Almirola sees revelation in his first Hendrick outing

LOUDON, N.H. -- Everything's set for the arrival of Jimmie and Chandra Johnson's first child: itineraries set, spare cell phones and batteries in stock -- every eventuality anticipated.

And when Aric Almirola made 10 laps in Johnson's No. 48 Chevrolet in Saturday morning's opening practice for the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the most critical element in Johnson and team owner Rick Hendrick's march toward a possible fifth consecutive Cup Series championship was complete.

With the Johnsons' child expected to arrive any time from now until right around the Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway on July 10, getting Almirola in the seat was imperative.

Johnson made the first 15-lap run Saturday, and in the process set the fastest lap of that practice with a speed of 129.692 mph. Almirola, who was supposed to test with the No. 48 team at Milwaukee until that session was rained-out, then made a 10-lap run -- his first-ever in the car.

"It was everything I ever expected," Almirola said. "They have extremely good equipment, their car is really fast and really drivable. My main goal and focus, going out there was to not do anything spectacular and end up on ESPN or anything like that for destroying a race car that was fastest in practice."

Johnson had just that as, after being second-quickest to pole winner Juan Montoya in Friday's lone session, Johnson backed that up in final practice by running 54 laps and turning the best single lap on his second. It was also the third-best average speed of the practice -- by .062 of a mph -- behind Montoya, who was eighth on the overall time sheet, and Martin Truex Jr., who was sixth.

But Almirola, who wore his own Lowe's uniform to practice but was in street clothes -- a gray Lowe's t-shirt, jeans and a Lowe's cap for final practice -- was happy he'd met his objectives.

"I felt like I just went out there and run solid laps just to try and get a feel for what I needed in case I needed to get in the car during the race -- to confirm I was feeling what Jimmie was, in case I have to get in during the race and [crew chief] Chad [Knaus] has to make any adjustments," Almirola said. "A lot of my comments when I got out of the car were really similar to Jimmie's, so I was happy with how that went.

"But like I say, it was everything I expected. They have extremely fast race cars that are fun to drive, and right now we don't plan on making any adjustments." (Continued)