“I think the leader was just playing games”: Aric Almirola was not happy with the race leader after his crash in Fontana

Aric Almirola blamed the race leaders for ‘playing games’ at the Stage 2 restart. As the leaders slowed down on the restart, several cars crashed out of the race. Almirola called out the leaders as he experienced a ‘Mickey Mouse’ restart, running in the middle of the pack.

As the green flag dropped on lap 86 of 200 at the Pala Casino 400 several cars in the midfield jammed up. Nine cars stacked up behind Joey Logano’s #22, as they went full throttle and had to slow down immediately. The cars behind expected the leaders to run away but were met with a slow restart.

Aric Almirola expressed his discontent as he said:

“I took off on the restart and went from second to third gear and all of a sudden everybody in front of us just stopped. I think the leader was just playing games, trying to prevent the runs coming from behind and they stopped in the middle of the restart zone was right about where they should have been accelerating.”

He added:

“It was just a huge accordion effect. We were back in 16th, so everybody just started stacking up and you can’t stop on a dime. It’s disappointing to get wrecked out of the race like that on a silly Mickey Mouse restart, but I should have known better.”

Aric Almirola, Ryan Preece, Tyler Reddick, and Christopher Bell sustained terminal damage to their cars. Ryan Blaney, Justin Haley, Todd Gilliland, Cody Ware, and Ty Dillon also sustained damage from the wreck.

Pole-sitter Christopher Bell was the primary victim of the multi-car wreck running in 20th position at the restart. Tyler Reddick, running the new Beast scheme, also crashed out of the race.

Bell said after the race:

“Yeah, just the same thing that everybody already said – you can’t see what’s going on. You are just going off the guy in front of you and all of sudden he slows down and I got into him, and other guys got into me.”

Almirola was classified 35th, Preece 33rd, Bell finished 32nd and Tyler Reddick wound up in 34th position.

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Stewart Haas Racing needs Aric Almirola

Aric Almirola returns with SHR, despite announcing his retirement from full-time racing after the 2022 season. The 37-year-old announced his return to racing after finding a workaround to spend more time with his family while continuing racing. Kevin Harvick the #4 driver for SHR, is set to retire at the end of the season.

SHR has limited options for replacing both their veteran drivers when they retire. When both their senior drivers retire, Chase Briscoe and Ryan Preece will lead the team. With Ross Chastain, Daniel Suarez, and Alex Bowman out of the driver market, SHR has slim options to replace Kevin Harvick.

In such a dire situation, the team needs Almirola to maintain stability for the next couple of years.