Almirola looking past the pain

For the past two months, there has been no shortage of pain for Aric Almirola.

First came the recovery and rehabilitation process from a compression fracture of his T5 vertebra suffered on May 13. Almirola was collected in a crash involving Joey Logano and Danica Patrick at Kansas Speedway and was sidelined from competition immediately afterward. But his No. 43 was not.

There came the second kind of pain. Almirola sat and watched as his Ford was driven by Regan Smith, Billy Johnson, and Darrell Wallace Jr. in his absence.

"It was tough," Almirola said Wednesday following the announcement he would return this weekend at New Hampshire. "It was really tough. ... Those guys helped keep our team continuing to evolve on our cars, make our racecars better, help Drew (Blickensderfer, crew chief) make the setups better.

"And all the while I was sitting at home wishing that I was there, wishing that I was in the racecar. It's very challenging watching that race car go around the ractrack. It's got my name on it – it's my racecar. All those guys on the team, it's my team. I take ownership in that, and I take a lot of pride that that's my team and that's my racecar."

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Almirola was never far, however. The last three weeks – Sonoma, Daytona, and Kentucky – Almirola joined the team at the track. Before that, he said he was at home on the couch and didn't miss a race. So in tune with what was going on, Almirola had one iPad to listen to the scanner and another to keep track of lap times.

Cleared by his doctors and NASCAR following a four-hour private test Tuesday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Almirola will reunite with his team for the Overton's 301 (Sunday, 3 p.m. ET, NBCSN). It comes at the eight-week mark; the earliest Almirola was expected to return when told it would be eight to 12 weeks.

Almirola said he doesn't feel as though he's rushing back. Working closely with his doctors, Almirola said he was told from the very beginning they wouldn't clear him until they felt confident he could withstand another accident.

To help with that, going forward Almirola said his seat would be slightly different. Before the crash, Almirola sat in a C-shape with his pelvis rolled underneath him and his shoulders slouched forward. While there was no evidence the seat was responsible for his injury, Almirola admitted after looking at all the data, talking with his doctors and NASCAR, he will work to better his posture.

"I've had to work on my seat just based on doctor recommendations and looking at the way I sat pre-breaking my back and then trying to just sit with better posture in the racecar, trying to get my spine aligned a little better when I'm sitting in the seat," Almirola said. "So that way if I do get in another accident – which it's inevitable I will be in another accident as long as I drive a racecar – just trying to have better posture and have alignment."

With Almirola back, Richard Petty Motorsports will begin the process of asking NASCAR for a playoff waiver. And making the playoffs is something Almirola has his sights on.

"It's not out of the question," Almirola said. "I'm only a few points out of 30th (place), I think that's very do-able for us, we've run really well at some of these tracks coming up. ... When I look at our schedule now, the mile-and-a-half's have been a challenge for us to find the speed we need to go up and compete to win, and the short track program hasn't been spectacular, but it's where we've notoriously excelled.

"We got Bristol coming up, which we've run really well at. Richmond coming up before the playoffs, which we've run really well. And there's other racetracks, too. You got Pocono. Look at Chris Buescher last year. The fog rolled in (at Pocono), and he won and made the playoffs.

"So, that's certainly possible for us. I think we've got cars fast enough now to be able to capitalize on fuel strategy or something like that, so I'm not ruling out the fact that we can make the playoffs."