Team Eager to Get on Track at Michigan after First DNF of Season
Aric Almirola and the No. 43 team suffered disappointment last weekend when their engine expired relegating them to a 43rd-place finish. The team is looking to rebound this weekend at Michigan International Speedway and gain back spots in the Championship Point Standings. Almirola is currently 14th in the point standings and 15th on the Chase Grid. Smithfield will return to the hood of the No. 43 and looks to bring the “Petty Blue” Ford back to Victory Lane this weekend.
Almirola has six Sprint Cup Series starts at Michigan. He has two Top-Five starts at the track and scored his best finish of 17th in both 2012 and 2013. He has four starts in the XFINITY and Truck Series, including a win in the Truck Series in 2010. The team has shown success at the intermediate tracks this year, scoring three 11th-place finishes of the six intermediate track races. They have an average finish of 15.8 at the intermediate tracks.
For the sixth time this season, Almirola will do double duty this weekend, piloting the No. 98 Carroll Shelby Engine Co. Ford for Biagi DenBeste Racing. In their five starts together this season, Almirola and the No. 98 team tallied two Top-10 and four Top-15 finishes.
Michigan fans will have their own opportunity to compete at the track on Sunday. Fans can sign up for the Smithfield Whole Hog Challenge all weekend for a chance to compete to win a trip to Miami and compete for the grand prize. Almirola will join “The King” Richard Petty as a judge for the contest Sunday at 9:40 a.m. at the Smithfield display.
“We’ve done a pretty good job at the intermediate tracks this season. We still need to find some more speed in the cars, but we are getting solid finishes. Last year, we struggled at the intermediate tracks and worked really hard in the off-season to get better, and I think we did. We have three 11th-place finishes at intermediate tracks, and I would love to get a notch in the Top-10 column this weekend. I think we can do that this weekend. We’ll be looking for a lot of power from our Roush Yates Engines which I’m confident we will have. We suffered a pretty big hit in points last weekend, but that was last weekend. We’re focused on getting a good finish in Michigan and continuing the consistency we have shown all season. If we keep doing what we’ve been doing, we’ll have a good shot at making The Chase.”
No. 43 Smithfield Ford
A performance and marketing driven company, Richard Petty Motorsports, co-owned by NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty and successful business entrepreneur Andrew Murstein, is one of the most recognized brands in all of motorsports. With a history of over 200 wins and business partnerships with national and global leaders, today the race operation fields two teams in competition in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Aric Almirola pilots the famous No. 43 Ford Fusion with primary partners Smithfield Foods, U.S. Air Force, STP and Fresh From Florida, and Sam Hornish Jr. drives the No. 9 machine with primary partners Medallion Bank and Twisted Tea. In addition, Dakoda Armstrong wheels the No. 43 WinField Ford Mustang full-time in the NASCAR XFINITY Series. The team is headquartered in Mooresville, N.C.
