Aric Almirola Hopes to Close Out 2016 Season Strong

Running Double Duty in Homestead

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series returns to Homestead-Miami Speedway this weekend to bring the 2016 race season to a close. In a year that saw varied results and brought changes within the team, Aric Almirola is looking to end the season with a strong finish at one of his favorite tracks on the circuit. The No. 43 Smithfield Ford team has seen improved results in the final 10 races of the season, scoring three Top-15 and five Top-20 finishes.

Almirola will also pilot the No. 98 Fresh From Florida Ford for Biagi-DenBeste Racing in the XFINITY Series on Saturday. This will be Almirola’s 10th start for the team this season. Fresh From Florida adorned the hood of the No. 98 Ford when Almirola drove it to victory at Daytona International this past July and returns for the XFINITY Series season finale.

This trip to Homestead-Miami Speedway will mark Almirola’s seventh start in a Sprint Cup Series car at the mile-and-a-half track. He has two Top-10 and four Top-20 finishes there. His best finish of fourth place came in 2010 with Richard Petty Motorsports. In the four previous XFINITY Series races he has competed in, Almirola has three Top-20 finishes. He scored his best finish of eighth place in 2011.

It’s time to go racing with Smithfield and Safeway! Almirola and teammate Brian Scott will have three minutes to race through a Fort Lauderdale-area Safeway to find Smithfield products and various other items. Each will be paired with a randomly-selected fan, and the driver to collect the highest dollar amount of correct products will win the entire grocery cart of products for their fan partner. Fans are invited to come and watch the race through Safeway before their personal grocery shopping trip, and they may even get selected to participate. The No. 44 Safeway Ford and replica 1967 Belvedere will be on hand for fans to see.

When: Friday, November 18, 9:00 – 10:30 AM
Where: Safeway, 950 NE 50th St, Oakland Park, FL 33334

Fans will have the opportunity to see Almirola and “The King” Richard Petty when they judge the championship round of the Whole Hog Challenge at the Smithfield Display in Homestead-Miami Speedway’s Fan Midway. Sixteen contestants who won their individual qualifying rounds throughout the year will compete against one another to eat a half of a pound of Smithfield bacon the fastest. The winner, crowned by Almirola and Petty, will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to the 2017 Daytona race.

When: Sunday, November 20, 10:30 – 11:00 AM
Where: Smithfield Display, Homestead-Miami Speedway

After a full summer of excitement, Smithfield is rewarding a lucky fan with a replica of Richard Petty’s 1967 Belvedere this weekend! Fans were able to visit their local Albertsons Companies story over the summer and enter to win the car by purchasing three Smithfield items and submitting a photo of their receipt. Fourteen lucky winners from across the country have been selected to come to Homestead for the chance to win the classic car. Each contestant will be given a key to the Belvedere, which was featured on NBC’s Building 43, but only one key will work. The contestant with the key that fires up the ignition will take the 1967 Belvedere home with them! If you’re watching the race from home, be sure to watch NBC’s pre-race and in-race coverage to see who wins!

When: Sunday, November 20, 11:00 – 11:30 AM
Where: Smithfield Display, Homestead-Miami Speedway

“I love Homestead-Miami Speedway. It’s such a cool racetrack. We run right up against the fence, but we can also run the bottom line too. You can really move around there. It’s a racetrack that we go to, and, as racecar drivers, know that if we have a faster car than the car in front of us then we’ll be able to easily move around them. We can’t say that about a lot of the tracks that we go to. It’s a very fun track to race at for that reason. It’s old and worn out. You slip and slide around there. The preferred line is usually right up against the fence, but you don’t have to run there. You can pretty much go wherever you can to get around somebody. So I think we’ve got a good shot at a strong finish in our No. 43 Smithfield Ford this weekend. We’ll have some work to do when we get there to get our Ford Fusion dialed in just like we’ve had to do at other mile-and-a-half tracks this year. But, we’ve seen improvement in our intermediate-track program recently, so I think we’ll have a good weekend.”

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 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. The team is headquartered in Mooresville, N.C.