NASCAR CUP SERIES: BLUEGREEN VACATIONS DUEL 2

February 16, 2023

Aric Almirola

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We're going to continue with our post-race media availabilities. We've been joined by our race winner of Duel No. 2, Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing.

Take us through those final laps and what you're looking forward to on Sunday.

ARIC ALMIROLA: Yeah, really fast Smithfield Ford Mustang. We knew that last year we qualified fourth and Drew put everything he could into it. We're trying to break up that Hendrick front row.

Drew and all the guys on my team take a lot of pride in building fast race cars. There's two approaches to coming down here for Speedweeks. One is to not worry about qualifying and just make your car drive good so it'll race good in the Duels, or two, you go for speed.

Drew and I talked about it a month ago, and he's like, I want to build the fastest race car I can. We'll make it drive good after the Duels. But I want to go try and knock those Hendrick guys off the front row, and dangit, we couldn't do it. I think we came up seven thousandths short or something like that, but still really proud of the effort that we put into bringing a really fast race car.

That led to me having my hands full tonight. Didn't handle the greatest. Definitely was sketchy getting pushed and found myself kind of vulnerable at times depending on who was pushing me and how they were pushing me, but I just felt like we had such a fast race car that if I got the right pushes at the right time and found myself in the right position, that we could win that Duel and we could go to work tonight, tomorrow, and make it drive a little better for the Daytona 500.

But it was just a really fast race car, and the only way you can be aggressive and make those moves is to have a fast race car, and Drew and the guys brought me one.

Q. You won both of your Duels in this Gen-7 car. What do you think it takes to win races on the superspeedways compared to the Gen-6?

ARIC ALMIROLA: I didn't win last year, but we almost qualified on the pole last year, as well. My car drove very, very evil last year in the Duels, and when we came down here last year we only had one race car for our entire organization.

So there was so much anxiety about wrecking a race car because we were in such a bad position supply-chain-wise and not having all the parts and pieces we needed. When my car drove as bad as it drove last year in the Duels, I bailed and just rode around and didn't want to take any chances.

So this year having more confidence, more understanding of these race cars, a year under our belt, I was able to -- even though the car didn't drive great, I was able to be a lot more aggressive with a relatively good feeling about what we had in our race car and what we have for spare parts if we needed to work on it.

But yeah, I've won the Duel before. I think it was a couple years ago, and I just know that it's just one part of Speedweeks. It's not the ultimate goal.

Watching Duel No. 1, Tony said on the broadcast -- Tony Stewart, my boss, said, yeah, I've won this race three times and never won a Daytona 500. Not that winning a Duel is easy. Anytime you line up against the best stock car drivers in the world, winning at anything is really hard, but much less against the greatest stock car drivers.

I take a lot of pride in winning the race tonight, but don't want to get too excited too soon. It's just one part of Speedweeks, and it gives us a great starting spot, gives us a great pit selection, but Sunday is the real prize.

Q. You talk about Duel 1. It seemed pretty tame. Your Duel seemed aggressive and pushy --

ARIC ALMIROLA: Isn't that always how it is? There's always one that's relatively tame and there's always one that's relatively aggressive?

Q. Do you prefer one or the other?

ARIC ALMIROLA: That's a good point. Yeah, I think when it's more aggressive and more racy, like we'll actually have Sunday, I think that there is more learning to be had in that, absolutely.

When it gets really strung out and calm and tame and there's only five, six, seven cars and you're running single file, you don't really learn a lot. You don't really know what you have for handling and when your car is put in a bad situation.

I learned a lot tonight about how my car drives in certain situations, how it drives when I'm pushing, how it drives when I'm getting pushed, how it drives when I'm getting pushed or pushed in the outside line versus the inside lane, when I pull out really aggressively to make a move, like all those things, I have a really good understanding of what I have, where if the race is relatively tame and calm, you don't get that information.

That's a good point. I didn't think about that. But from a driver's standpoint, it is a little bit more nerve-racking when you're getting shoved around and you're like, man, this is just the Duel. I don't want to tear my race car up in the Duel. Our car is so fast, you want to make sure you get it to Sunday.

Q. I remember here last year because I had asked the question about making peace with the fact that that was your final Daytona 500 and you said that you were and all that stuff. I'm curious if at any point maybe it was easier because you made the announcement here in the summer that you were coming back, but did you ever have the moment where it's like, I get to do the 500 again and we should have a really good shot to go out and get it done?

ARIC ALMIROLA: Absolutely, yeah. I talked about it a lot here when I made the announcement that I was coming back. I in a sense feel like it's just this huge blessing that I got literally gifted more opportunity than what I thought I had.

Like I made the announcement that I'm going to step away so I could focus more on them and be with them and not make Alex and Abby and my wife sacrifice so much of their life for me to keep doing what I was doing and keep chasing my dreams.

Last year we went through the year and we're like, man, we're really just going to embrace it. We're going to take it all in and travel as much as we can together as a family. They came to 28 races last year.

We did so many touristy things in every city we went to. We went to five or six baseball games in different cities and we went sightseeing. We went to Jamestown and Williamsburg when we were in Richmond. We've done a lot of different stuff together as a family.

Last year was so fun because of that. So when I started getting asked in the summertime from Smithfield and the race team if I would reconsider, and I talked with Janice and I talked with the kids, they're like, yes, we want you to keep going. I was like, are you sure? They are like, yes, we do. This is fun. We want you to keep doing this.

For me as a husband and as a father, it made me feel like, okay, like I'm not sacrificing their lives and their hopes and dreams following me around. They're willingly a part of this. We won't grow apart if I keep doing this because I'm still chasing my dreams.

When I got asked after I announced that I was done to reconsider, it was like, that's amazing. Like I have another opportunity that I never thought that I would have, so I want to make it count. I want to take every single race and every single weekend and make it count, both on the track and off the track with my family, with my crew guys, with my sponsors, with the people in the garage area. That's kind of been my theme as I've looked forward to this season is just make every single weekend count.

Q. Getting through the last couple of laps unscathed, which isn't a given here, are you kind of relieved that you were able to mix it up with everyone and kind of play the defending game to put that in your back pocket for Sunday?

ARIC ALMIROLA: Yeah, I think from my standpoint, the only way you can do that is if you have a fast race car. I've been coming down here enough to know, and I've raced at so many speedway races to know that the draft is the great equalizer.

You can have a slow car and keep up in the draft, but it is so hard to be aggressive and make the moves that you need to make to put yourself in position to win when you don't have a fast race car.

Knowing that we have a fast enough race car based on tonight and qualifying to do the things that I need to do to be on offense and not be on defense gives me a lot of confidence going into Sunday.

Q. Aric, I've got to ask, who's having more fun up there right now, you or your son?

ARIC ALMIROLA: I guess I'm having fun. That doesn't seem very enthusiastic. He's cold. He thought he would be funny and spray me with a bottle in Victory Lane, so I got him back, but I was nice and heated up from the race car. He stood up on top of the spotter's stand in shorts and tee shirt, so he said he was freezing watching the race, and then after he got doused in water, he's really cold right now. He's just trying to keep his teeth from chattering.

Q. Last seven years it feels like your name just keeps popping up in the conversation; fourth time in the last five years you've started in the top 10. Going into Sunday a couple of top 5s, 2018 you were a mile away from winning this thing, and you talked about how Tony said he's won the Duel three times but never won the big one. Is that all that's left for you here at this point? Does it feel like you've been in contention, been in contention, but where is the Harley J. Earl?

ARIC ALMIROLA: Yeah, it really does. I mean, I finished top 5 here a few times. I've found myself in position. I was leading on the white flag lap in 2018 going down the back straightaway. That one got away.

I've found myself in the top three or four cars coming to the white flag.

Yeah, I've been in position for the Daytona 500 maybe a handful of times and not gotten it done, but yet I've gotten it done in an Xfinity car here, I've gotten it done in the Duels. I won the race in July here.

So yeah, it does seem like the Harley J. Earl Trophy is the one box left to check.

Q. No chance of a mic drop if you win it on Sunday is there?

ARIC ALMIROLA: No. I still have 35 more chases and a championship to win, so we'll put our head down, we'll celebrate like crazy, and then we'll put our head down for the rest of the season.

Q. Kind of going off of what Matt said earlier, do results like tonight kind of affirm your decision to come back, or is that just kind of saying, hey, I still have some stuff left in the tank, or is that separate?

ARIC ALMIROLA: No, look, I think it's important to note that I was not retiring because I felt like I had no more gas in the tank. I wasn't. I was not retiring because I felt like I was not at the peak anymore.

Like I still feel like I can compete at the highest level. I still feel like I'm as good a race car driver as I've ever been. I feel like I have great people around me. All of those things.

I literally was making a sacrifice for my career to make sure that I was doing the right thing for my family, as a husband and as a father. I had put so much thought into it and I had come to the conclusion that 20 years from now sitting around the table for Thanksgiving, being at the table with some trophies is not nearly as much fun as being around the table with your family and your loved ones.

I was okay with giving up on my dreams and stop chasing career and trying to achieve success and all those things purely to make sure that I was doing the right thing by my family.

It was not a decision based on no more gas in the tank, don't feel like I can compete anymore, none of those things. I still feel like I can compete like I did tonight, and I feel like I can win races. I feel like I have a lot to contribute to our organization. I feel like I can get the job done on any given weekend.

Yeah, I'm excited about this year. I want to make it count. I want to win races. I still want to compete at a high level like I always have, and as long as they're having fun going with me and my wife still gives me the green light, we're going to keep it going.

Q. The starting lineup of the Daytona 500 now has seven different Fords across four different race teams in the top 12. That's a lot of diversity amongst one manufacturer. How tight of a relationship as it pertains to teamwork do you feel like you have with some of the other Fords starting up there?

ARIC ALMIROLA: A lot. We share wind tunnel data. All the teams collaborate on going to the wind tunnel. We all have the same engines in the race car coming from Doug Yates at Roush Yates engine shop.

Those are the two things that when you come to Daytona and Talladega that you need for speed. You have to have a fast race car, a sleek race car that doesn't have a lot of drag on it, and you've got to have horsepower.

When you look at the Fords, yeah, we've got that. We've got a great car that is streamlined, it's sleek, and it doesn't have a lot of drag, and we have a lot of horsepower from Doug Yates. Our cars are fast, we always come down to Speedweeks with a lot of speed, and you've seen that over the last handful of years, that the Fords have always been fast here.

Q. If you could just build on top of your previous answer there, is the current plan to stick around for this year and possibly more years beyond that?

ARIC ALMIROLA: Like I said, I'm going to keep it to where as long as they're having fun and the wife gives the green light and Smithfield and Stewart-Haas Racing and everybody is having fun and we're all enjoying it, then the answer will be yes.

If something changes, then we'll let you guys know.

THE MODERATOR: Aric, congrats again on that win, and best of luck on Sunday.