#10-Aric Almirola was leading the Crayon 301 at New Hampshire Motors Speedway on Monday when a loose wheel sent him into the outside wall. He was not able to continue.
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang (Incident in Turn 2 of Lap 168) – “I thought it (the right-rear) felt a little bit awkward leaving pit road, but then after that, working my tires in and going through the gears before the restart, ya know… I spun the tires a few times – everything felt normal. I didn’t really have any concerns going into the restart, and then, obviously the right-rear wheel came off. So, just really, really disappointed. This race team has been working so hard to bring fast race cars to the track. I’m so proud of everybody – Drew and all the guys on our team. We’re not capitalizing when we have cars capable of running up-front. Just frustrating… disappointing… all the words you can use to describe being upset is certainly where we are. I hate it. I hate it for Smithfield. I hate it for Ford… Mobil 1, HighPoint.com, Go Bowling – everybody that puts so much into this program that we can’t get results.”
— Ford Performance —