Aric Almirola slides into playoff field with upset win at New Hampshire

By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer

LOUDON, N.H. – Aric Almirola won one of the Daytona 500 qualifying races, but besides that, his 2021 season has been nothing to celebrate.

Given that, his upset victory Sunday night at New Hampshire Motor Speedway wasn’t just his first win in 99 Cup points races. It was also a win that vaulted him from 26th in the NASCAR standings into the 16-driver Cup playoff field.

"Guess what?" Almirola said afterward. "We’re going playoff racing."

Going to the playoffs certainly changes Almirola’s season.

"It feels like ages ago we won at the duel," he said. "We’ve just been through a rough season. We’ve been tested every way possible — race cars that were off, bad luck."

Here are three takeaways from New Hampshire:

Almirola's win big in many ways

It was Almirola’s third career victory and his first not at a superspeedway track. His two previous wins came at Talladega and Daytona.

"I feel like I can get it done everywhere," he said. "I’ve had race cars where I can win at other race tracks and just haven’t executed all the things perfectly."

This was also his first victory in his past 99 starts in a points event, and it extended his streak of advancing to the playoffs to four seasons.

"It feels like we deserve it," Almirola said. "We are a playoff-caliber race team, and we have the potential.

"We just have had a really crappy year. I kept the faith and kept believing through all the races and the bad luck and kept believing if we just kept fighting, we would have an opportunity. And so did every single guy on my race team."

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Rough day for NASCAR

It was a wild afternoon at New Hampshire, as the race was halted early for rain but not before two of the potential winning cars — Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. — crashed after spinning on the wet surface.

"We were consistent with how we’ve always handled that," NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Scott Miller said. "We rely on driver communication [and] spotters in the corners [to tell us if the track is wet].

"It obviously didn’t work out today. We got caught out by a quick popup in Turn 1. The corner got wet really quick. We can always look at being more conservative, but we did follow the same protocols we always do."

NASCAR ended the race eight laps before the scheduled distance of 301 laps because of darkness. They gave drivers a 10-lap warning that the race would be shortened.

"We just felt like it was getting too dark and needed to call it," Miller said. "It’s just as simple as that, completely based on raceability."

Both decisions were somewhat controversial, especially the late call to stop the race when it was raining.

"We’d been talking about it for two laps that it was raining," Busch said. "There’s no sense in saying what I want to say. It doesn’t do you any good."

Busch could face penalties for showing his displeasure with NASCAR by bumping the rear of the pace car. Many understood his frustration, though.

As far as the decision to end the race early, Christopher Bell, who finished second, obviously wanted to run to the finish.

"I saw the board and saw that we were eight laps short," he said. "It stings, man.

"I felt like I probably had a little better pace than him, and I was able to get to him. I know lapped cars were giving him a bad time."

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Keselowski third amid emotion

Brad Keselowski has known for several months that he will be leaving Team Penske to head to Roush Fenway Racing as a driver, as well as having an ownership stake.

Still, it was emotional for him this past week when Team Penske announced that he wouldn’t return. The Roush Fenway Racing news conference is scheduled for Tuesday.

"I’ll probably save some of that stuff more for Tuesday. We’ll have some announcements around some things going on there around that time," Keselowski said. "I’m sad to leave that situation but excited about the path forward."

He said it was difficult to walk away from the organization with which he won a Cup title.

"There’s a lot of emotions about it," he said. "I imagine those emotions will live for years to come."

Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!