Running Double Duty with Primary Sponsor Fresh From Florida at Talladega
NASCAR is heading to the second Superspeedway track of the year, and Aric Almirola is ready to take on the 2.66 miles of Talladega Superspeedway. Almirola will pilot the No. 43 Fresh From Florida Ford in Sunday’s 500-mile main event. The team is hoping to build off of the momentum from a 12th-place finish in the Daytona 500, the first Superspeedway race of 2016. Currently sitting 24th in the Championship Point Standings, Almirola is looking to advance his position with a strong finish this weekend.
Almirola will pull double duty in Alabama, driving the No. 98 Fresh From Florida Ford for Biagi-DenBeste Racing in Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY race. Running a partial-schedule in the XFINITY series as his Cup schedule allows, this will be Almirola’s sixth start in the series of the 2016 season. Almirola finished 11th in Daytona’s XFINITY race earlier this year.
Having made 12 starts at Talladega in the Sprint Cup Series previously, Almirola has scored eight Top-20 finishes. His best finish of 10th place came in the spring of 2013. Almirola has made three starts in the XFINITY Series at Talladega. He’s finished 10th at the superspeedway twice, once in 2011 and again 2015.
Almirola will be participating in a fan Q&A at the Ford Display in Talladega Superspeedway’s Fan Midway on Sunday morning. Make sure that you’re there to have your question answered!
When: Sunday, May 1, 9:30 – 9:45 AM
Where: Talladega Superspeedway Fan Midway, Ford Display
“Talladega is the biggest crapshoot of all. It’s a unique race track in the respect that handling doesn’t matter. Of all the tracks that we go to every year, it’s the one track where handling just doesn’t matter. It’s just about having your car trimmed out to go very, very fast. If it goes fast by itself then it will typically draft well. And, if it doesn’t go fast, the draft will still makeup a lot of the difference. It’s a place where you have to be very aggressive and take risky chances. Sometimes those chances pay off for you and sometimes you end up in a big crash. But, I like our chances going into Talladega. We had great cars in Daytona, both Cup and XFINITY, and I think we’ll be just as strong in Talladega.”
No. 43 Fresh From Florida 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 with drivers Aric Almirola and Brian Scott. Almirola will return to the iconic No. 43 Ford with partners Smithfield Foods, STP, United States Air Force and the “Fresh From Florida” campaign. Scott will make his debut with the team and drive the Petty Family No. 44 Ford. Albertsons Companies, Shore Lodge, Twisted Tea and GoBowling.com will join Scott as he competes for Rookie of the Year in his first full-time season in the Sprint Cup Series. Richard Petty Motorsports will also field the No. 43 Ford Mustang in the NASCAR XFINITY Series with driver Jeb Burton, who will compete in his first full-time XFINTY season with partner J. Streicher. The team is headquartered in Mooresville, N.C.
