Plate Racing Levels Playing Field

The First Reid:  Plate Racing Levels Playing Field, But Almirola Deserved Win

By Reid Spencer

NASCAR Wire Service

Anyone who doubts that restrictor-plate racing tends to level the playing field in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series needs only to look at the race report for Sunday’s rain-delayed Coke Zero 400.

The drivers who populated the top 10 when the race was called weren’t exactly the usual suspects.

Fourth-place finisher Casey Mears and fifth-place Austin Dillon both recorded the first top fives and second top 10s of the season. Both drivers got the only other top 10s of the year in the Daytona 500.

Seventh-place finisher Michael McDowell cracked the top 10 for the first time this season. Eight-place Danica Patrick adroitly dodged two major wrecks and collected her second top 10 of the season.

And, of course, Aric Almirola won the first Sprint Cup race of his career.

Just because Almirola triumphed on a plate track, however, doesn’t mean we should dismiss his victory as another random spin of the Wheel of Fortune.

Almirola had to have a car with enough speed to run up front. His No. 43 Ford also had to handle and turn through the corners on a track made slicker by daytime racing, thanks to the postponement from the night before.

And Almirola had to make the right choices in the draft, when everyone knew that an approaching storm could end the race short of its scheduled distance.

In other words, just because plate racing adds more drivers to the mix, that doesn’t mean the winner doesn’t earn the victory.

Almirola certainly did.

NASCAR NUMBER

545: The number of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races between the two most recent victories for the No. 43. John Andretti took the Petty Enterprises car to Victory Lane at Martinsville in April 1999, more than 15 years before Aric Almirola put the vaunted car number back in the winner’s circle at Daytona.

192: The number of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories collected by Richard Petty in the no. 43. Though Petty won his first race at Charlotte (1960) and his last race at Daytona (1984) in the number he made famous, he also had six victories in the No. 41 and two in the No. 42 to total 200.

3: The number of top 10s scored by rookie Kyle Larson at NASCAR Sprint Cup Series tracks that will host return visits from the series before the Chase starts. Larson was 10th at Bristol, fifth at Pocono and eighth at Michigan in his first visits to those venues. At Richmond, he finished 15th—but won the pole.

6: Of the previous seven NASCAR Sprint Cup Series winners at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the number of drivers still seeking a first victory this season. This list includes Clint Bowyer, Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne, Brian Vickers and Matt Kenseth. Denny Hamlin is the one exception.

12: The number of consecutive different winners in the last 12 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Variety indeed is the spice of life at the Magic Mile, where Kurt Busch started the streak in 2008 and Matt Kenseth kept it going last September.

NASCAR ETC

As mentioned above, an astounding rarity has developed at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. There have been 12 different winners in the last 12 races. There’s a very good chance we’ll see a 13th different, looking at who isn’t part of the streak. That list includes 2014 winners Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards. … Aric Almirola, you may have heard, won in the iconic No. 43 car. Some No. 43 nuggets of note: Almirola was the 43rd driver to drive the famed No. 43 car in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. …Prior to Sunday's win, the last time the No. 43 car visited Victory Lane at Daytona was 7/4/1984 with NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty behind the wheel. … The last time the No. 43 car won in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series was at Martinsville Speedway (4/18/1999) with driver John Andretti. … The win was the No. 43 car's 199th win (second-most all-time) in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. … It was the No. 43 car's 11th points-paying win at Daytona among two drivers - Richard Petty (10 wins) and Aric Almirola (1 win). … Almirola was the sixth driver to win in the No. 43, joining Richard Petty, Bobby Hamilton, Jim Paschal, John Andretti and Lee Petty.