There was a set of bookends in Friday’s Camping World Series East Sunoco 150. For Aric Almirola, it was the end of a whirlwind week. For Matt Kobyluck, it was the arrival at the top of a mountain he’d been climbing for a decade. Almirola won the race, driving home the #30 car that he took over from Jeffrey Earnhardt earlier this week. It was a drive-by win for Almirola in his first – and maybe only – Camping World series race. The driver will take over the #8 ride in the Sprint Cup series full-time next year. Kobyluck drove home behind an attention-grabbing one-two battle between Almirola and second-place finisher Marc Davis. Almirola said he found out on Wednesday that he’d be driving in the race, and was asked what he knew about the Camping World Series before race day. “Nothing,” Almirola replied. “I’ve watched, because I have a vested interest in it, because of working at DEI and them having three Camping World cars. It’s an awesome series. These guys race really, really hard. As far as who was who and who I could race and couldn’t race, and who I had to look out for, I didn’t know anything. I went into this completely blind.” Thirteen cars finished the day on the lead lap. Steve Park was fourth, followed by Bobby Hamilton, Jr. in fifth. Matt Hirschman, Ricky Carmichael, Jody Lavender, Austin Dillon and Bryon Chew rounded out the top 10.(DIS site)(9-20-2008)
