Aric Almirola, seen here from a previous race weekend, looks for a return to victory lane on Sunday in the NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Photo: Sean Gardner/Getty Images
Last year, New Hampshire Motor Speedway was very good to Aric Almirola.
The race weekend at the “Magic Mile” provided Almirola with his only NASCAR Cup Series win of the 2022 season, snapping a drought of disappointment for the Stewart Haas Racing driver.
There has been a lot of recent speculation as to whether defending raced winner may change his mind about retiring at the end of the 2022 season as he had planned.
“It is humbling to have people keep questioning me about it,” said Almirola, who is ranked 18th in the championship and likely needing a victory to secure a 2022 Playoff position.
“I have given it thought but I don’t have anything new to say really as of right now. I think for us and for our race team, my focus is to get through these next few weeks and try to win a race to get our way into the Playoffs.
“I would like to do that here this weekend like we did last year. As far as anything that goes past this year, I don’t have anything new to say than what I’ve said previously.”
After adjusting for race winners, Almirola trails 16th place Christopher Bell by 42 points in that final Playoff transfer position. A three-race winner in his series career, Almirola has had a pair of top-5 finishes and six top-10 runs in 2022.
Chase Briscoe’s win at Phoenix in March is the only victory for the Stewart-Haas Racing organization this season and he’s the only driver among the four SHR racers with a secured spot in the Playoffs.
For Tyler Reddick, The Future Is Now
Tyler Reddick, who earned his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory two races ago at Road America, was part of a major – and unique – announcement this week.
23XI Racing announced Reddick will be driving for them in 2024 – stunning much of the NASCAR world as the team secured its future driver more than a year before the current Richard Childress Racing driver will join the two-year old organization.
“Announcing a driver over a year before he will be racing with 23XI is a little unprecedented, but Tyler was the driver we wanted and we did not want to miss the opportunity to bring him to our team,’’ 23XI President Steve Lauletta said Tuesday.
“In making the announcement now the team has ample time to prepare for 2024 on the business side as we expect interest from potential partners and continue to see strong engagement from our current partners.”
NASCAR Cup Series
New Hampshire Motor Speedway – Loudon, NH
Ambetter 301 – July 17, 2022
Sunday’s Starting Line Up
1. (19) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 127.113 mph.
2. (9) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 126.922 mph.
3. (45) Kurt Busch, Toyota, 126.825 mph.
4. (23) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 126.513 mph.
5. (20) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 126.425 mph.
6. (24) William Byron, Chevrolet, 126.387 mph.
7. (10) Aric Almirola, Ford, 126.040 mph.
8. (5) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 126.019 mph.
9. (6) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 125.252 mph.
10. (4) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 0.000 mph.
11. (12) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 0.000 mph.
12. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 0.000 mph.
13. (8) Tyler Reddick, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
14. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 0.000 mph.
15. (34) Michael McDowell, Ford, 0.000 mph.
16. (17) Chris Buescher, Ford, 0.000 mph.
17. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 0.000 mph.
18. (1) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
19. (99) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
20. (16) A.J. Allmendinger(i), Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
21. (7) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
22. (43) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
23. (41) Cole Custer, Ford, 0.000 mph.
24. (47) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
25. (31) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
26. (38) Todd Gilliland #, Ford, 0.000 mph.
27. (48) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
28. (2) Austin Cindric #, Ford, 0.000 mph.
29. (14) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 0.000 mph.
30. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
31. (21) Harrison Burton #, Ford, 0.000 mph.
32. (78) B.J. McLeod(i), Ford, 0.000 mph.
33. (15) J.J. Yeley(i), Ford, 0.000 mph.
34. (77) Josh Bilicki(i), Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
35. (42) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
36. (51) Cody Ware, Ford, 0.000 mph.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.