Dale Earnhardt Jr. reflects on Aric Almirola's Xfinity race win at Sonoma

Consider Dale Earnhardt Jr. one of the happy bunch regarding Aric Almirola’s victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Sonoma.

No, it wasn’t the Cup Series, but the struggling Almirola needed a victory, and that’s exactly what he got over the weekend. Earnhardt Jr. explained how much that win can help the Stewart-Haas Racing wheelman moving forward.

“Aric Almirola goes out there, and he beats Kyle Larson and AJ Allmendinger in the Xfinity race. I think that was the biggest surprise of the weekend,” explained Earnhardt, via the Dale Jr Download. “I mean, Aric was fast all weekend. Qualified well, ran well in the race. You know, his team got him in a good position to where he could you know, he could take advantage of what was happening on the race track around him. When he did get the lead, he was fast. Larson was a little bit quicker, but banged his car up a little bit. There was some contact with — who the hell was it, AJ. That bent the splitter, and I’m going to tell you man, his car was never the same after that. And so, you wouldn’t think something like that could, as fast as his car was, as good as he was, you didn’t think something like that could really make that big of a difference. But he lost a lot of speed.

“I think also being in a little bit of that dirty air behind Aric’s car. And Aric’s car just got so good right there at the end. Good job by Aric, man. He needs that.”

While Almirola hasn’t had the season he desired in 2023, Earnhardt Jr. believes that SHR as a whole has been a letdown, and singling out Almirola is unfair.

“I’ve been seeing him, man. He’s been getting a lot of hard — he’s been getting a lot of flack, for how they perform on Sunday. But if you, outside of [Kevin] Harvick, SHR is struggling right now,” added Earnhardt. “As a group, they’re having a hard time figuring this thing out. So he’s not running any worse than any of his other teammates outside of Harvick. You know, Harvick and Rodney Childers, they’re an anomaly. They’re going to always be one, as long as they’re together. But if you look at the rest of that group at SHR, I think Aric’s just not benefitting from whatever’s ailing that organization, is making it difficult for all of those drivers.

“Aric gets out of the car, I loved it man, he stands on Victory Lane and he goes, ‘I know this is just an Xfinity Race,’ I was like, ‘Man, I know exactly the way he (feels).’ You know, when somebody gets out and just talks genuinely, and he was so happy to be there. So happy to have something to be happy about. And his kids, right? I was watching his kids run up to the car and I was like, ‘Damn right.’ Getting to win a race, and for your kids, they go to almost every race. His kids are there watching that Sunday performance week in and week out, and they believe in their dad. They love him, they think that he’s the greatest race car driver out there. They watch the frustration and the struggle. They watch him bring it home and deal with it the best he can. They finally got to have their day. Even if it’s just an Xfinity race, like Aric said, it’s still a moment of celebration and elation that those kids are going to remember forever. I really, really loved that moment, especially for Aric, having a little bit of a connection with him here at JR Motorsports.”

Perhaps Saturday’s victory will lead to an improved second half of the season for Aric Almirola, as Dale Earnhardt Jr. believes. Only time will tell, but there’s no reason to root against the SHR wheelman over the next couple of months.