Aric Almirola's enjoyed his first win in the NASCAR Truck Series at Dover last month, yet he freely admits it was decidedly lacking in style points.
He'll have no such worries about his second.
Almirola gambled to take the lead with seven laps to go then held off Todd Bodine and Kyle Busch to win Saturday's race at Michigan International Speedway.
"This weekend we did it fair and square,'' Busch said. "I raced my butt off with those guys.''
He didn't really have a choice during a mad dash to the finish in which he somehow kept Bodine, the series points leader, and Busch, possibly the most talented driver in NASCAR, at bay.
The victory pulled Almirola within 55 of Bodine in the points race, yet he wasn't interested in talking about a championship. He was too busy savoring a hard-fought win that featured plenty of three-wide racing at the two-mile oval.
Almirola celebrated with a well-deserved burnout after beating Bodine by about a truck length at the finish, a decidedly giddier celebration than the one he had at Dover.
Maybe it's because Almirola doesn't feel he won the race so much as other drivers lost it.
Busch led 172 laps but ran out of gas and had to pit just before the finish. Afterward Almirola acknowledged he would have liked the opportunity to go all-out against Busch.
He got his chance on Saturday, and after a slow start that included a 40-minute rain delay, helped put on a show.
Almirola, driving the No. 51 Toyota that Busch won with regularly before starting up his own truck team this year, hit the gas off a restart with eight laps to go and took advantage while Bodine and Busch squabbled.
Busch argued Bodine, who was in front of him, eased up on the restart, blocking Busch's momentum and allowing Almirola to break free.
"He just suckered me,'' Busch said of Bodine.
Not that Bodine, who led a race-high 33 laps, was sorry about it. That's racing in the truck series.
"It was a good day,'' Bodine said. "Nobody likes to lose. I'm not a sore loser.''
Almirola wasn't the only person on his team with something to prove. Busch won 10 times in 2008 and 2009 while driving for truck owner Billy Ballew and crew chief Richie Wauters. Busch did it so easily there was some discussion that the team's performance was based solely on his considerable skill.
"We knew we needed to win races to show that our equipment is good and our team is good and not just Kyle carrying us,'' Wauters said.
Almirola's performance erased any lingering doubts.
Pole-sitter Austin Dillon, grandson of longtime NASCAR owner Richard Childress, led 18 laps but had his hopes for winning dashed due to a pit box violation. Dillon was attempting to exit the pits when the gas can got stuck. It fell off as he was pulling out and rolled over the yellow pit box line.
"It was just a mistake on us,'' Dillon said.
The stop-and-go penalty sent him tumbling through the field. He made up ground in the final moments to finish fifth.
The penalty wasn't Dillon's only problem. He got sand in his eye early in the race and had trouble seeing. He benefited when the brief shower allowed him to get it taken care of.
NASCAR Sprint Cup regular Elliott Sadler was ninth. Nelson Piquet shrugged off the late spin to finish 10th.
The series has a month off before the next race, but Almirola will be plenty busy.
He's been tabbed as the fill-in driver for four-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson if Johnson's wife Chandra goes into labor during a race. She's expecting their first child in mid-July. If the baby comes early, Almirola could find himself tasked with keeping Johnson's bid for a fifth title intact.
It's heady territory for Almirola, who lost his Cup ride when his Earnhardt Ganassi Racing team ran out of money last year. He's hopped around in the interim, but appears to have found a home in the truck series.
Wauters told Almirola before the season started he thought they could win five races this season. With 15 races remaining, Wauters likes their chances.
"We've just got to keep doing what we're doing,'' he said.
