{"id":22476,"date":"2018-10-26T15:35:04","date_gmt":"2018-10-26T20:35:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=22476"},"modified":"2018-10-28T09:35:48","modified_gmt":"2018-10-28T14:35:48","slug":"aric-almirola-has-nothing-to-lose-entering-nascars-round-of-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/26\/aric-almirola-has-nothing-to-lose-entering-nascars-round-of-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Aric Almirola has \u2018nothing to lose\u2019 entering NASCAR\u2019s Round of 8"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

In a certain sense, Aric Almirola is \u201cplaying with house money\u201d as he makes a run at his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup championship. Although he has long been considered a talent, the 34-year-old Tampa native is surpassing even high expectations during these playoffs in his first season with the Stewart-Haas Racing team.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Aric Almirola, driver of the #10 Smithfield Bacon for Life Ford, celebrates after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series 1000Bulbs.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 14, 2018 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Matt Sullivan\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

The four-car championship organization is a perennial favorite in the Cup Series and this year makes up half the remaining Round of 8 championship field. And the \u201cnew guy\u201d in the SHR group, Almirola, has absolutely seized opportunity and exceeded first-year potential by most accounts. He is not only keeping up with his SHR teammates Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and Kurt Busch, he\u2019s the only member of the team to win in the playoffs to date (at Talladega).<\/p>\n

Almirola sits in eighth place \u2013 only 12 points behind the leading four drivers in the standings \u2013 as the last championship round begins Sunday with the First Data 500 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

Forget any championship pressure for Almirola. Many already consider him an \u201coverachiever\u201d in a career-best season. His shot at his first title in his first year with the team has been extremely satisfying. He has never advanced this far in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think I am capable of handling the pressure of the championship because I don\u2019t feel like there is a lot of pressure,\u2019\u2019 Almirola said. \u201cI feel like we\u2019ve exceeded our expectations for this year. I don\u2019t think many people expected us to make it as far as we have.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point we have nothing to lose. Going for a championship at Homestead would just be icing on the cake this year.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

As for the expression that has seemed to follow him this season, \u201coverachiever,\u201d Almirola would agree to a certain extent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like our season has been tattooed with adversity,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been close so many times to winning races but we\u2019ve had a lot of stuff happen to us. What doesn\u2019t kill you will make you stronger. For our team, we\u2019ve had a lot of character-building races and I feel like we\u2019re stronger because of it.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Even prior to winning at Talladega two weeks ago \u2013 his second career victory and first since a win at Daytona in the summer of 2014 \u2013 Almirola was making good on this new opportunity driving the No. 10 Ford with SHR.<\/p>\n

His three top-five finishes to date equals a career-high mark and his 14 top-10 finishes is double his best previous-best career effort in six seasons. He\u2019s led a career-high 181 laps in 2018 \u2013 easily surpassing his previous career-best mark of 78 laps led back in his 2012 rookie season.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s still four races remaining in the season to add to those numbers.<\/p>\n

While Almirola had obviously hoped to make the playoffs after joining the successful SHR team, he concedes he\u2019s been pleasantly surprised how his team has mastered the learning curve so quickly \u2013 new driver and new team led by first-year crew chief Johnny Klausmeier.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we wanted to win, but our goal going into the season was to be consistent and run top-15 and don\u2019t put too much pressure on ourselves, don\u2019t bite off more than we can chew because usually you choke when that happens,\u2019\u2019 Almirola said, \u201cthat was kind of our motto, our mentality.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did pretty that pretty well.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

No denying that. And yet for all the personal bests he\u2019s already recorded this year, Almirola sincerely insists the best part is being a part of the success of the whole SHR operation. And he is proud to be a viable contributor to it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have 400 employees at SHR and to have all of them pulling their weight and pulling the rope in the same direction, it\u2019s hard to get two people on the same page,\u201d Almirola explained. \u201cBut to have 400 employees helping each other out and doing whatever it takes for the team, it has been incredible for me to witness that and to be part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earning a position in the Cup Series\u2019 Final Four for the Nov. 18 Homestead-Miami Speedway season finale will be challenging, Almirola concedes. He has never won at any of the upcoming three tracks \u2013 Martinsville, Texas Motor Speedway or Phoenix\u2019s new-look ISM Raceway \u2013 that set the championship-eligible field.<\/p>\n

Almirola has three top-10 finishes at this week\u2019s Martinsville half-miler and it\u2019s the only venue he has led laps among the three upcoming tracks. His last top-10 was eighth in 2014 and he was 14th this spring.<\/p>\n

Statistically, anyway, the Texas Motor Speedway 1.5-miler has historically posed the biggest challenge of the trio of tracks. He has only one top 10 there \u2013 a seventh-place showing in 2013. He was 32nd this spring after being involved in a crash.<\/p>\n

The ISM Raceway will debut a completely new look next month so past performance isn\u2019t necessarily indicative of future expectations. However, Almirola has finished top 10 in his last two races there \u2013 ninth last November and seventh this March.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be incredible to make the Round of 4,\u2019\u2019 Almirola said. \u201cI think for us, and for me personally, that\u2019s not something I am used to. I know some of the other drivers that I\u2019m racing against expect to be in the Round of 4 and that\u2019s pretty common for them. But for me, that\u2019s unchartered territory, and that\u2019s an opportunity for me and my career that I\u2019ve never had before.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if we\u2019re at Homestead with a shot to go for the championship that would certainly be the pinnacle of my career and then to top it off with that trophy would be awesome.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service In a certain sense, Aric Almirola is \u201cplaying with house money\u201d as he makes a run at his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup championship. Although he has long been considered a talent, the 34-year-old Tampa native is surpassing even high expectations during these playoffs in his first season with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":22403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[272,407,16],"class_list":["post-22476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-aric-almirola","tag-martinsville-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/358215.jpg?fit=4524%2C3016&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-5Qw","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22476"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22477,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22476\/revisions\/22477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}