Aric Almirola has intimated that he didn’t plan on retiring from NASCAR but instead simply wanted to scale back his participation.
What exactly that meant fell into clearer focus on Sunday afternoon when league team owner and former NFL head coach Joe Gibbs seemed to reveal that Almirola was joining his organization in some capacity next season.
Gibbs coached the Washington Redskins from 1981 to 1992 and then from 2004 to 2007. Gibbs led the Redskins to nine playoff appearances, four NFC Championship titles and three Super Bowl wins during his tenure.
He was in attendance on Sunday as the Washington Commanders fell to the Miami Dolphins and introduced two of his drivers to team owner Josh Harris in Christopher Bell and … Aric Almirola.
“This is Aric, he drives for us now,” Gibbs told Harris.
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Harris is also an investor in Joe Gibbs Racing via Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment.
For his part, Almirola returns to Gibbs having broken into national touring with the team in 2006 and 2007. He was a development driver for the organization and even won his first race for the team in the latter season at Milwaukee Mile.
That win has a caveat however as Almirola was a substitute driver for Denny Hamlin, who was delayed in helicoptering into the track, but took over partway through. Hamlin went onto win the race but Almirola was scored the winner as the driver who took the green flag.
Almirola has three Cup Series wins, two of them coming with Stewart-Haas, finishing a career-high fifth in the Cup Series standings in 2018. He has amassed 458 Cup Series start but also has four Xfinity wins and two in the Truck Series.
He has been rumored in recent months to drive for Gibbs in the Xfinity Series part-time and this all but confirms that narrative.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.