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GEICO 500 Post-Race Report

Date: April 21, 2024

Event: GEICO 500 (Round 10 of 36)

Series: NASCAR Cup Series

Location: Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway

Format: 188 laps, broken into three stages (60 laps/60 laps/68 laps)

 

SHR Finish:
– Noah Gragson (Started 36th, Finished 3rd / Running, completed 188 of 188 laps)

– Chase Briscoe (Started 26th, Finished 12th / Running, completed 188 of 188 laps)

– Ryan Preece (Started 11th, Finished 14th / Running, completed 188 of 188 laps)

– Josh Berry (Started 29th, Finished 16th / Running, completed 188 of 188 laps)

 

SHR Points:
– Chase Briscoe (12th with 256 points, 103 out of first)
– Ryan Preece (23rd with 162 points, 197 out of first)
– Noah Gragson (27th with 154 points, 205 out of first)
– Josh Berry (28th with 151 points, 208 out of first)

SHR Fast Facts
– Gragson’s third-place finish was his career-best NASCAR Cup Series result. His prior best was fifth in August 2022 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.

– Briscoe earned his seventh top-15 of the season and his sixth top-15 in seven career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Talladega.

– Preece earned his fourth top-15 of the season and his sixth top-15 in nine career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Talladega.

– Berry earned his fourth top-20 of the season.

 

Sound Bites:

“We were definitely working together as Fords on the bottom – (Michael) McDowell, Brad Keselowski and myself. All the Fords worked great all race. It’s coming to the end and the 6 (Keselowski) and the 34 (McDowell) were blocking coming to the checkers and, unfortunately, the 45 (Tyler Reddick) squeaked by. I really wanted to see a Ford in victory lane, but the Overstock team at Stewart-Haas did a great job all day. We had clean pit stops, fast pit stops, a lot of horsepower under the hood. The Mustang Dark Horses and racing with these other Ford guys has been a lot of fun. I haven’t been up here very much in the Cup Series on these superspeedways, but I’m extremely grateful. It’s a privilege to race with guys like Keselowski and McDowell. I mean, they’ve won really big races on speedways so, overall, I’m really thankful for everyone at Stewart-Haas and this Overstock team and we’ll keep the momentum going.” – Noah Gragson, driver of the No. 10 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“I’m definitely not surprised. The whole last lap, you just know it’s coming if we got that far, so overall it just was not a very good day for us. We went a lap down early because of flat-spotting the tires. It seemed like we honestly just rode around 30th all day. I don’t know where we ended up. Someone said 12th, somehow, so I guess that’s better than where we should’ve finished with how the day went. We’ll just go on to Dover next week and try to continue running good.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“Ultimately, we put ourselves in that position. I was trying to help Ryan (Blaney) and work with my other Ford teammates, but it’s tough when everybody isn’t on the same page. When you lose track position like that, it is what it is, but moving forward I’d like to talk to Blaney and figure out what I can do better to help him. That way, we can just not worry about anybody else.” – Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 41 United Rentals Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“I thought Rodney (Childers, crew chief) made some good changes there. We kind of took a swing at it just to get me feeling a bit better. But honestly, more than anything, really, just the strategy kind of worked in our favor. We kind of ended up on an opposite strategy, which sometimes you have to do to make something happen. That’s when we got up front and the car got driving a lot better. We had an opportunity there, but we just didn’t make it across the finish line. We’ll live to fight another day.” – Josh Berry, driver of the No. 4 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Würth 400 on Sunday, April 28 at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway. The race begins at 2 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

GEICO 500 Pre-Race Report

Event: GEICO 500 (Round 10 of 36)

Time/Date: 3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, April 21

Location: Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway

Layout: 2.66-mile oval

Laps/Miles: 188 laps/500 miles

Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 60 laps / Stage 2: 60 laps / Final Stage: 68 laps

TV/Radio: FOX / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

SHR Fast Facts:

– Noah Gragson brings his quiet consistency to Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway for Sunday’s GEICO 500 NASCAR Cup Series race. The driver of the No. 10 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Stewart-Haas Racing comes into the 10th race of the season with three straight top-20 finishes. While none of those performances will be mounted over the mantle, that kind of solid consistency is key to emerging from Talladega with points in hand as opposed to being in a points hole. The 2.66-mile oval is notorious for sending drivers to an early exit via The Big One, the perfunctory multicar accident that dashes any hope of victory and leaves drivers with just a handful of points and a garage full of mangled parts. In three career Cup Series starts at Talladega, Gragson has two top-20 finishes. His most recent Talladega start in last year’s GEICO 500 ended on lap 190 when he was collected in a seven-car melee.

– Back-to-back top-10 finishes have vaulted Chase Briscoe from 18th in the NASCAR Cup Series championship point standings to 12th heading into the GEICO 500 Sunday at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. The six-position gain has come via a 10th-place drive April 7 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway and a sixth-place run last Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. That sixth-place finish in the Lone Star State was Briscoe’s fourth top-10 of the year and his best result in the nine races held so far this season. The driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Stewart-Haas Racing is eyeing another solid points tally despite Talladega being a track where drivers often end up pointed in the wrong direction.

– For the first time in his NASCAR Cup Series career, Josh Berry and the No. 4 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse will take on the high-banked, 2.66-mile Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway during Sunday’s Geico 500. The 33-year-old native of Hendersonville, Tennessee, has raced twice during the Cup Series’ NextGen era at Talladega’s sister track, the 2.5-mile Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway oval. His first outing at “The World Center of Racing” came with Legacy Motor Club and resulted in a 22nd-place finish last August. He then kicked off his official Cup Series rookie season in the No. 4 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Stewart-Haas Racing in February’s 66th running of the Daytona 500. Berry held his position in the lead pack until he was spun on pit road, which relegated him to the tail of the field and out of the draft. He finished 25th.

– After a solid 12th-place finish last Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Ryan Preece carries that momentum to a track where momentum is paramount – Talladega Superspeedway. The sweeping 2.66-mile oval in eastern Alabama hosts the GEICO 500 NASCAR Cup Series race this Sunday, and when Preece last turned laps there in October, he finished eighth after leading eight laps.

OUR WEEKLY WRAPS:

WHAT OUR DRIVERS ARE SAYING:

Josh Berry, Driver of the No. 4 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

How does the chemistry you have built with your teammates off the track help you at a place like Talladega Superspeedway?

“Having good chemistry with your teammates is a really important part of speedway racing, especially on green-flag pit stops. Being able to trust each other and lean on each other to get back up to speed is really important to staying competitive. On track, it can be challenging to stay together, but being able to help each other off pit road is crucial.”

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Talladega marks the 10th race of the season and you came into this year as the most tenured Stewart-Haas driver. How has it been so far this year with two new teammates in Josh Berry and Noah Gragson?

“It’s been really good. Honestly, it’s probably been my favorite year at Stewart-Haas. All of my teammates are relatively the same age as me. We’re all kind of the same, where we’re at career-wise, and it’s just been a lot of fun from the camaraderie side and just getting to know them better. I just feel like from a teamwork standpoint, we’re way better than we’ve ever been as far as working together. I would say 10 races in we’re farther ahead from a teamwork standpoint, so hopefully we can continue to grow that.”

Noah Gragson, Driver of the No. 10 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Daytona was your first points-paying race with Stewart-Haas Racing and Talladega marks your 10th race with the team. What’s the journey been like so far?

“It’s been a lot of good times, some bad times, struggled some of the weekends, but overall I feel like we learn from those challenging weekends and it seems like we’ve been able to rebound and put some solid races under our belts. A couple of top-10s, a few 12th-place finishes, we just want to keep building on that and minimize the mistakes. I’m excited to get down to Talladega. It’s crazy that we’re already 10 races into it.”

Ryan Preece, Driver of the No. 41 United Rentals Ford Mustang Dark Horse

What are your expectations for Talladega, especially considering your strong performance at the track last fall?

“Whenever our team goes to a superspeedway, I feel pretty confident. Racing at superspeedways is like playing a game of chess, and I like to think a lot of us play that game pretty well. At superspeedways, passing and making runs is really tough, so positioning yourself within the first couple of rows is important to have a shot at the end to win. Talladega is also a great opportunity to score stage points, and we see the value in those. We just have to do our best to accomplish those things this weekend because this is a good shot for us to have a really strong result.”

 

AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 Post-Race Report

Date: April 14, 2024

Event: AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 (Round 9 of 36)

Series: NASCAR Cup Series

Location: Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth (1.5-mile oval)

Format: 267 laps, broken into three stages (80 laps/85 laps/102 laps)

Note: Race extended nine laps past its scheduled 267-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.

 

SHR Finish:
– Chase Briscoe (Started 5th, Finished 6th / Running, completed 276 of 276 laps)
– Ryan Preece (Started 26th, Finished 12th / Running, completed 276 of 276 laps)
– Noah Gragson (Started 21st, Finished 18th / Running, completed 276 of 276 laps)
– Josh Berry (Started 25th, Finished 36th / Accident, completed 136 of 276 laps)

 

SHR Points:
– Chase Briscoe (12th with 231 points, 105 out of first)
– Ryan Preece (24th with 137 points, 199 out of first)
– Josh Berry (27th with 130 points, 206 out of first)
– Noah Gragson (29th with 122 points, 214 out of first)

 

SHR Notes:
– Chase Briscoe earned his fourth top-10 of the season and his third top-10 in four career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Texas.
– This was Briscoe’s best finish so far this year. His previous best was ninth, earned March 10 at Phoenix Raceway.
– This was Briscoe’s second straight top-10. He finished 10th last Sunday at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
– This was Briscoe’s fourth straight top-15 at Texas and his third straight top-10 at the 1.5-mile oval. In his past four NASCAR Cup Series starts at Texas, Briscoe has finished 15th, fifth, 10th and sixth.
– Briscoe finished fifth in Stage 1 to earn six bonus points and fifth in Stage 2 to earn six more bonus points.
– Preece earned his third top-15 of the season and his first top-15 in eight career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Texas.
– Preece’s 12th-place result bettered his previous best finish at Texas – 18th, earned in October 2020.
– This was Gragson’s third straight top-20. He finished 12th March 31 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway and 20th last Sunday at Martinsville.
– Gragson’s 18th-place result bettered his previous best finish at Texas – 21st, earned in September 2022.

Sound Bites:

“Our car was really good. We were able to finish fifth in both stages and we’d done everything perfect up until the point of the spin. We were going to be the race leader. The 23 (Bubba Wallace) was on way older tires. We both went into turn one so hard and then the 21 (Harrison Burton) took us three-wide and we both just kind of wrecked. We got lucky at the end with the cautions. Our Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang was really, really good today. Way better than sixth place. I feel like I keep saying the same thing, but man, it’s frustrating where we finish because we’re way better speed-wise. Overall, just a really solid day and a really solid points day. I feel like our win is right around the corner.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“Ultimately, I wish the cautions would’ve worked out a little different. Once we had the 8 (Kyle Busch) and 22 (Joey Logano) cars behind us, it was a struggle to keep from being put three-wide. Having as old of tires as we did, I was just trying to protect my position. When I restarted on the outside that last time, it was just too much to handle and we dropped out of the top-10.” – Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“It felt like we had a good car. We were going to cycle fifth, sixth or seventh during that one round of green-flag pit stops and just got stuck a lap down with the caution that came out. That happened a couple of times, so we had to fight and come from the back a couple of times today with those scenarios. Overall, we had a top-10 run going all day and just didn’t come home with it.” – Noah Gragson, driver of the No. 10 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“We were going to run fine. We were almost in the top-10. I felt like the car was pretty good. Rodney (Childers, crew chief) made good calls there on the strategy to keep tires on it. The first time I felt like we got stacked on the bottom a little bit and when the 47 (Ricky Stenhouse Jr.) moved down, either he barely clipped me or just the air off his car was the problem. It was super close. Honestly, I think we made a little bit of contact and it just got me loose and out of control. The second time I was just out there riding around and I was just out there loose and trying to hang on to it and wrecked again.” – Josh Berry, driver of the No. 4 Miner Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the GEICO 500 on Sunday, April 21 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. The race begins at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 Pre-Race Report

Event: AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 (Round 9 of 36)

Time/Date: 3:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, April 14

Location: Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth

Layout: 1.5-mile oval

Laps/Miles: 267 laps / 400.5 miles

Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 80 laps / Stage 2: 85 laps / Final Stage: 102 laps

TV/Radio: FS1 / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

 

SHR Fast Facts:

– Six weeks have passed since the last time the NASCAR Cup Series raced on a 1.5-mile oval. It was March 3 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Noah Gragson drove his No. 10 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Stewart-Haas Racing to a season-best sixth-place finish. With another 1.5-mile oval next up on the Cup Series docket with the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Gragson is looking forward to racing in the Lone Star State and scoring another strong result.

– Josh Berry will take on the 1.5-mile oval at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth for the first time in the NASCAR Cup Series ranks during Sunday’s Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400. The 33-year-old rookie has enjoyed success on other intermediate tracks, scoring three of his five NASCAR Xfinity Series victories on 1.5- mile ovals, twice at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (fall 2021 and 2022 races) and once at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway (spring 2022), all under the JR Motorsports banner. He led a combined 192 of 602 possible race laps in those three victories.

– Despite only having three NASCAR Cup Series starts at Texas, Chase Briscoe’s standing at the 1.5-mile oval is solid. He finished 15th in his Cup Series debut at the track in 2021 and then knocked down back-to-back top-10s in his two subsequent races at Texas, finishing fifth in 2022 and 10th last year.

– Ryan Preece heads to Texas after posting a season-best finish of ninth last Sunday at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. He kicked off the weekend with a strong practice session, posting the third-fastest lap. From his 22nd-place starting spot, Preece steadily made his way toward the top-10, finishing the second stage in 14th. After losing four spots on pit road during the Stage 2 break, Preece raced his way forward once again and emerged with his first top-10 of the season. Statistically, he was one of the top-five biggest movers in the final stage.

OUR WEEKLY WRAPS:

 

WHAT OUR DRIVERS ARE SAYING:

Noah Gragson, Driver of the No. 10 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

The risk versus reward factor is higher at Texas because the speeds are so much higher. Can you explain how fast things happen at Texas and how quickly you need to think and make moves on the track?

“Texas is challenging just because you’re pretty much wide open from the exit of turn two all the way through (turns) three and four, down the front straightaway until you get to turn one. There are two different corners at Texas, and that’s a big challenge on getting your car handling right. Turns three and four are more banked, and turns one and two are more flat and wide. It’s a tough, challenging racetrack, and it’s always pretty hot and slick there, too. It’s easy to get up out of the groove and spin out through one and two. You definitely have to be on your game from the get-go.”

Josh Berry, Driver of the No. 4 Miner Ford Mustang Dark Horse

You’ve had a mixed bag of results at Texas Motor Speedway in the Xfinity Series, and now you’re heading there for the first time in the Cup Series. What translates and what doesn’t?

“Texas (Motor Speedway) is a high-grip track and really fast. Each corner is significantly different and takes a slightly different approach, which makes it challenging. But all of the skills from Xfinity I think will translate. Ultimately, my results from Xfinity don’t matter in my mind because I am with a new team, a new car, a new manufacturer, so it’s almost a clean slate, but I am excited for the opportunity to go with Stewart-Haas Racing. It’s obviously our second race on the intermediates but, on the team side, we know that’s where we need to improve the most. It’s a great opportunity to learn and keep improving before we get into the summer months.”

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford Mustang Dark Horse

How would you describe restarts at Texas?

“Restarts at Texas are a little hairy. The speeds are way, way higher, and the risk versus reward is way, way higher. At Texas, I feel like you put yourself in a worse spot sometimes and the car just doesn’t want to do certain things. There are different lanes at Texas, so you can move around, and that makes things hairier.”

Ryan Preece, Driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

It’s been six weeks since the Cup Series last raced on a mile-and-a-half track. What are your thoughts heading to Texas?

“We knew the No. 10 car (of Noah Gragson) was really good at Las Vegas, so we’ve been looking over and working through some of the things they did to ensure we have some of the speed they had there. Heading into Texas, with it being a mile-and-a-half, we’re a lot more optimistic than last year.”

Cook Out 400 Post-Race Report

Date: April 7, 2024

Event: Cook Out 400 (Round 8 of 36)

Series: NASCAR Cup Series

Location: Martinsville (Va.) Speedway (.526-mile oval)

Format: 400 laps, broken into three stages (80 laps/100 laps/220 laps)

Note: Race extended 15 laps past its scheduled 400-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.

 

SHR Finish:
– Ryan Preece (Started 22nd, Finished 9th / Running, completed 415 of 415 laps)

– Chase Briscoe (Started 5th, Finished 10th / Running, completed 415 of 415 laps)

– Noah Gragson (Started 26th, Finished 20th / Running, completed 414 of 415 laps)

– Josh Berry (Started 7th, Finished 25th / Running, completed 413 of 415 laps)

SHR Points:
– Chase Briscoe (16th with 188 points, 121 out of first)
– Josh Berry (23rd with 129 points, 180 out of first)
– Ryan Preece (26th with 112 points, 197 out of first)
– Noah Gragson (29th with 101 points, 208 out of first)

SHR Notes:
– Preece earned his first top-10 of the season and his first top-10 in 10 career NASCAR Cup Series start at Martinsville.

– This was Preece’s best finish so far this year. His previous best was 14th, earned March 17 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.

– Preece’s ninth-place finish bettered his previous best result at Martinsville – 15th, earned last April.

– This was Preece’s third straight top-20 at Martinsville. He finished 15th last April and 20th in the series’ prior visit to the track in October.

– Briscoe earned his third top-10 of the season and his fifth top-10 in seven career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Martinsville

– This was Briscoe’s fifth straight result of 18th or better. He finished ninth March 10 at Phoenix Raceway, 13th March 17 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, 13th March 24 at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas and 18th last Sunday at Richmond (Va.) Raceway.

– This was Briscoe’s fifth straight top-10 at Martinsville. In his past five NASCAR Cup Series starts at the .526-mile oval, Briscoe has finished ninth, ninth, fifth, fourth and 10th.

– Briscoe finished fourth in Stage 1 to earn seven bonus points and seventh in Stage 2 to earn four more bonus points.

– Briscoe led once for eight laps to bring his laps-led total at Martinsville to 142.

– Gragson’s 20th-place result bettered his previous best finish at Martinsville – 25th, earned in October 2022.

– Berry finished ninth in Stage 1 to earn two bonus points and 10th in Stage 2 to earn one additional bonus point.

Sound Bites:

“We had a really good car. I wish we didn’t qualify so badly. I know the 24 (William Byron) started back there with us and he was able to get there probably with the help of a lot of things. At Martinsville last year, we had a good car but we didn’t have that good of a car, but now we’re definitely working toward something. I’m really happy with the direction we’re going in and we’re working on, and we’re going to be a lot better moving forward.” – Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“It was kind of a frustrating day for us. We ended up 10th, but we were definitely way better than 10th. We just couldn’t pass. We had not the greatest pit stop early in the race and lost some sports, and we were just kind of stuck anywhere from fifth to eighth for the rest of the race. I felt like if I ever could’ve gotten the lead, I would’ve been good enough to run up there, for sure. And then there at the end, we didn’t know if we should pit or not pit. We were kind of in a tough spot. We stayed out and lost two more spots. So, frustrating to run 10th. We definitely had better than a 10th-place racecar. This is how hard this Cup deal is. You’ve got to be perfect all race long. I made a couple of mistakes, and as a team, still, we just need to clean some stuff up. We’ll move on and continue with what speed we have. That’s encouraging. We just need to execute.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“Started out struggling with the balance of the car, went a lap down, and during the second stage got the ‘Lucky Dog’ and started rolling pretty good. It just seemed like the track changed a lot with the rubber being laid down. We found a good balance to start the run, but to end the run it gets super loose. But still proud of everybody on the Overstock team. It’s not our standard, but we’ll keep working to get there. It was a tough race, but had a lot of fun, too.” – Noah Gragson, driver of the No. 10 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“The car was fun. The field basically ran the same speed and you just can’t pass.” – Josh Berry, driver of the No. 4 Mobil 1 50th Anniversary Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 on Sunday, April 14 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. The race begins at 3:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Cook Out 400 Pre-Race Report

Event: Cook Out 400 (Round 8 of 36)

Time/Date: 3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, April 7

Location: Martinsville (Va.) Speedway

Layout: .526-mile oval

Laps/Miles: 400 laps/210.4 miles

Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 80 laps / Stage 2: 100 laps / Final Stage: 220 laps

TV/Radio: FS1 / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

 

SHR Fast Facts:

– Josh Berry heads to Sunday’s Cook Out 400 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway coming off his best points day of the season at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. He started last Sunday’s 400-lap event from the 30th position, just like he did in the 2023 spring Richmond race while subbing for the fourth of five races in a row for an injured Chase Elliott, in which he charged to a runner-up finish. Last weekend, Berry once again made a hard charge through the field, finishing ninth in the first stage and second in the second stage before taking the checkered flag 11th – his best finish of 2024. His determined run moved him to 23rd  in the Cup Series standings and to the top spot in the rookie standings. He leads Carson Hocevar, the next-best rookie, by nine markers.

– With a 12th-place drive last Sunday at the .75-mile Richmond (Va.) Raceway, Noah Gragson earned his fourth finish of 12th or better in the seven NASCAR Cup Series races held this season. The 25-year-old racer seeks further wealth in the Commonwealth with a second straight dose of short-track racing this Sunday at the .526-mile Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

– Ticking like a grandfather clock, Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Stewart-Haas Racing, sets his sights on the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, where he won his first-career NASCAR Cup Series pole in 2023 and led a career-best 135 laps. Preece has nine Cup Series starts at Martinsville and has completed an average of 92.1 percent of the laps at the historic .526-mile paperclip-shaped oval.

– Chase Briscoe’s best Martinsville race as a NASCAR Cup Series driver came last April when he finished fifth. He started fourth and took the lead on lap 186 and paced the field for the next 71 laps. A series of green-flag pit stops jumbled the running order, but Briscoe came back to take the lead on lap 307 and he stayed out front for another 38 laps to bring his laps-led total for the race to 109, second only to his Stewart-Haas teammate Ryan Preece, who led 135 laps.

OUR WEEKLY WRAPS:

 

WHAT OUR DRIVERS ARE SAYING:

Josh Berry, Driver of the No. 4 Mobil 1 50th Anniversary Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Coming off of your best Cup Series finish of the season at Richmond Raceway, what are your expectations this weekend at Martinsville – another short track?

“I think it should be another good opportunity for us to build on the success we’ve have had at the short tracks this year. Martinsville has been a good place for me in the past. I feel like if we can continue to carry the momentum we have had at some of the other short tracks this year, there’s no reason we can’t go contend for a win.”

Noah Gragson, Driver of the No. 10 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

You’re very successful at Martinsville, winning in both the Xfinity Series and Truck Series, where in nine combined starts there – five in Xfinity and four in Trucks – you have two wins, seven top-fives and eight top-10s. What made you so good at Martinsville in those series?

“I think being able to be disciplined and move your line around and, depending on how the rubber’s being laid down on the racetrack, center exit of the corner, and then your proximity off the inside curb, I feel like there are four or five, maybe six different ways you can run a corner at Martinsville in Xfinity and Trucks and with the old Cup cars. You used to have to mount a run, but now you just downshift, so I’m trying to figure that out, but I used to be really good there.”

Ryan Preece, Driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

You qualified within the top-10 for both Cup Series races at Martinsville last season, one of which was a pole position.  Do you expect the momentum and speed to carry over from last year?

“We had a really fast car at Martinsville last season, but we had a speeding penalty that cost us quite a bit of track position. We were able to get stage points and some of those things. We really found ourselves a direction to head in for this year. Going into Martinsville, a lot of things have changed. With some of the changes that we’ve seen, it should be an interesting race, but we’re looking at carrying as much of that momentum and speed over as possible.”

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse

How physical is a race at Martinsville? You’re on the brakes hard at least 800 times, so your lower body gets a workout as much as your upper body.

“It’s really hard. I probably didn’t realize how hard it was until the last time we were there in the fall. For whatever reason after the race, I couldn’t even bend over to take my shoes off. I had to have my wife help me because my back was in so much pain from all the braking we were doing. It’s a really hard place to run, and even mentally it’s a place where you’ve got to be on your game. So Martinsville is probably overlooked a lot of the time, the physicality of it, just because the speeds and the G-forces are what we would have at other places. There’s a lot that goes on with your body at those races so you definitely feel it the next day. Martinsville’s definitely gotten a little more challenging with the NextGen car because, before, you would leave it in fourth gear and just run the whole time in fourth. Now, we’re downshifting every single corner, and then upshifting down the straightaway, so you’re just busier inside the racecar. It definitely has made Martinsville more physical overall. Your arms are getting more of a workout, your feet are doing a lot more with the pedals and things like that, so there’s just a lot going on at Martinsville in a very short lap.”

Richmond 400 Post-Race Report

Date: March 31, 2024

Event: Richmond 400 (Round 7 of 36)

Series: NASCAR Cup Series

Location: Richmond (Va.) Raceway (.75-mile oval)

Format: 400 laps, broken into three stages (70 laps/160 laps/170 laps)

Note: Race extended seven laps past its scheduled 400-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.

 

SHR Finish:
– Josh Berry (Started 30th, Finished 11th / Running, completed 407 of 407 laps)
– Noah Gragson (Started 17th, Finished 12th / Running, completed 407 of 407 laps)
– Chase Briscoe (Started 32nd, Finished 18th / Running, completed 407 of 407 laps)
– Ryan Preece (Started 16th, Finished 28th / Running, completed 406 of 407 laps)

SHR Points:
– Chase Briscoe (18th with 150 points, 120 out of first)
– Josh Berry (23rd with 114 points, 156 out of first)
– Noah Gragson (30th with 84 points, 186 out of first)
– Ryan Preece (31st with 84 points, 186 out of first)

SHR Notes:
– Berry earned his second top-15 of the season and his second top-15 in two career NASCAR Cup Series startS at Richmond.
– This was Berry’s best finish so far this year. His previous best was 12th, earned March 17 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.
– Berry finished ninth in Stage 1 to earn two bonus points and second in Stage 2 to earn nine more bonus points.
– Berry led twice for two laps, increasing his laps led total at Richmond to 12.
– Berry was the highest finishing rookie.
– Gragson earned his fourth top-15 of the season and his first top-15 in four career NASCAR Cup Series startS at Richmond.
– Gragson’s 12th-place result bettered his previous best finish at Richmond  24th, earned in August 2022.
– Preece finished 10th in Stage 1 to earn one bonus point.

 

Sound Bites:

“It was a solid night. We had a really good car and a really good practice. We didn’t qualify like we should have, but we were able to come up through there and get some track position back. It was just little things. We lost a little track position and got stuck in the back half of the top-10, but, all in all, it was a really good night. We have a lot to be proud of. It was a good points night and we’ll go to Martinsville.” – Josh Berry, driver of the No. 4 SUNNYD Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“We were just a little too disconnected. From the start of the race compared to yesterday in practice, I felt like we had a really good car, but we kind of just lost it. I don’t know if it was going into nighttime, if that was a difference, but I’m super proud of these Superior Essex guys. We kind of just maintained all day, started 17th and finished 12th and never got a good handle on the car, but nobody quit. I’m just appreciative of the opportunity.” – Noah Gragson, driver of the No. 10 Superior Essex Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“It wasn’t our best night, by any means. I felt like, by far, it was our worst race of the season. We were able to run in the top-20, even though that’s not really our goal. We definitely just struggled all weekend. We could never get the balance how we wanted it to be. We could never get the front to turn, and then we just unhooked the back, so it was just kind of a frustrating weekend from getting it to do what we wanted it to do. It was just an up-and-down night for us. We definitely have a lot of work to do, which is a little head-scratching just because of how good we’ve been here in the past. We’ve always kind of been in the mix. We’ve got to go back and try to do our homework and come back better.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Cook Out 400 on Sunday, April 7 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. The race begins at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Richmond 400 Pre-Race Report

Event: Richmond 400 (Round 7 of 36)

Time/Date: 7 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 31

Location: Richmond (Va.) Raceway

Layout: .75-mile oval

Laps/Miles: 400 laps/300 miles

Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 70 laps / Stage 2: 160 laps / Final Stage: 170 laps

TV/Radio: FOX / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

 

SHR Fast Facts:

– Short-track racing is where Noah Gragson’s career began. The Las Vegas native owns victories in two of the United States’ most prestigious Late Model races – the 2017 Winchester 400 at the half-mile Winchester (Ind.) Speedway, and the 2018 Snowball Derby at the half-mile Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida.

–  The next race on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is Richmond (Va.) Raceway and the 33-year-old Cup Series rookie Josh Berry has turned laps there in the NextGen car. Making his Cup Series debut at .75-mile oval last year subbing for an injured Chase Elliott, Berry qualified 30th before driving through the field to take home a runner-up finish, leading 10 laps along the way. Coincidentally, Berry’s spotter this season is Eddie D’Hondt, Chase Elliott’s former spotter who helped him navigate the Richmond traffic to his runner-up finish last year.

– Chase Briscoe comes into Richmond (Va.) Raceway on a streak of quiet consistency that emulates his overall history at the .75-mile oval. The driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Stewart-Haas Racing has had three straight finishes of 13th or better. He finished a season-best ninth March 10 at Phoenix Raceway and 13th March 17 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway before earning another 13th-place drive last Sunday at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas. The runs have placed Briscoe a respectable 17th in the championship standings, just three points and one position away from the top-16 – the cutoff spot for the 10-race championship, which is still 20 races away. In the marathon that is the NASCAR Cup Series, consistency is key, and just as Briscoe has shown top-15 reliability in the early races of 2024, he’s been similarly reliable at Richmond across both the Cup Series and the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

– With Richmond’s worn-out asphalt and low-banked, 14-degree turns, the track echoes characteristics of the Northeast venues where Ryan Preece honed his skills on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. Preece underscored those parallels during a Modified Tour event at Richmond in 2021 when the Berlin, Connecticut-native scored a dominating victory. It was the 25th of his 26 career wins on the Modified Tour.

OUR WEEKLY WRAPS:

WHAT OUR DRIVERS ARE SAYING:

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang

The tire wear we saw in the last short-track race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway – did you like it or dislike it?

“I don’t really know how I feel about it, to be honest. I thought that it was definitely unique. I did like the fact that there was a little more strategy involved. And I even felt like, on the driver’s side, it put a little more in your hands instead of whoever had the best car was going to be really good. We probably don’t need it as drastic to where they just blow out, but I do think a good mix of that would be really cool to have, especially for the short-track races, for sure.”

Noah Gragson, Driver of the No. 10 Superior Essex Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Would you like to see that kind of tire fall-off at Richmond?

“I would like to see the tire pace slowed down as you run rather than the tire wearing out all the way to the cords. I think there are two different ways. At Bristol, the tread wore all the way off to where you didn’t have grip and that’s why you had to pace off your runs. Personally, I’d like it if they’d slow down on the grip loss the harder you push on a tire, just being able to lose grip rather than the tread depth of the tire.”

Josh Berry, Driver of the No. 4 SUNNYD Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Richmond is another short track that you’ve called one of your favorites. What are your expectations of yourself this weekend?

“I think Richmond is one of the tracks that we expect to run well at. Stewart-Haas as a whole has been good on short tracks and has a good program, and I have had success there in the Xfinity Series, as well as in the Cup Series last year in the No. 9 car. I think it’s one of the places that we circle on our calendar knowing that I have a long history in short-track racing, and Rodney (Childers, crew chief) comes from that same background. I think it will be a strong showing, we just have to go execute to the best of our ability and there is no reason we can’t go run in the top-10.”

Ryan Preece, Driver of the No. 41 United Rentals Ford Mustang Dark Horse

What are your thoughts on tire wear at Richmond? Could we see something like what we saw at Bristol?

“Richmond is a large short track, but it’s still a short track. The track surface is worn out, so tire heat and falloff is a real thing at Richmond. Turns one and two, and turns three and four are completely different corners, so being disciplined in hitting your marks and having a car with good balance is important at Richmond. If you’re fighting a car that’s too tight or too loose, the issue will only be exaggerated the longer the run goes.”

EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix Post-Race Report

Date: March 24, 2024

Event: EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (Round 6 of 36)

Series: NASCAR Cup Series

Location: Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas (3.426-mile,

20-turn road course)

Format: 68 laps, broken into three stages (15 laps/15 laps/38 laps)

 

SHR Finish:
– Chase Briscoe (Started 32nd, Finished 13th / Running, completed 68 of 68 laps)
– Ryan Preece (Started 24th, Finished 24th / Running, completed 68 of 68 laps)
– Noah Gragson (Started 39th, Finished 35th / Running, completed 67 of 68 laps)
– Josh Berry (Started 31st, Finished 36th / Running, completed 67 of 68 laps)

SHR Points:
– Chase Briscoe (17th with 131 points, 89 out of first)
– Josh Berry (29th with 76 points, 144 out of first)
– Ryan Preece (31st with 73 points, 147 out of first)
– Noah Gragson (34th with 58 points, 162 out of first)

SHR Notes:
– Briscoe earned his fourth top-15 of the season and his third top-15 in four career NASCAR Cup Series starts at COTA.
– This was Briscoe’s third straight result of 13th or better. He finished ninth March 10 at Phoenix Raceway and 13th last Sunday at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.
– Preece finished fifth in Stage 2 to earn six bonus points.
– Berry finished 10th in Stage 2 to earn a bonus point.
– This was Berry’s first career NASCAR Cup Series start at COTA.

Sound Bites:

“Our race was OK overall. I felt like, starting 32nd, that for the first couple of laps we were able to drive up to 17th and were going to be in a really good spot coming to the end of the first stage. I bottomed out really hard into the esses and it made me miss a corner and that really changed the whole complexity of our race. I had to go to the back and then drove back up there to the top-10. At the end with eight to go I made a huge mistake and got in the dirt in turn eight and allowed those guys to all swallow me up those last couple of laps. I thought we made our Mustang better throughout the day. I thought we had a solid 10th-place car, but we don’t really have anything else for the rest of the guys. We need to do some work, but to finish right outside of the top-10, we’ve been able to do that pretty much every week this year. If we aren’t in the top-10, we’re just a couple of spots outside of it. We’ve been really consistent, which is nice. We just need to get a little bit better and then, hopefully, we can improve on the finishes.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“We just could never get track position. Every time we went up there we’d get spun or wrecked or whatever. I felt like we had a pretty good racecar, just nothing to show for it.” – Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“We struggled from the get-go. We made some spots up at the beginning of the race and then fell back. Was kind of off the pace and knew we were probably worse than we were in practice, so we decided to come down pit road at the end of stage two and make some extensive changes to the setup, just wholesaling it and throwing everything we could at it. We were hoping to get a caution there at the end to get racked back up, but never did. Definitely a brutal day, but still proud of everyone on this team. A long day with nothing to show for it.” – Noah Gragson, driver of the No. 10 Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“We got better throughout the race. Our lap times were pretty good at the end. We just needed some more cautions to bunch everything up and help our odds. It was a tough weekend and going into it we knew it would be hard, but we learned a lot and we’ll be better for the next one.” – Josh Berry, driver of the No. 4 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Richmond 400 on Sunday, March 31 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. The race begins at 7 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix Pre-Race Report

Event: EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (Round 6 of 36)

Time/Date: 3:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 24

Location: Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas

Layout: 3.426-mile, 20-turn road course

Laps/Miles: 68 laps/231.88 miles

Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 15 laps / Stage 2: 15 laps / Final Stage: 38 laps

TV/Radio: FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

 

SHR Fast Facts:

– Briscoe has 19 career road-course starts in the NASCAR Cup Series with five top-10 finishes spread across COTA (sixth in 2021), Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin (sixth in 2021), Watkins Glen (ninth in 2021), the Charlotte Roval (ninth in 20222) and the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (sixth in 2023).

– Across the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, ARCA Menards Series and NASCAR K&N Series, Gragson has made a total of 37 road-course starts – three in Cup, 21 in Xfinity, two in Trucks, one in ARCA and 10 in K&N – amassing four wins, 16 top-fives and 27 top-10s with 161 laps led.

– Ryan Preece’s most recent road-course outing resulted in an 11th-place finish last October on the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval and he is poised to navigate both right and left turns again this weekend at COTA. His best road-course finish in the Cup Series was his ninth-place effort after qualifying sixth on the Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway road course in February 2021, driving for JTG Daugherty Racing.

– Josh Berry and the NASCAR Cup Series field heads to Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, for the first road-course race on the 2024 schedule. It will be Berry’s first Cup Series start on a serpentine-style track, but he has made two starts at COTA in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Most recently, the 33-year-old Cup Series rookie notched a top-10 result in his JR Motorsports entry in the Xfinity Series race there last March, crossing the finish line eighth in just his second start there. Berry has 15 starts on road courses in the Xfinity Series, nabbing four top-five results, nine top-10s, an average starting position of 14.4 and an average finish of 12.3.

OUR WEEKLY WRAPS:

WHAT OUR DRIVERS ARE SAYING:

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse

How would you rate yourself as a road-course driver?

“I feel like I’m above average. I’ve definitely had way more success in the lower series compared to Cup, where I’ve been kind of hit-or-miss. We’d run really, really good, or we were just off. Truthfully, I feel like the NextGen car has definitely hurt me quite a bit on the road-course side. I feel like the old car with just how badly it drove, you were always slipping and sliding around, it didn’t want to stop. I feel like this NextGen car certainly has closed up the gap. The guys who were typically off on road courses are definitely closer because the NextGen car is just easier to drive on the road courses – it stops better, it turns better, it just does everything better. I feel like I’ve been good on road courses from a speed standpoint, just need to find that little bit more to finally seal the deal on a road course.”

Noah Gragson, Driver of the No. 10 Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Some guys like road courses, others don’t. Where do you stand when it comes to competing on road courses?

“We used to just have two or three, or maybe only one on the Truck schedule, and my thinking was, ‘Oh man, this’ll be cool, I’ll get to do something different.’ Now there are five or six road courses – at one point, there were seven on the schedule – so it’s a big chunk of our season. You have to be good at it, but I’d also say it’s just another race where you have to carry the same amount of intensity. It felt a little more unique and special when there was just a limited number of road courses.”

Ryan Preece, Driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

You’ve had your share of success on road courses in your career. How do you approach learning and improving your performance on road courses, especially considering the unique challenges that this style of track creates?

“Road courses somewhat resemble short-track racing in terms of how you approach braking, so adapting to this style of racing has come with a baseline given my background. Channeling into that and utilizing the tools at your fingertips is what you have to do to be successful. I enjoy the challenges that this style of racing presents, and I’m certainly looking forward to COTA, as it’s a track where I enjoy racing.”

Josh Berry, Driver of the No. 4 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

What is the most challenging part of COTA? Where can you make the biggest gains?

“Like I said before, learning the braking zones there is important – there are some high-speed portions that you can lose a lot of time in if you aren’t good in that section. It’s cool, though, because a lot of the course flows together, right? Like, how the corners lead into one another. It’s going to be important for me to learn how to exit one corner and then enter the next, and how they flow from one to the next so I can make the best laps I can.”