According to a report from The Athletic’s Jordan Bianchi, which cites annonymous sources, an altercation between Aric Almirola and Bubba Wallace at a competition meeting led to Joe Gibbs Racing removing Almirola from the driver seat of the team’s No. 20 NASCAR Xfinity Series entry at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and caused the team to indefinitely suspend Almirola.
TobyChristie.com reached out to the team for comment on the report from The Athletic, the team stated that it has no comment at this time.
The two drivers do have a bit of a history, as they got into a heated exhange on pit road during a red flag for weather in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway last season. In that altercation, Almirola ended up shoving Wallace in front of NASCAR security.
Bianchi’s report suggests that Almirola’s internal suspension is set to be lifted soon, and that Almirola will return for the July 20 NASCAR Xfinity Series event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The lifting of Almirola’s suspension in time for the Xfinity Series event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway falls in line with a previous report from TobyChristie.com, where Joe Gibbs Racing representatives denied the persistent rumors that Almirola had been let go from the team last week.
The team confirmed in that report that Almirola’s next scheduled NASCAR Xfinity Series race for Joe Gibbs Racing would be at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
In five NASCAR Xfinity Series starts this season, Almirola has a win, and three top-five finishes. The driver’s average finish is 10.2.
Almirola retired from full-time NASCAR Cup Series competition at the end of the 2023 season, and took on a part-time driving role, where he would be set to mentor the younger developmental drivers at Joe Gibbs Racing.
2 Responses
Aric Almirola is the most levelheaded driver in NASCAR. When Aric is upset there is usually a good reason. There is a pattern in NASCAR with bubba Wallace that needs to be dealt with.
They weren’t teammates then so I highly doubt any internal suspension from someone who wasn’t your boss . Try again…