JOLIET, Illinois — Aric Almirola in the No. 15 Graceway Pharmaceuticals Billy Ballew Motorsports NASCAR Camping World Truck posted an eighth-place finish in the running of the EnjoyIllinois.com 225 race at Chicagoland Speedway Friday night.
Almirola, who had an ill-handling truck in qualifying, started in the 20th position for the inaugural NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at 1.5-mile Chicagoland Speedway.
From the start of the race, Almirola knew the nose of the Graceway Pharmaceuticals truck needed to be down closer to the racetrack to help the loose driving conditions. The Ballew Motorsports team brought Almirola down pit road under caution on lap 32 making adjustments to the truck. Almirola restarted in the 19th position on lap 36 and immediately began passing the trucks ahead of him for position.
A long green flag run broke out in the race forcing teams to have to make green flag pit stops for service. The Billy Ballew Motorsports team kept Almirola out on the track as long as they could hoping for a caution but gave up the fifth-place position on lap 83 to come down pit road.
As the cycle of pit stops continued, a truck spun bringing out the caution on lap 97 which trapped several other competitors a lap down. This advanced Almirola to the third-place position, his highest position of the race.
With the laps of the EnjoyIllinois.com 225 dwindling down the team wanted to make one more adjustment and put fresh Goodyear tires on the truck for a Saturday night shootout to the finish. Almirola came down pit road for a final time on lap 122 while running in the sixth-place position. He returned for the restart on lap 125 in 12th place and again used his talent to pass trucks on the race track posting an eighth-place finish in the inaugural NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Chicagoland Speedway. This is Almirola’s fifth top-10 finish in seven starts for Billy Ballew Motorsports in the 2009 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season.
According to NASCAR Loop Statistics Almirola was second, only to former NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Champion - Ron Hornaday, in number of positions improved in the last 10 percent (15 laps) of the race. Almirola made 47 green flag passes, third in statistics out of the 36-truck field.
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series heads next to the Iowa Speedway for the inaugural running of the Lucas Oil 200 Saturday, September 5, 2009.
