Almirola Earns No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Sprint Cup Ride

By Anne Proffit

Anne Proffit

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With the departure of AJ Allmendinger for Penske Racing, Richard Petty Motorsports (RPM) needed to find a capable teammate for Australian Marcos Ambrose.  The team confirmed today that Aric Almirola is graduating from NASCAR's Nationwide Series to the premier Sprint Cup Series with RPM, driving the iconic No. 43 Ford Fusion in 2012.

Almirola, currently 27, is a Cuban-American born in Tampa, FL.  He began racing karts when he was eight years old, moving up to modifiers and then into NASCAR regional series in 2002.  In 2004, Almirola became one of the first drivers to participate in NASCAR's Drive for Diversity program and signed as a development driver for Joe Gibbs Racing.  

He worked with Gibbs in the Nationwide Series through the middle of 2007, then left to join Dale Earnhardt Inc.  In 2008 Almirola made his first Sprint Cup starts, sharing the No. 8 Army Chevrolet with Mark Martin.  He intended to be the full-time driver in 2009 but a lack of sponsorship parked the car.  

After bouncing around to different teams and being a backup driver for Jimmie Johnson in 2010, Almirola joined JR Motorsports and drove the No. 88 Nationwide Series Chevrolet.

"I had the privilege last year of sitting on the couch on Sundays and watching the [Sprint Cup] races, and I saw how competitive the RPM race cars were on a weekly basis.  That was a big factor in making the decision to come over here," Almirola said.  "Richard Petty Motorsports' competition on the race track was very, very high and that gives me an opportunity to get in a race car that I know is very competitive, where I've just got to go out and do my job and the results will come."

Before making his decision to leave JR Motorsports Almirola "talked with Dale and Kelley (Earnhardt) quite a bit throughout this whole process and they supported me 100 percent.  Dale said that was the main reason for him having a Nationwide team; to give guys an opportunity to go and make a career out of racing in NASCAR.  For me, that's come true."

Almirola and new teammate Ambrose started working in the Camping World Truck Series about the same time.  "We've been friends on and off the race track through that.  We talked a lot when we were racing in the Truck series together and I've watched him go on to Cup racing and have kept up with him and seen him throughout the garage," he said.  "I've always had a friendly relationship with him and I respect him a lot as a race car driver, so I'm excited to be his teammate now!"

While the name on the door is Petty's, the legendary driver has Brian Moffitt as his team's CEO, handling the business side of going racing.  While much of the sponsorship for this coming year is intact, "We do have some open inventory on the car and we'll be announcing some new partners in the coming weeks."  Best Buy left RPM to go to Roush Fenway Racing for a partial season.

Moffitt watched Almirola's progress in the nationwide Series as he drove for JR Motorsports last year.  "We saw a lot of potential in Aric.  Richard always said if we had an opportunity, that he was somebody he would like to be in the No. 43.  We got everybody together here - Sammy, Todd Parrott and Greg Erwin, went down the list and Aric was our top choice.  We're poised for a two-car operation and we're real excited about having Aric pilot the No. 43 for us."

The team has realistic expectations for the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.  "We set our goals last year with Marcos and AJ to be in the Top 20 and hopefully one of them makes the Chase or Top-15 - and we actually hit that goal," Moffitt noted.  "We expect the same with Aric and Marcos going into this year."  

For his part, Almirola expects some growing pains as he transitions from the shorter Nationwide races to the more grueling, longer and more intense Sprint Cup competitions.  "I realize that I've got a lot of learning to do and I don't expect to just go out there and win six races and run for the championship.  I do expect to be competitive; I do expect to run really good on a regular basis.   Richard Petty Motorsports' equipment is very capable of that," he said.

"I feel Greg Erwin is among the best in crew chiefs, so I don't really see any maor reasons why we shouldn't be competitive.  Obviously, being a rookie I'll probably make my share of mistakes, but I don't think - from a sense of speed and being competitive on the race track - I don't see any reason why we won't be competitive.  The reality is that it is my first year and if I go out there and run competitive and run in the Top Five and do the things I need to do as a driver and take care of my race car, I'm there at the end of the race and points will take care of themselves," Almirola said.

Because Richard Petty makes his rounds of the NASCAR garage, he and Almirola have been in contact and the young driver said the legend has always been "very friendly to me.  He's always lent a hand as far as advice or he's tell me what he was thinking.  I've always had a lot of respect for him as a car owner and obviously as a driver.  He's won over 200 races, so I have a lot of respect for any input that he has to give."

Almirola's father's family was on the freedom flights from Cuba in 1966 and being among the first in NASCAR's Drive for Diversity program has meant a lot to his family, as well as for the driver.  "Coming from where my family has come from and the sacrifices they have made to get to the U.S. to create a better life for themselves and their family, [getting this ride] means a lot to me.  The older I get, the most that sinks in and I realize what a huge sacrifice it was to leave everything that they knew to come here to America and start over."

When Aric Almirola starts over in Daytona next month, driving the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford Fusion, his ascent to the height of the sport will show others that it can be done.