Almirola has opportunity to capitalize at Kansas

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — For Aric Almirola, Kansas Speedway has been a track he has always enjoyed coming to race at.

“I feel like since the beginning, since my first time I came here in a Cup car, I’ve run really well here,” Almirola said to The Racing Experts.

In 13 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races, Almirola has finished inside the top-10 five times and led 69 laps in the October 2012 race. His best finish at the 1.5-mile speedway was eighth-place on two occasions.

“It’s a fun race track especially now that the pavement’s aged and we can move all over the racetrack,” Almirola said. “We run on the bottom, we run on the top.”

The last two starts at the speedway have featured back-to-back ninth-place finishes for Almirola. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver will start third on Sunday in the Hollywood Casino 400.

Almirola is guaranteed a berth into the Round of 8 with his victory at Talladega Superspeedway last Sunday. This weekend’s race in Kansas is one for chance to capitalize.

“Coming to Kansas, there is no downside and only opportunity for upside,” said Almirola, who currently has six playoff points. “If we wreck on lap one, it doesn’t matter. We are still going to the Round of 8.

“If we win both stages and win the race, we can have seven more points when the points reset next week. So that is really what we are looking at. Everybody would love to have that bet in their stock portfolio, right? You can only go up.”

SOURCES
Ford Performance
Racing-Reference.info