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Aric Almirola Comes Up Short of Spin And Win; Finishes Third at Indianapolis

by racerx55 July 21, 2024 0 comments

Story and Photos by Christian Koelle

INDIANAPOLIS – He could almost taste those sweet, sweet bricks. 

Despite crossing the finish line first at the white flag at Indianapolis, Aric Almirola had to settle for a third-place effort in his first NASCAR Xfinity Series race since May. Almirola did everything perfectly and if it had been called the Pennzoil 247.5, he’d have been kissing the bricks on Saturday evening. 

“I thought that was our only chance if we were going to steal one,” said Almirola. “The Stewart-Haas (Racing) cars were the class of the field all weekend. I thought that was my chance to try when they (Riley Herbst and Cole Custer) got side-by-side and made something happen. I thought it was going to work out. I thought I was going to get clean air and was going to be okay, but Riley’s car was so good, and he got to my left rear and got me tight. It happened earlier in that run. I’d get so tight when he’d get to my left rear. Hats off to those guys, they did a great job. Proud of everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing. Tyler (Allen, crew chief) and all the guys on this 20 team. They just did a great job. Proud of the effort and dang, that hurts.”

The stat sheet shows that Almirola showed up to Indianapolis on Saturday to compete for the win. After starting third, Almirola stayed within the top-10 most of the afternoon, except during a brief moment towards the end of the race. 

After finishing second in stage two, Almirola was running sixth battling with Austin Hill. Almirola did a perfect full 360 spin around putting out the caution and relegating him to the rear of the field. The No. 20 failed to make any contact with anything and was able to keep rolling.

With 20 laps to go, Almirola cracked back into the top-20. A beneficial caution for Almirola at lap 85 racked the field back up and gave him a chance to make up more ground. With less than 10 laps to go, Almirola was waiting to pounce on the two Stewart Haas Racing cars. On the last lap, that’s just what he did. Almirola took advantage of the two battling and passed them coming to the white flag. 

Almirola broke out to the lead but the No. 98 of Herbst got to Almirola’s quarter panel in Turn Three and took the lead through Turn Four. By that point, Custer was ready to pounce and passed the No. 20 in the restart zone, taking second from Almirola. 

The third-place finish by Almirola is his 18th career top-five finish in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and fourth straight of 2024. It is his best career finish in the Xfinity Series at Indianapolis in two starts. It also ties his best Indianapolis Motor Speedway (oval) finish as he finished third in the 2020 Brickyard 400.