Month: October 2018

KEVIN HARVICK – 2018 Talladega II Race Advance

Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), heads to Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway for Sunday’s 1000Bulbs.com 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race with breathing room in the point standings to make a calculated risk and go for the win.

Harvick kicked off the Round of 12 of this year’s Cup Series playoffs on “The Monster Mile” at Dover (Del.) International Speedway last weekend with a dominant performance that included two stage wins, 286 laps led, and the points lead after his sixth-place finish.

The No. 4 Jimmy John’s team now has a 68-point lead for the final transfer position to the next round with two races remaining in the Round of 12. The most points a driver can score in a single race is 60, which means Harvick has breathing room to go for stage wins and the race win this weekend.

The 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion’s lone Cup Series win at Talladega came in April 2010, when he started fourth and beat runner-up Jamie McMurray by .011 of a second – one of the closest finishes in series history.

While Harvick has just one win at Talladega, it has also proven to be a challenge for the team in recent years. He has scored one top-five finish, five top-10s and led 58 laps in his last nine races there since joining SHR.

The good news for Harvick and the No. 4 team is that their most recent trip to the 2.66-mile superspeedway last April was their most successful as a group. The team scored the Busch Pole Award with a lap of 49.247 seconds at 194.448 mph, led 12 laps and finished fourth.

In addition to his solid performance at Talladega in April, Harvick and the No. 4 team continue to be the class of the field during the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series campaign, leading the series with seven wins, 20 top-five finishes, 25 top-10s, and 1,560 laps led. They also rank second with an 8.6 average finish and are tied for third with three Busch Pole Awards.

A win at Talladega would mean he automatically qualifies for the Round of 8, but additional stage wins and race wins mean extra playoff points as he progresses through the playoffs. In addition to his strong performance at Talladega in April, Harvick also performed well at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City earlier this year, the site of next week’s final race in the Round of 12, when he won from the Busch Pole position and led 79 laps.

For 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 Talladega.

 

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

 

What do you need to do at Talladega to beat the Penske cars there?

“I don’t know why they’re good other than we get to experience a lot of the same things with a fast car and the effort that Doug Yates and his team put in from an engine standpoint. Obviously, Brad (Keselowski) and Joey (Logano) have done really well there over the last couple of years and executing with the equipment and the things that they’ve had to put themselves in victory lane. They’ve definitely capitalized on what I would consider the best cars at superspeedways, and those would be the Fords.”

Describe the intensity of restrictor-plate racing?

“Plate racing is something you have to be aggressive at just for the fact that, if you’re not aggressive, it always seems like you are not going to be where you need to be. Nine times out of 10, I believe, the aggressor is going to be the guy who comes out on the good side of things just for the fact that you’re making things happen and you’re not waiting for something else to happen. When you wait for something else to happen, that’s usually when you get in trouble because it’s usually someone else’s mess. You can still get in trouble if you’re aggressive but, it seems like, with this rules package and the way things are, it’s best to stay aggressive and try to stay up front.”

Hunt Brothers Pizza Brings More Flavor to Stewart-Haas Racing and Driver Kevin Harvick in 2019

Hunt Brothers Pizza,the nation’s largest brand of made-to-order pizza in the convenience store industry, announced a major expansion of its partnership with Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), the championship-winning NASCAR team and its driver, Kevin Harvick.

From its booth inside the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) show at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Hunt Brothers Pizza unveiled the No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang Harvick will drive in select Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races in 2019.

This endeavor marks the latest evolution in a partnership that began in 2008 when Hunt Brothers Pizza made its initial foray into NASCAR with Haas CNC Racing, the precursor of SHR. Known for its offering of all toppings at no extra charge, the convenience store pizza brand then joined Harvick in 2010 at his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team, Kevin Harvick Inc. It is a relationship that has grown since, with Hunt Brothers Pizza pairing with Harvick at SHR in 2014, first serving as an associate sponsor on his No. 4 machine before transitioning to a full primary sponsorship for select NASCAR Xfinity Series when SHR debuted its Xfinity Series program in 2017. Harvick carried Hunt Brothers Pizza to victory lane earlier this year at Atlanta Motor Speedway when he won the Atlanta 250 on Feb. 24 to notch SHR’s second Xfinity Series win and first of 2018.

“We’ve enjoyed a long and successful relationship with Stewart-Haas Racing and Kevin Harvick from the very beginning,” said Scott Hunt, Chief Executive Officer of Hunt Brothers Pizza. “We find great value in the relationship and have seized the opportunity to move from a major associate partner of the No. 4 Ford to a full primary partnership where the green, red and white colors of Hunt Brothers Pizza will be seen from bumper to bumper on Kevin’s 2019 Ford Mustang.”

The 2019 season will mark the 10-year anniversary of Hunt Brothers Pizza and Harvick.

“The folks at Hunt Brothers Pizza make great pizzas and are great partners,” said Harvick, the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion. “I’m proud of my longstanding relationship with Hunt Brothers Pizza and appreciate their commitment to Stewart-Haas Racing and the No. 4 team. We work hard to provide their team members and customers an unmatched experience on and off the racetrack.”

The 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season kicks off with the 61stannual Daytona 500 on Feb. 17 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway with live television coverage provided by FOX.

  

About Hunt Brothers Pizza

With more than 7,500 locations in 28 states, Hunt Brothers® Pizza is the nation’s largest brand of made-to-order pizza in the convenience store industry. Hunt Brothers Pizza offers original and thin crust pizzas available as a grab-and-go Hunk perfect for today’s on-the-go lifestyle or as a customizable whole pizza that is an exceptional value with All Toppings No Extra Charge®.  Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, Hunt Brothers Pizza is family owned and operated with more than 25 years of experience serving great pizza to convenience store shoppers through its store partners. The Hunt Brothers Pizza app is available on the App Store or Google Play.

About Stewart-Haas Racing:

Stewart-Haas Racing is the title-winning NASCAR team co-owned by three-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Tony Stewart and Gene Haas, founder of Haas Automation – the largest CNC machine tool builder in North America. The organization fields four entries in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series – the No. 4 Ford Fusion for Kevin Harvick, the No. 10 Ford Fusion for Aric Almirola, the No. 14 Ford Fusion for Clint Bowyer and the No. 41 Ford Fusion for Kurt Busch. The team also competes in the NASCAR Xfinity Series by fielding a full-time entry – the No. 00 Ford Mustang for Cole Custer – and one part-time entry – the No. 98 Ford Mustang. Based in Kannapolis, North Carolina, Stewart-Haas Racing operates out of a 200,000-square-foot facility with approximately 380 employees. For more information, please visit us online at www.StewartHaasRacing.com, on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/StewartHaasRacing, on Twitter @StewartHaasRcngand on Instagram @StewartHaasRacing.

KURT BUSCH – 2018 Talladega II Race Advance

Kurt Busch finished fifth in the spring races at Dover (Del.) International Raceway, second at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway and fifth at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City.

If he repeats those finishes, he should easily advance to the Round of 8 in the NASCAR playoffs. And he is off to a good start. He finished fifth at Dover in last weekend’s Round of 12 opener and now heads to Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway sixth in the standings, 21 points ahead of the Round of 8 cutoff.

While he would like another second-place finish at Talladega this weekend, he would love to find victory lane in Alabama.

Busch, driver of the No. 41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), was runner-up to Joey Logano at the 2.66-mile oval in April, and he’s finished third there four times – April 2001, 2002 and 2007, and October 2006.

He’s won a restrictor-plate race before – the Daytona 500 in February 2017 on the high banks of Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. And, he’s won at every other type of racetrack on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule.

From the shortest racetrack – Martinsville (Va.) Speedway – to a road-course victory at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway, to Daytona, Busch has found victory. He’s won on racetracks ranging in length from .526 of a mile, .533 of a mile, .75 of a mile, 1 mile, 1.5 miles, 1.99 miles, 2 miles and 2.5 miles. He’s celebrated in victory lane at the high-banked ovals and flat tracks. He even won the championship in 2004.

Busch has won at 15 of the 23 racetracks on the Cup Series schedule, but Talladega is now his focus.

Talladega is one of only two racetracks on the NASCAR circuit where restrictor plates are used. By definition, a restrictor plate is a device installed at the air intake of an engine to limit its power. The use of a restrictor plate is intended to both limit speed and increase safety with an eye toward equaling the level of competition.

Races at Talladega and its sister track at Daytona are ones literally anyone can win. Horsepower-choked engines require drivers to draft together, side-by-side, at speeds approaching 200 mph.

The key point for Busch’s crew chief Billy Scott is to give his driver a good-handling racecar, while Roush-Yates Engines must give Busch a Ford engine with a lot of horsepower.

And hopefully score Busch a big playoff win.

 

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

 

Talk a little bit about racing at Talladega. 

“It’s so difficult to predict Talladega. You can ride around in the back or charge up front all day and, either way, your day can end with your car on the hook. You just hope to have Lady Luck guide you to a good finish. Restrictor-plate races have turned into this pattern that it is hard to have any type of advantage over any other team. It just comes down to being in the right place at the right time.”

Restrictor-plate racing has been described as a 200-mph chess match. How would you describe it?  

“That’s pretty much it. You’ve got to be able to know the draft, understand the draft, use the draft, block other guys, find holes, make holes. It’s definitely a chess game because you’re always thinking three or four steps ahead. It’s tough to get caught up when you make a mistake. You’ve got to quickly get rid of that and put together a new plan. At the end of the race, everybody is saving their best for the end. Cars are just going everywhere. The plan you thought you had, you’ve got to make a new one. You’ve got to go on the fly.”

In order to be successful in a restrictor-plate race, you need some assistance from other drivers. How do you get that assistance when every driver out there is trying to beat one another?

“Cash? I don’t know. There are certain guys you know to draft with. There are certain guys you know they’re going to be tough. There are certain guys you might see work their way up, like the Fords always come on strong. The Roush cars are always there. The Penske cars have been tough the last five, six years at the restrictor-plate races. So, you just get a gauge as the race goes on who’s been up front all day. But you’ve got to keep track of the guys who have been hanging out in the back and they’re going to show up at the end.”

CLINT BOWYER – 2018 Talladega II Race Advance

There couldn’t be a better time for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) to scratch off winning at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway from its to-do list than Sunday at the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series 1000Bulbs.com 500 – the second of three Round of 12 races in the Cup Series playoffs .

The Kannapolis, North-Carolina-based team co-owned by Tony Stewart and Gene Haas and has recorded 49 victories and 42 poles since its inception in 2009. It’s celebrating its 10th anniversary season by turning in its best season-long performance to date. SHR’s Fords have won 10 of 30 Cup Series points races in 2018, plus the non-points NASCAR All-Star Race. All four SHR drivers qualified for the playoffs and advanced to the Round of 12.

Despite SHR’s race wins, two championships and a dominant season in 2018, there’s still one item left that has eluded the organization – victory at Talladega. SHR owns four top-five finishes and 17 top-10s in 58 starts at the 2.66-mile superspeedway, making it and Kentucky Speedway in Sparta the only two active Cup Series tracks where SHR has not earned a victory.

That could change Sunday, and Clint Bowyer, driver of the No. 14 Cummins/Rush Truck Centers Ford Fusion, hopes he’s the driver to do it.

“Heck yeah, I’d like to be the guy who wins (SHR’s) first race at Talladega,” said Bowyer, who already owns two Talladega Cup Series victories, plus six top-five finishes and 12 top-10s in 25 starts there. “Not only would it be a great win for SHR, it would move the winner on to the Round of 8, and that would make next week’s race at Kansas a lot easier.”

Bowyer needs the victory because he arrives at Talladega after what appeared to be a top-five run at Dover (Del.) International Speedway Sunday in the first of three Round of 12 races turned into a 35th-place finish after mechanical issues and an accident ended his race early. The finish dropped him to 10th in points and 10 points behind the eighth and final transfer spot with two races remaining in the round.

Bowyer knows that for him or SHR teammates Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch or Aric Almirola to win at Talladega, a lot of things will have to go right. His Talladega race in April ended with 22 laps remaining when he was collected in a multicar accident while running 12th.

“More than any other place we go, you have to be focused at Talladega because its 500 miles of mind games,” Bowyer said. “It’s all about making good, quick, decisions by all of the team – the guys in the pits, my spotter and me in the racecar. If we can do that, we will be in a great position to get another Talladega win and hopefully advance in the NASCAR playoffs.”

New SHR partner Cummins makes its first appearance as the primary paint scheme on the No. 14 Ford Fusion Sunday. The Columbus, Indiana-based company is no stranger to victory lane with its racing lineage dating back to the inaugural Indianapolis 500 in 1911, when company founder Clessie Cummins was on the pit crew of the race-winning Marmon Wasp of driver Ray Harroun. Since its founding in 1919, the company now employs approximately 58,600 people and serves customers in about 190 countries and territories through a network of some 500 company-owned and independent distributor locations and approximately 7,500 dealer locations.

While Cummins is a corporation of complementary business segments that design, manufacture, distribute and service a broad portfolio of power solutions, it is best known for its diesel truck engines. At Talladega, Cummins will share space on the No. 14 with Rush Truck Centers, the nation’s largest provider of premium products and services for the commercial vehicle market, with the largest truck inventory in North America.

Rush Truck Centers has used Bowyer and the team to appeal to NASCAR fans as one way to recruit the technicians it needs to operate the largest network of commercial truck and bus dealerships in the country, with locations in 22 states. According to Rush Truck Centers, the trucking industry is expecting a need for 200,000 diesel technicians over the next 10 years to keep up with maintenance demands. Rush Truck Centers wants to make NASCAR fans aware of these opportunities.

Rush Truck Centers and Cummins are accustomed to working with each other. When a Cummins customer is in need of maintenance at a Rush Truck Centers location, RushCare Service Connect automatically provides information to Cummins, expediting and facilitating Cummins support and engagement when necessary. All correspondence is captured and can be viewed on the Service Connect portal, allowing customers and service advisors to see the entire maintenance history associated with any vehicle in the system.

Rush Truck Centers has integrated its RushCare Telematics Solution and its Service Connect platform with Cummins Connected Diagnostics to improve its service program, making maintenance decisions and service tracking easier for shared customers.

Cummins and Rush Truck Centers also help SHR get its racecars to the track each weekend. SHR’s Peterbilt Model 389 haulers are equipped with Cummins engines and RushCare Telematics and supported by the RushCare team, which monitors and reports critical fault codes, vehicle performance and driver habits. This ensures the haulers remain in peak condition while traveling thousands of miles from race to race each season.

Bowyer would like to take SHR, Cummins and Rush Truck Centers to victory lane, but he’d really like to do it for himself and his No. 14 team.

“We got ourselves in a hole right now, points-wise, but we’ve been there before and know what we have to do,” he said. “We’ll go to Talladega and do our best to get some stage points and win the race.”

 

CLINT BOWYER, Driver of the No. 14 Cummins/Rush Truck Centers Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

 

What is it like to be inside the car during a race at Talladega?

“There’s so much going on inside the car, whether you’re listening to the spotter, or you’re looking at – as you’re listening to him, you’re following along to – that story in the mirror, right? You’re living it through the windshield. I mean, there are so many things that are going on, you just – you flat out – don’t take it all in. I mean, your brain is registering so many things that, at the end of the race, you don’t even remember half of it.” 

Is it difficult to hold back at Talladega?

“You get a little bit excited and antsy to get up into the pack and, even with 50, 60 laps to go you’re like, ‘How am I going to get up there?’ They get three-wide and there’s just literally no place to go. At Talladega, you can go four-wide, and I’ve seen when it goes five-wide you get into a wreck. We see that quite a bit there – somebody attempting it – and that’s when it gets this place exciting. Looking forward to hopefully getting to the end and, more importantly, getting a win.”

What is the key to success?

“Attitude is a big part of this, but it goes toward being a student while you’re out there, learning as much as you can. That’s the tricky thing about these situations at these racetracks.”

KEVIN HARVICK – 2018 Dover II Race Report

Event:               Gander Outdoors 400(Round 30 of 36)
Series:               Monster EnergyNASCAR Cup Series
Location:          Dover (Del.) International Speedway (1-mile, concrete oval)
Format:            400 laps, broken into three stages (120 laps/120 laps/160 laps)
Note:                Race extended four laps past its scheduled 400-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.
Point Standing:  Kevin Harvick (1st with 3,101 points, 68 points ahead of the top-eight cutoff)

Race Winner:    Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Kevin Harvick of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner: Kevin Harvick of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-120): 

  • Kevin Harvick started second, finished first, scoring 10 bonus points and a playoff point.
  • The Busch Outdoors driver raced to the lead on lap 15.
  • The No. 4 Ford surrendered the lead to come to pit road under green-flag conditions on lap 75 for four tires and fuel.
  • Harvick reclaimed the lead on lap 81 and held it for the remainder of the stage.
  • The team came to pit road for four tires and fuel at the end of the stage.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 121-240): 

  • Started second, finished first, scoring 10 bonus points and a playoff point.
  • Harvick claimed the lead on the restart to begin Stage 2.
  • The Busch Outdoors came to pit road under green-flag conditions from the lead on lap 189 for four tires and fuel.
  • Harvick reclaimed the lead on lap 195 and held it for the remainder of the stage.
  • The team came to pit road at the conclusion of Stage 2 for four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment. 

Final Stage Recap (Laps 241-404): 

  • Started first and finished sixth.
  • Harvick surrendered the lead to come to pit road under green-flag conditions on lap 320 for four tires and fuel.
  • He reported a flat left-rear tire as a result of a broken valve stem and had to return to pit road on lap 322, causing him to fall a lap down to the leaders.
  • The team earned the free pass as a result of a debris caution on lap 340 and restarted 13thafter returning to the lead lap on lap 344.
  • Harvick raced his way back into the top-five by lap 389.
  • The Busch Outdoors Ford came to pit road under caution on lap 393 for two tires and fuel.
  • Harvick restarted 11thon lap 396 and narrowly avoided a wreck on the restart to advance to the eighth position.
  • Harvick raced the No. 4 Busch Outdoors Ford from eighth up to sixth during the overtime.

Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Busch Outdoors Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

“We were just lucky there and wound up dodging and weaving and being in the right place, so maybe that makes up for the bad luck on losing the race with an absolute dominant car.” 

Notes:

  • This was Harvick’s series-leading 25thtop-10 of 2018 and his 17thtop-10 in 36 career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts at Dover.
  • Harvick finished first in Stage 1 to earn 10 bonus points and one playoff point, and first in Stage 2 to earn an additional 10 bonus points and one more playoff point.
  • Harvick led five times for a race-high 286 laps to increase his laps-led total at Dover to 1,442.
  • All four SHR drivers finished in the top-10 in Stage 1 and again in Stage 2.
  • Chase Elliott won the Gander Outdoors 400to score his second career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory, his second of the season and his first at Dover. His margin of victory over second-place Denny Hamlin was .265 of a second.
  • There were five caution periods for a total of 31 laps.
  • Only 15 of the 39 drivers in the Gander Outdoors 400 finished on the lead lap.

Playoff Standings (with two races to go before the Round of 8):

1. Kevin Harvick (3,101 points) +68 points
2. Kyle Busch (3,096 points) +63 points
3. Martin Truex Jr. (3,069 points) +36 points
4. Joey Logano (3,064 points) +31 points
5. Chase Elliott (3,056 points) 1 win
6. Kurt Busch (3,054 points) +21 points
7. Brad Keselowski (3,054 points) +21 points
8. Ryan Blaney (3,043 points) +10 points
9. Aric Almirola (3,033 points) -10 points
10. Clint Bowyer (3,033 points) -10 points
11. Kyle Larson (3,031 points) -12 points
12. Alex Bowman (3,009 points) -34 points

Next Up: 

The next event on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the 1000Bulbs.com 500 on Sunday, Oct. 14 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. It is the fifth race of the 10-race playoffs and the second race in the Round of 12. It starts at 2 p.m. EDT with live coverage on NBC. Prerace coverage on NBCSN begins at noon with NASCAR America followed by Countdown to Green at 1 p.m.

ARIC ALMIROLA – 2018 Dover II Race Report

Event:               Gander Outdoors 400(Round 30 of 36)
Series:               Monster EnergyNASCAR Cup Series
Location:          Dover (Del.) International Speedway (1-mile oval)
Format:            400 laps, broken into three stages (120 laps/120 laps/160 laps)
Start/Finish:      11th/13th (Running, completed 404 of 404 laps)
Point Standing:  9thwith 3,033 points, 10 points outside the top-eight cutoff

Race Winner:    Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports in overtime
Stage 1 Winner:Kevin Harvick of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner: Kevin Harvick of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-120):

  • Aric Almirolastarted 11th, finished ninth, scoring two bonus points.
  • The Smithfield driver joined the top-10 by lap six.
  • On lap 72, Almirola pitted the No. 10 Ford under green-flag conditions for four tires and fuel. He came off pit road in 10thplace.
  • Almirola passed for ninth place before the stage ended after noting tight-handling conditions throughout the stage.
  • At the conclusion of Stage 1, Almirola pitted for four fresh tires and fuel, and gained two additional spots on pit road.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 121-240): 

  • Startedseventh, finished fifth, scoring six bonus points.
  • Almirola drove the Smithfield Ford to sixth place by lap 179.
  • He pitted the Smithfield Ford under green-flag conditions for four tires and fuel. He was scored in sixth when he rejoined the field.
  • Almirola passed teammate Kurt Busch on lap 229 after battling for the fifth position since he left pit road.
  • Almirola radioed crew chief Johnny Klausmier that the Smithfield Ford was too tight and needed adjusting at the end of the stage.
  • When the stage concluded, he pitted for four tires, fuel and air pressure adjustments. After a quick pit stop he advanced to fourth place off of pit road. 

Final Stage Recap (Laps 241-400): 

  • Started fourth and finished 13th.
  • Almirola powered the Smithfield Ford to second place on the restart and held the position until he was passed by teammate Clint Bowyer on lap 302.
  • At the time, Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) had all four of its drivers in the top-four.
  • Almirola took the second position back on lap 314 until he pitted under green for four tires and fuel.
  • The Smithfield Ford driver took the lead when he exited pit road and stayed up front until a lap-338 caution.
  • Almirola brought the No. 10 Ford to the pits for four tires and fuel. He exited pit road in second due to the No. 2 car only taking to tires.
  • Almirola drove back to the lead on the restart and held the top spot until another caution was brought out on lap 338.
  • He came to the pits under the caution for four tires and fuel. Several of the drivers behind him took two tires, demoting Almirola to the sixth position.
  • During the restart, Almirola made contact with the wall, setting off a multicar accident. He took the Smithfield Ford back to the pits to repair damage and finished 13thafter the final two-lap shootout in overtime. 

Notes:

  • This was Almirola’s 23rdtop-20 of 2018 and his ninth top-20 in 13 career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts at Dover.
  • Almirola finished ninth in Stage 1 to earn two bonus points and fifth in Stage 2 to earn an additional six bonus points.
  • Almirola led twice for 64 laps – his first laps led at Dover. This was the second-highest total of the race.
  • All four SHR drivers finished in the top-10 in Stage 1 and again in Stage 2.
  • Chase Elliott won the Gander Outdoors 400 to score his second career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory, his second of the season and his first at Dover. His margin of victory over second-place Denny Hamlin was .265 of a second.
  • There were five caution periods for a total of 31 laps.
  • Only 15 of the 39 drivers in the Gander Outdoors 400 finished on the lead lap.

Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

“We’ve had so many opportunities and been so close and had the car to win and been in position, and it just seems to not come through. I’m frustrated and mad and angry. I could have been conservative and probably finished third or fourth like Kurt; it’s just, track position is so tough and it’s so hard to pass here. On that restart I tried to at least go where they weren’t to the top, and the 11 moved up to kind of block me and I just got really tight off of two and I bounced off the fence and got into Brad and tore up a lot of racecars along the back straightaway. I hate that for everybody that was involved, but it kind of killed our day, too. I don’t know. I feel like we should be over there in victory lane celebrating, but we’re not.”

Playoff Standings (with two races to go before the Round of 8):

1. Kevin Harvick (3,101 points) +68 points
2. Kyle Busch (3,096 points) +63 points
3. Martin Truex Jr. (3,069 points) +36 points
4. Joey Logano (3,064 points) +31 points
5. Chase Elliott (3,056 points) 1win
6. Kurt Busch (3,054 points) +21 points
7. Brad Keselowski (3,054 points) +21 points
8. Ryan Blaney (3,043 points) +10 points
9. Aric Almirola (3,033 points) -10 points
10. Clint Bowyer (3,033 points) -10 points
11. Kyle Larson (3,031 points) -12 points
12. Alex Bowman (3,009 points) -34 points 

Next Up: 

The next event on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the 1000Bulbs.com 500 on Sunday, Oct. 14 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. It is the fifth race of the 10-race playoffs and the second race for the Round of 12. It starts at 2 p.m. EDT on NBC with live prerace coverage provided by NBCSN beginning at noon.

CLINT BOWYER – 2018 Dover II Race Report

Event:               Gander Outdoors 400(Round 30 of 36)
Series:               Monster EnergyNASCAR Cup Series
Location:          Dover (Del.) International Speedway (1-mile concrete oval)
Format:            400 laps, broken into three stages (120 laps/120 laps/160 laps)
Note:                Race extended four laps past its scheduled 400-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.
Start/Finish:      5th/35th (Accident, completed 388 of 404 laps)
Point Standing:10thwith 3,033 points, 10 points behind cutoff)

Race Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet) in overtime
Stage 1 Winner:Kevin Harvick of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner:Kevin Harvick of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)

Stage 1 Recap (Ended at Lap 120):

  • Clint Bowyer started fifth and finished fourth to earn seven bonus points.
  • Held the fifth position during the first half of the stage and was the fastest car on the track on lap 48.
  • Moved up to fourth on lap 69 before pitting for four tires and fuel.
  • Reported his VF-1/Rush Truck Centers Ford was “too heavy on the nose, making it too tight center off” following the stop.
  • Battled Kyle Busch for third during the final five laps of the stage but ultimately finished fourth.

Stage 2 Recap (Ended at Lap 240):

  • Bowyer started third and finished secondto earn nine bonus points.
  • Team made minor wedge adjustment to loosen the car up before the stage began.
  • Bowyer turned the fastest laps early in the stage and took second from Joey Logano on lap 157.
  • Reported the car being tight, but he was closing on leader Kevin Harvick on lap 188.
  • Crew chief Mike Bugarewiczcalled for right-side air pressure adjustment during a green-flag stop on lap 190.
  • Bowyer reported the car was extremely tight after pitting and said the “front end needs to turn better,” but his lap times were extremely fast.
  • Closed to the bumper of leader Harvick several times late in the stage but couldn’t make a move for the lead.

Stage 3 Recap (Ended at Lap 404):

  • Bowyer started thirdand finished 35th.
  • He continued to be one of the fastest cars on the track during the early laps of the final stage.
  • Pitted following a caution on lap 339 and restarted third.
  • Reported a loose wheel on lap 377 and pitted on lap 381 for right-side tires.
  • His race ended on lap 388 when his racecar’s right rear gave way, causing the No. 14 VF-1/Rush Truck Centers Ford Fusion to contact the turn-four wall and come to a stop on the inside guardrail.

Notes:

  • Bowyer finished fourth in Stage 1 to earn seven bonus points and second in Stage 2 to earn an additional nine bonus points.
  • Bowyer led one lap to increase his laps-led total at Dover to 83.
  • This was Bowyer’s first DNF (Did Not Finish) in 26 career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts at Dover.
  • All four SHR drivers finished in the top-10 in Stage 1 and again in Stage 2.
  • Chase Elliott won the Gander Outdoors 400 to score his second career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory, his second of the season and his first at Dover. His margin of victory over second-place Denny Hamlin was .265 of a second.
  • There were five caution periods for a total of 31 laps.
  • Only 15 of the 39 drivers in the Gander Outdoors 400 finished on the lead lap.

Clint Bowyer, driver of the No. 14 Haas Automation VF-1/Rush Truck Centers Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

“We broke and I hit the wall. I’m just really disappointed. I’m frustrated with our day, obviously, we had a very fast race car. I got tore up passing a lapper and then all of a sudden we had a loose wheel, I think it was a loose wheel, and then we went back out and broke something in the front end and it was two different things. When we pitted it was something in the rear, obviously, the right-rear, the left-rear was loose, it was all out of control, and then all of a sudden we went back out it was fine, so I took back off and then I think something in the left-front broke, it just went straight – whether I ran over something, I don’t know. I’m just sick for Aric.  He had that race won. It was his win and unfortunately his teammate had trouble and took him out of it.”

Playoff Standings: (with two races to go before Round of 8):

  1. Kevin Harvick (3,101 points) +68 points
  2. Kyle Busch (3,096 points) +63 points
  3. Martin Truex Jr. (3,069 points) +36 points
  4. Joey Logano (3,064 points) +31 points
  5. Chase Elliott (3,056 points) 1win
  6. Kurt Busch (3,054 points) +21 points
  7. Brad Keselowski (3,054 points) +21 points
  8. Ryan Blaney (3,043 points) +10 points
  9. Aric Almirola (3,033 points) -10 points
  10. Clint Bowyer (3,033 points) -10 points
  11. Kyle Larson (3,031 points) -12 points
  12. Alex Bowman (3,009 points) -34 points

Next Up:

The next event on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the 1000Bulbs.com 500 on Sunday, Oct. 14 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. It is the fifth race of the 10-race playoffs and the second race in the Round of 12. It starts at 2 p.m. EDT with live coverage on NBC. Pre-race coverage on NBCSN begins at noon with NASCAR Americafollowed by Countdown to Greenat 1 p.m.

KURT BUSCH – 2018 Dover II Race Report

Event:               Gander Outdoors 400(Round 30 of 36)
Series:               Monster EnergyNASCAR Cup Series
Location:          Dover (Del.) International Speedway (1-mile concrete oval)
Format:            400 laps, broken into three stages (120 laps/120 laps/160 laps)
Start/Finish:      7th/5th(Running, completed 404 of 404 laps)
Point Standing:6th(3,054 points, 21 points ahead of the top-eight cutoff)
Note:                Race extended four laps past its scheduled 400-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.

Race Winner:    Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner:Kevin Harvick of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner:             Kevin Harvick of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-120):

  • Kurt Busch started seventh and finished eighth to earn three bonus points.
  • The No. 41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Ford Fusion was tight early in the race.
  • On lap 72, Busch pitted for four tires and fuel, emerging in eighth position. 

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 121-240):

  • Busch started eighth and finished sixth to earn five bonus points.
  • The No. 41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Ford Fusion was still tight center and loose on exit.
  • Pitted on lap 122 for four tires and fuel.
  • Busch was in fifth when he pitted on lap 191 for four tires and fuel. 

Stage 3 Recap (Laps 241-404):

  • Busch started eighth, finished fifth.
  • The No. 41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Ford Fusion was still tight center out.
  • On lap 242, Busch pitted for four tires, fuel and a tire pressure adjustment.
  • Busch was in fourth and pitted for four tires, fuel and a trackbar adjustment on lap 321.
  • While fourth, he pitted on lap 341 for four tires and fuel and a trackbar adjustment.
  • On lap 352, Busch passed Brad Keselowski for second place and was trailing his teammate, Aric Almirola, by just 1.2 seconds.
  • After a late-race caution, Busch pitted for two tires on lap 394 and restarted in seventh.
  • He avoided a multicar wreck and, after a red flag, restarted fifth, which is where he finished.

Notes:

  • This was Busch’s sixth top-five and 19thtop-10 finish of 2018.
  • Busch earned his ninth top-five and 11thtop-10 in 37 career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts at Dover.
  • Busch finished eighth in Stage 1 to earn three bonus points and sixth in Stage 2 to earn an additional five bonus points.
  • All four SHR drivers finished in the top-10 in Stage 1 and again in Stage 2.
  • Chase Elliott won the Gander Outdoors 400 to score his second career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory, his second of the season and his first at Dover. His margin of victory over second-place Denny Hamlin was .265 of a second.
  • There were five caution periods for a total of 31 laps.
  • Only 15 of the 39 drivers in the Gander Outdoors 400 finished on the lead lap.

Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

“It was a really good day for us with the stages. We were just a little bit tight most of the day and felt like it came to us toward the end. I was giving it all I had chasing down Almirola, then the yellow comes out, and from there it just changed the course of everything. It’s not even a ripple effect, it’s a tidal wave of things that happen. Once one yellow comes out, that goes against what everybody thought was going to happen, so Almirola could have won, we could have finished second. We ended up fifth. We have nothing to complain about. Big thanks to Monster Energy, Haas Automation and Ford. Solid day.”                                                                       

Playoff Standing (with two races to go before the Round of 8):

  1. Kevin Harvick (3,101 points) +68 points
  2. Kyle Busch (3,096 points) +63 points
  3. Martin Truex Jr. (3,069 points) +36 points
  4. Joey Logano (3,064 points) +31 points
  5. Chase Elliott (3,056 points) 1win
  6. Kurt Busch (3,054 points) +21 points
  7. Brad Keselowski (3,054 points) +21 points
  8. Ryan Blaney (3,043 points) +10 points
  9. Aric Almirola (3,033 points) -10 points
  10. Clint Bowyer (3,033 points) -10 points
  11. Kyle Larson (3,031 points) -12 points
  12. Alex Bowman (3,009 points) -34 points

Next Up:

 The next event on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the 1000Bulbs.com 500 on Sunday, Oct. 14 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. It is the fifth race of the 10-race playoffs and the second race in the Round of 12. It starts at 2 p.m. EDT with live coverage on NBC. Pre-race coverage on NBCSN begins at noon with NASCAR Americafollowed by Countdown to Greenat 1 p.m.

COLE CUSTER – 2018 NXS Dover II Race Report

Date: Oct. 6, 2018
Event: Bar Harbor 200 (Round 29 of 33)
Series: NASCAR Xfinity Series
Location: Dover (Del.) International Speedway (concrete, mile oval )
Format: 200 laps, broken into three stages (45 laps/45 laps/110 laps)
Start/Finish: 7th/2nd (Running, completed 200 of 200 laps)
Point Standing: (4th with 3011 points, 33 points out of first)

Race Winner: Christopher Bell of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 1 Winner: Christopher Bell of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 2 Winner: Daniel Hemric of Richard Childress Racing (Chevrolet)

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-45):

● Custer started seventh, finished seventh and earned four bonus points.
● The Haas Automation driver held the seventh position for the entirety of the stage.
● Custer said the No. 00 Ford became looser as the stage wore on.
● He pitted at the conclusion of the stage for four fresh tires, fuel and adjustments to tighten the car.
● Due to a quick pit stop, Custer gained three spots on pit road.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 46-90):

● Custer started fourth, finished fifth and earned six bonus points.
● Custer raced for the second and third position during the restart before moving back to fifth place.
● He remained inside the top-five until the end of Stage 2.
● Custer pitted the Haas Automation Ford for four tires, fuel and chassis adjustments to improve his drive through the center of the turns. He gained two positions on pit road then advanced to second place when the No. 21 car was handed a speeding penalty.

Final Stage Recap (Laps 91-200):

● Custer started second, finished second.
● Custer immediately took the lead when the checkered flag waved to start the final stage.
● He led the first 37 laps until the No. 20 car passed him for the lead on lap 132.
● During a caution on lap 162, Custer pitted for four tires, fuel and more chassis adjustments.
● After another caution was thrown on lap 178, Custer restarted in second place and held the runner-up position to advance to the second round of the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs.

Notes:               

● This was Custer’s third second-place finish of the season.
● This marks Custer’s 23rd top-10 of the season and third at Dover.
● This marks Custer’s 12th top-five of the season and second at Dover.
● Custer earned 10 bonus points in the Bar Harbor 200 at Dover.
● Custer led 37 laps to bring his 2018 laps led total to 278.
● Four cautions slowed the race for 23 laps.
● Christopher Bell won the Bar Harbor 200 to score his seventh career Xfinity Series victory, sixth of the season and first at Dover.

Cole Custer, driver of the No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing With Biagi-DenBeste:      

“Early on there were probably some restarts where I was a little bit too conservative – just making sure I wasn’t going to get wrecked. Our Haas Automation Ford was pretty solid. It was a lot about track position and we had to work on our car throughout the day, but the car was awesome at the end. We just needed a tick more. Me and Christopher (Bell) were about equal, but he had the track position. I wish I could have figured out the top faster on that long run, but I think we made huge gains at this track and that’s a testament to our engineers and crew chief and entire team and the Ford simulator. I think we have some good momentum going into the next round.”

Playoff Standings:          

1.     Christopher Bell (3044 points) 2 wins
2.     Justin Allgaier (3039 points, -5)
3.     Daniel Hemric (3013 points, -31)
4.     Cole Custer (3011 points, -33)
5.     Elliott Sadler (3011points, -33)
6.     Tyler Reddick (3011 points, -34)
7.     Matt Tifft (3003 points, -41)
8.     Austin Cindric (3,001 points, -43)

KEVIN HARVICK – 2018 Dover II Race Advance

The saying, “Don’t lose sight of the forest for the trees” may take on a special meaning for Kevin Harvick and the No. 4 Ford team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) this week as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to Dover (Del.) International Speedway for Sunday’s Gander Outdoors 400 to kick off the Round of 12 in the NASCAR playoffs.

Winning the first race in the Round of 12 at Dover is the immediate focus, but the big picture remains the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series Championship.

This weekend at Dover, Harvick will drive the No. 4 Busch Outdoors Ford Fusion in support of the National Forest Foundation. The foundation promotes the health and well-being of 193 million acres of public lands that people use every day to hunt, fish, camp and enjoy nature.

For every lap Harvick leads at Dover, Busch Beer will donate $1,000 to the National Forest Foundation up to $25,000. Each dollar donated is approximately equivalent to one tree being planted in a national forest, so if Harvick were to lead 25 laps at Dover, Busch Beer would be donating approximately 25,000 trees to national forest lands.

The partnership is a natural move for Busch. The National Forest Foundation works tirelessly to protect healthy forests and watersheds across the country, which not only preserves their use for the public, but also contributes to high-quality beer by protecting sources of fresh, clean water – a crucial ingredient in the brewing process.

Harvick and the No. 4 Busch Outdoors team should hold up their end of the deal this weekend if recent history is any indication. Since joining SHR in 2014, Harvick and the No. 4 team have led 1,011 laps in the past nine Cup Series races at Dover’s concrete mile oval. The team has also scored two wins, one pole, three top-five finishes and four top-10s there.

In addition to his outstanding performance history at Dover, the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion is the series leader with seven points-paying wins, 20 top-five finishes, 23 top-10s and 1,274 laps led.

Harvick is now second in the playoff standings with 3,050 points, 42 ahead of the final transfer position as he heads to the first race in the Round of 12. A win at Dover would mean he automatically qualifies for the Round of 8, but additional stage wins and race wins mean extra playoff points as he progresses through the playoffs.

For the No. 4 team, the focus this weekend is on the trees – starting up front, leading laps, winning stages and winning the race – but with the big-picture forest in mind of advancing to the next round of the NASCAR playoffs and winning a second championship. Whether focusing on the challenge directly ahead or the big-picture goal, Harvick and his team are going to be trying to build a forest one tree at a time starting this weekend in Dover.

 

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

 

Who is the man to beat at Dover these days? 

“When I go to Dover, I think about one thing, and that is, ‘How can I win this race – what do we need to do as a team to focus on what we need to do?’”

Describe what it’s like to take a lap around Dover.

“Dover is the racetrack where you feel the sensation of speed more than anything. It’s a place where you drop off into the corner and slam into a lot of banking and then, as you come out of the corner, it’s kind of like jumping out of a hole and up onto the straightaway. It’s a really fun place to race. You feel that sensation of speed and you can be really aggressive.”