Sunday’s race at Watkins Glen turned out to be yet another lackluster outing for Tony Stewart and company. None of the Stewart-Haas Racing drivers were able to find a place in the top 10 as their disappointing run of form continued. With Kevin Harvick set to retire at the end of the season and veteran driver Aric Almirola speculated to follow the same path, the foreseeable future still looks pretty hectic for the team.

One of the primary reasons for their dismal performances this season would be the inability of their cars to compete with the winning vehicles this season. Last weekend threw some of those issues into the spotlight at The Glen. Almirola, who finished 30th is of the belief that nothing went right for them from the get-go. However, the fortunes of the #10 driver could change drastically with the final race at Daytona being at a superspeedway.

Aric Almirola elaborates on how the #10 car was never poised for a strong showing at The Glen

MRN commentator and announcer Dave Moody has a go at trying to know more about Almirola’s feelings after the pattern of melancholy finishes this season. He asks, “A 30th-place finish at Watkins Glen, not a fun day at the race was it?”

“No, it wasn’t.” replies the 39-year-old. Almirola has been expecting to retire at the end of this season alongside Kevin Harvick after returning to drive for Tony Stewart, despite having the same desire last season. The main reason for continuing for another season was pressure from SHR management and his primary sponsor, Smithfield Foods, who have been beside him since 2018.

“As is usually the case, the finish doesn’t tell the whole story, but yeah, it was a tough weekend. We struggled right off the truck to get the bounce off our car where we needed to and struggled for speed as an organization. We were just off and missed it in qualifying, and I mean, as you see road course races going green and not getting cautions and not getting an opportunity to do anything strategy-wise.”

As his words imply, caution was highly anticipated considering the high-octane close-quarter action on road courses. A break in the continuity of the race would level the playing field for the drivers and be quite advantageous to the drivers on the back of the grid, giving them a chance to recover the deficit. To add to their misery, another mechanical failure triggered a handling issue for him and marred the race, which again dragged him down to 30th.

“It’s really hard to just drive through the field. Starting in the back and not having any cautions proved to be really really challenging to make any progress in the field. We had an okay car, I thought we were decent at times but we struggled for track position and then late in the race with about 15 laps to go we had a left-front upper suspension piece break so we kinda limped home to a 30th place finish.” stated Almirola.

With Daytona next on the schedule, Almirola will be looking to leave a mark in what could be his final season in the Cup Series.

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Almirola could be the next driver in the playoffs for Tony Stewart and Co.

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Bubba Wallace’s spotter, Freddie Kraft, named Almirola as one of his favorites to win at Daytona. He explained that being backed by Ford is a great factor that will affect the #10 Mustang’s race on Sunday. Ford cars have dominated the races in the previous month, winning 3 of the last 4 races through Michael McDowell and Chris Buescher.

Daytona has been one of the better tracks in his career. He has led laps at all the superspeedway tracks this season, including 16 laps in the season-opener at the Daytona 500. Even his first Cup Series win in a long career arrived at the iconic track in 2014. It’s safe to say that he has a fairly good relationship with the venue. When asked about how things could look in Daytona, he says,

“Honestly, luck will play a big part in winning this weekend. It starts with bringing a fast race car making the right moves and executing. Luck doesn’t matter if you don’t have a car fast enough to run up front, but you have to avoid the inevitable wrecks and be there at the end. In the last five laps, you have to have the perfect formula of things going your way to execute and win.”

The only hope the 25th-placed driver has of qualifying for the playoffs is to grab a win. Experts and bookmakers have held him in high regard considering the urgency of the situation and how it could provide a massive boost to Tony Stewart and the SHR team.

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