June 23, 2022 | By Lee Spencer

Almirola strives for another successful run at Nashville

Aric Almirola called last year’s inaugural Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway “a turning point” for the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing team. 

Momentum from winning the pole and finishing fourth at the 1.33-mile oval would propel Almirola to his third career win five races later at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He hopes to build on the team’s success when NASCAR returns to Music City this weekend.

Although Almirola announced 2022 will be his final Cup season, the 38-year-old racer is not letting off the gas with 20 races remaining on the schedule. 

“Honestly, I'm not looking anywhere but right in front of me,” said Almirola during a media tour for Mobil Delvac’s Mission Unstoppable campaign. “I've really taken that approach this year and I've really enjoyed it. It's made the entire season way more enjoyable. Just not getting too far ahead of myself and just focusing on right here right now. 

“And so, for me, I'm focused on Nashville. I want to go and try and win Nashville. When I look further out, I want to make the playoffs. I want to go run for a championship. I feel like we're capable.”

Almirola’s reunion with crew chief Drew Blickensderfer for his final season lit a fire under the driver. He came out of the gate with an average finish of 5.66 in the first three races—the only driver to post top-10 finishes in all three. 

“I feel like Drew has brought a new level of energy to our race team,” Almirola said. “He's doing a great job with the cars. He's doing a great job calling races. He's doing a great job being a team leader. He’s just doing a great job in every aspect. 

“So, I feel like as an organization, we're starting to get back on track. We started off the year good—not great—but good and we were competitive, running top five, top ten. And then we started chasing some rabbits—or squirrels actually—probably more like it, and we got a little bit off track.” 

Still, sitting 11th in the Cup point standings, Almirola leads all of the Stewart-Haas Racing drivers. He has been running at the finish in all 16 races, with 14 finishes on the lead lap. 

And while the new car has been an enigma for some veteran racers, that hasn’t been the case for Almirola, who has embraced the challenge. He has just one finish outside the top 25. When the tour went to World Wide Technology Raceway for the inaugural Cup race there, Almirola finished fifth. The No. 10 team has proven to be a quick study.

“I'd say here in the last couple of weeks, we've gotten back on track,” Almirola said. “We're back to running up front, scoring a lot of points, scoring stage points, doing all the things that we need to do, and we're doing it well.” 

In 10 full seasons on the Cup tour, Almirola has qualified for the Playoffs five times. His best result was fifth in the standings in 2018. Another solid finish at Nashville this weekend could provide just the catalyst Almirola needs with 10 races remaining before the Playoffs.

“I liked going to Nashville even when I ran in the Truck Series and when I ran some Busch races, way back. I enjoyed going there. So when we were getting ready to go there last year for the first time in the Cup series, I was excited. I was looking forward to it. I also thought that it was a place where we would go and run well and sure enough, we did. 

“We qualified on the pole. We were really good in practice. We were really good in the race. We ran top-five pretty much all day long. So yeah, I feel like that's definitely something to build on.” 

 Almirola admits that, with the new car, last year’s results might not translate to Sunday’s race with the setups being so very different from 2021. But he remains laser-focused on winning to secure a position in the Playoffs.

“If you run good enough to win, chances are you're going to score a lot of stage points,” Almirola said. “You're going to finish good even if you don't win, right? That’s the focus and when the time comes, I'm sure you know if there's an opportunity to make a strategy call or something like that to go win the race, then we'll do that.

“But we have to be mindful as well. We have to know our strengths and weaknesses and then making sure that we optimize that in the race.”