In The Know – Fontana
NASCAR returns to Fontana, California for the first time in almost two years. Below is everything you need to know about SHR storylines and how to catch all the racing action.
The Details
NASCAR Cup Series Overview
● Event: Wise Power 400 (Round 2 of 36)
● Time/Date: 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, Feb. 27
● Location: Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California
● Layout: 2-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 200 laps/400 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 65 laps / Stage 2: 65 laps / Final Stage: 70 laps
● TV/Radio: FOX / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
The Broadcast Schedule
You won’t want to miss any of the action as we head out West to California. From practice and qualifying to the grand finale on Sunday, there is plenty of racing action to catch.
SHR FAST FACTS
Kevin Harvick:
Harvick has been competing at Auto Club Speedway ever since it opened in 1997. His first start at the 2-mile oval came on Oct. 18, 2017 in The No Fear Challenge NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race driving the No. 75 entry for Wayne and Connie Spears of Agua Dulce, California. Harvick started 28th and finished 20th, completing 99 of 100 laps. Harvick has made a total of four Truck Series starts at Fontana, with his best result coming in his most recent Truck Series start at the track – eighth on Feb. 23, 2007.
Harvick’s NASCAR Cup Series stat line at Fontana includes a win, seven top-five finishes, 10 top-10 finishes and 237 laps led. His average finish across his 27 career starts is 15.1, thanks in large part to completing 98.7 percent of the laps available (6,074 of 6,156 laps).
Aric Almirola:
Almirola finished fifth at the season-opening Daytona 500 last weekend. It was his second top-five finish at the iconic race.
In 13 cup series starts at Fontana, Almirola has two top-10 finishes and seven laps led, which came in his last two starts there in 2019 and 2020.
Chase Briscoe:
Chase Briscoe secured his career-first NASCAR Cup Series top-five finish with the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) in last Sunday’s Daytona 500. Briscoe overcame a spin early in the race to battle for a third-place result on the final lap in overtime.
This weekend’s Wise Power 400 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, will be Briscoe’s first Cup Series race at the 2-mile oval. He has two starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Fontana with a best finish of fifth in 2019. In the 2020 event, Briscoe started third and ran in the top-three for the first 118 of 150 laps. He led five times for 16 laps before a spin on lap 126 relegated the team to a 19th-place finish.
Cole Custer:
Southern California native Cole Custer returns home to race for the second time in three weeks as the NASCAR Cup Series returns to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, for the first time in two years for Sunday’s Wise Power 400.
Custer has three NASCAR Xfinity Series starts on the 2-mile oval, the most recent resulting in a victory in March 2019. Custer qualified his No. 00 SHR Ford third and beat runner-up Kyle Busch by 1.927 seconds, leading 29 laps along the way. He started fourth and finished sixth in the previous year’s Xfinity Series race at Fontana.
Coincidentally, it was in victory lane after the 2019 Xfinity Series race that the PAG-SHR relationship began. The race was called the Production Alliance Group 300, and that is where Custer first met company president and CEO Dale Sahlin. The two kept in touch, and PAG ultimately decided to increase its presence within NASCAR to SHR’s Xfinity Series program that year, and to SHR’s Cup Series program in 2020.
OUR WEEKLY WRAPS
We’ve got three schemes hitting the track for the first time this year at Fontana. Check out our weekly wraps.
What Our Drivers are Saying:
Kevin Harvick, Driver of the No. 4 Subway Delivery Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
You’ve raced at Fontana 27 times in a Cup car, but is it a whole new ballgame going there with this NextGen car?
“For sure, because you just don’t know. It’s always tire management, it’s always moving around the racetrack – being able to run the top and the bottom – but this car is so different in the way that it uses the tires, and the way it uses the right-rear tire, especially. I think as you look at that, it could turn into a tire conservation type of situation to where just have to pick a speed and run the speed so you can make it through a whole fuel run. You just don’t know those things until you go do it, so being able to adapt and adjust is going to be important.”
Aric Almirola, Driver of the No. 10 Rush Truck Centers/Mobil Delvac for Stewart-Haas Racing:
What is your ultimate goal this season and how will you achieve it?
“A multi-win season to set us up for a championship run is the ultimate goal for me this season. The only way to do that is to have every facet of our team perfect. You have to be perfect at this level. I have to do my part, the crew has to do their part, the men and women at the shop have to do their part. Everything has to come together, but we have the hardest-working people around and I know the effort will be there this season to make it happen.”
Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
You started your second full season in the Cup Series with your first top-five after finishing third in the Daytona 500. Does that finish make up for some of what you faced during your rookie season?
“I think I’m still just taking it all in. You dream of racing in the Daytona 500. Last year was tough. It was my first Cup race and our practice time was so limited I really came in with no experience. Coming back this year with a new car – a fresh slate for everyone, really – and a sold-out crowd, I felt like this was the Daytona 500 experience I would remember. Then you add what happened during the race and it all kind of played out in the best way. We were so close to the win and would have loved to get one to start the season, but to come out of it third and be in a good points position first race out is great. I don’t know that it makes up for a tough rookie year, we had some successes that were great for what we were facing, but with how we ran up front in L.A., and the Daytona finish, we can’t really ask for a better start to the year.”
Cole Custer, Driver of the No. 41 Production Alliance Group Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
Do you feel your solid effort at the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum is a sign of things to come this year?
“For sure. I think it’s a mindset going into this year. We want to go into this year and hit hard and be able to figure out this car faster than any other team and try to figure out how to get us back to the front where we belong at Stewart-Haas Racing. It was a great way to start off the year, a great confidence-builder. It was kind of an oddball racetrack, but I think you can take a few things to other racetracks like Martinsville and the short tracks and things like that. Everybody went there trying as hard as they could, so it was good to have the pace that we had and have a solid run.”
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO DELIVER?
The No. 4 Subway Delivery Ford Mustang team knows what it takes to deliver week in and week out. Kevin Harvick, crew chief Rodney Childers and the No. 4 pit crew give insights on their ingredients to success as we head to Fontana.
