No it wasn't an out of body experience, but I bet Aric Almirola thought he was having one at Saturday night's Busch Series race at the Milwaukee Mile. I try and explain the best I can:
Denny Hamilin (the 20 car's primary driver) and a few other's were doing double duty this weekend. This means you are racing in the Nextel Cup and Busch races in the same weekend. Most weekends, both races are at the same track, so it is no big deal. On a few weekends a season, the Busch series and Cup series are at different tracks. This weekend, the Busch series was in Milwuakee, WI and the Cup series was in Sonoma, CA.
So here is what happened. Most Busch teams will have a secondary driver on these weekends to practice and qualify the car. Then the primary driver flys in and races the car, but has to start at the back of the pack.
Denny Hamilin's Saturday started off bad. He had a snafu with time and missed part of the morning's Cup practice. He decided to stay late in Sonoma, but with enough time to make it to Milwaukee to hop in the car just before the race started. In the meantime, back in Milwaukee, Aric Almirola qualifies the car and puts it on the pole (for the second year in a row).
As the pre-race show was underway and driver introductions were done, ESPN shows a helicopter hovering in the air and says that Denny Hamlin is in the helicopter. Apparantly they can't land as people have parked cars on the tracks helicopter landing pad. The track will not allow the helicopter to land on the track itself. Denny then has to go back to the airport and get a police escort to the track. By this time, the pre-race ceremonies have ended and Joe Gibbs racing has decided to let Aric Almirola race the car he qualified on the pole.
Denny finally arrives at the track a few laps into the race. The finally get a camera and mic in his face and he is standing in Stephen Wallace's pit. He says that Wallace has the flu and they have asked him to stand by as a back up driver. Almirola was previously tagged for this job, but now was actually in the race. Denny says on camera that he does not think they should pull Almirola out of his car at this point and that it would be disrespectful to him.
Almirola goes on to lead a bunch of laps and appears he can win the race. Great. On lap 60, they come in for pit stops under caution and next thing you know they are pulling Almirola out of the car and putting Denny in. They go a lap down.
The play by play booth goes nuts and start to talk about the car's sponsor, Rockwell Automation, being based out of Milwaukee so they told the team they wan't Denny in the car. They pay to see Denny win and want him in the car when they race in thier own backyard.
Denny Hamlin ends up coming from a lap down and wins the race. This is the first time a releif driver has won a race in the Busch series. According to NASCAR rules, the driver that starts the race, gets credit for the win, so Almirola gets his first ever Busch win, without even being in the car when it crosses the finish line. Almirola was not in victory lane, Denny had a strange look on his face during his victory lane interview. Almirola has declined comment on the whole deal. What a crazy deal...
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