Aric Almirola Relishes His New NASCAR Role with Joe Gibbs Racing

• Aric Almirola decided to leave full-time NASCAR Cup racing in his rearview mirror at the end of 2023.

• He departed Stewart-Haas Racing, his home for six years, and moved to Joe Gibbs Racing, where he’ll compete in 15 to 16 Xfinity Series races this season.

• Almirola’s return to JGR is a bittersweet homecoming.

After a 16-year NASCAR Cup Series career, Aric Almirola has transitioned from “self-serving” to serving others, and it’s a role the part-time Joe Gibbs Racing Xfinity Series driver relishes in his bittersweet homecoming.

“I (now) have the opportunity to invest in others and serve others and try and help them achieve their goals and dreams,” the 39-year-old Almirola says. “(It) has been very rewarding.”

That’s a huge change from the way Almirola approached his Cup career.

“It was very self-serving,” Almirola says. “Everything about what I did was about how do I make myself better, how do I advance my career, everything revolved around me.”

Almirola decided to leave full-time NASCAR Cup racing in his rearview mirror at the end of 2023. He departed Stewart-Haas Racing, his home for six years, and moved to JGR where he’ll compete in 15 to 16 Xfinity Series races this season. His first this year was at Las Vegas Motor Speedway where he qualified 10th and finished 12th in his Toyota.