In The Know – LAS VEGAS
You better bet we’re going to bring the speed to Las Vegas. Below is everything you need to know about SHR storylines and how to catch all the racing action this weekend.
The Details
NASCAR Cup Series Overview
● Event: Las Vegas 400 (Round 3 of 36)
● Time/Date: 3:30 p.m. EST on Sunday, March 6
● Location: Las Vegas Motor Speedway
● Layout: 1.5-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 267 laps/400 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 80 laps / Stage 2: 85 laps / Final Stage: 102 laps
● TV/Radio: FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
The Broadcast Schedule
You won’t want to miss any of the action from fabulous Las Vegas. From practice and qualifying to the grand finale on Sunday, there is plenty of racing action to catch.
SHR FAST FACTS
Kevin Harvick:
With Kevin Harvick now in his 22nd year of NASCAR Cup Series competition, a familiar name has rejoined the driver of the No. 4 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR). Rheem, America’s No. 1 water heating brand and major air conditioning and heating manufacturer, is commemorating its 15th year in racing, and as a part of the celebration, Rheem has partnered with Harvick and the No. 4 team for three Cup Series races in 2022, beginning with Sunday’s Las Vegas 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The pairing reunites Rheem with Harvick, a relationship that began in 2007 when Harvick won the Daytona 500 in dramatic fashion, beating NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin for the victory by .02 of a second in a frantic, green-white-checkered finish. It led to Rheem serving as a primary partner for Harvick’s NASCAR Xfinity Series team, Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI), in 2008. Rheem’s debut with KHI came on May 2, 2008 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway where Harvick finished second in the Lipton Tea 250. Harvick delivered Rheem its first victory as a primary sponsor on Feb. 27, 2010 when he won the Sam’s Town 300 at Las Vegas. Rheem aligned as a primary partner with Harvick in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2011 and stayed with him through the 2013 season before Harvick joined SHR in 2014. Harvick will drive the No. 4 Rheem Ford Mustang again May 8 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway and Sept. 11 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City.
Harvick’s red-and-black No. 4 Rheem/Smurfit Kappa Ford Mustang will carry a touch of purple this weekend at Las Vegas. A purple heart embossed with the letters “SK” is featured over the car’s doorsill next to Harvick’s name. The decal is in memory of Sue Karli, a founding member of the Rheem Racing program who first began working with Harvick and his wife, DeLana, in 2001 as a representative of Hershey’s, which sponsored Harvick in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Karli joined Rheem in 2007 and helped launch its hospitality program. She hosted hundreds of Rheem Racing events at NASCAR races before waging a courageous fight with pancreatic cancer. Karli ultimately succumbed to the disease in July 2019. Purple was her favorite color, and it also symbolizes pancreatic cancer awareness. To learn more, please visit the Pancreatic Action Network, or PanCAN at www.pancan.org.
Since joining SHR in 2014, Harvick has finished among the top-10 in eight of the 12 NASCAR Cup Series races contested at Las Vegas. In that span, Harvick has led 621 laps and won twice – March 2015 and March 2018
Aric Almirola:
In the first two races of the 2022 season, 19 different drivers have earned a top-10 finish. Almirola is the only driver who has finished inside the top-10 consecutively. With his fifth- and sixth-place finishes in the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway and last Sunday at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, Almirola’s average finish of 5.5 tops all drivers. This also marks the first time in his career that he has earned consecutive top-10s in the first two races of a season.
Almirola arrives at Las Vegas seventh in the driver standings with 66 points, 19 out of first.
Chase Briscoe:
Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway looking for his second top-five result of the season. Briscoe started off his second full-time NASCAR Cup Series season with a third-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500.
The new NextGen car that is designed to level the playing field, and experience from this year’s first two Cup Series races may be just what Briscoe needs to make another run at Las Vegas victory lane. He swept both NASCAR Xfinity Series races at the venue during the 2020 season and both wins aided in his pursuit of the championship. The first win on Feb. 23 secured Briscoe’s spot in the 12-driver playoff field, and the follow-up win in October locked him into the Round of 8. The No. 98 team went on to win once more at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City to advance to the Championship 4.
Cole Custer:
Sunday’s 400-mile race marks Custer’s 78th in the Cup Series and his sixth at Las Vegas. The 24-year-old Southern California native’s 16th-place finish in September 2020 was his best previous result at the desert oval. He started 28th and finished 29th in his previous outing last September.
Coming off last Sunday’s 11th-place finish at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, Custer arrives at Las Vegas 16th in the driver standings, 37 points behind leader Austin Cindric. Custer finished 20th in the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.
Also last weekend at Fontana, Custer scored his 10th career NASCAR Xfinity Series victory in dominating fashion behind the wheel of the No. 07 for SS GreenLight Racing. He qualified second, led a race-high 80 laps and cros
OUR WEEKLY WRAPS
We’re going to bet that our schemes are going to look great when they hit the track. Check out our wraps for Las Vegas.
What Our Drivers are Saying:
Kevin Harvick, Driver of the No. 4 Rheem/Smurfit Kappa Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
Las Vegas marks a reunion with Rheem, who you ushered into the sport in spectacular fashion by winning their first race – the 2007 Daytona 500. What’s it like to be back with Rheem 15 years later?
“It’s been 15 years since we first started working with Rheem and it’s great to be back with them. The NASCAR fan is their customer, and we’ve worked really hard to understand that relationship to ensure Rheem gets a good return on its investment. This year kind of throws it back to how it all began with Rheem being a primary sponsor on one of my racecars. I’m proud to carry their colors again in 2022.
Aric Almirola, Driver of the No. 10 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
You mentioned you get to race for the pure joy of it this year. What does that mean to you?
“Yes, it has made me reminiscent of just my love for the sport, my love for racing, and I felt like I talked about it in the video that we put out on YouTube, that I fell in love with this sport sitting in the grandstands as a fan as I’m sure most every other racecar driver did, right? And I watched my grandfather race and he was wildly successful on a local level, and I loved it. I loved being at the racetrack, and then I got the opportunity to get in a go-kart and feel what that felt like. When I was sitting in the grandstands, I could just dream about it and imagine how awesome it must be to drive a racecar and go as fast as you possibly can, but then I got to experience it and I fell even more in love with racing, and just the pureness of it as a kid is so cool. Like, I’m doing it for a hobby. I’m doing it because I love it and there’s no real pressure at all. When I was go-kart racing, the only goal was to do as best as I could and to learn and to get better each and every time I went back to the racetrack. I eventually was fortunate enough to take a hobby and turn it into a profession so, yeah, I am super grateful for what racing has meant to me and where it’s taken me in my life, both professionally and personally. And, yeah, I have reminisced quite a bit about it knowing that this year will be it.”
Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
You got to experience the new practice and qualifying format for the first time last weekend. What did you learn about how to use those 15 minutes of track time?
“I was nice to have practice and qualifying back. With the new car, you can’t really change anything. You can only make very minor adjustments. It is really just to kind of get a shakedown and have a general idea of what your car is going to do when it goes off into the corner on lap one of the race. I think qualifying was something that needed to come back. Doing the metrics deal last year, if you got buried in points, you kind of just sucked for the whole year. It will be crucial for the teams to truly be on their game when they unload. It is hard to do that when we don’t really have any experience with this car. The simulators are going to get more and more use and it will be interesting to see what teams hit it right.”
Cole Custer, Driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
You and your fellow SHR teams have had a solid first two races overall. How are you feeling as you head to Las Vegas this weekend?
“I think right now we’ve done a really solid job. We’ve been competitive at every single race, so far. Are we where we want to be? Are we leading a bunch of laps and up front? I think we still have a little bit of room to grow, but the guys have done a great job over the offseason working hard on this car and this is our year to rebound. We’re working as hard as we can to try and get our cars back up front, but it’s been solid so far. I think we have cars that are driving well and we have stuff that we can build on for the rest of the year.”
