Ford Performance NXS Notes and Quotes
TheHouse.com 300 – Chicagoland Speedway
Friday, September 15, 2017
Earlier this week, Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion, learned he would not return to drive the 43 car in 2018 and his sponsor, Smithfield was also leaving Richard Petty Motorsports following the conclusion of this season. Almirola spoke to media members about this week’s news following Cup practice at Chicagoland Speedway Friday.
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion — WHAT ARE YOU DOING NEXT YEAR? “Gosh, I didn’t have this many microphones in my face when I won Daytona. I can’t talk about next year. You know I can’t.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HOW YOU FEEL YOUR TENURE WAS AS YOU GET READY TO LEAVE RPM? “I have enjoyed my time at RPM. We had six good years together. I was able to be one of the lucky ones to go to victory lane in the 43 car and I have had a great time there. It has been a lot of fun. It has been a learning curve for sure. I’ve enjoyed it. It has given me a foundation. I have been happy to call that place home for the last six years.”
DO YOU WALK A TIGHTROPE BETWEEN THE KING AND SMITHFIELD RIGHT NOW? WHERE IS THAT ALL AT? “I am not really going to get in the middle of all that. My job is to drive the race car. That is what I am going to do and I will do it to the best of my abilities like I always do. I will finish the last 10 races of the year on a high note hopefully and we will go from there. I am not going to get in the middle of any of that. I am here to drive the race car and I will continue to be a professional like I am sure everyone else is on the race team. We will finish out the year as strong as we possibly can.”
IS IT SAFE TO SAY YOU AREN’T WORRIED ABOUT NEXT YEAR? “No. Every drive in a situation like this would be worried. I am fortunate enough to have a loving wife and kids back home and that makes it all the better. Knowing that no matter what happens, life goes on. There is more to life than just race cars that go around in circles and obviously I want to stay in the sport. I am a competitor and race car driver and I want to still be here but right now I am excited about whatever opportunity comes next. I know I have the support that I need back home.”
DO YOU EXPECT TO FINISH THE SEASON IN THE 43 CAR? “I expect to, yeah.”
DO YOU THINK YOU WILL? “I hope so, yeah. I fully expect to finish the year in the 43 car. I have a contract that says I will, so hopefully.”
HAVE YOU EVER BEEN INVOLVED IN SOMETHING QUITE LIKE THIS? “No, I can’t say that I have. I think looking back on when I got my opportunity at RPM back in 2012, I think they were going through something kind of similar when Best Buy left and AJ (Allmendinger) left to go to Penske. That is how I got my opportunity. I think that situation is probably as similar as I have sen. Every driver, every race team goes through changes. We see it all the time. You are seeing it right now, not just with the 43 team but with a lot of teams in the garage. Change is inevitable. It always happens and it is all about how you learn from it and pick up and keep going.”
DESPITE ALL THE CHANGES, YOU HAVE 10 RACES LEFT. DO YOU FEEL YOU CAN REMAIN TOGETHER AS A COHESIVE UNIT AND GET THE MOST OUT OF THE END OF THE SEASON? “I think so. I have already spent a lot of time with the guys on my team. You have to remember these guys on the team are like family to me. I have been around most of these guys for the whole six years I have been here. We have a great relationship and mean a lot to each other. For each other I think it is important we don’t let this get in the way of our relationship. At the end of the day we are still people. Sometimes it is easy to lose sight of that in this sport and business in general. At the end of the day we are all still people and we have relationships and those relationships will continue much past the end of 2017. It is important to continue to hang out and be together. We can still be friends even if we don’t work together.”
DID YOU HOPE TO STAY IN THE 43 OR WERE YOU LOOKING IN GENERAL TO GET TO A MORE COMPETITIVE PROGRAM? “For me it is just about being competitive. I think if there would have been an offer on the table I think it would have been interesting but Richard notified me many weeks ago that I wasn’t going to be able to return to the 43 car.”
WHY DO YOU THINK THE 43 HASN’T BEEN AS COMPETITIVE? “That is not a question for me. That is a question for management and competition directors and all of them. I get paid to drive the race car and do the best I can with the race car. I try to get the most out of the race car I can every weekend.”
SINCE YOU ANNOUNCED YOU WON’T BE BACK, HAS YOUR PHONE BEEN RINGING WITH OPPORTUNITIES? “Well, I have certainly been beating the bushes some. I think as a race car driver you want to continue to compete and I want to drive a race car. I feel like I have a lot of career ahead of me. I want to compete. I want to race. I want to run up front. I want to win races. I think it is important to try and stay relevant and stay in the sport.”
WHAT IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE KING RIGHT NOW? “We talked in Richmond and he treated me perfectly normal which I found out that he knew in Richmond and then this weekend so far he has already shook my hand and hugged me and told me we are going to go out and do the best we can these last 10 weeks. You have to remember that me and him have a relationship. I think it is important you all understand. While yes, this is business and sport and a lot of livelihoods on the line, we are all still people and all have relationships. I have built a relationship with RP the last six years that has gone from car owner to friend to like family. I think that relationships will stay.”
THERE ARE A LOT OF DRIVERS IN THE SAME SITUATION YOU ARE. HOW HARD IS IT FOR YOU TO DIFFERENTIATE YOURSELF SO THAT YOU GET THE OPPORTUNITY TO DRIVE FOR SOMEONE? “All I know how to do is be myself. I think you have seen that as you cover the sport. I am myself. I am who I am and what you see is what you get. I am not going to try to be somebody that I am not to try to get an opportunity or get a ride. I am Aric Almirola and that is all I know who to be.”
EVEN IF YOU CAN’T TALK PUBLICLY ABOUT IT, ARE YOU SET WITH A RIDE WITH AN ORGANIZATION NEXT SEASON? “If I can’t talk publically about it, would I talk about it?”
BUT ARE YOU SET FOR NEXT YEAR? DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING? “I am not going to comment on 2018. I am here to comment on finding out I am not going to be driving the 43 car.”
THERE HAS BEEN SOME SPECULATION THAT YOU MAY OR MAY NOT STILL BE HAVING PAIN IN YOUR BACK. YOUR BACK IS OKAY, RIGHT? “Yeah. My back is fine. I haven’t had any issues since I came back the first weekend at Loudon. I have been pleasantly surprised with how well my back is actually doing. That has been really a non-issue.”
TALK AT MEDIA DAY FOR PLAYOFFS WAS ABOUT AMBULANCES AND HAMLIN SAID YOUR AMBULANCE GOT LOST ON THE WAY TO THE CARE CENTER AT KANSAS. IS THAT TRUE? DID YOU KNOW ABOUT IT? “It is true and I did know about it. The ambulance driver and guy in the passenger seat were yelling. They were stuck somewhere in the infield amongst the motorhomes and couldn’t figure out how to get back the Infield Care Center. I have met with NASCAR on it and they are trying to figure out ways to rectify it. They run all their pre-race routes on Thursday or Friday and then through the weekend a lot of campers show up and the infield looks drastically different on race day than when they run their pre-routes. I think that was one of the challenges they had in Kansas. I did get lost in the back of the ambulance and that wasn’t very much fun in the moment.”
DID IT AFFECT YOUR TREATMENT? “No.”
WHAT IS THE ENVIRONMENT OUT THERE RIGHT NOW FOR GUYS IN THE SAME SPOT AS YOU RIGHT NOW LOOKING FOR RIDES NEXT YEAR? “I think everybody wants to race. That is what we all do. That is what we all know. I have been racing since I was eight-years-old. I still today, at 33, when I wake up in the morning it is all I want to do. When I moved to North Carolina in 2004, I moved there to go drive race cars. That was Plan A and I never really came up with Plan B. I have been fortunate to have the opportunities that I’ve had along the way and I have never had to think about a Plan B. I am still focused on Plan A. I still want to drive race cars. When that time comes, if that is not an opportunity, then I will try to figure out what Plan B is. For now I will fight to stay as long as I can in the sport.”
