NASCAR Cup Series: Does Aric Almirola even know what he’s upset about?

The NASCAR Cup Series round of 8 race at Texas Motor Speedway has resulted in more complaints over pretty much nothing, this time by Aric Almirola.

One week after NASCAR fans who claim to want more drama and action were up in arms over Team Penske’s Joey Logano moving Furniture Row Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. out of the way — not wrecking him — on the final lap of the First Data 500 at Martinsville Speedway to win the race and lock himself into the Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, more complaints over pretty much nothing surfaced after the AAA Texas 500, the second round of 8 race, at Texas Motor Speedway.

However, these complaints did not come from fans nor Truex Jr. But they were about Logano.

Late in the race, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Aric Almirola entered turn three of the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Texas Motor Speedway oval in Fort Worth, Texas on the inside of Logano. Almirola got loose and nearly collided with Logano.

In fact, Almirola’s #10 Ford did make slight contact with Logano’s #22 Ford, although this contact did not result in a wreck.

Yet it was Almirola who was fired up at Logano over the radio and who, after the race, claimed that it was Logano who went down into turn three and got right onto his door.

Almirola claimed that he would make it tough on Logano in the season finale as a result of this slight “run-in” (if you can even call it that) between the two drivers. Here is what he had to say about the matter, according to Motorsport.com.

"“We were a third place car and that restart there where we were finally in position, we fought all day from the back. We started in the tail and we worked diligently all day to get up to the front and finally got ourselves into position to at least have a shot, and the 22 just went down into three and put it right on my door and about wrecked us both.“I’m not sure, I’ll have to talk to him but he just continues to make things harder on himself. If that’s the way he wants to race me when he’s already locked into Homestead and we’re out here fighting for our lives, that’s fine. When Homestead comes around, if I’m not in, he’ll know it.”"

Here is a video of the “incident” to which Almirola is referring.

First of all, I’m not sure that anyone aside of Almirola (who, to give him the benefit of the doubt, was the only one actually driving the car and whose frustration I can understand considering the fact that he is now in a must-win situation heading into the final race of the round of 8 at ISM Raceway) sees anything wrong with what Logano did.

In fact, I joked after the race that at this point, Logano could compete in Formula 1 and still be blamed for a NASCAR wreck. This was anything but a dirty move.

Secondly, Logano has no obligation to stop racing because “he’s already locked into Homestead” like Almirola implied after the race.

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If drivers who have nothing to gain or lose for themselves by competing in a race or races were not allowed to race for positions or even for wins, NASCAR would not allow them to race. The fact is, they are allowed to compete. Therefore, they are allowed to actually compete, meaning, yes, they can race for positions or even for wins.

There is nothing that says these drivers must yield to drivers who have something to gain, nor should there be. Nothing. We can debate day and night about whether or not there should be, but the fact is, there isn’t, so that’s how the drivers need to approach each race.

If something were in place that stated this, NASCAR would simplify things by not even allowing drivers who have nothing to gain in certain races to compete in these races. If something like this were in place for this past Sunday’s AAA Texas 500, the field for this race would have consisted of seven drivers.

Seven (7).

Instead, it consisted of 40 drivers, which is the maximum field size and has been the field size for 11 of the last 12 races. Here is a brief list that covers the 33 drivers who would have been cut had something been in place restricting drivers who had nothing to gain or lose from competing in the race.

NOTE: The numbers in the parentheses are the number of drivers who fit into each category.

• Joey Logano (1): Logano won the round of 8 race at Martinsville Speedway, the First Data 500, to lock himself in the Championship 4.
• Previously eliminated playoff drivers (8): Drivers such as second place finisher Ryan Blaney, fourth place finisher Erik Jones and fifth place finisher Kyle Larson have already been eliminated from playoff picture.
• Non-playoff full-time drivers (13): Drivers such as 11th place finisher Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 13th place finisher Paul Menard and 16th place finisher William Byron failed to qualify for the playoffs.
• Part-time drivers (11): Drivers such as 21st place finisher Trevor Bayne, 27th place finisher Regan Smith and 31st place finisher Parker Kligerman do not compete full-time in the Cup Series.

The field for the AAA Texas 500 would have consisted only of Almirola, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., Kurt Busch, Chase Elliott and Clint Bowyer.

Almirola is a hard driver not to root for. After several seasons of working toward one, he finally got a ride with a top-tier team this season, and he has made the most of it. Add to that the fact that he has done so just one season after breaking his back in a nasty crash.

Oh, and he was wrecked while leading this year’s Daytona 500, his first race as a Stewart-Haas Racing driver, with under one lap to go, and he responded with pure class to the situation.

But in this case, he’s missing the bigger picture — and perhaps even the smaller one.

Do you believe that Aric Almirola has a valid complaint about the way Joey Logano raced him, or do you believe that he is overreacting? Do you believe that he will win the race at ISM Raceway, the Can-Am 500, this Sunday, November 11 to advance to the season finale, the Ford EcoBoost 400, at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, November 18 as one of the four Championship 4 drivers, thus giving him a chance to compete for the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series championship?