Motor Sports Update
Almirola has a Busy Day at Nashville and Comes Home Tenth
Nashville, TN (June 9, 2007) — This week the #20 Rockwell Automation / JGR team headed to Nashville, Tennessee for the Federated Auto Parts 300. This unique 1.33 mile concrete track tends to provide exciting racing and with the Nextel Cup racing at a different location gives the Busch Series regulars a chance to show their skills.
As Aric Almirola took the wheel for practice, he quickly showed what he learned at the race earlier this year at Nashville. Finishing practice with the second quickest time on the board, the entire team was excited about the car prepared for the Saturday evening race. Hampered by an early draw in qualifying, Almirola was able to put up a solid lap that would allow him to start the evening’s event from the 3rd position.
When the green flag flew to start the 225 lap event, Almirola settled in. Holding down the 3rd position, Almirola displayed patience as he worked himself up to the 2nd position. As a long green flag run ensued, Almirola wrestled a tight car around the track remaining in the top five while racing Nextel Cup veterans Carl Edwards and Clint Bowyer door to door. On lap 63, Crew Chief Dave Rogers called Almirola to the pits for a regularly scheduled stop for fuel and four tires. As other cars began to make the green flag stop, a car spun getting on pit road and brought out the caution flag. This would trap the #20 car in the 17th position on the tail end of the lead. As the race restarted Almirola remained on the bumper of the leader and patiently waited for the next caution period. It would take 40 laps, but eventually that caution would fly to return the #20 car to the lead lap.
Pitting for tires and fuel, Almirola knew he was going to have to be patiently aggressive as he worked his way through the field. Armed with one of the fastest cars on the track, Almirola was steadily climbing from the 17th position up to 13th when the second challenge of the night struck. Two lapped cars made contact directly in front of the #20 car. Almirola yanked the car to the bottom of the track and had the wreck missed when he clipped the apron with the left side tires and sent the car into a spin. Able to keep the car off the wall, he headed to pit road for four tires and adjustments before starting his run from the back of the field again. Restarting in the 18th position on lap 142, Almirola started to pick his way through the field. When the final caution flew on lap 153, Almirola headed to pit road to make some final adjustments. After the race restarted, Almirola knew immediately he is going to be challenge as the car was tighter than it has been all night. Almirola was still able to pick enough positions to finish 10th, his first top-ten finish in the NASCAR Busch Series.
"It is hard to complain about a top-ten finish, but this car was capable of a top-five," said Almirola after the race. "We put ourselves behind early by going a lap down, but we were able to easily run with the leaders. This is fast track and the field gets spread out quickly. Once you get in the back, it takes a lot of laps to work your way through traffic. It seemed like the last set of tires just tightened up our car so much, we weren’t able to climb back up there. We had a good balance early and were running some good lap times, so I hope that carries over next week to the race in Kentucky."
This week the Busch Series heads to Sparta, KY for the Meijer 300 at Kentucky Speedway. Almirola will return to the seat of the #20 Rockwell Automation Chevrolet for this Saturday night event. This race is scheduled to start at 8:30 p.m. EST and will be broadcast on ESPN2.
