Tough Day for Almirola in Chicago
Z-Line Designs Driver Finishes 38th After Scraping Wall on Lap 86
Date: July 14, 2007
Event: USG Durock 300 (Round 20 of 35)
Series: NASCAR Busch Series
Location: Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill. (1.5-mile oval)
Start/Finish: 3rd/38th (Accident, completed 167 of 200 laps)
Winner: Kevin Harvick of Richard Childress Racing (Chevrolet)
Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 18 Z-Line Designs/OfficeMax Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR), finished 38th after scraping the wall on lap 86 in Saturday’s USG Durock 300 NASCAR Busch Series race at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill.
It was a tough finish on a day that began with such promise, as Almirola started third behind his JGR teammate Denny Hamlin, who set fast time earlier in the day during qualifying to earn his fourth Busch Series pole of the season.
From his solid starting spot, Almirola ran steadily in the top-10 during the early portion of the 200-lap race. Scheduled pit stops on lap 64 and 79 to adjust Almirola’s loose-handling race car seemed to be the only hiccup on what appeared to be a top-10 performance.
But just after a restart on lap 83, things began to unravel for the No. 18 team.
Almirola went three-wide into turn one on the high side and the No. 47 car of Kelly Bires forced him against the wall. Just four laps later, the sharp edges of the scraped up sheet metal cut Almirola’s right front tire, sending him into the turn three wall, pancaking the right side of the car.
The accident forced Almirola to the garage area, where the Z-Line Designs team did the best they could to repair the right side damage. Almirola eventually returned to the race 21 laps down, but again found trouble when Kyle Krisiloff’s No. 14 Ford touched the right rear corner of the Z-Line Designs/OfficeMax Chevy, sending Almirola spinning through the backstretch grass.
“We came in and pitted and when we got back out there I tried to get too much back out of it and went three-wide down the frontstretch,” said Almirola, who made his 22nd career Busch Series start and his 13th this season at Chicagoland. “I don’t know if the 47 (Bires) knew I was out there. We hit the wall in turn one and four laps later we cut down a right front tire and put us into the wall even harder. It tore up the suspension and the rest of the car even more and made our day really long. I really wanted to bring home Z-Line Designs and OfficeMax a good finish, so we’re definitely disappointed.”
After gaining as many positions as he could against the cars already out of the race, and with smoke coming into the cockpit from the original accident, crew chief Jason Ratcliff decided to bring Almirola to the garage with less than 20 laps remaining.
Kevin Harvick scored his 29th career Busch Series victory and his third of the season by winning the USG Durock 300. Matt Kenseth, Jeff Burton, Clint Bowyer and Kyle Busch secured the rest of the top-five. Paul Menard, Hamlin, Tony Stewart, Dave Blaney and Stephen Leicht comprised the remainder of the top-10.
With 20 of 35 Busch Series races in the books, the No. 18 car is 24th in owner points, 26 points outside the top-20.
Z-Line Designs returns to racing Sept. 1 in the NASCAR Busch Series 300 at California Speedway in Fontana with JGR development driver Kevin Conway behind the wheel. There, the 28-year-old from Lynchburg, Va., will make his 11th career Busch Series start and his fifth this season. Conway posted a career-best finish of 21st in his most recent Busch Series race June 30 at New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon.
Six more races come before California, with the next event on the Busch Series schedule being the July 21 Gateway 250 at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill. The race starts at 8:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by ESPN2 beginning with its pre-race show at 8 p.m.
