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SHR Post-Race Report: Watkins Glen

STEWART-HAAS RACING
Go Bowling at The Glen
Date: Aug. 8, 2021
Event: Go Bowling at The Glen (Round 23 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International (7-turn, 2.45-mile road course)
Format: 90 laps, broken into three stages (20 laps/20 laps/50 laps)

Race Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Joey Logano of Team Penske (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner: Martin Truex Jr., of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)

SHR Race Finish:
● Kevin Harvick (Started 5th, Finished 8th / Running, completed 90 of 90 laps)
● Chase Briscoe (Started 27th, Finished 9th / Running, completed 90 of 90 laps)
● Aric Almirola (Started 8th, Finished 16th / Running, completed 90 of 90 laps)
● Cole Custer (Started 19th, Finished 18th / Running, completed 90 of 90 laps)

SHR Points:
● Kevin Harvick (9th with 710 points, 207 out of first)
● Chase Briscoe (22nd with 411 points, 506 out of first)
● Aric Almirola (24th with 398 points, 519 out of first)
● Cole Custer (28th with 356 points, 561 out of first)

SHR Notes:
● Harvick earned his 16th top-10 of the season and his 11th top-10 in 20 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Watkins Glen.
● This was Harvick’s third straight top-10 at Watkins Glen.
● This was Harvick’s second straight top-10. He finished sixth in the series’ prior race July 18 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon.
● Harvick finished third in Stage 2 to earn eight bonus points.
● Briscoe earned his third top-10 of the season and it came in his first career NASCAR Cup Series start at Watkins Glen.
● Briscoe was the highest finishing NASCAR Cup Series rookie for the 19th time this season.
● Briscoe finished fifth in Stage 2 to earn six bonus points.

Race Notes:
● Kyle Larson won the Go Bowling at The Glen to score his 11th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his series-leading fifth of the season and his first at Watkins Glen. His margin over second-place Chase Elliott was 2.430 seconds.
● There were four caution periods for a total of six laps.
● Twenty-four of the 37 drivers in the Go Bowling at The Glen finished on the lead lap.
● Larson and Denny Hamlin are tied for the championship lead after Watkins Glen with each having 917 points. Their margin over nearest pursuer William Byron is 131 points.

Watkins Glen Quotes

Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Busch Light Apple Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“Our Busch Light Apple Ford was decent today. We just had to go into fuel mileage savings as soon as we came in the pits that last run, and just kind of ran our pace and finished where we finished because we couldn’t afford to run out of gas. So, they did a good job and had a good strategy. We scored a few stage points and had a solid finish, so we’ll go to the next one.”

Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“We’ve only got three top-10s now, but you’ll take any of them you can get. We ran up front a lot of the day but still weren’t quite good enough. I felt like earlier in the race I was a little bit better. And as the race went on, I don’t know if the other guys got better or we just got worse. Obviously, we’re in a position where we’ve got to go win, so ninth doesn’t necessarily cut it for us, but overall it was a good day. We got stage points and finished in the top-10, so we’ll go on to Indy. We know we’ve got to get it better if we’re gonna win one of these, and just from a balance standpoint I’ve still got to get better, too. We’ll go on to Indy and back home next week. Obviously, that one is super special, so we’ll try to capitalize there.”

Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Go Bowling Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“Overall, it was a good learning day for our No. 10 Ford team. We’re continually trying to build notes on our road course program. We just didn’t have the rear grip we needed today. It was nice going to a road course with no pressure coming off the win to try some things to improve. Thank you to Go Bowling for continuing to support us. I hope the fans had a great day at the Go Bowling at the Glen.”

Cole Custer, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“Our HaasTooling.com Ford was solid at the end of the race, and I have to thank Mike Shiplett and the guys for that. We had some work to do with a few issues involving wheel hop and brack lockup early in the race, but we made the right adjustments there at the end. The penalty on pit road didn’t help our cause, but we were able to rally back for a top-20. We’ll stay in road-race mode for another week and see what we can do at Indy next week.”

Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard on Sunday, Aug. 15 on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The race starts at 1 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBC and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

-SHR-