Aric Almirola echoed the sentiments of the vast majority of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers, asserting that the full import of the new high-drag package introduced for Sunday’s race at The Brickyard won’t be known until the green flag waves to start the race.
In three practice sessions totaling 4 hours, 45 minutes on Friday, Cup drivers avoided running in close quarters. Accordingly, they won’t know the effects of the new aerodynamic package until they get a chance to race in heavy traffic.
“We were going slower down the straightaways, which means we were on throttle more in the corners,” Almirola said on Saturday morning, after he and sponsor Eckrich presented U.S. Army veteran Luther Martin and his family with a new Ford Fusion and free groceries for a year as part of Eckrich’s participation in Operation Homefront.
“I think it’ll be interesting to see how the race plays out on Sunday. Any time you go and drive your car by yourself, you can kind of get the balance close, and you can get an idea of what your car is going to drive like. But when the green flag drops for the race is when you’ll really be able to tell if it’s an improvement for the racing or not.”
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