Aric Almirola to Put His “Tricky Triangle” Experience to the Test

Aric Almirola will double his usual amount of seat time this weekend at Pocono Raceway as he will race in both Saturday’s inaugural XFINITY race and Sunday’s Sprint Cup race. Almirola is hoping that the extra experience from competing with the XFINITY Series will work to his advantage when he takes to the track in Sunday’s Pocono 400. He needs a strong finish in the No. 43 Smithfield Ford to begin the climb back up through the Championship Point Standings after falling to 26th place.

Almirola will race the No. 98 Carroll Shelby Engine Ford for Biagi-DenBeste Racing in the XFINITY Series. This will be his seventh start in the series this season.

The “Tricky Triangle” has not always been kind to Almirola. In his eight starts at the Pennsylvania track, he has tied his best finish of 18th place twice. The first 18th-place finish came in the fall of 2012 and the second in the fall of 2015.

Fans can get in the car with Almirola by listening to his live in-car radio feed on SiriusXM Radio Channel 134 during the Pocono 400.

“I’m hoping that what I expect from the new lower-downforce package at Pocono will align with what will actually happen once we get cars on track. Back in the day when the cars were sliding all over the place and the track’s pavement was old, Pocono put on some really awesome races. I hope with the new downforce package and the cars not being glued to the racetrack that we’ll be able to slip and slide and see some great racing action again. Because it will be significantly less downforce than what we had last year, I’m eager to get there to see how the cars react. But, all we can really do is wait and see how it plays out. It will definitely be interesting.”

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