Aric Almirola

Aric Almirola

40-Year-Old Driver  
Joe Gibbs Racing
Joe Gibbs Racing
2024 Fantasy Outlook
Nemechek stormed to seven wins and 24 Top-10 finishes in the 2023 season, but it would fall short of a championship thanks to trouble and a 28th-place finish in the season finale at Phoenix. It was still a super dominant campaign and reflection of this team's capabilities. Nemechek will return, but only in a part-time capacity in 2024 as he's racing again full-time in the Cup Series. Veteran driver Almirola will share the majority of the starts with Nemechek with a dash of some other fill-in drivers along the way. Gone also is crew chief Ben Beshore, so this team is hitting the reset button to a good extent in the upcoming season. Joe Gibbs Racing is a top stable, so this team will be a top performer, but we expect the numbers to dial back a bit in the 2024 campaign. Driver rotations and new crew chiefs will impact those statistical totals to a degree. Read Past Outlooks
Third at Phoenix Raceway
XFINITY Series
November 9, 2024
Almirola finished third in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday night.
ANALYSIS
Almirola come from the rear of the field to gradually race his way forward Saturday night at the Phoenix oval. He would race inside the Top 10 by the end of stage 1 and keep moving forward inside the Top 5 by stage 2. Almirola didn't have the speed to get into the lead, but he would hold off young ace, Connor Zilisch, in double NASCAR overtime to secure the impressive third-place finish. It was his eighth Top 5 in just 14 starts this season.
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Recent RotoWire Articles Featuring Aric Almirola See More
NASCAR Xfinity DFS: Championship Race Preview
13 days ago
Cole Custer is looking to win the Xfinity Series title for the second straight year, and Dan Marcus has him atop his DFS values for Saturday's race at Phoenix.
NASCAR Xfinity DFS: National Debt Relief 250
20 days ago
Sammy Smith has been strong on short tracks, and Dan Marcus thinks the No. 8 makes for a great DFS play at Martinsville where Smith needs a win to advance.
NASCAR Xfinity DFS: United Rentals 250
47 days ago
Jesse Love and RCR have been fast on drafting tracks all year, and Dan Marcus thinks Love makes for a strong candidate to start DFS lineups with for Talladega.
Past Fantasy Outlooks
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2014
2008
Rumors circulated for much of last season that 2022 would be the last full-time season for Almirola in the Cup Series. The 38-year-old veteran mulled that option for much of last season, but in August he would reverse course. Almirola announced he would stay for two more years in the No. 10 Stewart Haas Racing Ford. There has been a definite regression in Almirola's performance over the last two seasons, and much of the reason for his speculated retirement. He posted just seven Top 10's in 2022 and finished a five-season low of 20th-place in the final driver standings. Almirola didn't make it into the Chase playoffs for the first time in the last five seasons as well. Drew Blickensderfer will once again pair with Almirola as crew chief, and the two veterans will see if they can turn things around in the struggling No. 10 Ford team.
Of the Stewart Haas Racing drivers who suffered through a long, lean 2021 campaign, Almirola was most-affected. The veteran driver seemingly fell off the cliff in terms of performance. The driver of the No. 10 Ford did capture a surprise win at the New Hampshire short track, but the rest of the season was subpar malaise in terms of performance. Almirola only logged five Top-10 finishes and saw his average finish balloon 6.5-spots to 19.9 over the previous season. He did make the Chase playoffs thanks to his victory at Loudon, but it was otherwise a disastrous campaign and his worst since 2017. This driver and team will hit the reset button in 2022. Almirola is too good to be this poor on a season-long sample. The new Next-Gen car will be an equalizer as all teams will be adapting. Almirola and crew chief Mike Bugarewicz should climb back to the double digit Top-10 plateau in the upcoming season.
Almirola smashed through some obstacles and the COVID-affected season to rebound from his 2019 performance. The Stewart Haas Racing veteran posted six Top-5 and 18 Top-10 finishes last year, but couldn't scratch the win column nor drive deep into the playoffs. Still, he lowered his average finish almost 2 spots from 2019 to a more attractive 13.3 average finish. This uptick in performance was thanks mostly to a mid-season hot streak that saw the No. 10 Ford team reel off five consecutive Top-5 finishes and string together nine consecutive Top 10s from June until August. A bit of a late-season swoon during the playoffs would see his early exit and damper his performance a bit. Almirola will hope to overcome that in 2021 but he faces some head winds in returning to victory lane and pushing his numbers to any higher levels. We should see the average finish remain pretty close to the same, but could see a slight downturn in the Top-10 totals for Almirola.
As expected, Almirola did suffer a bit of a downturn in performance last season. His 2018 campaign set all kinds of new career marks for the veteran driver, so you knew it would be a difficult task to duplicate. Still, Almirola deposited three Top-5 and 12 Top-10 finishes in the bank by season's end. He would take an early exit from the Chase for the Cup and end up 14th-place in the championship points. Stewart Haas Racing has brought in Mike Bugarewicz from the No. 14 team of Clint Bowyer to be Almirola's new crew chief. This is an interesting shakeup, and will hopefully pay some dividends. In fact, we expect Almirola to receive a better "bump" from this crew chief swap than Bowyer. Almirola may not make it back to victory lane in 2020, but he should see his Top 5 and Top 10 totals climb back in the right direction.
The breakout driver of 2018 has to somehow follow up the stellar season he posted last year. Almirola raced to career bests of four Top-5 and 17 Top-10 finishes. The Florida native also went back to victory lane for the first time since 2014. Almirola showed his superspeedway prowess with an October victory at Talladega that propelled the No. 10 SHR team deep into the Chase. His 15.6 average starting position and 12.8 average finishing position were career-best marks as well. It's going to be tough for Almirola to improve upon these figures. Last year was such a quantum leap in terms of performance for this 34-year-old driver that it's nearly off the charts. We believe Almirola can hold onto most of these gains, but don't expect much, if any improvement. He may have very likely found his ceiling in season one at Stewart Haas Racing.
One of the biggest free agent moves of the off-season was Almirola. The veteran driver jumped from Richard Petty Motorsports and the iconic No. 43 Ford and into the No. 10 Ford of Stewart Haas Racing. Almirola takes over the ride that Danica Patrick vacated at SHR. It's a huge opportunity for the South Florida native to make a big jump in performance. This will be by far the most capable and talented team Almirola has raced for in his 10 seasons of competition at NASCAR's top level. He could challenge his career-best marks of seven Top 10's and a 16th-place points finish. In fact, we expect Almirola and his new team to challenge for a Chase playoff berth. John Klausmeier will team with him as crew chief and give guidance in season one at SHR. It's a situation set up for success.
Last season was a complete disaster for Almirola and Richard Petty Motorsports. This driver experienced a major power outage and only claimed one Top-10 finish in all of 2016. That led to a lowly 26th-place finish in the final driver standings for Almirola. Those marks were career lows since he joined the Monster Energy Cup Series full-time in 2012. Things got to the point where a team shakeup happened last September. Drew Blickensderfer took over the crew chief responsibilities and led Almirola to his only Top 10 of the season (Talladega) and three Top 15s during the Chase. Things appear to be on a much better trend line going into the new season. Hopefully, Almirola can get back into the middle teens of the driver standings and nab 6 or 7 Top 10s along the way to a much better campaign than last year.
The No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports team has developed nicely the last couple years under Almirola's control. He has one Chase berth to his credit (2014), he's won a race (Daytona July 2014) and he's been finishing inside the top 20 of the driver standings each season. The big question is will Almirola and this team take the next steps in development or are they maxed out? We would tend to think the latter. Nothing is changing about the sponsorship, technical alliance, or team members for the upcoming season. Trent Owens will still call the shots from atop the team's war wagon. There's good reason to believe his hot and cold streaks we accustomed to seeing throughout a year will be the rule once again in 2016. A campaign of about 7 top 10s and a challenge for another Chase berth should be in store.
Almirola will return for another season of Sprint Cup Series Racing with Richard Petty’s historic No. 43 team. Despite five years and 71 starts of experience, 2012 was his first full-time season in NASCAR’s top division. The learning curve was steep and the lessons were many for Almirola last season. He labored to just four Top-10 finishes and a 20th-place finish in the final driver standings. 2013 should hold some incremental success for Almirola. He and crew chief Todd Parrott seemed to have things pretty well figured out at the end of last year. The duo posted a pair of Top 10’s in the final four races and had the No. 43 Ford team performing as well as they had all year long. We expect that momentum to carry right into February and beyond.
More Fantasy News
Dominant Performance in Martinsville
XFINITY Series
November 3, 2024
Almirola won the National Debt Relief 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Martinsville on Saturday.
ANALYSIS
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Third at Homestead
XFINITY Series
October 26, 2024
Almirola finished third in the Credit One NASCAR Xfinity Series Amex Credit Card 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday.
ANALYSIS
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Wins Kansas Lottery 300
XFINITY Series
September 28, 2024
Almirola won the Kansas Lottery 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Kansas Speedway Saturday afternoon.
ANALYSIS
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Third at the Brickyard
XFINITY Series
July 20, 2024
Almirola finished third in the Pennzoil 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Saturday afternoon.
ANALYSIS
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Team Suspension
XFINITY Series
June 28, 2024
Almirola is set to drive for Joe Gibbs Racing next month at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, ending an absence for the last couple of months that reportedly included a team-issued suspension for an altercation with Bubba Wallace, FOX Sports reports.
ANALYSIS
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