Almirola aims to shut down small team doubts

“We can’t really worry about what everybody else is doing, all we can do is worry about ourselves,” Almirola said Wednesday.

“That’s kind of what’s gotten us to this point is we’ve focused the last month and a half on doing the best job we can in scoring the maximum amount of points we can each weekend and I think we’ve had three out of the last four races, we’ve had top-10s.”

The “other” weekend was the Chase opener at Chicago when Almirola uncharacteristically lost an engine after running among the front 10 of the field most of the day. That 41st-place finish put his team in a hole right off the bat, but he answered with a sixth place finish at New Hampshire last week and that, combined with widespread misfortune among the majority of the remaining Chase drivers, was enough to put him very much back in contention this week.

It’s the same kind of understated fortitude that has landed the Daytona Coke Zero 400 winner in the new win-and-you’re-in 16-driver Chase this year, despite not being an odds-on favorite for the position on most people’s preseason picks list.

And now Almirola has shown he belongs and sounded very confident discussing his situation with the national media on Wednesday.

In keeping the focus on himself and his No. 43 Nathan’s Famous Ford Fusion, Almirola said he didn’t want the team constantly updating him on the three drivers – Denny Hamlin, Greg Biffle and Kurt Busch — who he must overtake on Sunday.

“I think there’s too many people to focus all of our attention on that,” Almirola explained. “I think it would distract us from just doing our job and doing the best that we can.

“I think if we’re just racing one other guy, it would be easier to just race them heads-up and try and constantly look at points and know what we have do. But considering we’ve got to beat four guys, I think that would be too chaotic.

“So that’s kind of been my thing to my guys in our competition meeting on Monday. ‘Hey, let’s just do what we’ve done the last four weeks. It worked for us.’

“I know they’ll have it on the pit box. … but I hope (crew chief) Trent (Owens) doesn’t get too worried about that and we just do what we need to do and make the strategy calls that we need to make the to get the best finish we can.”

That Chase work actually began this summer shortly after Almirola celebrated in a rainy and emotional Daytona International Speedway Victory Lane — exactly 30 years after his car owner Richard Petty celebrated his historic 200th win there.

With the Chase berth all but decided that Sunday in Almirola’s home state, the team could shift its focus and up its game.

“It starts at the shop. … the hours that our shop guys have been putting in, the attention to detail that our guys have been trying to pay attention at every level on the race car has been phenomenal,” Almirola said.

“But we can’t do that all year long because we don’t have the manpower and the resources to be able to do that. Once we knew we were pretty much going to be in the Chase a lot of attention focused back in July went to getting ready for September.

“I think that’s the advantage that a lot of the other race teams have. … Jimmie Johnson knows before they ever go to Daytona (in February) that they’re pretty much going to make the Chase. Their attention is to get through the regular season, but right from the beginning of the year they’re focused on September.”

From his perspective, it’s the head-start his team got that will be the “difference-maker” as he calls it.

“I give all I can,” Almirola said. “I’ve got 100 percent to give and I give all 100 of it very weekend. Now in the Chase do I take a little more risk like on restarts and stuff like that? Absolutely, because there’s a lot to be had in this Chase and we’re going for it. We feel like we don’t have anything to lose, so we’ve just kind of been letting it all hang out.”

The result is that the smaller Richard Petty Motorsports has found itself among NASCAR’s perennial contending mega-teams such as Team Penske, Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing — organizations that employ up to six times the number of people as RPM. And potentially, besting some of their cars to move into the next Chase elimination round.

“I think that what we’ve accomplished this year proves how strong of a race that that Richard Petty Motorsports is and how competitive we can be and it’s not just the 43-car,” Almirola said.

“I think that it’s certainly going to help going to the tables and meetings (with sponsors) and stuff and saying, ‘hey, we are a Chase capable race team and this is what we’re capable of and if you come and sponsor a race car at our race team, we’re not guaranteeing you that we can make the Chase. .. but we certainly compete at the level and have proven it.”

MORE: