Tuesday test will mark first step back for Almirola

If the test goes according to plan, Almirola will race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway next weekend. 

Almirola, 33, fractured his T5 vertebra in a multi-car wreck at Kansas Speedway on May 13. 

“Aric is progressing well,” crew chief Drew Blickensderfer told Motorsport.com. “We think he will be ok for Loudon. A NASCAR test at Charlotte to confirm whether he is ok is happening this week. 

“If everything goes good and there’s no pain, then Aric should be in the car at Loudon. But there’s still a little unknown until he straps in the car and hits the banking.”

Blickensderfer plans to run Almirola for a few laps to make sure he’s comfortable in the car. If he’s at ease, the team will up the laps to 30 — two-thirds of a fuel run — then again check for soreness with the driver. 

“We’ve worked on his seat to try and help the way he sits in the car,” Blickensderfer said. “If anything, God forbid, ever happened again, it could put him in a better seating position. So we worked on that. He needs to feel that for 30-straight laps.

“The other thing, we’re going to have him come down pit road, jack it up and drop the jack. One of the hardest hits they take is when you drop the jack on the left side during the pit stops. So we’re going to have him come down pit road, get on the brakes hard, make sure he feels the tug on the seat belts going forward — something he’ll feel at Loudon going into the corner — make sure he feels that stuff then run 30 to 40 laps in a row.”

Blickensderfer says Almirola will use pain for his barometer as far as how hard he can push in the car. But as a veteran crew chief, Blickensderfer can tells his driver is chomping at the bit to race again. 

“Probably three weeks ago when Aric was coming around, I knew he was ready to get in the race car,” Blickensderfer said. “You could just tell. The way he moved, the way he acted, it was Aric Almirola pre-injury and he looked like he was good to go. 

“So I think he’s good to go. But you never know until you hit the banking at 180 mile an hour. That’s something you can’t simulate without doing the real thing.”