Aric Almirola: "I will fight to stay as long as I can in the sport"

RPM announced this week that Almirola would not be returning to its No. 43 Ford next season. The announcement followed another earlier in the week by the team’s sponsor, Smithfield, that it would also leaving the organization at the end of the season.

Almirola’s future officially remains unknown next season, but Smithfield is moving to Stewart-Haas Racing, where it is expected to be paired with a new driver to the organization.

“I have already spent a lot of time with the guys on my team. You have to remember these guys on the team are like family to me. I have been around most of these guys for the whole six years I have been here,” Almirola said Friday at Chicagoland Speedway.

“We have a great relationship and mean a lot to each other. I think it is important we don’t let this get in the way of our relationship. At the end of the day we are all still people and we have relationships and those relationships will continue much past the end of 2017.

“We can still be friends even if we don’t work together.”

Almirola said he had no reason to believe he would not remain in the No. 43 the remainder of this season. “I have a contract that says I will, so hopefully,” he said.

In 199 starts in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series with RPM beginning in 2012, Almirola has one victory, nine top-five and 27 top-10 finishes and has won one pole. He finished a career-high 16th in the series standings in 2014.

Staying out of the politics

Over the last week, team co-owner Richard Petty and Smithfield executives have conducted a war of words through dueling press releases over the status of their negotiations.

Almirola said he has elected to stay out of the fray.

“My job is to drive the race car. That is what I am going to do and I will do it to the best of my abilities like I always do,” he said. “I will finish the last 10 races of the year on a high note hopefully and we will go from there.

“I am not going to get in the middle of any of that. I am here to drive the race car and I will continue to be a professional like I am sure everyone else is on the race team.”

Just wants to race

Whatever transpires after this season, Almirola said he has never contemplated doing anything other than race.

“I think everybody wants to race. That is what we all do. That is what we all know. I have been racing since I was eight-years-old. I still today, at 33, when I wake up in the morning, it is all I want to do,” he said.

“When I moved to North Carolina in 2004, I moved there to go drive race cars. That was Plan A and I never really came up with Plan B. I have been fortunate to have the opportunities that I’ve had along the way and I have never had to think about a Plan B.

“I am still focused on Plan A. I still want to drive race cars. When that time comes, if that is not an opportunity, then I will try to figure out what Plan B is. For now I will fight to stay as long as I can in the sport.”