Month: October 2018

Event:               Kansas Lottery 300 (Round 30 of 33)
Date:                Oct. 20, 2018
Location:          Kansas Speedway in Kansas City
Layout:             1.5-mile oval

Cole Custer Notes of Interest

• • • The Kansas Lottery 300 is the first race of the second round of the 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs. The playoffs began with 12 eligible drivers and are divided into three rounds with the first two rounds consisting of three races apiece, followed by a final, single-race round at the Homestead-Miami Speedway season finale. Four drivers are eliminated after each of the first two rounds to ultimately establish four finalists at Homestead. Drivers automatically qualify for the next round with a win in the current round with the remaining spots determined by the point standings. At Homestead, the top-finishing driver among the four finalists wins the championship. 
    • Custer’s most recent start on a 1.5-mile oval was last month at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway, where he earned his fifth career NASCAR Xfinity Series pole, led three laps and secured his sixth top-three finish of 2018. He led the 2017 Xfinity Series with 422 points at 1.5-mile tracks after winning the season finale at Homestead by 15.405 seconds and winning Stages 1 and 2.
    • Last year at Kansas, Custer ran as high as second place and ran inside the top-10 for the majority of the race. With just five laps to go, Custer radioed to crew chief Jeff Meendering that he had a cut tire. The Haas Automation team pitted for four tires under green and finished 19^th.
    • The Kansas Lottery 300 is the eighth of 10 races on 1.5-mile tracks on the 33-race NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule. Custer has earned two poles, five top-five finishes, six top-10s and has led 50 laps in the seven 1.5-mile races run this season. Custer’s only finish outside the top-10 was at the 1.5-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway oval, when was involved in an accident not of his own doing.
    • Custer has competed in three career races at Kansas – two Xfinity Series starts and one in the 2016 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
    • Custer’s average starting position of 6.2 and five pole awards leads all Xfinity Series regulars this season. He has earned 19 top-five starts and 24 top-10 starts in the 2018 Xfinity Series season.
    • Custer’s best finish in the 2018 Xfinity Series so far is second, earned three times – May 26 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, Sept. 1 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway and Oct. 6 at Dover (Del.) International Speedway.
    • Custer is fourth in the 2018 Xfinity Series playoffs with 3,011 points, 33 behind leader Christopher Bell but tied with Elliott Sadler for the fourth and final position that will advance to the championship round.
    • Custer is competing for his third consecutive top-10 and second top-five in a row this weekend in the Kansas Lottery 300.
    • No Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers are entered in the Kansas Lottery 300.

Cole Custer, Driver Q&A

You spent your off weekend road-course racing at Road Atlanta. How was that?

“I think this has been an awesome program because it has allowed us all to see a different kind of racing. Everything from the flow of the weekend to the way you drive the cars. It definitely has expanded what I know as a driver, so that’s been good. We finished 13^th, but I had a ton of fun and learned a lot more about road-course racing.”

The Round of 8 is here. How do these tracks match up to your racing style?

“This round suits our team better because our speeds at 1.5-mile tracks have been so consistent this year. Even last year, our speeds were unmatched. Kansas and Texas are tracks I feel we can be really strong at and Phoenix is a track we’ve improved on every time we visit.”

If you had to win at any of the three tracks in this round of the playoffs, which one would it be and why?

“That’s easy. Kansas. Then we focus on Homestead.”

The point standings are tight. Does it make you nervous that it’s fair game for the championship round?

“It’s definitely tight and there are a lot of good teams fighting for four spots, but I think you have to focus on yourself and, if we do what we’ve done all year, we’ll be in good shape. We had bad luck last year at Kansas that put us in a really bad spot. We couldn’t do anything about it. If that doesn’t happen again, I don’t see why we wouldn’t be in the running for the championship.”

Jeff Meendering, Crew Chief Q&A

What about this Round of 8 fits your team’s driving style and how would you rank this stretch of races compared to the others?

“When we started the SHR Xfinity program, our main focus was on the intermediate tracks. Two thirds of the races in this round are on those style tracks. The other race is at Phoenix, where we made big improvements earlier in the year. This should be a good stretch of races for us. I would say this should be the best round, yet.”

Kurt Busch is fourth in the point standings and 30 markers ahead of the next cutoff in this year’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

If he performs well in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, he will advance to the Round of 8 for the first time since 2016.

And he has the most experience at Kansas.

He’s one of only four drivers who competed in the inaugural race at the track Sept. 30, 2001 and have competed in all 25 Kansas races. Ryan Newman, Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth are the others.

Busch drove the No. 97 Ford to a ninth-place finish in that first Kansas Speedway race in 2001.

It’s one track where Busch has never found victory lane, but he has had some success. He finished second there in October 2013 and again in October 2017. He won the pole in June 2011. Busch has three top-five finishes and nine top-10s at the 1.5-mile oval.

Additionally, the 40-year-old driver has led 263 laps, has an average starting position of 15.7, an average finish of 16.0 and has completed 94.7 percent – 6,275 of 6,625 – of the laps he’s contested there.

Busch’s car will have a bit of a different look this week it will be the No. 41 Haas Automation/Mobil 1 Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR).

Mobil 1 plays an integral role in SHR’s success. Its lubricant technology helps to reduce frictional loss in the team’s Ford engines to maximize fuel mileage, increase horsepower and turn more rpm, providing an advantage over his competitors. Mobil 1 also helps reduce friction in suspension components to provide maximum tire grip, as well as helping to reduce steering compliance, to give its teams an edge behind the wheel. Not only does Mobil 1 help improve the on-track efficiency of SHR, but the on-track testing helps lead to new lubricant technology developments such as Mobil 1 Annual Protection, which allows drivers to travel up to 20,000 miles, or one full year, between oil changes.

In its 16th consecutive season as the “Official Motor Oil of NASCAR,” Mobil 1 is used by more than 50 percent of teams throughout NASCAR’s top three series.

Busch is hoping he can finish strong and find himself in the final eight as he exits Kansas City.

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

Thoughts on Kansas?

“Kansas has been a good track as of late for us at Stewart-Haas and, for me, I think the outside groove is really going to come into play more so than it has in years past. But I just always check the weather coming into one weekend and forecast the next week – it’s going to be cold.  It’s going to be very cool next week and, when you have cool temperatures, that brings up the speed and it really pushes us back to the bottom groove because the bottom groove will have the speed in it. We’ll see how it plays out, but a track like Kansas is a track where you just have to execute the fundamentals. Big weekend for us, too, with a new look on our car as we have Haas Automation and Mobil 1 with us. Mobil 1 is not just a sponsor but a partner for all of us at Stewart-Haas Racing.”

What has been the key to your recent good finishes at Kansas?

“I think it’s a matter of being on the right pit strategy and understanding when to pit for the final time. Track position becomes so important at these fast, mile-and-a-half tracks that, if you are stuck around 10th or 12th, there is no way to crack that top-five. You’ve got to be there before the final sequences start.”

What is one part of the racetrack or your driving style that you’ve had to work on at Kansas over the years?  

“It always seems like turn four is the toughest part about Kansas, whether it’s the wind angle or the sharper corner exit with the SAFER Barrier jumping out at the cars. You either lose a lot of time or gain a lot of time in turn four at Kansas.”

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

How important is Mobil 1 at a place like Kansas?

“Our partnership with Mobil 1 beneficial everywhere we go. We saw it last week at Talladega with all the lubricants they provide us. That carries over to Kansas, as well. Love having Mobil 1 on board – a great partner.”

It seems like Mobil 1 is more of a technical partner than a sponsor. Is that true?

“Oh yeah, absolutely. And that is the best kind to have. They’re not there just to have their name on the car, but to bring a product to us that can help us perform better each and every week.”

Nobody in NASCAR is counting on the power of home cooking more than No. 14 DEKALB Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) driver Clint Bowyer this weekend when the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series races Sunday at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City.

Bowyer is a native of Emporia Kansas, a town of 25,000 people about 110 miles from Kansas Speedway. He rightly calls the 1.5-mile oval his home track.

“Obviously, you want to win the Daytona 500, a championship, things like that, but winning at your home track is right up there,” said  Bowyer, who owns two top-five finishes and six top-10s in 20 starts at Kansas.

“It’s always fun to go home. It’s always busy to go home. Going back to Kansas Speedway, you have so many people who have made a difference and got you to where you are, you owe it to them, just like you did when they were helping you on that racecar, to go see them. To see how they’re doing, see their kids now. Things have changed a lot since I’ve moved away and moved to North Carolina and got into this Cup racing. But, to be able to go back and see family, friends, peers, people I used to race with, businesses that used to sponsor you, it’s important to me to go back and see all of those.”

Bowyer will debut a new primary sponsor at SHR when he drives the No. 14 DEKALB Ford Fusion onto the Kansas track. DEKALB announced its partnership with Bowyer and SHR in August at the annual Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa inside its “Fuel Your Yield” tent. DEKALB will serve as primary sponsor for Bowyer and the No. 14 team this weekend with the brand serving as an associate partner at all other races. DEKALB has been helping farmers ensure a future of performance with industry-leading corn seed products for more than 100 years. And while driving a purpose-built racecar that puts out more than 850 horsepower is his day job, Bowyer is also a farmer in North Carolina.

“I grew up in farm country and saw firsthand the hard work that goes into growing crops and taking care of livestock,” said Bowyer, who literally began his racing career on Kansas dirt by racing motocross and then Late Models at Lakeside and I-70 Speedways in Kansas City. “Farming takes time, energy and incredible attention to detail. DEKALB understands all of that, and they know what farmers need to take care of their crops. It really is an honor to represent DEKALB and spend time with their customers.”

Bowyer’s heart is still in Emporia, where he’s a big part of the community. In March 2013, he bought the Clint Bowyer Autoplex car dealership on U.S. Highway 50, where he once worked as a lot attendant, dent specialist and detailer. Across the street sits the Clint Bowyer Community Building, constructed in 2012 thanks to a $1.5 million donation from his foundation. Inside are 25 computers at the public library. There is a scoreboard at the aquatic center, a video camera at the auditorium, shoes for the Big Brothers-Big Sisters program, backpacks for kids, Christmas trees for needy families. And, in nearby towns, playground equipment and the reconstruction of a tornado-ravaged community center – all of it and more paid for by Bowyer’s foundation, or out of the driver’s own pocket.

Emporia appreciates its native son, having renamed the street on which the family towing business resides as “Hon. Clint Bowyer Boulevard.”

Bowyer needs a good run in Kansas much like he did at Talladega (Ala) Superspeedway last weekend when he finished second in the first two stages and the race. The performance put Bowyer 21 points ahead of the ninth and final cutoff position for those drivers advancing out of the Round of 12 that ends at Kansas. SHR teammate Aric Almirola’s victory at Talladega marked the 56th overall win for SHR. It was the organization’s milestone 50th points-paying Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win and its first victory at Talladega. All four SHR drivers – Bowyer, Almirola, Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch – have won races in 2018

“We had a great weekend as a team and company in Talladega,” Bowyer said. “Now, we’d like to do the same in Kansas.”

CLINT BOWYER, Driver of the No. 14 DEKALB Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Why should fans go to Kansas Speedway?

“I grew up going to Kansas Speedway. I grew up going by Kansas Speedway. I grew up watching Kansas Speedway getting built. You went to Wyandotte County, it was a bad part of town. It wasn’t something that you see today. That speedway was solely responsible for the destination it’s become of Kansas Speedway. You have the legends. You have soccer complexes. You have baseball. You have a casino, now, in the back straightaway as the latest thing. All set up on two major highways so it’s easy in and out. It was the latest and greatest of what we have in racetracks today and it still is that way and it’s always fun. Then, you’ve got barbecue. You’ve got Kansas City barbecue – it’s the best in the world. You’ve got to go to Kansas Speedway.”

The Chiefs game has been moved to Sunday night after the race. Are you going?

“Yes. Brett Veach is actually the GM and he called me and said, ‘Hey, the game got moved,’ and he’s such a big race fan. I met him in the spring at Kansas. He came over and brought a couple of players and hung out in the bus and we just kind of hit it off and I was really amazed – as big of a deal as he is in the NFL and that sport, how big of a race fan he was. I mean, he knew everything – stats, drivers, literally everything. He was very, very in-tune with what’s going on and, anyway, he’s a stat guy in the NFL, so it’s no surprise that he was definitely on his game as far as our sport goes, so we’ve been staying in touch. He’s been telling me how good they are and I’ve been telling him how excited I am, and I’m like, ‘Man, I’m getting to a game, just be patient with me,’ and he called and said the game was moved and my butt better be there. I’ve got a ticket, so my butt will be there.”

Thoughts on SHR’s Talladega performance last weekend?

“I mean, I don’t think you can write enough about the job everybody at Stewart-Haas did. Those cars were so fast. I’ve seen other guys, other teams, other organizations put that together before. The Hendrick organization has been there before, the Gibbs cars have done that before. It was our turn, you know what I mean? The Penske cars have done that before. We finally got all four cars to the cream of the crop. Oh my gosh, was it awesome. To be able to work together like that, we could hold on. They get runs on you and everything else, but as long as you stayed your ground, stayed in line, we’d prevail. Seemed like our cars not only were fast, they handled well at the end of the runs. We would start stretching it out on them. The Penske cars were second best. The rest were racing for whatever position after our two Fords. Can’t say enough about Ford Performance, the job that everybody does there. It’s a good day to be in a Ford. I mean, all you can say about that is it was a hell of a day to be in a Ford. Every time you looked in the mirror, the only thing you saw was blue ovals in the line.”

Kevin Harvick heads to Kansas Speedway in Kansas City for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race having earned a 63-point advantage over the ninth-place driver in the standings heading into the final race of the Round of 12. But, he still must earn at least a 26^th-place finish to advance to the Round of 8.

The driver of the No. 4 Busch Light Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) has earned it all season long. The team leads the series with seven wins, 20 top-five finishes, 25 top-10s and 1,606 laps led. It also ranks second with a 9.3 average finish and is tied for third with an average starting position of 9.2 and three Busch Pole Awards.

The No. 4 Busch Light team also has performed well at Kansas Speedway since the team formed in 2014. It has compiled a series-best two wins, six top-five finishes, seven top-10s, an average finish of 5.2, three Busch Pole Awards, and it ranks second with 454 laps led in nine starts at the 1.5-mile Kansas oval.

Harvick has four Busch Pole Awards, three wins, eight top-five finishes and 14 top-10s with an average finish of 9.6 and 675 laps led in his 25 career Cup Series starts at Kansas. Two of his wins came from the pole position, including his most recent win in May 2018, when he won the Busch Pole with a lap of 28.600 seconds at 188.811 mph, led 79 laps and finished .390 of a second ahead of runner-up Martin Truex Jr.

The 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion has won at Kansas Speedway twice during the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs in the month of October. His first October win came in 2013, when he won the Busch Pole, led 138 laps and finished 1.140 seconds ahead of current SHR teammate Kurt Busch. His most recent playoff win at Kansas came in a must-win situation in 2016, when he started 11^th, led 74 laps and finished 1.183 seconds ahead of Carl Edwards.

Since the start of 2018, Harvick and the No. 4 team have compiled an impressive resume on 1.5-mile tracks. They lead the series in laps led with 614, are tied for the series lead with three wins, rank second with six top-five finishes, and have six top-10 finishes. However, in their two finishes outside the top-10 during that span, they finished 40^th at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway in the Coca-Cola 600 and 39^th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the South Point Casino 400 – both the result of cut tires that ended their day early.

The No. 4 team enters Kansas ranked first in points with 3,128 – 63 ahead of the ninth-place driver and 45 points ahead of the eighth-place driver. If anyone but Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson or Alex Bowman wins, the No. 4 team is automatically locked in.

For Harvick and the No. 4 team, the focus this weekend is on starting up front, leading laps, winning stages and winning the race – but the big-picture goal remains advancing to the next round of the Cup Series playoffs and winning a second championship. The quickest way to reach that goal is to win this weekend at Kansas.

KEVIN HARVICK, Driver of the No. 4 Busch Light Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Take us on a lap around Kansas.

“It’s definitely a little bit different just for the fact the (corner) entries are a little different than at most places. Turns three and four remind me of turns three and four at Chicagoland Speedway, but there’s a lot more grip and fresher asphalt than what Chicagoland has nowadays. It’s a very high-speed racetrack. You run the middle to the bottom of the racetrack. But I’m sure, as time goes on, that the groove will move back up. But, for right now, it’s very fast and very sensitive to your line and, with all the speed and how tricky the entrance is into turn one, you can miss your line easily. So, you have to be very specific about where you put your car and pay attention to what you’re doing.”

The playoffs are made for clutch moments. What does it mean to be clutch and what moment do you think defines that.

“Clutch moments – there’s nothing like them. It’s one thing to dominate a race all day and win – that’s great. But, making a last-lap pass, an end-of-the-race pass or winning on a day when you’re not supposed to, there is just no better feeling than getting out of the car and looking at those guys. Having the rest of the field asking how was he able to win today. Those are the types of moments I love to be a part of. We’ve been fortunate to experience a lot of those. That’s the adrenaline rush that comes with what we do. There is no better feeling than those particular moments.”

Aric Almirola and the No. 10 Smithfield Bacon for Life Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) continue on to Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway for the second race in the Round of 12 of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. Almirola enters the weekend coming off of a 13^th-place finish at Dover (Del.) International Speedway, where he led 64 laps and was leading until a late-race restart shuffled him back.

It’s fitting that Almirola will pilot a bacon-themed Smithfield Ford Fusion this weekend. Talladega is a fan favorite when it comes to camping in its infield on NASCAR weekends, and what could be more synonymous with camping than bacon? The special paint scheme coincides with Smithfield’s Bacon for Life promotion. Yes, it’s possible to win bacon for life. To enter the sweepstakes, find specially marked packages of Smithfield bacon in stores and enter the unique code provided in the package by visiting Smithfield.com/BaconForLife. More than 1,000 runners-up will be awarded select bacon merchandise during the sweepstakes, which runs until Dec. 31.

Almirola’s bacon-themed Ford Fusion will hit the track for the first time Saturday morning for the weekend’s only practice session. While Talladega is a wild-card race in the playoffs given its high-speed, pack-style racing, earning maximum stage points during the race will be key for the 34-year-old Almirola in order to advance to the Round of 8 in the playoffs. The final race in the current playoff round takes place next weekend at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City.

In Almirola’s last four starts at the 2.66-mile Talladega oval, he’s earned two top-five finishes and four top-10s. In his 17 Cup Series starts there, an accident has ended Almirola’s day prematurely only once. In the typically accident-mired event, he’s led a total of 15 laps and has an average finish of 17.2. Almirola’s one career Cup Series victory was captured in 2014 at Talladega’s sister track, Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.

The Tampa native has already found his way to victory lane in his career at the Alabama track. In 2017, Almirola led 13 laps in the Xfinity Series event before going on to capture the victory there while piloting the No. 98 Ford for Biagi-DenBeste Racing.

Almirola heads into Sunday’s race ninth in the standings with 3,033 points, 10 points outside the Round of 8 cutoff. This is the furthest Almirola has ever advanced in the playoffs during his seven-year Cup Series career. All four SHR entries are competing in the Round of 12 this season, making up 33.3 percent of the remaining playoff field.

With the season winding down, fans can still enter for their chance to win Smithfield’s Smoke Machine Mustang designed by team co-owner Tony Stewart with the help of drifting champion Vaughn Gittin Jr. They helped create a one-of-a-kind Ford Mustang RTR Spec 3 that will be given away to one lucky fan. Fans can register for their chance to win the suped-up Mustang and a trip to November’s Ford Championship Weekend at Homestead by visiting SmithfieldRacing.com, or by texting SMOKE to 82257.

Talladega is the 28^th points-paying event during which the Smithfield livery has adorned Almirola’s No. 10 Ford Fusion. Smithfield, a brand of Smithfield Foods, which is based approximately five hours northeast of SHR headquarters in Smithfield, Virginia, is in its seventh season with Almirola and its first with SHR. 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.

Ford had shown strength at restrictor-plate tracks with 17 wins in the last 31 events at Daytona and Talladega. In the Cup Series, Ford has captured nine wins in the last 12 events at Talladega.

Through the first 30 races this season, Almirola has an average start of 17.2 and an average finish of 13.9 with two top-five finishes and 12 top-10s. He’s also led 180 laps this season, already a career best with six races remaining.

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

Ford has been really strong at restrictor-plate tracks and Stewart-Haas Racing has been really strong this season. How do you view this weekend’s race at Talladega?

“The Fords typically run well at Talladega and up front. I think Stewart-Haas Racing has been right on the heels of Team Penske and their success at Talladega. So as much as Talladega is a wild card, I think it kind of plays into our favor given that our cars are so fast.”

You had a strong weekend at Dover but didn’t get the win. How do you view Talladega now?

“It would’ve been nice to seal the deal at Dover last weekend and not have to worry about Talladega, but that didn’t work out, so now we have to go race. I think for us being in the position we’re in, we can’t just ride around and be cautious and let those guys score stage points without us scoring stage points. Hopefully, we’ll have some luck on our side and we’ll stay out of the big one and score stage points, and really be on offense.”

With the speed you have shown at restrictor-plate tracks and 1.5-mile tracks, does that ease the nerves or the weight on your shoulders a little bit?

“No, not really. It’s that part of the year and we’re all racing for a championship and it’s really high stakes. Everybody is on edge, everyone wants to be aggressive and score all the points they can. We saw at the end of Charlotte that every point and position matters. Talladega is going to be no different. I have had some great races at Talladega and won an Xfinity race there, run top-five quite a few times in the Cup Series. It has been a good place for me, but it’s still the unknown. You can get caught up in a wreck that had nothing to do with you, or you could be the cause of the wreck. Things just happen when you’re running 200 miles per hour and an inch apart from each other for three hours. One mistake and it usually collects a lot of people. You just have to hope you’re in the right place at the right time. If we are, it could be a good day for us.”