KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Post a couple of top-10 finishes and folks call it a coincidence.
String several together, however, and it begins to look like a trend.
That’s what NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Aric Almirola is counting on these days.
The Richard Petty Motorsports driver has posted four top-10 finishes in his last five outings, including a pair of top-five results.
Almirola, 31, enters Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (2:15 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM) at Kansas Speedway having failed to qualify for this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. But he’s not out of contention for possible race wins.
His recent efforts in the familiar No. 43 Ford have told him as much. A fourth at Richmond, 10th at Chicagoland, fifth at Dover and 10th again at Charlotte with only a 43rd-place finish at New Hampshire marring an otherwise consistent string of finishes.
So do Almirola and his team see the competitive turn as a trend?
“I do,” he said Friday just before qualifying got underway. “I feel like we’ve really hit on some stuff that’s really working for me, the cars have been driving good, we’ve had real good long-run speed for the last six weeks and that’s paid off for us.
“We still have to work on our cars to find some short-run speed, and really run some fast laps but … the way our cars have been racing has been really good. I think we’re on to something.”
Although he narrowly missed qualifying for the 10-race Chase, Almirola sits 17th in points — highest among those who failed to earn one of this year’s 16 berths.
He finished 11th at Kansas when the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series visited the 1.5-mile track earlier this season. Talladega, Martinsville, Texas, Phoenix and Homestead round out the remaining races on this year’s Sprint Cup schedule.
“You hope it’s a trend, right?” said crew chief Trent Owens. “Recently I think we’ve gotten maybe just a little bit more speed in our cars. It’s not necessarily one thing I’m doing.
“I think we were really bummed we didn’t get in the Chase because we felt like we were in all year. We felt like we did what we were supposed to do to earn a spot on points if we didn’t win. We had an unfortunate engine situation at Pocono, and a crash at Indy. … A couple of events just put us out.”
Darlington, where Almirola finished 11th, was good even though it was with an aerodynamic package that won’t be used again until 2016. At Richmond “we put our best effort in there,” and scored a top-five, Owens noted. That momentum carried over into a test at Kansas where he said the team “found a few items that might help our cars on the mile-and-a -halves.”
Chicago was solid as was Charlotte, where the team had struggled.
“That kind of said, ‘yeah, we might be doing the right thing,’ ” said Owens.
Beyond the Team Penske entries of 2012 champion Brad Keselowski (one win) and teammate Joey Logano (four wins), the 2015 season hasn’t been particularly memorable for many of those in the Ford camp. Roush Fenway Racing failed to place one of its three teams in the Chase for the first time since the format debuted in 2004. And Sam Hornish Jr., Almirola’s teammate, has only three top-10 results on the year.
Almirola’s improved finishing positions have yet to include a surge in leading laps — he’s led only three all season. But he knows his team is getting better each week.
“Honestly, you just compare yourself to the competition, right? And I think even the best car in the field probably has some issues. He’s probably a little tight in the center or what have you,” Almirola said. “But he’s doing it running faster than everyone else. …
“I think relative to the competition we have improved the handling of our cars and the way our cars are performing … during race conditions.”
The simple answer, Owens said, is that the team needs faster race cars to lead laps and to “get to that next level.”
“If you asked someone to name the race teams in order, we are a middle-of-the-road race team when you talk about people size, money, resources,” he said. “It’s hard to make that jump all the way to first. You can make that jump from 20th to 10th. But to get to fifth and to get to first, dominate races and lead laps, that’s a pretty big step, not just people-wise, but money-wise and resources.”
Almirola will start 23rd Sunday. It’s been 48 races since his last, and so far only, victory in the Sprint Cup Series. Progress has come slowly. But expectations are rising for Almirola and everyone on the team.
“When you go through a stretch where you run 20th and you just can’t seem to find the speed, every weekend you go to the airport and you’re … not necessarily excited but you’re kind of hopeful,” he said.
“It’s like, ‘I’m not sure if Santa is real, but I hope he is.’
“Then when you start running good, you get excited to get on the plane on Thursdays and go to the race track because you’ve got some momentum on your side.
“You feel like you’re just maybe a few small things away from being able to go up there and compete to win races.”
