Winless in Cup Series Since 2021, Aric Almirola Exposes the Sad Realities of Tony Stewart’s Team’s Performance Slump

Aric Almirola is another driver who is still chasing his first Cup Series title despite being the in sport for more than 15 years. While his occasional good runs have excited the community over the years, the Stewart-Haas Racing driver’s career-best year was back in 2018 when he clinched his first superspeedway victory at the iconic Talladega Super Speedway and finished fifth in the championship standings.

But that period is long gone now. After announcing his retirement after the 2022 season, the #10 driver made a comeback to the Cup Series, but it hasn’t been great for the driver. For context, out of the 15 races so far in the series, Tony Stewart‘s driver has only managed a single top-10 finish, when he crossed the start/finish line in 6th position at Martinsville.

It is safe to say things are far from great. And with his recent interview, it seems that the 39-year-old expected more from NASCAR great Tony Stewart’s proud Ford team.

Aric Almirola Opens Up About the Impasse as He Reveals His Team’s Stagnant Condition

The whole situation is quite ironic, so to speak. While Aric Almirola won this week’s Xfinity race at Sonoma Raceway, earning him the win after a long and grueling win-less slump, his Cup Series races tell a different tale, one of disappointment and struggles.

To put things into perspective, the #10 driver hasn’t been able to emulate his career-best run of 2018. While he hoped to dish out clinical performances the following years, his entry into the playoffs for 3 consecutive years did not bring him the deserved title.

Recently, Almirola has revealed his thoughts about his scenario in the team. This being his sixth year of driving for Tony Stewart and Gene Haas, Almirola had blunt words to state his obvious frustration. According to Racer.com, he said “No, certainly not what I expected,” said the driver, “I expected more years like the first year, to be honest.”

“I showed up here in 2018, and we not only won a race, but I was in contention to win probably five or six races throughout that year and consistently ran in the top 10, top five.” he added.

Being a realist, Almirola opened up about the disappointing reality of the sport, “(It) was a team that on any given weekend we showed up to a racetrack (and) felt like we could win, and that has certainly not been the case the last couple of years. It’s disappointing, for sure, but a lot of this is part of the sport, too. Our sport is very cyclical.”

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Aric Almirola Uncovers the Most Significant Life Lesson He Learned From “The King”

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Senior NASCAR journalist, Kelly Crandall recently put out a story about the #10 driver’s career, majorly focusing on his time at SHR. As fans got a glimpse of his story, the community also got to know how Richard Petty, arguably one of the best drivers on the planet, deeply influenced Aric Almirola.

Despite being at the helm of the #10 Ford for 6 seasons, the mature driver reflected on his rather underwhelming ordeals. The story at Yahoo quotes him saying, “I’m certainly disappointed about it, but, at the end of the day that doesn’t define me as a human being. As a race car driver, I always want more and want to be a champion, want to win multiple races in a year, and I have all of those lofty goals, but sometimes things don’t always go the way you want them to.”

Talking about the bitter-sweet reality of life, he said “Everybody has good years and bad years. There are seasons to life. There are seasons to a career and so, for me, it doesn’t water down the fact that I’m still racing at the highest level of stock car auto racing, something that I dreamed about as a kid.” 

“You look at Richard Petty, who is the King of our sport. I’ve gotten the opportunity to spend a lot of time with Richard, and he doesn’t ever sit down at Thanksgiving with all 200 of his trophies. He sits down at Thanksgiving with his family, and he sits down to share a meal with people he cares about.” 

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His experience in the fast lane certainly has had a huge impact on him, but more importantly, Aric Almirola has absorbed significant life lessons within this short period.