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NASCAR America: Pit strategy hurts Aric Almirola’s Coke 600 effort

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Aric Almirola looks to keep building the foundation, explains what happened when he elected not to pit at Coca-Cola 600, and what he's learned from Stewart-Haas racing veterans.

Two days after his 13th-place finish in the Coke 600, Aric Almirola met with NASCAR America’s Dave Burns to discuss what went wrong for him in the race and what’s going right overall for him at Stewart-Haas Racing.

Almirola pointed to pit strategy near the midway point of the race as being a cause for why he wasn’t able to get a better finish in his No. 10 Ford.

“Right before Stage 3 there was a caution and we had just a few laps on our tires and we elected not to pit,” Almirola said. “I thought we were going to be OK. Then we had a green flag (run) where we only ran two or three laps and it allowed a lot of the guys who came and pitted to pass a handful of cars very quickly. ... So the next restart that came we had kind of made our bed at that point. So we had to stick with that decision.”

Almirola said every “little problem” he had running in the top five was “compounded” once he was racing back toward 15th.

The first-year driver with SHR also addressed how the success of Kevin Harvick’s No. 4 team has helped all four teams at the organization. Through 13 races, all four teams are in the top 10 in points.

“High tide raises all ships,” Almirola said. “I feel like it’s a collective unit. ... I feel like this is by far the best all four teams have worked together.”

Watch the above video for more.