While Kevin Harvick sealed his place in the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, the battle at the bottom of the 12-driver cutoff is already heating up. Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Aric Almirola and Clint Bowyer are tied for the final spot.

Almirola holds the upper hand on the 12th and final spot currently. He has one extra playoff point over Bowyer. Almirola finished a spot ahead of Bowyer in ninth place.

While he would like to bag higher finishes going ahead and secure his place in the next round, Almirola is quite content with his performance at Darlington.

Aric Almirola is happy with his start to the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs

He shrugged off engine issues and other troubles to finish in the Top-10. “We were able to battle back from that and get back to the top-10. Which is where we felt like we’re capable of running. I felt we’re a 7th to10th place car and we finished 9th,” Almirola said after the race.

As per the original schedule, the opening playoff race was at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. But scheduling troubles due to the pandemic shifted the race to Darlington. However, for Almirola, it did not make much of a difference.

“As far as Darlington compared to Las Vegas, I ran about the same as I would have at Las Vegas. I’ve been about a 6th to 10th place car at both those places. That’s about where we ran tonight,” he expressed.

Bouncing back from adversity

Almirola explained the issues he faced during the race at Darlington. “We got in a little bit of a hole early in the race with some left rear quarter panel damage.

“We had to fix on pit road and really put us in a spot to where we couldn’t capitalize on stage points. So that hurt us a little bit, not scoring any stage points,” Almirola explained.

Almirola sealed his place in the playoffs on the back of a superb run mid-way through the season. He enjoyed five straight Top-5 finishes, including three Top-3 finishes.