Aric Almirola took the lead spot at New Hampshire on Sunday racing for the life of his 2021 season, his future with Stewart-Haas Racing, and maybe even the rest of his career in the NASCAR Cup Series.
He did so without knowing for certain how many laps remained in the race.
After a lengthy rain delay that got kicked off with Kyle Busch’s understandable frustrations pushed the race back, NASCAR would go up against sunlight to try and finish the race before darkness took over the light-less track.
Almirola just happened to hit the setup exactly right, and despite the race being shortened by nine laps, stayed out front and finished his night in victory lane.
“We’ve been through so much,” Almirola said. “Everybody’s just been working so hard. There’s been so many people that just continue to support us through the crappiest year ever.”
The team came into the race in 27th in the series points standings, with not much success to point towards being confident about a strong run on Sunday.
However, Almirola knew what he was capable of at the track that has become one of his favorites.
“Yeah I did,” Almirola said. “This is by far one of my favorite race tracks. I love this race track. I had this race won a couple of years ago and I gave it away. I lost it.”
The win for Almirola truly came as an upset, as the 37-year old had never won before in his career at a non-superspeedway race track.
Not only does the win count toward his now three total career wins, but he and his Stewart-Haas Racing team clinched a spot in the NASCAR Playoffs.
The updated Playoff Grid now shows Almirola in, with Denny Hamlin (+285), Kevin Harvick (+82), and Tyler Reddick (+5) as the wild card selections into the playoffs.
Austin Dillon will have to fight his teammate for the final spot, as he sits just five points off the cutoff, but Almirola won’t have to worry about anything like that for the rest of the regular season.
“There’s no doubt,” Almirola said. “We have struggled, but guess what? We’re going playoff racing!”
With a few weeks off for the Olympic break on NBC, NASCAR won’t be back until August 8 when the series takes on Watkins Glen.
Until then, Almirola & Co. will have a while to let this one set in.
NASCAR Results
New Hampshire Motor Speedway
1. Aric Almirola
2. Christopher Bell
3. Brad Keselowski
4. Joey Logano
5. Ryan Blaney
6. Kevin Harvick
7. Kyle Larson
8. Ross Chastain
9. Alex Bowman
10. Denny Hamlin
11. Matt DiBenedetto
12. Martin Truex Jr.
13. Tyler Reddick
14. Cole Custer
15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
16. Kurt Busch
17. Austin Dillon
18. Chase Elliott
19. Erik Jones
20. Daniel Suarez
21. William Byron
22. Ryan Preece
23. Corey LaJoie
24. Ryan Newman
25. Michael McDowell
26. Bubba Wallace
27. Chase Briscoe
28. Justin Haley
29. Chris Buescher
30. BJ McLeod
31. Cody Ware
32. Anthony Alfredo
33. Garrett Smithley
34. Josh Bilicki
35. Quin Houff
36. James Davison
37. Kyle Busch
