No. 10 Smithfield Ford Racing: Aric Almirola Nashville Race Report

Almirola Fourth at Inaugural Nashville Race
Smithfield Ford Driver Earns First Top-Five of Season

Date: June 20, 2021
Event: Inaugural Ally 400 (Round 17 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway (1.333-mile oval)
Format: 300 laps, broken into three stages (90 laps/95 laps/115 laps)
Start/Finish: 1st / 4th (Running, completed 300 of 300 laps)
Point Standing: 28th (240 points, 444 out of first)
Race Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-90):

● Aric Almirola started first and finished 16th.
● Almirola was scored third by lap eight. He noted loose-handling conditions into the turn and being tight to the middle.
● On lap 45, Almirola was called to the pits. Crew chief Mike Bugarewicz radioed Almirola to roll through pit road to stay on the lead lap due to an ill-timed caution.
● The No. 10 Smithfield team pitted during the caution period for four tires, fuel and air pressure and wedge adjustments.
● Almirola restarted sixth, but another caution was called on lap 55.
● He restarted seventh and drove to the top-five until another caution on lap 79.
● The team pitted for four tires, fuel and adjustments and restarted 12th.
● Almirola said his tires chattered during the restarted, resulting in the No. 10 dropping to 16th before the end of the stage.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 91-185):

● Almirola started 10th and finished ninth, earning two bonus points.

● The No. 10 Smithfield team opted not to pit at the end of the stage.
● Almirola rejoined the top-10 by lap 108 when he passed teammate Cole Custer and was scored eighth just 11 laps later.
● He pitted during a caution period on lap 132 for four tires, fuel and adjustments to help the No. 10 Ford turn better.
● The Smithfield Ford pit crew gained Almirola one spot on pit road to restart eighth.
● Almirola drove back to sixth place by lap 147 and passed teammate Kevin Harvick for fifth on lap 155.
● The caution was called on lap 174. Almirola restarted 10th and held his Smithfield Ford inside the top-10.
● He pitted at the end of the stage for four tires, fuel and adjustments.

Final Stage Recap (Laps 186-300):

● Almirola started eighth and finished fourth.
● He pitted under caution for four tires, fuel and adjustments on lap 228, telling his team he needed more grip.
● He restarted sixth and said grip improved after the adjustments.
● The No. 10 Smithfield Ford driver raced his way to fourth place by lap 251.
● Almirola was told to save fuel with 40 laps to go.
● He fell to fifth while saving fuel and passed teammate Kevin Harvick right at the finish line to finish fourth.

Notes:

● Almirola earned his first top-five and second top-10 of the season.
● This was Almirola’s best finish so far this season. His previous best result was a sixth-place drive April 18 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway.
● Kyle Larson won the inaugural Ally 400 to score his 10th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his fourth of the season and his third straight. His margin over second-place Ross Chastain was 4.335 seconds.
● There were 11 caution periods for a total of 60 laps.
● Twenty of the 39 drivers in the Ally 400 finished on the lead lap.
● Denny Hamlin remains the championship leader after Nashville with a nine-point advantage over second-place Larson.

Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

“We had a good car and finally ended some of the bad luck that has been dealt our way this year. Our race team is doing a great job scrounging and scrapping to build better racecars, and it’s nice to come here and run up front, run in the top-five and at least be in the mix, so it feels good. We’ll just keep building on it. The All-Star Race was a good race for us. Today, again, was a good race for us, so we’ll just keep grinding. We had some really fast cars on Pocono last year, and we’re racing there twice this weekend, so we’ve got a chance to keep building on this momentum.”

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is a doubleheader June 26-27 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway. The first race starts at 3 p.m. EDT on Saturday, and the second race begins at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday. Both races will be broadcast live on NBCSN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SpeedwayMedia.com

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