Sometimes there isn’t much drivers agree upon, but one thing that is pretty unanimous within the garage is that winning a Daytona 500 is a life and career-changing event. But for those that haven’t won the Great American Race, we wanted to know what race to this point in their career had been a life-changer. Some of the answers may surprise you.
Capping a week long series are the Richard Petty Motorsports duo, Marcos Ambrose and Aric Almirola.
MARCOS AMBROSE, No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion – “For me, winning a race is just justification for the work you put in. It wasn’t like after that moment I felt like my career was set. I have always felt like getting the opportunity in the first place was the moment where I had that moment of thought. A race that made a difference to me was my first Cup win at Watkins Glen. That is by far the most prestigious wins I have had and by far the most satisfying. I think in my career it wasn’t really one race that got me my chance; it was a combination of a lot of small moments. That is what got me the opportunity. My career hasn’t been about one moment that made it, it has been about a lot of little moments.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion – “The Michigan Truck Series race was a big one for me when I raced with Kyle (Busch) and Todd (Bodine) for the win the last few laps and beat them. Two weeks before that I had gotten a phone call to do the baby-duty on the 48 with Jimmie (Johnson) and that got me a lot of attention when I did that. It seemed like a lot of people were noticing that they thought that much of me to drive for Jimmie. I got a lot of phone calls after that. That whole time frame right there was pretty life-changing for me. I went from following Mark Martin’s footsteps to be possibly taking his spot, to not taking his spot and then to kind of a ‘what am I going to do’ moment. That year we contended for a Truck championship and won a couple races, Dover and Michigan, and that Michigan race was a really fun one and to race probably the two best guys at the time that year and beat them was really good. We didn’t have the best truck but I feel like I outraced them to win that race. That was probably my most special race in NASCAR.”
“I remember my first stock car win in an Open Wheel Modified in Orlando, Florida. I was 14 years old and that was the first time I realized that I wanted to actually pursue it and might actually be good enough to do that. I beat guys that were 30 and 40 years old as a 14-year old kid, so that was life changing in that is gave me the confidence to go down this path.”
