Month: March 2018

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series tour offers fans the thrills of nose-to-tail drafting packs at Daytona and Talladega, the beating and banging at short tracks like Bristol and Martinsville and the high speeds of the mile-and-a-half tracks like Charlotte and Atlanta.

Clint Bowyer believes you have to add Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California to that list for one simple reason: restarts.

For proof of the Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) driver’s claim, one only needs to tune in to FOX at 3:30 p.m. EDT Sunday to watch the fifth race of the 2018 Cup Series season – the Auto Club 400. Bowyer says the wild restarts at the track east of Los Angeles are as spectacular from behind the steering wheel as they are in the grandstands and on television.

“The restarts at California are awesome,” said Bowyer, who added that drivers can choose from among five different racing lines on the 2-mile, D-shaped oval. “I think it’s great for the fans. You see us get bunched up for the restart and go off into turn one. All hell breaks loose and it looks like we are 25 cars wide. When that spotter says, ‘Outside,’ you better be sure there is just one car outside of you and not two or three.”

Bowyer knows what he’s talking about when he cites the frenetic racing at Fontana. Last year, he started the overtime in seventh place and raced to third in the two laps of competition before the checkered flag waved. It capped a day that saw Bowyer earn points in all three stages of the race, and it marked his third top-three finish at Fontana.

Bowyer will carry Rush Truck Center decals on his No. 14 Ford Sunday when he makes his 438th career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series start and 18th career Cup Series start at Fontana. He owns three top-five finishes and eight top-10s and has led 47 laps.

Bowyer said he loves the challenge the track presents to the drivers and teams.

“The speeds are always very fast at California and, on top of that, the grip level goes away drastically fast,” Bowyer said. “For me, I love that. I love how the track slicks off and you have to focus on the balance. You can’t have that front end turning too good and have that rear end pulling out from under you, and vice versa.”

The width of the track also poses some challenges for both the driver and his spotter.

“You really have to focus in on the communication with your spotter,” he said. “When he says they are running the top, you have to think about what he really means. With a track as wide as California, you have to know where the other cars are at all times.”

Bowyer arrives at the end of the Cup Series’ three-race West Coast swing after finishing sixth at ISM Raceway near Phoenix last weekend. That finish, coupled with a 15th at Daytona, third at Atlanta and 18th at Las Vegas, vaulted Bowyer to ninth place in the standings.

Most importantly, the SHR organization is on a roll.

All four SHR drivers finished in the top-10 Sunday at Phoenix, and Kevin Harvick won his third consecutive race and the 46^th overall win for SHR. It was the organization’s 42^nd points-paying Cup Series win and SHR’s sixth Cup Series victory with Ford. Harvick leads the points with Bowyer, Aric Almirola and Kurt Busch ninth, 10^th and 11^th in points.

Bowyer would like to see the success continue this weekend at Fontana, where SHR owns two victories scored by Tony Stewart in October 2010 and March 2012.

“I’d say that was pretty much a statement last week,” Bowyer said. “Maybe we can do it again this weekend in Fontana.”

CLINT BOWYER, Driver of the No. 14 Rush Truck Center for Stewart-Haas Racing:

What is it like to drive at Auto Club Speedway? 

“I think I’ve been going there 12, 13 years now. I remember single file around there. Couldn’t really pass. Ring around the bottom. Now, I mean, all hell breaks loose on those restarts. You’re trying to protect the bottom. They’re calling you outside. You don’t know if you’re three-wide, four-wide, 12-wide. It’s all because of a really wide, cool racetrack. A fast racetrack and a lot of grooves. Five different grooves to race on all day long. It’s just a lot of fun to be out there. Very challenging track. Trying to balance those front tires, the rear tires, not push ’em off. You can overdrive your car. I did one run. Thing fell away. You know, you learn from your mistakes and go on.”

What is the secret to success at Auto Club Speedway? 

“You’ve got to be able to adapt, you’ve got to be able to have the car free enough across the center so you can throttle through the corners, not too tight, and tight enough that the rear doesn’t come out from underneath you. It’s a constant battle balancing those tires and taking care of those tires, as well.”

Date:                         March 10, 2018
Location:                 ISM Raceway near Phoenix
Layout:                     Mile oval

Cole Custer Notes of Interest

• • • • The DC Solar 200 at ISM Raceway near Phoenix is the first of five mile-oval tracks during the 33-race season. 
    • The DC Solar 200 will be Custer’s third Xfinity Series start and his ninth overall at Phoenix. Custer has three NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts and three NASCAR K&N Pro Series starts at the mile oval. Custer’s best Truck Series finish is third in 2014 and, that same year, he won the K&N Pro Series race. Custer also has a K&N Series pole at Phoenix, earned in 2013 when he first competed at the track. 
    • In 41 Xfinity Series starts, 42 Camping World Truck Series starts and 29 K&N Pro Series starts since 2015, Custer has five wins, six poles, 14 top-five finishes, 26 top-10s and 919 laps led at tracks that are a mile in length or shorter. 
    • Last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Custer ran as high as first place, earned bonus points, and secured his first top-10 finish of the 2018 Xfinity Series season. 
    • Custer’s best start this season was fourth – earned twice at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Feb. 24 and at Las Vegas last weekend.
    • Custer has three top-five finishes, six top-10s, two poles, one win and has led 111 laps in eight career Xfinity, Truck and K&N starts at Phoenix. 
    • Custer has one win, eight top-five finishes, 22 top-10s and has led 306 laps in 41 career Xfinity Series starts.
    • Custer is 13^th in the Xfinity Series standings with 63 points.

     

    Cole Custer, Driver Q&A

     

    Was a top-10 finish at Las Vegas what you needed to take some pressure off after bad luck to start the season? 

    “We had a lot of speed throughout the race but some runs didn’t go our way. It was just good to have a solid day and get some stage points because we haven’t had a race without bad luck, yet. We’re hoping to get back in a consistent routine and find some solid finishes each week.”

    Is Phoenix going to be a good track for the Haas Automation team?

    “I think it’s going to be a great weekend as long as we can finish without any issues. I’m looking forward to Phoenix because we ran well there last year and we have some ideas on how to get even better. I think we’ll keep trending upward from there.” 

    You have a win at Phoenix. What is it about this track that fits your driving style?

    “I’ve been lucky enough to drive some fast cars there, but I think I’ve taken to flat tracks fairly well and it’s a feel I just like. We had a quick Haas Automation Ford Mustang there last season so, with the notes we have now, we should be even quicker. ”

     

    Jeff Meendering, Crew Chief Q&A

     

    What car are you bringing to Phoenix?  

    “Our Phoenix car is brand new. We built it for the flange-fit composite body last year, so we’re excited to unload it. We had good speed in Vegas and now we have a little more confidence heading to Phoenix since we were able to finish a race without any bad luck and secure a top-10 finish.”

Kevin Harvick is going for his third consecutive Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win this weekend as the series heads to ISM Raceway near Phoenix for Sunday afternoon’s TicketGuardian 500k.

The driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) is off to a “Freaky Fast” start to the 2018 season, having scored back-to-back Cup Series wins at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He’s been so fast that he has led more than 49 percent of the total laps run in regular-season points-paying events thus far.

Last weekend at Las Vegas, Harvick scored a perfect 150.0 driver rating, starting second, leading 214 of 267 laps and finishing 2.906 seconds ahead of runner-up Kyle Busch.

The last Cup Series driver to win three consecutive races was Joey Logano, who won three October races in a row during the 2015 NASCAR playoffs at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Kansas Speedway in Kansas City and Talladega (Ala.) Speedway.

While Harvick has racked up 39 wins in his Cup Series career, he has never won three Cup Series races consecutively.

Logano is one of only three active Cup Series drivers to have ever accomplished the feat. The others are Kyle Busch, who won at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon and Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July 2015, and Jimmie Johnson, who has done it twice. Johnson’s first three-race streak came at Charlotte, Martinsville (Va.) Speedway and Atlanta in 2004. Johnson also has the longest win streak among active drivers when he won four in a row at Martinsville, Atlanta, Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth and Phoenix in 2007.

If history is any indication, ISM Raceway could very well be the place Harvick joins that elite list.

Harvick’s career numbers at Phoenix feature a series-high eight NASCAR Cup Series wins, including five in his last nine outings. He became the only Cup Series driver to win four consecutive races at the track when he won the November 2013 race, swept the 2014 races and won again in March 2015. Only five drivers have won consecutive Cup Series races at Phoenix and Harvick is the only one to win consecutive races twice. He swept both races in 2006 to go with his back-to-back wins in 2014. His most recent Phoenix win was last March.

According to NASCAR loop data, Harvick is the only driver to score a perfect 150.0 driver rating on three different occasions at Phoenix. Harvick scored his first perfect rating at the mile oval in November 2006, when he started second and led 252 of 312 laps on his way to victory lane. He accomplished the feat a second time in winning the November 2014 race. His third perfect score came in March 2015, when he won the pole, led 224 of 312 laps and beat Jamie McMurray to the finish line by 1.153 seconds.

In addition to his series-high eight wins in NASCAR’s top series, the 2014 Cup Series champion has four NASCAR Camping World Truck Series wins at Phoenix and one in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. His Truck Series wins came in 2002, 2003, 2008 and 2009. His lone Xfinity win came in 2006.

A win this weekend would continue the No. 4 team’s blistering start to the season. It currently sits atop the point standings with a three-point advantage over Joey Logano after its back-to-back wins, its 395 laps led and 13 playoff points accumulated for race and stage wins through the first three races.

KEVIN HARVICK, Driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. talked on pit road after Las Vegas about how you looked like you did in 2014, and Truex said, “There goes Kevin Harvick off in his own ZIP code again.” Does it really feel that way, or has so much changed in that time, is it difficult to compare?

“For me, there were a lot of questions coming into the weekend. I think Atlanta is its own beast, but I think we answered a lot of those questions for ourselves. And now it’s about navigating the rest of it, and how do you push yourself forward, what do you need to work on, even though things are going good. Sometimes you have to trick yourself and everybody else into thinking, ‘OK, well, everything is going good.’ Well, I can promise you that the 78, the 18, the 2, the 22, everybody is going to work, and they’re going to get better. I mean, we did that last year. We’ve been in this position before, and you have to keep pushing forward to try to keep your advantage of things that are working well for you, but you also have to find out what your weaknesses are. This weekend, we’re going to a flat track, and we didn’t run well there in the spring. We ran better in the fall but not like we expect to run. So that’s an important playoff race. So we have to figure out how to motivate everybody to keep pushing forward, to not sit idle in the things that we’re doing, and become complacent in the things that you’re doing because it’s good enough right now but it won’t be when you get to summertime.”

Does your car feel that much better than it did near the end of last year?

“You’ve got to remember, at the end of last year, our car was as competitive as anybody. We drove to victory lane there at Texas and led the most laps and won both stages and just had some things not work out for us at Charlotte. So, the mile-and-a-half stuff has been on point since we got to Chicago last year. I think as you have the whole winter to step back, take a deep breath and work on some things, I think as you look at everything that’s changed, it’s obviously not hurt us as much as it hurt some other people. There’s still a lot of racing left to go. But it’s good to have momentum. It’s good to have things going early. It’s good to score playoff points because we saw how important they were last year for the 78, and you want to, when things are going good, you need to hammer it home. You need to capitalize on it. You need to win stages because there will be a point where you go through that lull where somebody else is hot, and you hope that your hot streak is longer than theirs so you can score more points and put yourself in a better position for the playoff points than anybody else.”          

You just scored your 100^th win in NASCAR’s top three series and your next Cup Series win will be your 40th, tying you with Mark Martin for 18th on the all-time list. What do those accomplishments mean to you?

“I think any place you get on the list at this particular point, for me, I just kind of laugh, just because of the fact that I don’t think you ever really – I never really thought that I would actually – get to the point of putting yourself beside Mark Martin and some of the guys who are on that part of the list. I think as you look at the last five years and you look at the wins and the championship and the way that things have gone, it’s really kind of rejuvenated everything that I’ve done and the way I feel about coming to the racetrack. You feel obligated to be a part of it during the week and try to put in the maximum amount of effort because (crew chief) Rodney (Childers) and (race engineer) Dax (Gerringer) and the engineers and everybody who’s working at the shop, they’re digging, and they’re not worried about where you’re at on the list. That, for me, is a good thing because it’s really week-to-week. They’ll go home and we probably won’t ever talk about what we did at Vegas until we come back to Vegas. It’s all about Phoenix this week and what we’re going to do and what we did wrong and what we did right at the fall race and where we’re at with the cars at this particular point and what do we need to work on and how do we need to work on things. Then we’ll fly home and have a good time and talk about how the weekend went. There are always things you can make better. There’s really no time to sit and reminisce about where you’re at on a list because, when things are like this, you want to capitalize on them and you want to capitalize on your cars and your people and your enthusiasm and the momentum and all the things that come with that. So, you’re almost scared to even really step back and say, we did this or we did that, and your name is on the list here. It’s just, ‘How do we keep doing this?’,And, ‘Let’s just keep pushing things forward and try not to stumble along the way and screw up what’s going on.’ To me, it feels a lot like 2014, except now you’ve got a team with five years of experience, and that’s pretty scary.”

Kurt Busch has driven very well in the first three races of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series this season.

He finished eighth in Folds for Honor 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway two weeks ago and was running in the top-10 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway before late-race accidents derailed his day.

Busch, driver of the No. 41 Mobil 1/Haas Automation Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), is a Las Vegas native, so he very much enjoys the three races that make up “NASCAR Goes West.” Part two of NASCAR’s three-race swing out West is the TicketGuardian 500k at ISM Raceway near Phoenix.

Getting the opportunity to race at the mile oval in the desert west of Phoenix – the same track where he had cheered for many of his racing heroes – was a dream come true for Busch. Racing at the track was like a home game for Busch, who also attended college for several semesters at the University of Arizona, just down the road in Tucson, before making it in NASCAR’s big leagues.

While he was coming up through the ranks, Busch made a number of race starts at Phoenix, competing in series such as NASCAR’s Southwest Series tour. Then, in 2000, Busch took to the track for the first time as a competitor in NASCAR’s top touring series, competing in both the Camping World Truck Series race in March, in which he finished fourth, and then in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race in November later that same season, when he finished 29th.

Since his first NASCAR Cup Series start at Phoenix, it has been a track where Busch has performed consistently. Busch has one win, seven top-five finishes and 17 top-10s at the mile oval. Additionally, the 39-year-old driver has led 751 laps, has an average starting position of 12.2, an average finish of 13.7, and has completed 99.6 percent – 9,322 of 9,363 – of the laps he’s contested there.

It’s also the final race at what can be considered the old ISM Raceway. The start-finish line will be moved to turn two and the original grandstands will be torn down by the time the series returns in November. The garages will be replaced, as well.

Mobil 1 serves as Busch’s lead sponsor at Phoenix this weekend. The company provides a unique combination of experience and innovative thinking to deliver enhanced performance results on the track. The relationship between SHR and Mobil 1 represents an ambition, backed by science, to provide drivers with the best possible lubricant technology solutions.

Mobil 1 continues to provide on-track testing that helps lead to new lubricant technology developments like Mobil 1 Annual Protection, which allows drivers to travel up to 20,000 miles – or one full year – between oil changes.

With Mobil 1 and Haas Automation supporting him this week, Busch would love to score career victory number two at Phoenix, as well as number 30 in the Cup Series. It would be a fitting “end” to the current racing era ISM Raceway.

KURT BUSCH, Driver of the No. 41 Mobil 1/Haas Automation Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

It’s the last race at the “old” version of ISM Raceway. Any thoughts on that?

“It’s pretty wild how much Phoenix has changed over the years. The dogleg used to be open and the wall was kind of open. They closed that off. Then they put a tunnel in turn four and the grandstand addition in turn two. It just seems like Phoenix has something up its sleeve to upgrade the place and make it more fan friendly. It seems like there’s more fans camping out in the grandstands between turns one and two.” 

What do you feel you need to work on at Phoenix to continue the success you’ve had there? 

“It seems like, each time we go back to Phoenix, the asphalt is getting a little bit older. It’s starting to get a little bit slicker, yet it still seems like you can stay out forever on tires. You are out there a long time on tires and the air pressures build up. We are going to work this time around on keeping the air pressure down and trying to make our long-run speed better.” 

What makes Phoenix such a unique racetrack? 

“It’s got a great atmosphere there with turns one and two being much tighter than turns three and four. They reconfigured the dogleg on the back straightaway, which is a huge corner now. It opens up the ability to go way below the yellow line. Sometimes you see cars five-wide on the back straightaway. That is definitely a wild card in the mix there.”

Aric Almirola and the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Fusion team continue their journey on the “NASCAR Goes West” swing of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule. This weekend marks the second of three consecutive events along the western part of the United States. Almirola heads to ISM Raceway near Phoenix coming off a 10^th-place finish Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The Tampa, Florida native arrives in the “Valley of the Sun” with three top-13 finishes in his three starts for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR). The Smithfield driver is off to the best start in his Cup Series career with an average finishing position of 11.3 behind the wheel of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Fusion through the first three races. The No. 10 team started deep in the field Sunday at Las Vegas but worked diligently to gain track position throughout the race, earning Almirola his first top-10 of the season. The success at Las Vegas was spread throughout the SHR camp as teammate Kevin Harvick found his way to victory lane for the second consecutive weekend. The win marked SHR’s 45^th overall win in its 10 year history.

Phoenix marks the first mile oval of the season for NASCAR’s premiere series, and Almirola and his No. 10 team look to keep their momentum going by adding another solid finish at Phoenix this weekend. He’s 12^th in the driver standings, the highest he’s been entering the fourth race of the season since 2013 when he was 10^th. All four SHR entries rank in the top-13, with Harvick leading the way in first place overall.

In his last nine starts at mile ovals, the 33-year-old Almirola has one top-five finish and three top-10s. The Ford driver will make his 15^th Cup Series start at Phoenix with the team led by first-year crew chief Johnny Klausmeier. Almirola has completed 99.9 percent of all possible laps at Phoenix and has an average finish of 17.0.

Smithfield, a brand of Smithfield Foods, which is based approximately five hours northeast of SHR headquarters in Smithfield, Virginia, enters its seventh season with Almirola and first with SHR. Phoenix marks the fourth consecutive weekend the Smithfield livery has adorned Almirola’s No. 10 Ford Fusion. Founded in 1936, Smithfield is a leading provider of high-quality pork products, with a vast product portfolio including smoked meats, hams, bacon, sausage, ribs, and a wide variety of fresh pork cuts.

Almirola has seven Xfinity Series starts at Phoenix and captured the pole award at the desert track in that series in November 2011. Additionally, he’s led 74 laps and has two top-10 finishes in the series. Earlier in his career, Almirola made three starts in the Camping World Truck Series at the “Diamond in the Desert.” Two of those three starts resulted in top-five finishes, and he led a total of 52 laps.

To this point in the season, Almirola has completed a combined total of 797 laps around the first three venues on the Cup Series schedule at a completion percentage of 99.7 percent. Coming off three top-13 finishes – 11^th at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, 13^th at Atlanta and 10^th at Las Vegas – Almirola turns his focus toward Phoenix, where he looks to build on the momentum this season.

“We have had a solid string of races and everybody has been working really hard at Stewart-Haas Racing, and the cars are obviously fast,” he said. “I am proud of everybody at Ford Performance and the team.”

Ford has garnered a total of 15 wins at Phoenix and has visited victory lane for two of three races this season, giving the manufacturer the top spot in the manufacturer standings by 11 points.

This weekend marks Almirola’s 248^th start behind the wheel of a Cup Series car, inching ever-so-close to his 250 race-start milestone at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway scheduled for the final weekend in March.

ARIC ALMIROLA, Driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

What is it like to race at Phoenix?

“Phoenix is a very unique short track because it’s very fast. Ever since the repave, it has been one of the short tracks that honestly races like a mile-and-a-half more than it does a short track. It’s a fun racetrack to race at, but it’s definitely different from a Richmond-, Martinsville- or Bristol-type of short track.

What’s the most important thing to be successful at Phoenix?  

“You have to have everything at Phoenix. You have to have downforce, grip in your car and good brakes. You have to make sure your car turns well across the center of turns one and two, which is a sharp, banked corner. And then you have turns three and four, which are really fast and sweeping and flat. You’ve got to have a car that’s versatile and is a good compromise for both corners.”

What are your thoughts on this being the last race with the start-finish line on the straightaway?

“I’m excited to see the garages and to see the whole project at Phoenix finished. I think it’s going to be an awesome atmosphere and a really cool place for the fans to watch the race. To have the start-finish line moved over to the backstretch – you’ll see us all go crazy and go down on the apron to make passes on the back straightaway. To do that coming to the start-finish line is going to make for some great racing.”

Do you have a favorite short track?

“I like all short tracks. I like every racetrack that we go to because I’m excited about going to whatever track is next, especially now with the opportunity that I have at Stewart-Haas Racing. The next racetrack we go to is my next opportunity to win, so I don’t think there is a track on the circuit that I don’t look forward to going to. Short-track racing, in particular, is what I grew up doing, so I really enjoy it.”