Earnhardt Ganassi Racing's Aric Almirola qualifies for Texas but status for Phoenix in limbo
Earnhardt Ganassi Racing's Aric Almirola starts 41st in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
// Jeff Robinson, NASCAR Scene
FORT WORTH, Texas – Aric Almirola will start 41st in the Samsung 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. And while he would like to start higher, he certainly is happy he’s starting the race Sunday afternoon.
That’s because he doesn’t know when his next race will be, whether it’s for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing or another Sprint Cup team. Without sponsorship after this weekend, the team’s status for the race at Phoenix in two weeks is up in the air.
“On a weekend as pivotal as this weekend is and not knowing what we’ve got from here going forward, I knew that before I even left pit road for my qualifying lap that this was everything,” the 25-year-old Almirola said after qualifying Friday. “That could have been my last attempt at qualifying for the year. You just don’t know.
“Our car hasn’t had the speed we’ve been looking for. I’m just proud of my guys. They worked really, really hard that whole practice to get it to where it was at least manageable. And we squeezed in there. On Sunday, we’re starting the race and it doesn’t say by how much or by how little.”
Almirola has 24 career Cup starts. He made one start at Joe Gibbs Racing, was with Ginn Racing for something like a week, then was a member of Dale Earnhardt Inc., where he shared the No. 01 and then the No. 8 Cup car with Mark Martin in 2007 and 2008. DEI had slated Almirola to run the full season in 2009 but sponsorship wasn’t found before and after the merger with Chip Ganassi Racing.
EGR officials had hoped to have a good start with Almirola and find a sponsor. Last year, DEI ran a team unsponsored for much of the season but Chip Ganassi Racing shut down an unsponsored team in the middle of the season.
That history has left the crew members and Almirola wondering about what is going to happen, but few were optimistic about continuing beyond this weekend unless sponsorship could be found.
“That’s kind of week to week right now,” team owner Chip Ganassi told the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times on Friday during the opening day of practice for Indy Racing League cars in St. Petersburg. “He’s a good guy. We’re doing the best we can for him. You can only do what you can. He’s a good kid, though. We like him.”
Almirola said the team members know the situation and can’t just ignore it.
“You can’t not think about it,” Almirola said. “It’s my livelihood, and it’s all these guys on this race team’s livelihood. It matters to me whether they have a job come next week or not. It matters to me obviously whether I have a job.
“It’s something that you can’t not think about, but you try to work through it and you try to do the best you can at doing a good job today and worry about tomorrow later.”
Potential sponsors will be at the race Sunday, Almirola said. Guitar Hero Metallica is on the car this weekend but that sponsorship for the launch of that game ends with this weekend.
“I’ve talked to a lot of people,” Almirola said. “I’ve met with a number of sponsors and it’s a funny thing because we’ve got so many sponsors that are right there at the edge and extremely interested and it’s just a matter of getting them to jump and get on board.
“This is a big weekend for us. … It would have been hard to explain to potential sponsors why they should sponsor you when you’re watching the race on Sunday.”
During the race, getting in the top 35 in owners points is a priority – the team is 37th in points and 27 out of 35th – so if it can continue, at least it won’t have to sweat out qualifying.
But does it matter as far as sponsorship?
“What matters the most is whether we have sponsorship dollars,” Almirola said. “Top 35, not top 35, if you don’t have money, you don’t have money. That’s the biggest thing.”
Almirola has a best finish this year of 21st at Atlanta.
“We’ve had some bad luck, but at the same time, sometimes you create your own luck,” Almirola said. “We need to be better. There’s no doubt about it. We need to be in the top 35 in points and we need to run every week like we deserve to be in the top 35 in points.”
Almirola said does not know what his future holds after this weekend.
“I’ve put so much in my heart and soul and focus that I have going on right here, I don’t have a Plan B,” Almirola said. “I haven’t walked around and worked on a Plan B yet because I’m so focused on Plan A. That’s what I’m really worried about and concerning myself with.
“I need to do the best job I can to keep this going right now rather than worry about anything else.”
