RICHMOND — This hasn’t been a good season for Richard Petty Motorsports. Aric Almirola has struggled in the wake of two solid seasons and a promising start to 2016, while newcomer Brian Scott’s 12th-place finish in California is his only finish inside the top 24 of a Sprint Cup Series race.
But the trip to Richmond International Raceway for the Toyota Owners 400 on Sunday afternoon has brought increased optimism for Petty and his team, as it should. Good fortune for the Pettys has been a staple at RIR, from patriarch Lee Petty’s win in the first Cup race at the track in 1953 to Richard Petty’s record 13 Cup victories and son Kyle Petty’s iconic win in 1986.
Almirola continued the Petty excellence at RIR with a season-best fourth-place last fall.
“Richmond’s been good to the Petty crowd,” team owner Richard Petty said. “Kyle won his first race up here (when legends Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip crashed on the final lap), and my dad won races up here when it was dirt. I won races on dirt, then on asphalt won a bunch of races. We usually run pretty good here.”
Almirola said, “The car was handling good, we were having really good stops on pit road, the car was driving good and we had a really good long-run car that night.
“Late in the race, I thought we were actually going to have a shot to win. I’m really excited to come back to Richmond after a performance like that.”
Scott, a first-year full-timer in Cup, who had four top-five finishes and two poles at RIR in his previous five Xfinity Series races, is also happy to return to RIR.
“Richmond has been my best track in the Xfinity Series,” he said. “I’ve led a lot of laps and been in contention to win consistently the last three years. I feel like this is a great racetrack and a great spot to have a strong run and kind of turn our season around and get it going in the right direction.”
RPM needs a strong run. Almirola ran in the top 10 in the Daytona 500 in February, finishing 12th. After finishing 15th at Atlanta and 13th at Phoenix, he was doing well enough to be in the top 13 of the standings after five races. But he has averaged a 33rd-place finish the past three races.
The good finish in California aside, Scott has been mired between 25th and 30th place much of the season. No one can put his finger on why RPM has dropped after Almirola won at Daytona Beach in July two years ago to make the Chase, then averaged better than an 18th-place finish in missing the Chase by a whisker a year ago.
“We’ve really not gotten settled down yet,” Richard Petty said. “We’ve changed some car stuff, some rules have changed a little bit and our luck has been terrible.
“It takes all of it to make it work,” he continued, “but they’re headed in the right direction.”
Almirola said, “We really need to focus on every single area and be better. I don’t think it’s one major thing jumping out right now.”
Scott added, “We’ve struggled as a group to get our hands around this (downforce) package and find the performance and success we want. The shop is working really hard right now, and there’s a lot of smart people behind turning our performance around and getting us to where we want to be. Where we need to be and where we should be.”
Almirola said, “Of all the places to do it, Richmond’s a place that we can come and do it.” He’s not exactly sure why he runs so well at RIR, but Scott traces his surge to a talk with current Cup champion Kevin Harvick when they were together at Richard Childress Racing.
“It seemed coming out of that conversation and watching some film, it’s just like the racetrack clicked and I started running really well here,” Scott said. “Ever since that moment it’s suited my style. I have a couple things I pay attention to be really disciplined at when I’m going around Richmond, and it seems to work well.”
It always has for Richard Petty and everyone associated with him. Stock car racing’s “King” is hoping RIR can conjure enough of its magic Sunday to begin a 2016 turnaround for his team.
“We need to be more consistent, whether it’s 20th or 15th or 10th or fifth or first,” Petty said. “I don’t think it’s the cars or drivers. I think it’s the circumstances we’ve been put in.
“We’ve still got plenty of time to make the Chase and win some races.”
O’Brien can be reached by phone at 757-247-4963.