Almirola Pops Playoff Bubble with New Hampshire Victory

 Originally written for CLNS Media.

Aric Almirola won the darkness-shortened Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 on Sunday afternoon to lock himself into the Playoffs.

The race began in a mist, which turned into a hard rainfall just six laps into the race, causing the race to be red-flagged for almost two hours.  Without lights at the New Hampshire track, NASCAR decided to call the race official eight laps from the scheduled distance due to darkness.

Almirola was ahead of Christopher Bell when the race was called, and he picked up his first victory since 2018 in what has been a difficult year for the veteran driver.

Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Almirola said it’s a testament to his team for continuing to fight through all the adversity that mired him outside the Top 20 in points.

“Everyone that works on this car…just keeps fighting,” Almirola said.  “There have been so many people who have continued to support us through the crappiest year ever.”

Almirola’s previous two career victories came at Daytona and Talladega, and he said he was glad to finally win on a non-superspeedway.

“I had this race won a couple years ago and I gave it away,” Almirola said.  “For so long we’ve been so close to winning at some of these racetracks…and I’ve let it slip away.”

“This feels so good to have something pay off for all the hard work.”

Bell was closing in on Almirola while the leader struggled with lapped traffic, but Bell ran out of time to get to the back of Almirola.

Bell said he hoped the race would go the scheduled distance and may have had something for Almirola with those extra eight laps.

“I didn’t know how many laps they cut it short but…saw that we were eight laps short, it stings,” Bell said.  “I feel like I probably had a little bit better pace than him and I was able to get to him.”

“Lapped cars were giving him a hard time.  It was going to be a heck of a race.”

Almirola’s victory locked him into the Playoffs, and that caused the cutline for the final spot to tighten up. Heading into the race, Richard Childress Racing teammates Austin Dillon and Tyler Reddick were in the Playoffs by over 100 points, but they are now separated by just five points, with Dillon on the outside looking in. 

Teams on the bubble will use the upcoming two-week Olympic break to get ready for the final four races before the Playoffs begin.

Unofficial results:

1. Aric Almirola

2. Christopher Bell

3. Brad Keselowski

4. Joey Logano

5. Ryan Blaney

6. Kevin Harvick

7. Kyle Larson

8. Ross Chastain

9. Alex Bowman

10. Denny Hamlin

11. Matt DiBenedetto

12. Martin Truex Jr.

13. Tyler Reddick

14. Cole Custer

15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

16. Kurt Busch

17. Austin Dillon

18. Chase Elliott

19. Erik Jones

20. Daniel Suarez

21. William Byron

22. Ryan Preece

23. Corey LaJoie

24. Ryan Newman

25. Michael McDowell

26. Bubba Wallace

27. Chase Briscoe

28. Justin Haley

29. Chris Buescher

30. BJ McLeod

31. Cody Ware

32. Anthony Alfredo

33. Garrett Smithley

34. Josh Bilicki

35. Quin Houff

36. James Davison

37. Kyle Busch

James Gilbert/Getty Images

Truex Wins at Kansas

Originally written for CLNS Media.

Martin Truex Jr. won the GoBowling.com 400 from Kansas Speedway on Saturday night.

Truex led a race-high 104 laps on Saturday, but he did not have the most dominant car at the end of the race.  Truex had to run down Ryan Blaney over the final 60 laps, and he was able to hold off the field over the final two restarts.

Sean Gardner/Getty Images

Truex said he needed to keep the lead over the final restarts or he wouldn’t have had enough time to get to victory lane.

“I felt like if I could get out front on those restarts I’d be fine,” Truex said.  “If I came out second or third after a lap or two, it took us awhile to get good enough to pass those guys.”

Truex made a daring move on one of the final restarts to split the lead cars, and he said he was worried something would go wrong over the final laps.

“Any of those restarts we could have gotten beat on, something could have happened,” Truex said.  “There’s no guarantee that you can make it happen, but we did.”

Blaney had a dominant car throughout the middle of the race, winning segment two.  Blaney’s car was good over the short run, but he was run down by Truex over the long run late in the race.  Blaney said he was disappointed with his fourth-place finish.

“We weren’t very good long run; we had a great short run car,” Blaney said.  “Thought, at worst, we should have finished second, but I think it says a lot for this team to go out and…get back on track.”

The race was red-flagged with 70 laps to go after a scary wreck involving Joey Logano, Danica Patrick and Aric Almirola.  Logano and Patrick got together, and Almirola slammed into them while they spun on the track.  Almirola was alert after the accident, but he had to be cut from his car by track workers.  Almirola was air lifted to the University of Kansas Medical Center for further observation.

Unofficial results:

1. Martin Truex Jr.

2. Brad Keselowski

3. Kevin Harvick

4. Ryan Blaney

5. Kyle Busch

6. Kyle Larson

7. Daniel Suarez

8. Jamie McMurray

9. Clint Bowyer

10. Trevor Bayne

11. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

12. Matt Kenseth

13. Michael McDowell

14. Ty Dillon

15. Kasey Kahne

16. Austin Dillon

17. David Ragan

18. Chris Buescher

19. Kurt Busch

20. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

21. Landon Cassill

22. Erik Jones

23. Denny Hamlin

24. Jimmie Johnson

25. Reed Sorenson

26. Cole Whitt

27. Corey LaJoie

28. Timmy Hill

29. Chase Elliott

30. AJ Allmendinger

31. Carl Long

32. Matt DiBenedetto

33. Jeffrey Earnhardt

34. Gray Gaulding

35. Paul Menard

36. Danica Patrick

37. Joey Logano

38. Aric Almirola

39. Derrike Cope

40. Ryan Newman

Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

Fantasy Preview: Charlotte 5/25/14

This week, the Sprint Cup Series heads to Charlotte for the longest race of the season, the Coca-Cola 600.  I accidentally forgot to reset my fantasy team for this week, but I think I may have lucked out following the qualifying results.  Read on to see who I picked for this weekend.

Tier A
Clint Bowyer
Bowyer qualified very well, and he ran well last weekend for the All-Star Race.  He won the Sprint Showdown, and I expect his good fortune to continue this weekend.

Bench:

Photo courtesy Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Kasey Kahne

Tier B
Brad Keselowski
Keselowski's victory this season came at Las Vegas, which is similar to Charlotte.  I expect Keselowski to run very well this weekend, and he starts second on Sunday night.

Aric Almirola
Almirola was strong during the Sprint Showdown last weekend, but failed to race his way into the All-Star Race.  He has had some very good runs early this season on the 1.5 mile tracks, and I expect that to continue this weekend.

Bench:
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Brian Vickers

Tier C
Danica Patrick
Patrick ran extremely well at Kansas two weeks ago, finishing seventh.  She seems to be turning a corner, and she also qualified well for this weekend's race.  I expect her to continue her momentum and pick up at least a Top 15 finish on Sunday.

Bench:
Kyle Larson

My pick to win the Coca-Cola 600: Brad Keselowski

Keselowski will drive this car for Memorial Day Weekend (Photo courtesy Jerry Markland/Getty Images)

Thanks for reading my fantasy preview of the Coca-Cola 600!  Leave a comment below with what drivers you're starting this weekend at Charlotte!