Almirola Wins his First Sprint Cup Race in the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona

For Aric Almirola the rain tastes pretty sweet as he captured his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race.

In probably one of the soggiest race weekends NASCAR has had this season, the racing was still exciting. There was a little bit of everything including rain, crashes and bad pit stops. But one driver stood above the rest to claim his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win. Not only was it his first win, but he did it on the anniversary of “The King” Richard Petty’s 200th win, in the No. 43 car made famous by Petty. Petty’s 200th win also came at Daytona.

Almirola captured the first win for the No.43 car since Martinsville in April of 1999 with John Andretti behind the wheel.  To just add some icing onto the cake, birthday cake that is, Petty also just celebrated a birthday. With all this you have to see the magic of it all and there is no denying that it was just meant to be.

The race was scheduled for 160 laps on the 2.5-mile superspeedway on Saturday night, however was moved to Sunday due to rain. Rain fell once again on Sunday, resulting in the race being called after 112 laps. Almirola, who entered with four top-five finishes in his seven-year career, led 14 laps.  Almirola, a Florida native made some history of his own, winning at what he considers his home track and putting him in one of the coveted “Chase” spots.

“This is so awesome. The amount of effort that has gone into this team and building it to be better and a winning team as it should be has been great to watch.” Almirola shared his thoughts on winning his first race saying, “To get this car in victory lane is really special. The good Lord was looking out for us today. We had a good fast car and we’ll take them anyway we can get them. We’re going to be in the Chase.”

A happy Almirola also talked about the team stating, “I went last week down to Tampa to do a lot of media to promote this race and I’ve said time and time again how bad I want to win here. I grew up sitting in those grandstands right there and dreamed about winning here and man; I just took the 43 car to victory lane here at Daytona.  This race team is deservingly so. We’ve had cars where we’ve ran in the top 10, just haven’t got the finishes. This is so cool to get these guys who have been on this race team for so long to be able to get to victory lane.”

The race was iffy for rain from the start of the race on Sunday. It looked as if it could rain and it did only nine laps into the race resulting in a half hour delay.

Then after the race was restarted, it had barely started back again when “The Big One” would happen when  Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got squirrelly, in which Jeff Gordon reacted to move down, getting into Tony Stewart, causing Stewart to spin Stenhouse. When the smoke had cleared there were 16 cars involved in the wreck.

“We’re a quarter lap away from the caution and Stenhouse wanted to be a hero. I think it’s a pretty dumb excuse for a caution.” Stewart said.

“We had a good run going for the lead. The 33 pulled down, I got loose off the corner and then the 24 thought I’d spin and came down, and the 24 hit the 14 there.” Stenhouse replied.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Marcos Ambrose, Danica Patrick, Matt Kenseth and Kyle Larson also got a piece of the wreck.

“I was running three-wide and I just saw cars flying everywhere. Just real disappointing for the guys that have been working down here for four days in the heat, not to mention shop hours to only run 19 laps.” Johnson said.

There were a pair of cautions due to debris and Earnhardt Jr. was the lucky dog more than once trying to get back in contention after the wreck, though would end up finishing 14th.

While most races feature only one big wreck, this race would be different as a second wreck happened at lap 99. The wreck started when Greg Biffle got into the back of Kasey Kahne, while running in the top-five.

“I was just getting hit from behind and next thing I was spinning,” Kahne explained. “Everybody was trying to get going and I just got hit and it was going left and right.”

“Just so unhappy and close quarters racing,” Biffle commented. “David Ragan gave me a big push and the 5 moved down to the middle, hit the 13 and then I hit the 5. You don’t know when the shove happens and its hard to time it all.”

Kyle Busch thought he had it cleared with a slight slip through the grass, however contact from Cole Whitt with Busch sitting on the apron resulted in Busch going over on his roof. Clint Bowyer and Jamie McMurray also caught air as a total of 26 cars caught a piece of the wreck.

“It was a carnival ride, but I guess that’s fitting for the Fourth of July weekend,” Busch summarized. “I think someone got the 5 turned across the field there and it went through the grass and went across, t-boned there and it toppled over.”

“From my seat, I didn’t see anything,” McMurray commented. “Kasey came over and said that Greg got him squirrley and he couldn’t catch it. When you have a car spin at the directly in the front of the field, its hard to avoid them. The car was completely off the ground there and let me say – that is a helpless feeling – so glad that it set back down.”

“She did the hostile hop there but luckily, she went back down,” Bowyer said. “But man, look at all the cars torn up and all these guys work so hard on them. Now they’re just scrap.”

Other drivers involved include Brad Keselowski, Michael Annett, Marcos Ambrose, Danica Patrick, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Alex Bowman, Paul Menard, Ryan Newman, Terry Labonte, Bobby Labonte, David Ragan, Reed Sorenson, David Gilliland, Landon Cassill, Justin Allgaier, Ryan Truex, Michael McDowell and Josh Wise.

“That happens right towards the front and it looks like the 16 got into the 5,” pole sitter Gilliland said. “Just a disappointing day. Hope to get fixed and get some points.”

Many teams were playing weatherman by staying out before and after the race hit the halfway mark, with hopes that if the rain did start, they would be where they needed to be.

Kurt Busch was one of those who did and led the most laps in the race.  Along with Busch, Biffle and Almirola were up front fighting for the lead spot.  On the restart on lap 105 Kurt Busch and Almirola were side-by-side and on lap 107 Almirola pulled ahead with help from Brian Vickers. The caution came out again on lap 109 and the race was called after 112 laps.

Brian Vickers would get second for his sixth top-10 of 2014, followed by Kurt Busch, Casey Mears and Austin Dillon. Denny Hamlin finished sixth, followed by Michael McDowell, Danica Patrick, Clint Bowyer and Marcos Ambrose.

Jeff Gordon remains the leader in the point standings; Earnhardt is in second, 27 points behind. Johnson (-55) is third followed by Keselowski (-65) and Kenseth (-71).

The next stop on the Sprint Cup Schedule is at New Hampshire on Sunday July 13 at 1 p.m. ET for the Camping World RV Sales 301.

Coke Zero 400 Finishing Order at Daytona International Raceway

1. Aric Almirola
2. Brian Vickers
3. Kurt Busch
4. Casey Mears
5. Austin Dillon
6. Denny Hamlin
7. Michael McDowell
8. Danica Patrick
9. Clint Bowyer
10. Marcos Ambrose
11. Terry Labonte
12. Jeff Gordon
13. Alex Bowman
14. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
15. Martin Truex Jr.
16. Paul Menard
17. Joey Logano
18. Brad Keselowski
19. Michael Waltrip
20. Matt Kenseth
21. Michael Annett
22. David Ragan
23. Josh Wise
24. Ryan Newman
25. Justin Allgaier
26. Bobby Labonte
27. Kasesy Kahne
28. Kyle Busch
29. Greg Biffle
30. Jamie McMurray
31. Landon Cassill
32. Ryan Truex
33. Reed Sorenson
34. Cole Whitt
35. David Gilliland
36. Kyle Larson
37. Carl Edwards
38. Trevor Bayne
39. Kevin Harvick
40. Tony Stewart
41. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
42. Jimmie Johnson
43. AJ Allmendinger