{"id":44107,"date":"2023-10-28T15:15:45","date_gmt":"2023-10-28T20:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=44107"},"modified":"2023-11-13T10:42:33","modified_gmt":"2023-11-13T16:42:33","slug":"nascar-saturday-martinsville-notebook-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2023\/10\/28\/nascar-saturday-martinsville-notebook-4\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Saturday Martinsville Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Reid Spencer<\/em><\/p>\n

NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

Aric Almirola announces retirement from full-time NASCAR Cup racing<\/b><\/p>\n

MARTINSVILLE, Va. \u2013 At roughly 9 o\u2019clock on Saturday morning, readers of the \u201cX\u201d app got the long-awaited answer to Aric Almirola\u2019s plans for 2024\u2014a partial answer, at least.<\/p>\n

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Aric Almirola. (Photo by Alex Slitz\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Almirola announced his retirement from full-time NASCAR Cup Series racing, indicating he will not be back in the No. 10 Ford at Stewart-Haas Racing next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter much prayer, consideration and conversations with my family, I\u2019m ready for the next adventure,\u201d Almirola posted, along with expressions of gratitude to Stewart-Haas and sponsor Smithfield Foods, which has decided to end its commitment to NASCAR racing at the end of the season.<\/p>\n

Almirola achieved two of his three NASCAR Cup Series victories with Stewart-Haas, at Talladega in 2018 and at New Hampshire in 2021. His other Cup win came in a rain-shortened race at Daytona for Richard Petty Motorsports in 2014.<\/p>\n

Though Almirola said later on Saturday in the Martinsville Speedway media center that he\u2019s seeking a more equitable work\/life balance, he didn\u2019t rule out racing on a more limited basis next year and beyond.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still would like to scratch the itch,\u201d said the 39-year-old driver. \u201cI don\u2019t know what that looks like. I still want to late-model race. If there\u2019s an opportunity to run an asphalt pavement, a late model race or a dirt-late model race\u2014a truck race or an Xfinity race, something like that, or even a one-off Cup race here and there, I would enjoy that.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut doing it 38 weeks out of the year is a grind. I\u2019m not complaining, because I signed up for it, and I loved it, and it\u2019s afforded our family a wonderful, wonderful life. But I\u2019m ready to just create a little bit better work\/life balance as I go forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almirola didn\u2019t provide any specifics about his future plans, and Stewart-Haas is now tasked with finding a driver and sponsor for the No. 10 Ford.<\/p>\n

Tyler Reddick says strategic adjustments may become necessary on Sunday<\/b><\/p>\n

Entering Sunday\u2019s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway 10 points below the current cutoff for the Championship 4, Tyler Reddick\u2019s path to the title race is arguably more complex than that of any other competitor.<\/p>\n

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Tyler Reddick. (Photo by Chris Graythen\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Stage points could play an important role in Reddick\u2019s fortunes as he tries to overtake Ryan Blaney, who holds the last Playoff-eligible position. Then again, a variety of circumstances could force Reddick to win the event in order to advance.<\/p>\n

Initially, Reddick expects to approach the race the way he would any other.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s straightforward,\u201d Reddick said. \u201cIt\u2019s a normal race weekend, honestly. Our (purpose) here in practice is to get a good feel in our race car and understand what we need to do, if anything. Hopefully, we don\u2019t have to do anything to it for qualifying and just go out there and execute the qualifying lap just like any weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

If a must-win situation develops, however, Reddick needs to be prepared to make adjustments.<\/p>\n

\u201cTypically, the way this race plays out, there\u2019s really only been a couple guys that have gotten really crazy with strategy to flip their track position,\u201d Reddick said. \u201cI don\u2019t anticipate a lot of odd-placed cautions, but if they do happen, it\u2019s something we\u2019ll have to weigh in our minds.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if we\u2019re at the front of the field like we plan on being, like we\u2019re shooting for, we\u2019re at the front of whatever strategy we want to be on. It\u2019ll just give us more options if that arises. If it comes down to the end of the race, and you\u2019ve got to get a couple spots, you\u2019ve got to be aggressive.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour whole year\u2019s on the line, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Qualifying, however, didn\u2019t work out the way Reddick had hoped. He spun in Turn 4 on his second lap in the first round and will start 19th on Sunday\u2014with lot of work to do to keep his championship aspirations alive.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no secrecy between teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing<\/b><\/p>\n

In all likelihood, Martin Truex Jr. must reverse his recent fortunes\u2014or misfortunes, more precisely\u2014and win Sunday\u2019s Xfinity 500 to advance to the Nov. 6 Championship 4 race at Phoenix Raceway.<\/p>\n

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Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx Toyota, sits in his car during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway on October 28, 2023 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Denny Hamlin, Truex\u2019s teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, faces the exact same challenge. Each driver trails fourth-place Ryan Blaney by 17 points and third-place William Byron by 37.<\/p>\n

With two Championship 4 spots already claimed by Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell, thanks to their respective victories at Las Vegas and Homestead, and Byron likely to advance on points, Truex and Hamlin could be battling each other for a win at Martinsville and the final Championship 4 berth.<\/p>\n

Under the circumstances, you might expect their teams to adopt a secretive mode as they try to gain an upper hand, but Truex says that\u2019s not the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing really changes,\u201d Truex said Saturday before winning the pole for Sunday\u2019s race at the 0.526-mile short track. \u201cWe race just like we do every other week. We will go with what got us here. Being in the Playoffs as teammates for so many years, we have that experience, and we know what got us here and things that make us strong as a group.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen you go on Sunday and race. You don\u2019t hide things, you don\u2019t try to do anything different. At least that has been my experience in the past on how we\u2019ve handled it, and so far, nothing that I\u2019ve seen has been different.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service Aric Almirola announces retirement from full-time NASCAR Cup racing MARTINSVILLE, Va. \u2013 At roughly 9 o\u2019clock on Saturday morning, readers of the \u201cX\u201d app got the long-awaited answer to Aric Almirola\u2019s plans for 2024\u2014a partial answer, at least. Almirola announced his retirement from full-time NASCAR Cup Series racing, indicating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":44095,"comment_status":"closed","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-44107","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\/2023\/10\/GettyImages-1761895953-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-btp","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44107","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=44107"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44110,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44107\/revisions\/44110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}