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SHR Post-Race Recap: Charlotte ROVAL

STEWART-HAAS RACING
Bank of America Roval 400

Date: Oct. 10, 2021
Event: Bank of America Roval 400 (Round 32 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval (2.28-mile, 17-turn road course)
Format: 109 laps, broken into three stages (25 laps/25 laps/59 laps)

Race Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Kyle Busch of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)

SHR Race Finish:
● Cole Custer (Started 23rd, Finished 18th / Running, completed 109 of 109 laps)
● Chase Briscoe (Started 22nd, Finished 22nd / Running, completed 109 of 109 laps)
● Aric Almirola (Started 21st, Finished 24th / Running, completed 109 of 109 laps)
● Kevin Harvick (Started 7th, Finished 33rd / Accident, completed 98 of 109 laps)

SHR Points:
● Kevin Harvick (9th with 3,088 points, 25 points below top-eight cutoff)
● Aric Almirola (15th with 2,117 points)
● Chase Briscoe (23rd with 590 points)
● Cole Custer (28th with 496 points)

Playoff Standings to Begin Round of 8:
1. Kyle Larson (4,065 points)
2. Denny Hamlin (4,030 points) -35
3. Martin Truex Jr. (4,029 points) -36
4. Ryan Blaney (4,024 points) -41
5. Kyle Busch (4,023 points) -42
6. Chase Elliott (4,022 points) -43
7. Joey Logano (4,013 points) -52
8. Brad Keselowski (4,008 points) -57

Failed to Advance to Round of 8:
9. Kevin Harvick (3,088 points) -25
10. Christopher Bell (3,085 points) -28
11. William Byron (3,070 points) -43
12. Alex Bowman (3,061 points) -52

SHR Notes:
● Harvick did not advance beyond the Round of 12 for the first time since the inception of the elimination-style NASCAR Playoff format in 2014. He was vying for his eighth appearance in the Round of 8.
● The Bank of America Roval 400 marked Harvick’s milestone 750th career NASCAR Cup Series start. He is one of just 13 drivers in series history to make 750 or more starts.
● Harvick finished 10th in Stage 1 to earn one bonus point and third in Stage 2 to earn eight more bonus points.
● Briscoe was the highest finishing NASCAR Cup Series rookie for the 27th time this season.

Race Notes:
● Kyle Larson won the Bank of America Roval 400 to score his 13th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his series-leading seventh of the season and his first on the Roval. His margin over second-place Tyler Reddick was .782 of a second.
● There were nine caution periods for a total of 18 laps.
● Thirty-one of the 39 drivers in the Bank of America Roval 400 finished on the lead lap.

Charlotte ROVAL Quotes

Cole Custer, driver of the No. 41 Autodesk Fusion 360/HaasTooling.comFord Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“That was a rough one for us. We got caught up in two incidents on the track, but I’m proud of the No. 41 Autodesk Fusion 360/HaasTooling.com team for never giving up and continuing to work to get our car better. The lap times we were putting down were fast, but we were just stuck in the back of the pack, where it’s harder to pass. We’ll take what we learned and head to Texas.”

Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Ford Warriors in Pink Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“We just didn’t have the handling in the braking zones today. It’s tough because our turn in the corners were better, but the back was so loose when trying to out-brake someone. We’ll learn from it and move on. Looking forward to Texas next weekend. We almost won and had a good run this year in the All-Star race.”

Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Ford Performance Racing School/HighPoint.com Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“Our handling was so off today, and the team continued to make adjustments on it but it just wasn’t stable enough to outbrake guys and make up any ground. We finally got to a place where it was much better in the last 20 laps or so, but we’ll have to go back and look at what we can do to start off in a better place in the future.”

Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“I just pushed it in there too hard and I got the tire locked up and I couldn’t stop it once I felt like I needed to go to get a couple spots back that I had lost, and I got the left-front locked up and I couldn’t get it to turn.”

Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 on Sunday, Oct. 17 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. It is the seventh race of the 10-race playoffs and the first race in the Round of 8. It starts at 2 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBC and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

-SHR-