Aric Almirola, who qualified for four of the first seven Sprint Cup races for Phoenix Racing, said Monday he has mutually agreed to part ways with the team and will focus on competing for the Camping World Truck Series title with Billy Ballew Motorsports. Phoenix Racing lost its sponsorship from Miccosukee Resort & Gaming prior to the start of the season and has dropped out of the four races with Almirola within 60 laps. “We both agreed it was time to do something different,” Almirola said in a phone interview. “I am going to focus a lot more on my truck program, which is really important to me and Billy Ballew Motorsports and all the guys over there. The 26-year-old Almirola is second in the truck standings, just 82 points behind leader Timothy Peters. Almirola has three top-10s in four truck events this year. While he valued the experience of getting laps in a Cup car, Almirola was going to have to make a decision between the truck race in Kansas and the Cup event in Richmond May 1. It just seemed right, Almirola said, to make the decision now after he failed to qualify for the race at Phoenix last weekend. “Who gets in a race car and gets excited about going out and running a few laps and parking?” Almirola said. “Nobody does. But I understand it and don’t blame James for any of it. He lost his sponsorship on the way to going to Daytona for the Daytona 500. It put him in an odd situation and everybody in an odd situation. “When I signed on to go race for him over the winter, none of that was in the plans. We had banked on having a sponsor and racing and doing things the way we needed to do them to be competitive.” Almirola said the Ballew team can win a truck title.(SceneDaily.com)(4-12-2010)
