finish after slamming the outside wall while avoiding William Byron, who cut a tire in front of him. He had a strong running at the fall Dover race until he got loose exiting the turn and collided with Brad Keselowski, which caused a multi-car pileup that took out Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., and Alex Bowman. One week later, Almirola and Stewart-Haas Racing dominated the fall Talladega race. On the final lap, Almirola was running 2nd until his teammate Kurt Busch ran out of gas. Almirola scored his second career cup win, locking him into the Round of 8. Despite finishing fourth at Phoenix, Almirola was eliminated in the Round of 8. He finished the season fifth in the points standings, the highest finish of his career. In the 2019 season, Almirola once again made the playoffs, but was eliminated in the Round of 16 after finishing 14th at the Charlotte Roval. 5 weeks later, Almirola contended with teammate and pole-setter Kevin Harvick for the win at Texas before finishing in 2nd-place, his best finish of the season. He fell to 14th in the final points standings. On December 4, 2019, Stewart-Haas Racing announced that Mike Bugarewicz will replace Johnny Klausmeier as the crew chief of the No. 10 team in 2020. Almirola finished third at the 2020 GEICO 500 despite crossing the finish line nearly all the way backwards after being spun by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Almirola led the most laps and won the second stage at Pocono the following week, and looked to be in a position to win until a poor final pit stop cost him the lead. Almirola finished 3rd. Almirola led 128 of the first 137 laps at Kentucky but his car did not do as well in lap traffic and he was unable to regain the lead; Almirola's teammate Cole Custer won the race. Almirola's consistency got him in the Playoffs for the third year in a row. He made it to the Round of 12, but was eliminated after the Charlotte Roval. In 2021, Almirola won his duel and started third in the Daytona 500, but contact with Christopher Bell triggered the big one and knocked Almirola out of the race on lap 14. It was the fourth consecutive year in which Almirola did not finish on the lead lap in the Daytona 500. At New Hampshire Motor Speedway, with 57 laps to go,