Truck ride brings calm to Almirola's turbulent career (cont'd)

It also brought Almirola full circle. The Trucks are where Almirola got his start in NASCAR's national divisions, making four starts for David Dollar in 2005. The next year he ran a full season for Wayne Spears under the auspices of the Gibbs developmental program, a 25-race slate that to this day still stands as the only full schedule Almirola has run at the national level. Everything else has come in bits and pieces, like the 18-race Nationwide schedule he ran for Gibbs in 2007, the year he was credited for winning a race at Milwaukee that teammate Denny Hamlin -- the scheduled starter, arriving late from Cup practice in Sonoma, Calif. -- actually finished.

An unhappy Almirola left the track before the event was over, and before the year was out had split from Gibbs to pursue a Cup Series opportunity at Ginn Racing -- which would be absorbed by DEI, which in turn would be merged with Chip Ganassi Racing. Looking back at it now, he wonders if it was all too much, too fast.

"My mom has told me since I was a little kid, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I've got to believe that," Almirola said. "I've been through a lot in a short period of time. I'm still only 25. So in a short period of time in my life I've been through a lot, especially in my racing career. But it's made me a better person. And I really feel like it's made me a better race car driver, because to be 100 percent honest with you, I think I almost went too fast too quick. I've never run a full season in any series other than the Truck Series. I didn't get that opportunity to run a full Nationwide Series before I went to Cup. I felt like it was almost too fast too quick anyway, but I wasn't going to turn down any opportunity. I got myself in the situations I was in, and they just didn't work out."

There are no regrets. Like any young driver, when the opportunities arose, he felt like he had to seize them. So many of the things that have sidetracked his career have been economic factors beyond his control, like the sponsorship voids that led Ginn to sell, DEI to merge, and Ganassi to ultimately shut down his ride. And to a degree, he's still dealing with them -- Almirola agreed to drive James Finch's No. 09 Cup car, which won at Talladega last year with Keselowski behind the wheel. Then the team's longtime backer, the Miccosukee Indian tribe, pulled out of the sport. The No. 09 team has failed to qualify for two of the season's first four Cup events.

"I didn't want to turn down an opportunity," Almirola said. "I just wish my opportunities would have come at different times and maybe been different opportunities. If I could have gotten myself in a situation where I could have run a full Nationwide car or something like that, it would have been a huge for me. I ran a full Truck Series, I think 18 Nationwide races, and then went and tried to go Cup racing. It was just a lot real fast in my career. But at that point in my career, I didn't feel like I was in a situation to turn down opportunities to try and wait for something else. I didn't know if something else would ever come. I think the best thing for me is that I'm only 25 years old, and I still feel like I have a lot of racing left inside of me, and I have a lot of desire. I think if I can go back in the Truck Series and win races and compete for a championship, I think it will prove a lot about my ability and me as a race car driver. I don't think the door is 100 percent closed yet as far as an opportunity to continue on."

All of which makes Ballew's Truck team integral to his future plans. Almirola recorded seven top-10s in 16 starts for the organization last season, and stands fourth in points after a third-place result last weekend at Atlanta. Just as importantly, he's enjoying himself, and for the immediate future doesn't have to worry about what might happen to his ride.

"It's been a lot of fun," he said. "We've had a lot of success. We still haven't gotten to Victory Lane yet, but we run consistent. We run in the top-five just about every week. I feel like every week we show up at the race track, and we're one of the trucks people look at and know they're going to have to race with. It's fun for me. [Crew chief] Richie Waters and all the guys on our truck, they're fun to be around. And that makes it fun for me when you have a group of guys like that who enjoy being around the race track."