With 'elbows up,' Almirola grabs career-best finish
The best finish veteran Mark Martin could get in four starts this season in Dale Earnhardt Inc.’s No. 8 Chevrolet was a 10th at Las Vegas. But rookie Aric Almirola drove the No. 8 to an eighth-place finish in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday.
That’s easily the best career finish for the 24-year-old Almirola, who celebrated his birthday last Friday. His best prior finish in six starts was 36th last November at Phoenix.
“That’s where we should run,” Almirola said. “I’ve been telling all these guys on this crew for so long now throughout my career, whether I was at Joe Gibbs Racing or last year when I first got part of the merger, I tried too hard to run all the laps and learn as much as I could.
“Coming into this year, I’ve taken a different approach and I’ve got my elbows up and I’m going to go out there and race with these guys. These guys on this team deserve it. They build great race cars. It makes it very possible for me to go out there and do my job.”
Almirola moved to Ginn Racing from JGR last year just before Ginn’s merger with DEI. He’s scheduled to race 12 times this season, with Martin getting the other 24 starts in the car.
"Awesome, just awesome," crew chief Tony Gibson said. "Aric drove the wheels off that Army Chevrolet. We had a decent car, not a great one. But Aric drove both patiently and hard. He has talent. The team believes in him and he believes in us. He is the future and we're just happy that he is driving our stuff."
Almirola was making his first start since Phoenix last year, as he was forced to watch Mark Martin drive the No. 8. Almirola will be in the car at Martinsville next weekend and would gladly run more races.
“Yeah, I don’t want to sit on the pit box any more,” Almirola said. “It is what it is. I get to race 12 races, and I’ll hopefully go get 12 top-10s.”
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