Cole Custer: Driver, No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang

NASCAR XFINITY Series Overview

Event:               Mid-Ohio Challenge (Round 21 of 33)
Date:                 Aug. 12, 2017
Location:          Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington
Layout:             2.4-mile road course

Cole Custer Notes of Interest

• The Mid-Ohio Challenge will mark Custer’s 26^th career NASCAR XFINITY Series start and his first XFINITY Series start at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington.

• Custer’s best finish in the 20 XFINITY Series races run this season is fourth, earned June 3 at Dover (Del.) International Speedway. It was his 11^th top-10 and fifth top-five and it equaled his career-best finish.

• Custer’s best qualifying effort in the 20 XFINITY Series races run this season is third, earned twice – April 22 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway and June 10 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway. Custer has 13 top-10 starts and four top-five starts this season.

• Last week, Custer ran his career-first XFINITY Series road-course race at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International. He ran as high as second, turning consistent top-five lap speeds.

• Custer has earned four top-five finishes, nine top-10s and has led 29 laps so far in the 2017 XFINITY Series season.

• Custer is second in the XFINITY Series Rookie of the Year standings, 59 points behind leader William Byron.

• Custer has earned six Rookie of the Race awards this season. Rookie of the Race awards are given to the highest-finishing XFINITY Series rookie at each race.

• Custer is sixth in the XFINITY Series driver standings, 229 points behind series leader Elliott Sadler.

• This will be Stewart-Haas Racing’s second XFINITY Series road-course race.

Cole Custer, Driver Q&A

What was it like testing at Mid-Ohio?

“I think the test went fairly well. It’s hard to tell because it’s a different kind of car and everything, but I thought it was a fun place to run around. I can’t wait to hit the track with my Haas Automation Ford Mustang this weekend.”

Run us through a lap at Mid-Ohio.

“Mid-Ohio seems to definitely be one of the more technical places we go to, especially through the back section, so it will be fun to figure that out.”

Based on your performance at Watkins Glen, what are your expectations going into your second straight road-course race?

“I felt like we had pretty solid speed at Watkins Glen and we were one of the faster XFINITY guys. Hopefully, we can keep it in the top-five and be there at the end to get our first XFINITY win of the season.” 

Jeff Meendering, Crew Chief Q&A

What is your strategy going into your second straight road-course race?

“We didn’t get the finish we were hoping for in Watkins Glen, but I am very happy with the speed we showed in the race. Our team is going into Mid-Ohio with the confidence that we can compete for the win.”

KEVIN HARVICK

Closing In on the Playoffs

KANNAPOLIS, North Carolina (August 8, 2017) – Kevin Harvick is heading to the Irish Hills of Michigan with Busch Light on the hood of his No. 4 Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) for Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Race at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn.

Harvick and the No. 4 team’s goal this weekend is to score as many playoff points as possible with just four races remaining before the start of the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

The Bakersfield, California native clinched his position in the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs with his first win of the season at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway in June. He started 12^th, led 24 laps and had more than a five-second cushion when the final yellow flag waved to end the race under caution.

The No. 4 team’s one race win and three stage wins account for eight playoff points – tied for seventh-most among Cup Series drivers.

The good news for Harvick and the No. 4 team is that they have been among the best in the series at the 2-mile Michigan oval in recent years, scoring top-five finishes in seven of their last nine starts there.

Harvick scored four consecutive second-place finishes at Michigan from June 2013 through August 2014. He was runner-up to Greg Biffle by 2.989 seconds in June 2013. In August 2013, Harvick finished 1.018 seconds behind Joey Logano. In 2014, he followed Hendrick Motorsports drivers Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon across the finish line in the June and August races, respectively. That’s four races, four second-place finishes, to four different drivers.

Harvick scored back-to-back top-five finishes at Michigan in 2016. In June, he started 29^th and raced his way to a fifth-place finish. His next start in August, he started fourth, led 33 laps and finished fifth.

However, Harvick and the No. 4 team started 11^th and finished 14^th in their most recent trip to Michigan in June.

For his career, Harvick has been to victory lane at Michigan in each of NASCAR’s top three national touring series.

He scored an Xfinity Series win at Michigan in August 2003, when he led 10 laps and beat Kasey Kahne to the finish line under caution. His NASCAR Cup Series win came in August 2010, when he led 60 laps and outran Denny Hamlin to the finish line by 1.731 seconds. He scored a Camping World Truck Series win in August 2011, when he led 13 laps and finished ahead of Timothy Peters as the race ended under caution.

The 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion would like to add a fresh Cup Series win to his resume Sunday at Michigan. A win would be Harvick’s second of the 2017 season and would give him much-needed bonus points as the series makes its last push before the start of NASCAR’s 2017 playoffs.

KEVIN HARVICK, Driver of the No. 4 Busch Light Ford Fusion:

What does it take to have a good finish at Michigan?

“How you finish at Michigan depends on how your day is going. If you’re having a good day, it’s not really hard to tell your guys what you need and everyone is in a good mood. If you’re having a bad day, you can get behind at Michigan really fast. Usually, when you’re hooked up at Michigan, the leaders have clean air and move through traffic pretty well. But, if you’re in the middle of the pack, you find yourself getting behind and going a lap down pretty quickly. You’re going to end up with a green-flag pit stop and a whole bunch of green-flag laps. You just have to be going from the time the green flag drops and keep yourself in position at the end.”

 Do you enjoy racing at Michigan International Speedway?

“I think we’ve finished really well there over the last couple of years and scored a lot of second-place finishes and top-fives. I learned a long time ago that sometimes those things happen, so it’s better to be on a top-five streak than a 10^th-place streak. The good thing about the racetrack is that it has definitely aged and the groove has spread out over the last couple of races, so you have a lot more options than you did a few years ago when they repaved it. Every time we go back there, it gets a little more racey. When we go back this time, there should be lots of room to race and you’ll see lots of speed. As we go through the restarts and traffic and different things, we’ll have to see how it all goes, but it should be interesting.”

KURT BUSCH

Yes, Michigan!

KANNAPOLIS, North Carolina (Aug. 8, 2017) – Kurt Busch may not remember the 1980s Michigan television commercials that ended with the theme “Yes, Michigan!”

But as the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series rolls into historic Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, he is thinking “Yes, Michigan!”

Busch, driver of the No. 41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), has three wins at Michigan, which puts him in a tie with Matt Kenseth for most among active drivers. And just like at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, he’s won three times, with three different teams.

He scored his first win at Michigan in June 2003 driving for Roush Fenway Racing, then backed it up with a victory in August 2007 with Roger Penske. His last Michigan win came in a rain-shorted race with SHR in June 2015.

Busch also qualified on the pole in June 2010 and 2011 and has scored five top-five finishes at the 2-mile oval.

He’ll be looking to take Ford back to victory lane at Michigan, which is about an hour from the Detroit area, where Ford is based. The blue oval has a long history at Michigan, winning nearly half the races since the track opened in 1969. Of the 96 NASCAR Cup Series races contested at Michigan, Ford and its Mercury brand have won 47 of them – 35 wins by Ford and 12 by Mercury.

Busch is credited with one of those triumphs – June 2003, when he snatched the lead from Jeff Gordon with 24 laps to go to claim his seventh career Cup Series win.

The Las Vegas native has four top-12 finishes, including a win, in his last five starts at the 2-mile oval. He’s hoping to score another victory this weekend so he can once again proclaim, “Yes, Michigan!”

KURT BUSCH, Driver of the No. 41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

You won the June 2003 Michigan race for Ford almost 100 years after the company was formed. Can you talk about what you remember from that experience?

“It was really neat. In my office at my house, I have a letter form Edsel Ford congratulating our team on the race win. And it’s something I framed and put in a similar format to a letter that my grandfather got from Henry Ford when he was a Ford employee. And it was really neat to have that moment and the lineage of our family of letters from the Ford Family.”

Any difference in track temperature between the first Michigan race and the second one?

“I would say it’s usually warmer in the second race, but there isn’t that much of a difference. It’s very similar to Pocono. The temperatures are just very similar each time we go. It’s just a matter of if you catch cloud cover or a cold front.”

You’re back with Ford, with whom you won your first 14 NASCAR Cup Series races. But in this go-round, there’s a One Ford mentality instead of a team-by-team philosophy. How is it working out?

“Right away, at Daytona, everybody from Ford was there, and there was a big meeting with all the Ford teams about how we need to all work together at the restrictor-plate tracks. Then, as we moved forward to the mile-and-a-halves and the short tracks, there are little things that we’ve been doing at SHR versus what Penske has been doing or Roush or RPM (Richard Petty Motorsports), and so we want to try to share the information but, at the same time, you’ve got to keep the technology in-house. So, Ford has a nice balance of what they’ve asked us to do and how we’re all sharing information moving forward. Really, it’s a unique situation with having Doug Yates as our engine builder. He’s really smart. He’s on top of everything. So whether it’s the oiling system, the water cooling system, different gear ratios and things, we’ve been working closely together on those.”

KURT BUSCH, Driver of the No. 41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing (continued):

What does it take to be fast at Michigan?

“Michigan is a tough place because of the way the cars have that grip level on fresh tires versus old tires. What I mean by that is, when you put on fresh tires, your tires are cold and they don’t grab the asphalt as well. A lot of guys try to stay out at Michigan with the hot tires on and they get better restarts. Restarts at Michigan are already pretty wild with how wide the track is and how many lanes there are for options. It comes down to just trying to put yourself in the best position with the best-percentage chance of whether it’s fresh tires, or it’s staying out, or it’s making spots up on restarts.”

CLINT BOWYER

Life on the Bubble Isn’t All That Bad

KANNAPOLIS, North Carolina (August 7, 2017) – Clint Bowyer sits on the bubble that floats between those drivers who have secured a berth through victory in the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series 16-driver playoffs and those hoping to win or acquire enough points to join in the 10-race title battle.

Bowyer is 17th in the standings, trailing 16th-place Matt Kenseth by 26 points, 15th-place Jamie McMurray by 34 points and 14th-place Chase Elliott by 39 points. Assuming there will be no first-time race winners the remainder of the regular season, Bowyer needs to outscore one of those drivers or drive his No. 14 Ford to victory lane to gain entry to the playoffs.

Counting Sunday’s 400-mile race at Michigan International Raceway in Brooklyn, only four races remain in the regular season before the start of the playoffs Sept. 17 at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois.

Bowyer admits he can hear the sands in the hourglass running out on the regular season. He also knows most every question he’ll get from media and race fans the next few weeks will likely remind him of the playoff bid and the accompanying pressure.

So, how is he handling it all? Bowyer says he is enjoying the moment.

“This is a lot of fun,” said the Emporia, Kansas native who replaced three-time champion and Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) co-owner Tony Stewart in the No. 14 in 2017. “I love this time of year. There’s no pressure. This is racing and it’s fun.”

Many might ask how he can joke about something that’s been at the top of his bucket list since February, something that is also accompanied by sponsor and team hopes. Bowyer’s confidence comes from knowing he and his crew chief Mike Bugarewicz-led team are doing the right things to win races, as well as from his past success.

Bowyer owns three top-five and five top-10 points finishes in 11 NASCAR Cup Series seasons.

“You just have to take it in stride and go out and do your job,” said Bowyer, who also won the NASCAR Xfinity Series title in 2008. “It’s no different than the first time I climbed into the No. 14 Ford down in Daytona. We knew then that we needed a win and we still know we need a win. We’ve been close this year. Three second-place finishes but we have to push through and get that win.”

Bowyer knows the strength of the competition in the sport these days, but he’s also aware he’s showing up at the track with a chance each weekend. That will be no different in the next four races.

“I’m with the right team with Buga (Bugarewicz) and the crew, right organization with SHR and right manufacturer with Ford,” he said. “We just have to put it together. Our time is coming. It’s going to happen. But it needs to happen pretty soon.”

It could happen this weekend at Michigan, where Bowyer has scored a top-five and 11 top-10s in 23 starts at the 2-mile, D-shaped, ultra-fast oval. He’ll pilot the No. 14 Ford carrying the Nature’s Bakery paint scheme for the final time in 2017. He hopes to continue his recent streak of good performances that included a fifth-place finish at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International last weekend.

Bowyer can go a long way toward improving his playoff chances this weekend in Michigan.

Who knows? He might even burst that bubble.

CLINT BOWYER, Driver of the No. 14 Nature’s Bakery Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

What is the key to victory at Michigan?

“A fast hot rod goes a long way in this sport. We’ve been running up front, we have to stay there and get a little bit better. Improvement is always what you want. You want to just keep improving and getting better. That is really all you can ask for. I am pretty proud of us getting better. Hopefully we will keep improving as years go on.”

DANICA PATRICK

Back to the Routine

KANNAPOLIS, North Carolina (Aug. 8, 2017) – After spending a weekend in Watkins Glen, New York, making both right- and left-hand turns at one of only two road courses on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule, Danica Patrick and the No. 10 Code 3 Associates Ford team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) look to settle back into their normal routine as the series travels to Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn for Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400.

Prior to last weekend’s race at the Watkins Glen International road course, Patrick and the No. 10 team had earned four consecutive top-15 finishes on oval tracks of varying length. Those results include a 15th-place effort at the 1.5-mile Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, 13th at the 1.058-mile New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, 11th at the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway and 15th at the 2.5-mile Pocono (Pa.) Raceway.

Patrick came close to making it five top-15 finishes in a row last weekend at Watkins Glen but, after running as high as 11th, midrace contact dropped her back toward the tail of the field. Patrick was only able to race her way back up to 22nd before taking the checkered flag.

This weekend, Patrick and the No. 10 Code 3 Associates Ford team return to Michigan International Speedway, a 2-mile oval. In the June event at the track, Patrick and the team had their shot at a top-15 run dashed by late-race contact. She was scored 15th when contact with another car on a restart with 10 laps to go sent the No. 10 Ford into the inside wall and relegated the team to a 37th-place finish.

Patrick has nine NASCAR Cup Series starts at Michigan and her best result is a 13th-place effort earned in June 2013. She has four top-20 finishes at the track.

In addition to her NASCAR Cup Series experience at Michigan, Patrick has made two NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at the track and her best finish was an 18th-place result earned in June 2012.

Patrick also has three IndyCar Series starts at Michigan with one of those a top-10 effort when she finished seventh in August 2007 after leading five laps.

This weekend, Patrick and the No. 10 Code 3 Associates Ford team plan to utilize that past experience to get back into a routine and hopefully earn another top-15 finish at Michigan.

DANICA PATRICK, Driver of the No. 10 Code 3 Associates Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

What kind of challenges does Michigan present?

“It’s really easy to have an imbalance at Michigan, whether it’s getting the power down on exit or most of the time being tight. I feel like it produces some great racing and there’s a lot of drafting, so you can use that to help pass cars.”

What are your thoughts on racing at Michigan?

“Michigan is a wide, fast track. There’s lots of room to move around and try different lines. I think it’s a momentum track and you have to focus on being smooth. At the end of the day, the car has to handle well. It has to feel good. It has to be a fast car. I think those are the challenges – getting your car to handle well and being smooth and consistent, lap after lap, at such a fast track.”