Aric Almirola’s final season in the NASCAR Cup Series is off to a terrific start. After recording just five top-10 finishes throughout all of 2021, Almirola already has three top-10s in as many starts this season, and he’s the only driver in NASCAR’s premier division to post a top 10 in every race this year.
“We fight,” Almirola, who is retiring at season’s end, said of his No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing group. “That’s the beauty of this race team. We’re still learning this car. There’s a lot to learn about it, and we’re still trying to figure a lot of things out. Practice is great, but we’ve got to make adjustments throughout the race, and I feel like every race we’re learning more and more and we’re building a notebook. We’re making adjustments throughout the race and trying to figure it out. This team has so much fight in it and so much grit that it’s a lot of fun to race with these guys. We’ll keep digging and try and keep this streak alive. It’s a lot of fun when you run up front.”
Almirola hopes to keep his top-10 streak alive Sunday at Phoenix, a track where he’s arguably been the most consistent in recent years. In his last eight starts here, he’s earned five top-10 finishes – two of those being top-fours. He’s also led 33 laps at the 1-mile oval. His most recent Phoenix finish was sixth in the 2021 season finale.
“You have to have everything at Phoenix,” Almirola said. “You have to have downforce, grip in your car and good brakes. You have to make sure your car turns well through the center of turns 1 and 2, which is a sharp, banked corner. And then you have turns 3 and 4, which are really fast and sweeping and flat. You’ve got to have a car that’s versatile and is a good compromise for both corners.”