This is why the ‘Cuban Missile’ is NASCAR’s most unlikely contender for the championship
Every time he steps off a plane at Miami International Airport, Aric Almirola feels like he’s at home. Born on Eglin Air Force Base in Fort Walton Beach and raised in Tampa, Almirola doesn’t get to South Florida much beyond ahead of his yearly race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but it always feels familiar.
The tropical climate. The Spanish conversations he can overhear. It’s all feels natural to Almirola, whose father emigrated from Cuba to the United States as a child.
“When you step off the airplane and you get that warm, muggy ocean air and you drive around and you see the Hispanic communities and the culture down there, I feel like I’m at home,” Almirola said. “That’s home for me, so I love going to race at Homestead.”
The time he spends in Miami ahead of the annual Ford EcoBoost 400 in Homestead is always special to the driver whom fans call “The Cuban Missile.”
Ralph Almirola Jr. was only 4 in 1966 when he, his brother and his parents took a Freedom Flight from Cuba to Miami. Eighteen years later, Almirola was a member of the United States Air Force when Aric was born. Even though the Almirola’s didn’t live in Cuba or even Miami, Aric was brought up in the culture.
Certainly, it made him stand out a bit as he was rising through the ranks. There weren’t many Hispanic kids competitively racing the go-karts with which Almirola got his start.
Even now, most of his wins on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series hold some sort of historic significance.
In 2015, Almirola became the first Hispanic driver to race a full season of the NASCAR Cup Series. On Saturday, he secured his second career win at the 1000Bulbs.com 500 in Talladega, Alabama, clinching his spot in the Round of 8 in the NASCAR playoffs.
If he advances one more round, he’ll be in the Championship 4 with a chance to win a NASCAR title at Homestead-Miami on Nov. 18.
But simply making it this deep into the season is unprecedented for Almirola. His best career finish before this season came in 2014, when he finished 16th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. To crack the top eight, Almirola had to end one of the longest win droughts in NASCAR history.
Almirola logged his first win in that 2014 season when he took home the checkered flag at the Coke Zero 400. After four years, three months, eight days and at least half a dozen close calls, Almirola finally won again Saturday, ending the third longest drought between a first and second win in history.
“To do it in the playoffs in a clutch moment, to where now we’re transferring to the next round of the playoffs,” Almirola said, “we’re putting ourselves in position to go run for a championship.”
Just as spending time in Miami feels natural to Almirola, so does spending time around cars. Almirola’s grandfather on his mother’s side drove dirt sprint cars around the Southeast. He retired when Almirola was 8 and gave his grandson his first go-kart. Now, the two of them were traveling together around the Southeast to race.
After he graduated from Tampa Hillsborough, Almirola attended Central Florida before dropping out to pursue a racing career. He can’t remember many other Hispanic drivers trying to do the same things he did.
“I would say I was definitely probably the only one,” Almirola said. “Growing up, most of racing was white, blue-collar people, but I think that over time that has changed. NASCAR is an all-American sport. Who doesn’t love cars? Who doesn’t love muscle cars, and horsepower and stuff? I think NASCAR has always been an all-American sport, but if you look at where NASCAR had started back in the ‘50s to where it’s at today, all of America has changed just as much. I think that the faces of America have continued to evolve and change, and with that, so has NASCAR.”
He sees it out at the tracks when he gets a chance to mingle with the fans. To a certain demographic, Almirola is a superstar. It’s not just fellow Cubans who make a point to tell Almirola about their heritage, but Almirola has also met plenty of Dominican and Mexican fans who look up to the biggest Hispanic driver in the sport.
Last year, Almirola finally got to visit Cuba for the first time and see firsthand where another bit of his natural love of cars may come from. The streets there are still filled with American-made cars from the 1950s and 1960s, still running even though it’s virtually impossible to get replacement parts for them in Cuba.
The idea of a Cuban-American NASCAR champion right now seems unusual. To Almirola, it would just make sense.
“There’s a lot of improvising and a lot of innovation, and a lot of handiwork that goes in to all these cars there,” Almirola said. “The Cuban people are very in tune with working on cars and the car culture.”