“I’ve seen this movie before,” Aric Almirola doesn’t plan to be the ‘Monday morning quarterback’ amidst a nightmarish start to 2023
Aric Almirola hasn’t scored a single Top 10 finish in the 2023 season. He had 4 top 10s at the same time last season.
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Aric Almirola (Credits: Sportscasting)
The start of the 2023 season so far has been a bad dream he desperately wants to forget for Aric Almirola. No:10 Stewart Hass Racing Mustang’s performance has dropped below the expected levels. While all 4 SHR cars are struggling, the Almirola has been the worst alongside Ryan Preece. He finished the 2022 season winless, and if things continue as it is, 2023 won’t be any different.
The situation is more disappointing when his decision to postpone his retirement in 2022 is factored in. Out of the eight cup races this season, the Cuban-American has finished inside the top 20 just twice. His best finish of the season is a P13 that came at Richmond. He finished outside the top 30, in an SHR car, in 5 of the 6 remaining races. Bad luck and missed execution were the prime reason behind his poor results.
While discussing the disappointing situation ahead of the Martinsville regular season race, the veteran pointed out that he has been unlucky and hasn’t been on point regarding execution. He added that he isn’t blaming anyone for the issues and is focused on learning from those to thrive.
“It’s execution. It’s luck. I’ve got to do my part as well,” he said. “Like last week at Bristol, sitting there running third, I had an opportunity to pick the front row, and I didn’t work on one of the restarts….Then a few laps, I got in the fence again and broke the right rear toe link. Just little things like that continually happen,” Almirola said.
“I can look at every single race where we’ve had things happen, and we can Monday morning quarterback all we want, but it doesn’t change the results for that weekend. We just have to learn from it and go forward,” Almirola added.
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Aric Almirola has been through such troubles in the past
Aric Almirola, though, is one of the most respected veterans in the cup grid; he isn’t necessarily the most accomplished. He has only scored just 3 wins and 91 Top 10s in his 15-year-long career that saw him starting 417 races. His stint with mid-0table side Richard Petty Motorsport yielded just a single win, and the reaming two came with SHR. But two wins with a championship-winning side in 5 years don’t look good on one’s resume.
It isn’t the first time Almirola is going through a tough time in the Cup series with SHR. He had a similar start in the 2021 season, which saw his struggle continues for quite a long period. He was able to redeem himself with a win in New Hampshire. He expects to write a similar story in 2023 but wants it to come early.
“It is (frustrating); it’s very reminiscent of two years ago, Two years ago, we got off to a similar start where it was just like, ‘Man, what in the world?’ We’re fast, we have speed, we’re running up in the top 10, and then we just don’t convert into results. At least I’ve seen this movie before,” said Almirola.
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Justin P Joy
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