Almirola hopes DEI move offers fast track to stardom

After being convinced he wouldn't get the seat time he needed with Joe Gibbs, Aric Almirola accepted an offer from Mark Martin to share in Martin's driving duties at DEI. Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Aric Almirola has a lot to learn. Nobody knows this better than him. By his own estimation, the 23-year-old driver, who will make his second Nextel Cup start at Bristol on Sunday, has raced on fewer than half of the tracks that comprise the series' schedule. He's at the point in his development where nearly every lap he turns seems to produce an "ah-ha!" moment. But some lessons in his young career -- lessons that have nothing to do with seat time, and everything to do with how the game is played at the highest levels -- have come harder than others.

Take last June's AT&T 250 at the Milwaukee Mile, when Almirola, in his first full year of Busch Series competition with Joe Gibbs Racing, got schooled in the economics of NASCAR. Running in third, 60 laps into the race, he was replaced as the driver of the No. 20 car by teammate (and Nextel Cup star) Denny Hamlin, who had arrived late from California, where he had been preparing for the next day's Cup race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma . That Hamlin -- whose appearance in Milwaukee fulfilled a commitment to the car's sponsor, Rockwell Automation -- went on to win was little consolation to Almirola. He bolted from the track and never returned, even though, as the driver who began the race, he was credited with his first victory in 20 Busch starts.

Dave Rogers, crew chief for the No. 20 car and Almirola's friend, says that the switch had to be made. "Joe Gibbs Racing made good on a deal we set back in December," says Rogers. "Rockwell Automation paid for Denny Hamlin to run a certain amount of races. Milwaukee was extremely painful, but when you're running a race team, you have to look at what's best for the whole team."

Racing fans should remember Milwaukee, because if Almirola can fulfill his vast potential, what happened there could represent a seminal event in the life of a star.

The Tampa native, who is of Cuban descent, was fast-tracked to the big time three years ago, when he signed a driver-development deal with JGR as part of its diversity program. And after joining DEI this summer at the behest of none other than Mark Martin, he is scheduled to follow up his Cup debut this Sunday with three more races this season in NASCAR's biggest series. Next year he might drive DEI's famed No. 8 in in a split schedule with Martin. "I haven't even run a whole season of Busch. I'm not ready to go full-time, and Mark doesn't want to run full-time," Almirola said of this year's arrangement. "He's trying to help me fill his shoes and meet my long-term goals."

Almirola has been around racing his whole life. He's been driving since he was eight, when he started running go-karts under the supervision of his grandfather, Sam Rodriguez. A native of the Sunshine State, Rodriguez had been a successful sprint-car driver, winning three straight Tampa Bay Area Racing Association championships from 1990 to '92.

1 of 2