Aric Armirola

Aric Almirola, Cuban-American native of Tampa, Florida, began his career as a race car driver at the age of 8 years old, doing karting, and became a local and state champion. In the 1998 season Almirola advanced to national competition, securing a spot in WKA Grand Nationals in Daytona and finished fourth in the national ranking.

In 2000, he won the Rookie of the Year award for the Florida Modified division and the Southern Automobile Racing Association modified division after achieving his first accomplishment in the Joslin Memorial 100 at Orlando Speedworld.

In 2002, Almirola competed in the Florida Sunbelt Series, which is the top competition for vintage model series in the state, finishing as runner-up for Rookie of the Year. Almirola flourished in the following year, winning a series of six positions.

The 2003 season was also very good, Almirola became one of the original members of the Joe Gibbs Racing/Reggie White Driver Diversity program.

A descendant of Cubans, Almirola began his NASCAR career in 2004 driving vintage models at Ace Speedway in Altamahaw, North Carolina, obtaining two awards, six top-five finishes, and 15 top-10 finishes.

He continued driving for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2005, Almirola traveled to the southeast and raced in events in that region. Almirola went on to win seven races and achieve eleven poles. Competing at tracks such as Motor Mile Speedway (Radford, Va.), Southern National Speedway (Kenly, N.C.), Ace Speedway (Altamahaw, N.C.), Caraway Speedway (Lexington, N.C.) and even at the historic Hickory Motor Speedway (Hickory, N.C.). His performance behind the wheel of Joe Gibbs models provided him an opportunity with NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series of Morgan-Dollar Motorsports. Almirola piloted the No. 47 Silverado in four races, achieving two top-10 finishes including an eighth place at New Hampshire International Speedway.

Truck Series took up all his time in 2006. Along with Joe Gibbs Racing, Almirola competed for Spears Motorsports, achieving three top-10 finishes, including his best ninth place finish of the season at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. Almirola also made his NASCAR Busch Series debut for Joe Gibbs Racing in the 2006 season. In those nine events, he obtained an eleventh best finish of the season at Dover International Speedway.

2007 has been the best year for Almirola so far, competing in NASCAR Busch Series for Joe Gibbs Racing and in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for Dale Earnhardt Inc. While he only raced in six cup events (finishing in 26th place at Phoenix International Raceway), his efforts in the Busch Series were stellar after 18 races, accumulating one top-five finish, five top-10 finishes, and three poles. The achievements of the long season gave him a race in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for Dale Earnhardt Inc.

Upon arriving at the 2008 season, Almirola shared the famous No. 8 Chevrolet with veteran Mark Martin. Almirola competed in 12 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events for Dale Earnhardt Inc., obtaining a top-10 finish at the "World's Fastest Half-Mile" Bristol Motor Speedway. Almirola also made his first appearance in Sprint Cup Series, collectively three laps at Talladega and thirty-three at Martinsville. Almirola was behind the wheel of a NASCAR Camping World Series East car at Dover International Speedway for the first time in his career.

Almirola, who started in eighth place, drove the No. 8 Dale Earnhardt Foundation Chevrolet straight to the front of the field in dominant fashion. Right at the midpoint of the race, Almirola experienced a tire problem that caused him to fall to the end of the lead group of cars. As the laps progressed, Almirola passed two or three cars per lap moving toward the front of the field. With ten laps remaining, Almirola took the lead and never looked back to achieve his first and only victory, at this point, in NASCAR Camping World Series East.

Almirola thinks to continue driving in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for the new Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing team in 2009.

In the following years he has not been part of NASCAR but has continued participating in major events.

In 2011 JR Motorsports announced that Almirola would drive the No. 88 car. He would drive this car full time, expecting to race part-time in NASCAR SPRINT Cup Series for 2011 he said he would like to race for Front Row Motorsports with Yates Racing.