Aric Almirola passed Todd Bodine and Kyle Busch three-wide through the middle with seven laps left in Saturday’s VFW 200 and held on to win the Camping World Truck Series race at Michigan International Speedway.
“I didn’t think it was the greatest place to be,” Almirola said of his middle position after a restart on Lap 93 of 100. “But I knew we were going to run wide open through the corner. We were either going to crash, or we were going to make it out the other side — because I knew how important clean air was.
“I knew that was my only shot to get out in the lead, and if I didn’t get out in the lead, there was no chance of us winning the race. So I went down in Turn 1, and I knew I was going to run a shorter distance than Todd [who was on the outside], so I just tried to hang tight on Kyle’s door and get him loose, which I did.
“By the time we got off Turn 2, I was almost clear of Todd, and then when we went through [Turns] 3 and 4, I cleared him. So I think that was the move of the race, as far as I’m concerned.”
In a race that featured a track-record 20 lead changes, Almirola didn’t go to the front until his pass on Lap 93. Bodine had held the lead for a restart on Lap 89 and had begun to pull away when Nelson Piquet Jr. spun through the frontstretch grass to bring out the fifth and final caution of the afternoon.
The Truck series takes a break from racing until July11th, when they mount another attack at the Rusty Wallace designed track in Newton, Iowa. So this is a time for the truck teams to regroup and rebuild!
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
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