FORD PERFORMANCE MEDIA AVAILABILITY
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2020
Aric Almirola enters the Charlotte Roval race this Sunday in a must-win scenario to advance to the NASCAR Playoffs Round of 8. Almirola spoke about the upcoming weekend and his mindset on the Ford Performance mid-week Zoom media call this afternoon.
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang — TALK ABOUT THIS WEEKEND COMING UP, YOU BASICALLY HAVE TO WIN AT AN ALREADY UNCERTAIN RACE TRACK. WHAT IS THAT LIKE? “Honestly it makes it more straightforward for us. In the past we have gone to the Roval and it has been a cutoff race in the first round and I have had to go through that the last two years but it has been more complex because you are counting points and you are trying to figure out how good you are to the good side or how far you are out. Now, we are in control, kind of, of our own destiny. We have to win. Nothing else really matters at this point. It makes it very clear and very straightforward. We don’t have to really worry about what anybody else does, we just have to focus on trying to call the right strategy for the race. We don’t have to worry about stage points or any of those things. We just have to focus on trying to win the race.”
WHERE DO YOU STAND ON RISK VERSUS REWARD AS FAR AS MAKING THE NEXT ROUND VERSUS COSTING YOURSELF POINTS THAT COULD HAMPER YOUR CHANCE TO BE FIFTH IN POINTS IF YOU DON’T ADVANCE? “Honestly, at this point I think the focus still has to be on trying to advance to the next round. I don’t want to race for fifth. My focus is not to finish fifth, my focus is to try and race for a championship. That is what this platform or layout for the NASCAR Playoffs allows. Obviously we are not good on points right now, so we have to win. If we win we are still in it going into the next round. Some of those racetracks are really good for us in the next round, specifically Texas. We led a bunch of laps at Texas and had a car capable of winning earlier this year. Our focus is to win. I don’t foresee giving up a few stage points here and there in order to put ourselves in position to win the race being overly costly in the grand scheme of things.”
YOU DO HAVE A 10TH PLACE FINISH AT CHARLOTTE, TWO TOP-10 FINISHES ON ROAD COURSES. IS THERE ANYTHING YOU HAVE SEEN THAT GIVES YOU CONFIDENCE THAT YOU CAN WIN ON SUNDAY? “Yeah, I think just being in the right place at the right time. The last couple of years we have gone there the strategy has been different. The strategy has been conservative and has been to not make mistakes. It has been about not losing points and doing everything we need to do to not beat ourselves. Now it is very different. The strategy is go race. There is no reason to be conservative. There is no reason to worry about risk management. I think it plays out a lot differently for us and for me particularly behind the wheel just in the way that I race and the way that the restarts go and the way that I attack the racetrack. Yeah, it is hard to say.”
THE FORECAST IS CALLING FOR POTENTIAL RAIN THIS WEEKEND IN CHARLOTTE. DOES THAT WORRY YOU MORE OR EXCITE YOU OR THE IDEA OF POTENTIALLY RACING IN SOME SORT OF RAIN SUNDAY? “I think for us at this point the more chaos the better. It creates more opportunities and more chances for other people to have bad races and for us to capitalize on that. Where we are at in points, if we have a bad race, so what? We are currently not in a position to make it anyway so we have to win. If there is rain or something else that is going to create more chaos and potential for more wrecks and more attrition, then that could potentially work out in our favor. I would not say that I am a road course expert by any stretch of the imagination and certainly have very, very little experience of racing in the rain. I don’t think it plays into my favor as far as being my expertise but the idea of it creating more chaos and more attrition you never know what could happen in those sort of circumstances.”
A LOT OF TALK ABOUT THE YELLOW LINE COMING OUT OF LAST WEEKEND. IS THERE A BETTER SOLUTION? IS THERE SOMETHING ELSE THAT CAN BE CONSIDERED THAT HELPS TAKE THAT POTENTIAL PENALTY OUT OF NASCAR’S HANDS? I HAVE EVEN HEARD A SUGGESTION OF RUMBLE STRIPS DOWN THERE: “Obviously you would have to be mindful of what the rumble strips look like. you wouldn’t want to do anything to promote the car to bounce or get up in the air at that speed, especially if the car is sideways or anything, you would not want the car to bounce and get up in the air. We have seen what happens when that happens at speedway races. We typically take off in flight and end up upside down. I don’t know if that is ideally the best solution. I don’t know what the solution is. I know that the line is intended to detour from going way down there and causing bigger or more wrecks but it seems like we wreck regardless. I don’t know the solution. We are going to wreck. You have 40 cars all on top of each other going close to 200 mph and we are running into each other to try to go faster. We are bump drafting and attaching and pushing and trying to side draft extremely aggressively. All of those things are a recipe for wrecks which is why it is entertaining for the fans and people tune in but for us and from the drivers perspective it just puts you in that position where you know you are going to wreck. If you don’t, you will have a good shot to win.”
ARE WE MISSING WHAT THE TOPIC SHOULD BE? SHOULD IT BE LOOKING AT THE RULES PACKAGE AND ANYTHING THAT COULD BE DONE WITH THE PACKAGE? “Again, I am not the guy that is smart enough to give that answer, but, it is a little bit of a catch-22. If you allow the cars to go faster, then we are approaching speeds that are really dangerous with that heavy of a stock car getting up to 220-plus mph is dangerous. If you slow the cars down and put more drag on them and all of those things, when you put more drag on a car it really affects the lead car and the cars behind will have a bigger advantage when the lead car is punching a bigger hole in the air because of the increased drag. That will make the draft more effective than a streamlined, slicker car that goes through the air better and creates less wake behind and the draft is not as effective. We have seen it both ways. This way with the rules package certainly promotes bigger runs and the draft is more effective and more of an equalizer and the cars stay more packed up on top of each other. All of those things, we see all of those things. I don’t know what the answer is. I don’t know that the rules need to continue to be changed. I honestly think it is just a product of speedway racing. You go back and watch it for years and years and years and ever since we have had restrictor plates or anything to slow the cars down where there is more capability in the car but it is going slower because of more drag induced on the car or restrictor plates slowing the cars down, the draft because extremely effective and the cars all run right on top of each other. When you put 40 of us knuckleheads right on top of each other we are going to beat and bang and we are going to wreck.”
HOW HAS THE LACK OF SOME ROAD COURSE ACTIVITY THIS YEAR AFFECT YOU GUYS AS YOU PREPARE FOR THIS RACE THIS WEEKEND? DOES IT THROW YOU OFF AT ALL? “I don’t think so, not really. That is why we get paid what we are paid to do. We are professional race car drivers and our job is to adapt to whatever track we go to, whether it is a half mile short track and then a two-mile fast speedway race the next week or 2.5 mile superspeedway race or a 1.5 mile. Whatever the situation is. You throw in the road courses as well, that is our job. Our job is to adapt and be prepared and be ready to take on that challenge of whatever your next race track is. From that aspect I don’t think it is any different. The lack of practice certainly can be challenging at times. At the same time, we have already gotten a couple years of experience at the Roval now so we have notes and there are videos to watch and film of previous races. There is a lot more information and data to take in to prep for the race. Where the Daytona road course there was nothing. You could watch film of Rolex cars and stuff going around there for the 24-hour race but besides that, there was really no notebook on the actual race track. It was just everybody’s best guess. Going to the Roval we have that notebook and we have had test days and practice days and all those things to look back at a lot of the things we have done the last couple of years.”
ON THE NOTE OF NO PRACTICE, DO YOU ANTICIPATE THERE BEING MORE CAUTION ON THE START OF THE RACE OR DO YOU JUST GO BACK TO WHAT YOU JUST TALKED ABOUT WITH THE NOTEBOOK? “I don’t anticipate there being more caution. Even at the Daytona road course, a place that was an unknown for everybody, there was quite a bit of aggression right at the start of the race with people trying to get spots right away. Especially road course racing, that is the most opportune time to gain spots. It gets really hard to pass when it gets strung out. The best place to make gains is on restarts. I don’t think you will see a majority of the cars being cautious. I think there will be a select few that will be cautious that have a minor points gap being in on playoff points. They will want to be cautious of not making mistakes but the guys that are out and the guys that are racing to just try to get a win and finish out their year strong, those teams and those guys are not going to be cautious.”
YOUR ATTITUDE GOING INTO THIS RACE CONSIDERING YOUR POINTS POSITION, DO YOU ENTER THIS RACE THAT IF YOU ARE FASTER THAN GUYS AND THEY ARE IN YOUR WAY, THEY ARE GOING TO GET A BUMP BECAUSE YOU GOTTA GO? “For sure. I think that the competitors would expect that. I don’t think anybody would expect anything less. We are certainly in a position of desperation. We have to go there and we have to win. We are going to be aggressive and we are going to race to try to win. You saw that at Talladega. I thought going into Talladega that while we didn’t need to win, we needed to score a lot of points to put ourselves in position going into the Roval. I was aggressive and raced super hard and had ourselves in position to score 10 stage points and win Stage 1 at Talladega. That will be the same mindset here, to be on the offense and do everything we can to go forward and try to win.”
YOU DON’T COME ACROSS AS A GUY THAT DRIVES LIKE A JERK. SO IS IT KIND OF NICE TO PUT ON THAT MASK AND HAVE TO BE THAT GUY THIS WEEKEND WHEN NORMALLY YOU WOULDN’T BE THAT WAY? “Yeah, I certainly am a guy that tends to be respectful and earn the respect of my peers and race how I want to be raced in return. I think everybody is aware of the situation. I don’t think anybody in the sport is naive to the fact that we have to be aggressive. We have to be aggressive and I am going to take chances and if there is a hole, I am going to put my race car in it. We are going to do everything we can to try to win the race. I think that while I don’t get a pass to just run people off the race track and crash people intentionally, nor would I do that, but being aggressive and being on the offense and certainly taking more than I give? Absolutely. I think that is something my competitors would expect.”
HAS THIS RACE BECOME ONE YOU ARE EXCITED TO COME TO OR IS IT STILL A LOT OF HESITATION AND UNCERTAINTY WITH THIS SETUP AND THIS RACE? “I think it is a mixed bag. I think there are a handful of guys that have run really well there the last two years so they look at it optimistically and have a lot of confidence going into the Roval. I would say the majority of the rest of the field goes there with a certain level of uncertainty of just not knowing what to expect and not knowing if the car they are bringing is going to be better than the cars they have had there in the past. If they have figured the course out better after a couple of years of running there. There are a lot of question marks for a lot of the teams still going in there but at the same time, I do feel like when we go to the Roval that it still is that chaos. It is that opportunity for wrecks and big pile-ups getting into turn one and all of those things. All of those things are still there. That presents opportunities both for good and bad. It is just that creates a little bit of anxiety going into the event and not knowing if you might get caught up in a wreck either of your own doing by misjudgment or being overly aggressive or by somebody else missing turn one on a restart and causing a big pileup.”
YOU HAVE BEEN THROUGH THE PLAYOFFS A FEW TIMES. IS IT ANY EASIER ON YOUR NERVES OR AS A COMPETITOR ARE YOU ABLE TO NOT GET WORKED UP OVER IT? “That is a hard question to give you an exact answer to because I think it changes by the day, by the minute, by the circumstances. It really changes. My first year in the playoffs in 2014 when I was with Petty, we had zero expectations. Nobody even expected us to be in the playoffs so that was just fun. It was just pure happiness and fun and excitement to be there. We raced so freely like we had nothing to lose. Then I went to Stewart-Haas and made the playoffs my first year there and it was very intense. I did not get a lot of sleep for those 10 weeks just trying to be perfect and maximize everything and wanting to make it all the way to Homestead. We came close. We almost won Phoenix and we made it to the Round of 8 and almost won Phoenix and finished fifth in points, which was a great year for us. Last year we were off and those playoffs started off intense but at the same time we were off and things weren’t going well and so there were a lot of times that there were low expectations because of our most recent performances but still fighting for everything we could and it just didn’t work out. Then this year, I have gone into the playoffs with as much confidence as I have ever had entering the playoffs because we have run so well this year and performed at such a high level. I felt like round one we made it through kind of easily. There wasn’t a lot of stress in round one and I had a lot of confidence going through that round and we performed well. Then going into this second round, I had so much confidence going to Vegas and we did not perform like we expected and that kind of put us behind the eight-ball. We went to Talladega with a tremendous amount of confidence and to be honest I slept fine. I was perfectly content all week going into Talladega and thought that we were going to have as good of a shot as anybody to go win that race. We got there, had a really fast car and thought that we were going to be in position to score a lot of points and potentially put ourselves in position to win and that didn’t work out. So, now here we find ourselves in kind of a position of nothing to lose. So there is not a lot of anxiety going to the Roval, really. It is one thing and one thing only that matters when we get there and that is to win. It just makes everything else a non-issue. You don’t have to worry about what happens if we have a part failure or what happens if this doesn’t go right or that doesn’t go right. You are already out. So you have to win to get in and so it just makes things so that you worry less about the things that could go wrong that are out of your control.”
