us,” added Almirola. “I am proud of Trent Owens and all the guys at Richard Petty Motorsports. They have been working their guts out trying to bring better cars to the race track week in and week out. WE have to get better qualifying. That is our Achilles heel right now. We start too deep in the field every week. All in all
it was a good day for us and I am ready to go to Pocono.”
With his 20th career top-10 finish in 156 Cup starts, the 31-year old is 10th in the point standings, just two points behind four-time champion Jeff Gordon entering next Sunday’s race at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
