ALMIROLA: ORP A Favorite Track
07-21-2009 8:54 pm

Aric Almirola returns to one of his favorite tracks, O'Reilly Raceway Park (ORP) this weekend in the No. 15 RedTop Auto Auction Billy Ballew Motorsports entry. Almirola will be playing double duty at the Indianapolis, Indiana racetrack running in both the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and the NASCAR Nationwide Series races.

"I can't wait to run back-to-back nights at ORP, running the No. 15 RedTop Truck for Billy Ballew and then Saturday night in the No. 40 Nationwide Series car for Key Motorsports," Aric Almirola said. "It's a racers dream to run back-to-back nights and especially at ORP!"

ORP serves as the site of Almirola's second career start in one of NASCAR's top-tier Touring Series where he posted a 10th-place finish in the Camping World Truck Series in 2005. He has one other Truck Series start at the short track in 2006. Almirola has two previous NASCAR Nationwide Series starts posting one pole start and a sixth place finish.

Billy Ballew Motorsports has nine previous starts at the .686-mile short track in Indianapolis, Indiana with a best finish of eighth place posted by Kyle Busch in 2008.

"It's a little bull-ring, flat-out side-by-side racing," Almirola said. "It's unlike any other racetrack that we go to on the NASCAR circuit. You can find any line around the place to race and pass guys. Being a short track and being able to run two and three-wide is awesome."

"There's not a bad seat in the house! I wish we could race at ORP more than just once, it's a racers track. You've gotta get up on the wheel and drive. Not that I don't do that every weekend at every track, but ORP is different. It's a different challenge for the driver, but fun at the same time."