Aric Almirola has yet to announce his retirement decision. Back in late July, Almirola said on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio that within the next “30-60 days” he would announce his decision. Well, we are past that deadline, and Almirola has yet to announce his decision yet. Why is that?
It is entirely possible that internally, SHR and Aric Almirola already know. They just do not have the ability to announce it as of yet. This could be because SHR is still going through the details of a deal with a particular driver, and they are just not ready to announce it yet.
With Almirola publically not making any statements, SHR may be close enough to sign a driver that they feel it might just be easier to announce it all at the same time. SHR’s PR staff is probably very busy right now as well dealing with things like Kevin Harvick’s retirement, and having another driver retire at the same time might take away from Kevin Harvick’s retirement tour.
As a result, SHR may feel it is best to let some of the Harvick retirement dust settle, then they can announce Almirola in whatever way they choose to handle it. It is possible that Almirola has also decided he will come back, and SHR is just waiting for the perfect time to announce it. However, the recent reports would conflict with that.
Another possibility is that Almirola has already notified SHR of his decision to retire, but SHR does not know who will drive for the team yet. The idea of who can replace Almirola at SHR is the subject of major scrutiny because SHR does not have many drivers to pick from.
The Ford prospect pool is very thin at the moment, and the most logical option may be Cole Custer. Joe Custer is the Team President at SHR, who is Cole’s dad, so, Cole has at least Joe in his corner. However, Custer’s Cup Series stats with SHR were less than stellar.
Therefore, not everyone at SHR would probably be on board with Custer landing that ride. Some may look at it as a step backward to bring back the guy who could not get the job done in three years with the team at the Cup Series level.
However, there is no easy replacement for Almirola either. Noah Gragson is a candidate, but does he bring funding? On top of that, he was awful in his 2/3 of a season with Legacy Motor Club. If you look at Ford’s prospects, the choices in the lower series are Ben Rhodes, Brett Moffitt, and Ty Majeski.
None of those drivers excite people. Therefore, it’s not out of the question that within SHR, there is either no choice made or, worst case scenario, there is internal strife about a decision.
It’s also entirely possible that no decision has been made yet by any party. If SHR does not know who will replace Almirola in 2024, then why would they try to push him out the door or push him into a decision? It’s possible that SHR is continuing to analyze potential replacements while allowing Almirola to continue to decide.
Now, this is very unlikely because SHR cannot give offers to drivers when their current driver is uncertain about their future. However, Almirola does bring significant funding from Smithfield, so there is an incentive for SHR to bring him back. As long as there is no official statement from either party, there is a chance that there has been no decision made.
When will Aric Almirola announce his decision? He is the last major silly season domino to fall in the Cup Series, and everyone is curious to see how this ends up.
Another race weekend in the books. While Ryan Blaney battled back from several pit road setbacks to win his second straight race at Phoenix, other drivers were much to be desired. It was a big win for Penske but for several others, they leave the first “real” race of the season scratching their head with a lot that they need to figure out. Here are the biggest losers of NASCAR’s Spring 2026 Phoenix race weekend.
I’m afraid that this is starting to be habitual. Another race weekend at RCR for Kyle Busch, another terrible result. Well, the finish wasn’t exactly awful. While 17th is hardly up to Kyle’s standards, it’s about as good as it gets anymore for the two-time champion who hasn’t won a race in nearly a hundred starts.
To start things off, there was a reason to be cautiously optimistic about the future of that RCR No. 8 Chevy. New crew chief. Personnel changes. A new Chevy body. He even scored the pole for the 68th running of the Daytona 500 last month. But, since then, it has been a sharp slope downward. He was mostly a non-factor in the first three races. And, today, it seemed like the No. 8 Chevy was out to lunch. They unloaded slow. They qualified in the back of the pack. And, before Stage 1 even ended, Kyle was running 34th with no apparent issues and went a lap down to leader Ryan Blaney. To add insult to injury, Kyle Bush had a tire go down on him three times today. More than any other driver. It appears to be back to the drawing board for team No. 8.
You could say that the Hendrick No. 48 team had a rough weekend in general. But I think it would be more accurate to say that the entire start to 2026 has been catastrophic. Heading into today’s race, even with Bowman starting the first three races of the season, the No. 48 team was 36th in points, last among all full-time drivers. Even Cody Ware was ahead of him. If that’s not bad, I don’t know what is.
To rub salt in the wound, their driver missed today at Phoenix due to showing symptoms of vertigo. So, Anthony Alfredo was into sub and…it went about as well as you’d expect. He went a lap down early and never recovered. He got caught up in the incident involving Joey Logano and DNF’d. Officially, they scored a 33rd finishing position. This is the worst start Bowman could ever imagine, considering that he’s in a contract year.
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that I’ve lost my marbles. “Come on, dude! Penske just swept the weekend! How can they be losers?” Hear me out. Let’s start first with the two other Penske drivers, shall we? Joey Logano caused not one, but two multi-car pileups, one involving his Penske teammate, Austin Cindric. Cars were utterly destroyed. Before that, both Cindric and Logano were running solidly in the top 10.
So, it’s not for a lack of speed that they make our Biggest Losers list. The reason they’re listed here is that a lot of their problems today, if not all of them, were self-inflicted. Logano was driving sloppily and that took out Cindric. And even race winner Ryan Blaney almost lost this race on pit road numerous times. Rookie mistakes by the pit crew constantly had him charging from behind. Pit road penalties. He was like a yo-yo going back and forth throughout the field. What saved him in the end was that, on that last restart, Blaney took two tires and Christopher Bell took 4. If that had not happened, it is extremely possible that Blaney ultimately would have lost the race and it would have been because of their numerous mistakes in the pits.
They got lucky this week. They probably won’t get that lucky again. They need to clean up those nagging, senseless mistakes.
Ole, Danny boy. If Alex Bowman’s seat is the hottest in the series, Daniel Suarez has to be the second hottest in the garage. That No. 7 car has been a revolving door of drivers for the last several years and it looks like Suarez is shaping up to be Spire’s latest victim. It’s the same old story with the team: they show impressive speed in qualifying and even early on in the race. But rarely do they ever put a full race together. That criticism isn’t just for Suarez, it applies to the team across the board.
But Carson Hocevar is the team’s golden child. He’s not going anywhere. And the team seems pretty high on Michael McDowell at the moment. That leaves Suarez looking like the odd man out, a seat-warmer, if you will. He needs to perform. And, he’s done well to start, admittedly. But he qualified 5th for today’s race. He even earned a few stage points in the opening stage. Then, he faltered and left the race with an unceremonious whimper. Ultimately, after he was no longer a factor, he was caught up in a mid-race wreck. He finished 30th. That’s a tough pill to swallow for the Mexican-born driver. If he wants to keep his ride next year, he needs to show stark improvement in the coming weeks. I have a strong feeling that that ride is about to be a highly sought-after commodity once silly season rolls around.
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The first checkered flag of the 2026 rendition of the NASCAR West Coast Swing (as abbreviated as it is) has officially flown. It was an exciting race, full of close, tight-cornered racing, a plethora of tire issues littered throughout, and a couple of heartbreaking, hard hits. Surviving it all was Ryan Blaney, who captured the flag in the Straight Talk 500 at Phoenix Raceway. He survived pit road mishaps and passed a total of 49 cars to win the race today. It marks his 18th career victory, sweeping the weekend for Team Penske. So, for Blaney and Team Penske, the race was the highest of highs. Not everyone escaped unscathed, though. Here are the key takeaways from NASCAR’s spring date at Phoenix.
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Following a relatively clean first stage, Stage number 2 and beyond was littered with cautions. Most of these cautions were a result of tires going down after only about 20 laps or so of use. But the caution on Lao 216 was purely driver error. Joey Logano, who was running 7th at the time, made a move down on the apron approaching the finish line. Chaos ensued. Here’s what happened.
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