What does the future hold for Aric Almirola? That is the big question as the NASCAR Cup Series barrels full bore toward another edition of Silly Season.
As we head into the race weekend at Sonoma Raceway, Almirola admits that he is unsure if he’ll be back behind the wheel of a race car again in 2024 or not.
“I think it’s still very fluid,” Almirola stated in a media teleconference. “I don’t have any timetable. By this time last year what I thought was going to happen ended up not happening, so I think, for me, it’s just get up every morning and continue to work hard at being the best race car driver I can be and we’ll see where things shake out.”
This year’s edition of Almirola watch is just as peculiar as last season’s.
Almirola was set to retire from full-time NASCAR Cup Series competition at the conclusion of the 2022 season, but when the season reached its mid-way point, there were rumblings that Almirola was nearing a return for the 2023 season.
By the end of August, Almirola and Stewart-Haas Racing announced Almirola would return on a Multi-Year deal in 2023.
If you’re keeping score at home, a Multi-Year deal heading into the 2023 season would put Almirola behind the wheel of the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang through the end of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season.
However, as this season has rolled on the noise has picked up surrounding an Almirola retirement at the end of the 2023 season. Will this year be it for Almirola?
“The plan is fluid. For me, it’s still about making sure that I’m having fun and enjoying driving the race car and making sure that I can be a husband and a father and all those things, and not sacrifice that,” Almirola explained. “I love what I do. I love my job. I love my career, but at the end of the day chasing a little bit more money and more trophies and those things is not what it’s about for me, so as much as I love my job and all those things, I want to make sure that I’m doing the right thing by my family as well, so those are conversations that I’ll continue to have internally here and I’ll let you guys know when you guys need to know.”
If Almirola does indeed decide to hang up the helmet at the end of the season, that will be another domino that could set off a chain of events in Silly Season.
