Photo Credit: Noel Lanier/OnPitRoad.com
Richard Petty Motorsports driver, Aric Almirola, put forth a valiant effort Saturday night in the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway. Saturday’s race was the final race of NASCAR’s regular season before heading into the ten race, Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Almirola, who made the Chase last year, entered the night 29 points out of Chase contention. The Tampa, Florida driver, who is currently in his eighth Cup season, qualified 24th, but methodically worked his way toward the front. His primary competition for Chase eligibility quickly became Richard Childress Racing driver, Paul Menard.
Menard struggled most of the night, and ended the night three laps off the pace of the leader, finally finishing 26th. Menard’s issues, however, were not enough for Almirola.
Almirola turned in his best finish of the season finishing fourth, however, he came up seven points shy of his second Chase berth. “It is tough, commented Almirola, “This is what we race for. We race to win races. We race to run for a championship. This race team, we got to do it last year and we had an engine failure at Chicago and feel like we had a lot more to show in the Chase last year. We wanted another shot at it really bad. We have a really, really good race team and am disappointed we didn’t get Smithfield and Ford into the Chase again.”
Neither, Menard or Almirola, have had very strong seasons. To date, Menard has just two top-fives and four top-tens. Almirola, also has two top-fives, but only two top-tens. Menard will definitely have to step up his game to make it past the Challenger round of this year’s Chase.
Menard commented about the Chase after the Richmond event saying, “Everything resets now, so Chicago has been a pretty good track for us. I feel good about our intermediate track program. Man, we had a fast car tonight, it just burned the left‑front tire off after 30, 40 laps and we started going backwards. Try to figure out what happened there, but Chicago is a whole new animal, and it’s a track I really enjoy.”
The Challenger round of the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup begins next Sunday with the MyAfibRisk.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.
