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Aric Michael Almirola (born March 14, 1984) is an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver. He competes part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 19 Toyota GR Supra for Joe Gibbs Racing. Almirola previously competed full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, part-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, as well as what is now the ARCA Menards Series, ARCA Menards Series East, and ARCA Menards Series West.
Almirola moved up to the Busch series regularly in 2007, driving the No. 18 and No. 20 Chevys for Joe Gibbs, driving each car in ten races apiece. He won his second career pole award for the Orbitz 300 at Daytona. He won the pole again, for the second straight year, at the AT&T 250 at the Milwaukee Mile, but thought he was going to give up driving duties to Hamlin again; Hamlin's helicopter was unable to land in time for Hamlin to make it to the track, so Almirola started the race, leading the first 43 laps of the race. On lap 59, during a caution period, because of sponsor commitments, Hamlin took over for Almirola while he was running in the third place. Hamlin went on to win the race, but Almirola was credited with his first NASCAR Busch Series win because he was the driver who started the race. Almirola did not participate in team victory celebrations after the race as he had already left the track. He soon asked for his release and later joined Dale Earnhardt, Inc. following the sale of Ginn Racing. He drove the No. 01 Chevrolet in five races in 2007 and had a best finish of 30th.
Hendrick Motorsports named Almirola as a standby driver for the No. 48 team in case Jimmie Johnson needed to leave for the birth of his daughter. Defending champ has baby backup plan Almirola was not needed. In July 2010, Almirola was again a standby driver for Hendrick Motorsports at Pocono in case Jeff Gordon had to leave or miss the race due to the birth of Gordon's son. At Loudon, he was on standby for a sick Scott Speed. He drove the No. 9 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford at Martinsville Speedway in Fall 2010 after Kasey Kahne was released from his contract. Almirola had his first Sprint Cup top-five finish at Homestead. At Talladega in the fall, he ended up in the closest finish in Truck Series history by ending up second to Kyle Busch in 0.002 of a second, who passed underneath Almirola below the yellow line. The 1-2 finish was the same as the previous race in 2009 but the finish was controversial because of the yellow line rules (as NASCAR rules state that a driver must not advance his position by going below the yellow line even if he is forced down there). However, officials determined that Busch had the lead before going below the yellow line, which made Busch's winning move legal. In 2011, Almirola drove the No. 88 Nationwide Series car for JR Motorsports. He won two poles and had eighteen top-tens to finish fourth in points. He was released from his contract after the season when he accepted a full-time Sprint Cup ride, driving for Richard Petty Motorsports in the No. 43 Ford.
In 2013, Almirola returned to Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 in the Sprint Cup Series; at Martinsville Speedway in October, the team ran the No. 41 to honor Maurice Petty's induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. During the 2013 season from Texas to Talladega, he had the most consecutive Top 10s in the 43 car since Bobby Hamilton in 1996. After being fastest in practice in Talladega, his crew chief Todd Parrott was suspended for violating NASCAR's substance abuse policy. Almirola finished a career high 18th in points. In 2014, he received crew chief Trent Owens who is Richard Petty's nephew.
In January 2014, RPM announced a three-year contract extension with Almirola after working on one-year deals the previous two seasons. This coincided with sponsor Smithfield Foods stepping up to fund 29 races in each of the next three seasons with brands Smithfield, Farmland, Eckrich, and Gwaltney. Almirola had a rather slow start to 2014, being involved in a 12-car wreck in the 2014 Daytona 500. At Bristol, Almirola posted his best cup finish to date, finishing 3rd.
The next week at Auto Club Speedway during the 2014 Auto Club 400, Almirola got involved in an accident with Brian Scott. Almirola made a pass on Scott for fourth place. Scott controversially moved into the back of Almirola to wreck himself and Almirola. In a post-race interview, an angry Almirola retorted "The 33 was obviously a dart without feathers and coming across the race track. He ran right into me. Man, he came from all the way at the bottom of the race track and ran into me. He's not even racing this series for points. He's out there having fun because his daddy gets to pay for it and he wrecked us. That's frustrating."
At the 2014 Coke Zero 400, Almirola would earn his first career win in the Sprint Cup Series after avoiding two major wrecks, and leading the field when the race was called off after 112 laps due to rain. His win also marked the first victory by the Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 since 1999, and 30 years to the day Richard Petty won his 200th race. On his big victory Almirola said "The good Lord was watching out for us today and we were meant to win. It's really special for me to win here. This is not only the 30th anniversary of this team's last win at Daytona, it is my hometown and I remember growing up watching Daytona 500s and Firecracker 400s here. To win is real special."
Despite scoring better than twentieth only four times in the next few races, Almirola's win clinched a berth in the 2014 Chase for the Sprint Cup, his first Chase appearance and the first for a Cuban driver. Almirola was eliminated from the championship chase after round 1 of the Chase.
Almirola had a more successful year in 2015 despite missing the Chase barely. He had only six top-tens but he was mainly in the top-fifteen and was consistent all year long. he barely missed the chase by almost winning the Fall Richmond race with a strategy call and finished fourth. He finished seventeenth in the standings, the highest for a non-chaser.
He returned to No. 43 in 2016 with Brian Scott as his new teammate.
In July 2016, Almirola, in the No. 98 car, won the Xfinity Series race at Daytona, his first Xfinity Series win since 2007. He barely beat Justin Allgaier by 0.003 seconds to win the race. A final lap caution came out, with Almirola being declared the winner on review. In victory lane, an ecstatic Almirola said that he considered the race to be his first Xfinity Series win as he had won the 2007 Milwaukee race while Denny Hamlin drove 75% of the race. Almirola had a dismal 2016 season with just a top-ten finish.
Almirola started the 2017 season without a teammate and finished 4th at the 2017 Daytona 500. Almirola was hit with a 35-point penalty loss after the Talladega race. During the Go Bowling 400 at Kansas Speedway on May 13, 2017, Almirola was involved in a violent crash along with Joey Logano and Danica Patrick. After Logano's brake rotor exploded, he collided with Patrick, sending both straight into the wall. Almirola attempted to avoid the wreck but instead slammed into Logano. Although he was conscious, Almirola was cut out of his car, placed onto a stretcher, and airlifted to the University of Kansas Hospital. Almirola was diagnosed with a compression fracture of his T5 vertebrae, released from the University of Kansas Hospital after overnight observation and traveled back to North Carolina, where he had a follow-up consultation with his doctors in Charlotte. Almirola was also reported to have the ability to walk the day after his violent wreck. It was expected that he would miss eight–twelve weeks. He was replaced by Regan Smith for the Monster Energy Open, which led up to the Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race, the Coca-Cola 600, and the AAA 400 Drive for Autism. Darrell Wallace Jr. and Billy Johnson also substituted for Almirola. On June 29, 2017, Almirola stated he would undergo track tests in Charlotte or Darlington before being medically cleared to race in low-banking tracks like Indianapolis or New Hampshire to decrease stress on his back. On July 12, 2017, he announced he had been cleared to return to racing at Loudon's Overton's 301.
In September 2017, after sponsor Smithfield Foods announced that they would be leaving the team at season's end, Almirola announced his departure from Richard Petty Motorsports.
In the 2019 season, Almirola once again made the playoffs, but was eliminated in the Round of 16 after finishing fourteenth at the Charlotte Roval. Five weeks later, Almirola contended with teammate and pole-setter Kevin Harvick for the win at Texas before finishing in 2nd-place, his best finish of the season. He fell to fourteenth in the final points standings. On December 4, 2019, Stewart–Haas Racing announced that Mike Bugarewicz will replace Johnny Klausmeier as the crew chief of the No. 10 team in 2020.
Almirola finished third at the 2020 GEICO 500 despite crossing the finish line nearly all the way backward after being spun by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Almirola led the most laps and won the second stage at Pocono the following week, and looked to be in a position to win until a poor final pit stop cost him the lead. Almirola finished 3rd. Almirola led 128 of the first 137 laps at Kentucky but his car did not do as well in lap traffic and he was unable to regain the lead; Almirola's teammate Cole Custer won the race. Almirola's consistency got him in the Playoffs for the third year in a row. He made it to the Round of 12 but was eliminated after the Charlotte Roval.
In 2021, Almirola won his duel and started third in the Daytona 500, but contact with Christopher Bell triggered the big one and knocked Almirola out of the race on lap fourteen. It was the fourth consecutive year in which Almirola did not finish on the lead lap in the Daytona 500. At New Hampshire Motor Speedway, with 57 laps to go, Almirola passed Ryan Blaney for the lead. He went on to collect his third career win over Christopher Bell after NASCAR shortened the race by 8 laps due to darkness. Almirola was eliminated from the playoffs following the conclusion of the Round of 16 at Bristol. He finished the season fifteenth in the points standings.
On January 10, 2022, Almirola announced his retirement from full-time racing after the 2022 season. However, on August 19, 2022, Almirola announced he would not retire at the end of the season and would continue to drive the No. 10 in 2023. He started the season with a fifth-place finish at the 2022 Daytona 500. Despite having no wins, Almirola's finishes were a huge improvement over the previous season, with two top-fives and seven top-10 finishes. On October 28, 2023, Almirola announced he would not return to SHR in 2024.
Almirola returned to the Xfinity Series part-time in 2023 in two road course races. He drove the SS-Green Light Racing No. 08 to a 24th-place finish at Circuit of the Americas and the RSS Racing No. 28 at Sonoma, becoming the first-ever winner in the NXS at Sonoma as well as giving RSS their first ever win as an organization.
In 2025, Almirola partnered with Joe Gibbs Racing and the Christian organization Young Life to compete part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, participating in nine events. After a late-race caution at Phoenix, Almirola took over the lead from Justin Allgaier and made a last lap pass on Alex Bowman in an exciting photo finish to earn the win. Almirola beat Bowman by 0.045 seconds, the 26th closest finish in Xfinity Series history. At Indianapolis, Almirola was intentionally right-rear hooked by Austin Hill to the outside wall, having Hill be penalized five laps and suspended the following week. During the playoffs, Almirola won at Bristol and Las Vegas.
A graduate of Hillsborough High School in Tampa, Almirola attended the University of Central Florida to work on a degree in mechanical engineering before leaving to pursue a career in racing.
Almirola is married to Janice Almirola, with whom he has two children See how some NASCAR drivers celebrated Thanksgiving | NASCAR.com Almirola danced with his children in a 2019 public service announcement for the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), part of the Responsible Fatherhood media campaign.
| 2009 | Earnhardt Ganassi Racing | Chevrolet | 11 | 30 |
| 2010 | Phoenix Racing | Chevrolet | DNQ | |
| 2012 | Richard Petty Motorsports | Ford | 27 | 33 |
| 2013 | 26 | 13 | ||
| 2014 | 13 | 39 | ||
| 2015 | 33 | 15 | ||
| 2016 | 34 | 12 | ||
| 2017 | 13 | 4 | ||
| 2018 | Stewart–Haas Racing | Ford | 37 | 11 |
| 2019 | 8 | 32 | ||
| 2020 | 5 | 22 | ||
| 2021 | 3 | 34 | ||
| 2022 | 38 | 5 | ||
| 2023 | 4 | 21 | ||
| † – Qualified for Denny Hamlin |
Season still in progress
Ineligible for series points
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