Month: June 2019

Event: Pocono 400 (Round 14 of 36)
Series: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Pocono (Pa.) Raceway (2.5-mile oval)
Format: 160 laps, broken into three stages (50 laps/50 laps/60 laps)
Start/Finish: 13th/10th (Running, completed 160 of 160 laps)
Point standings: 12th (393 points, 175 out of first)

Race Winner: Kyle Busch of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 1 Winner: Kyle Larson of Chip Ganassi Racing (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Kyle Larson of Chip Ganassi Racing (Chevrolet)

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-50):

● Aric Almirola started 13th, finished fifth and earned six bonus points.
● Almirola fought tight conditions early on in the Valley Tech Ford Mustang, dropping to 14th by lap eight.
● The competition caution flew on lap 20, and Almirola brought the No. 10 down pit road for four tires, fuel and an adjustment.
● Almirola cracked the top-10 by lap 26, where he stayed for the remainder of Stage 1.
● The Valley Tech Ford Mustang finished the first stage in the fifth position, and Almirola reported that the car was “overall better, needs more turn.”
● At the conclusion of the stage, he pitted the No. 10 Ford for four tires and fuel.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 51-100):

● Started 14th, finished 22nd.
● Almirola battled his way up to 12th after two cautions in the first 10 laps of the second stage.
● The No. 10 Ford Mustang jumped back up to 10th by lap 66.
● After hitting the outside wall while running 10th on lap 80, Almirola brought the Valley Tech Ford Mustang down pit road for four fresh Goodyear tires and fuel.
● Almirola returned to the track in the 30th position, one lap down.
● He finished Stage 2 in the 22nd position, back on the lead lap. At the end of Stage 2 he pitted for four tires, fuel and fixed damage to the right rear.

Stage 3 Recap (Laps 100-160):

● Started 21st, finished 10th.
● Almirola maneuvered the No. 10 Valley Teach Ford Mustang up to 13th after restarting the final stage 21st.
● On lap 122, Almirola made his way back to the top-10 during green-flag pit stops before bringing the No. 10 Ford Mustang down pit road for two tires and fuel.
● A late-race caution on lap 145 brought Almirola back down pit road for four tires and fuel before he headed back out to the track 16th. He quickly battled back to get into the top-10 on lap 156.
● Almirola piloted the No. 10 Valley Tech Ford Mustang to a 10th-place finish.

Notes:

● Almirola earned his eighth top-10 of the season and his second top-10 in 14 career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts at Pocono.
● Almirola finished fifth in Stage 1 to earn six bonus points.
● Kyle Busch won the Pocono 400 to score his 55th career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory, his series-leading fourth of the season and his third at Pocono. His margin of victory over second-place Brad Keselowski was 2.224 seconds.
● There were eight caution periods for a total of 28 laps.
● Twenty-one of the 37 drivers in the Pocono 400 finished on the lead lap.
● Busch leaves Pocono as the sole championship leader with a four-point advantage over second-place Joey Logano. The duo came into the Pocono 400 tied atop the championship standings.

Aric Almirola, Driver of the No. 10 Valley Tech Ford Mustang:

“Our car was decent and we were pretty competitive, we just fought track position. I got up to fifth or sixth there and just barely brushed the wall off turn three and had bad tire smoke and had to come pit so that I didn’t blow a right rear tire and end our day. I erred on the side of caution there, and then we just fought to recover from that the rest of the day. We were buried in traffic and had to be aggressive on restarts to try to get back up through the field.”

Next Up:

The next event on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the FireKeepers Casino 400 on Sunday, June 9 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn. The race starts at 2 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Date: June 1, 2019
Race Name: Pocono Green 250 (Race 12 of 33)
Venue: Pocono (Pa.) Raceway
Series: NASCAR Xfinity Series
Race Winner: Cole Custer of Stewart-Haas Racing with Fred Biagi (FORD)
Results: Cole Custer: 1st | Chase Briscoe: 3rd
Point Standings:
– Cole Custer: 3rd with 473 points; trails points leader by -99 points
– Chase Briscoe: 6th with 410 points; trails points leader by -162 points

Cole Custer / FIMS Manufacturing Ford Mustang Recap:

– Custer started from the pole position for the third time in 2019 and led every lap of Stage 1 to pick up 10 bonus points and a playoff point.
– The No. 00 Ford started Stage 2 in the eight position as several cars utilized an alternative pit strategy.
– Custer raced his way back to the fifth position at the end of Stage 2 to pick up six additional bonus points.
– The No. 00 FIMS Ford Mustang started the final stage in sixth and raced his way to the lead by lap 65.
– The No. 00 came to pit road for the final time on lap 80 for four tires and fuel.
– He rejoined the field in the fifth position and raced his way back to the lead by lap 86.
– A late-race caution allowed Custer to lead the field to an overtime finish. He battled with Tyler Reddick in the closing laps for a dramatic last-turn pass for the win.
– Custer led four times for 58 laps and scored his third Xfinity Series win of 2019 and the fifth of his Xfinity Series career.
– Custer now has seven top-five finishes, eight top-10 finishes with 464 laps led in 2019.

Next Up: LTi Printing 250 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan on June 8 at 1:30 p.m. EDT broadcast by Fox Sports 1.

Cole Custer, driver of the No. 00 FIMS Manufacturing Ford Mustang:

“The No. 2 car gave us a great push on that final restart and ended up getting around us, but our FIMS Manufacturing Mustang was good all day and we were able to stay right with him. I think he knew I was going to send it into Turn 3 to try to pack air and get him a little loose and drive underneath him; he over drove the turn and gave me the bottom and we were able to drag race him back to the line and get the win. I just can’t thank Gene Haas and everyone at Haas Automation, Ford Motor Company, Fred Biagi, FIMS, Jacob Companies, Thompson Pipe Group, Xfinity and all our partners and fans for making days like this possible.”

Date: June 1, 2019
Race Name: Pocono Green 250 (Race 12 of 33)
Venue: Pocono (Pa.) Raceway
Series: NASCAR Xfinity Series
Race Winner: Cole Custer of Stewart-Haas Racing with Fred Biagi (FORD)
Results: Cole Custer: 1st | Chase Briscoe: 3rd
Point Standings:
– Cole Custer: 3rd with 473 points; trails points leader by -99 points
– Chase Briscoe: 6th with 410 points; trails points leader by -162 points

Chase Briscoe / Nutri Chomps Ford Mustang Recap:

– Briscoe started 12th and raced as high as eighth before a caution on lap 17. He came to pit road twice under caution for adjustments and restarted 32nd, but raced his way back to finish 12th in Stage 1.
– The Nutri Chomps Ford stayed out at the end of Stage 1 to started Stage 2 in third.
– Briscoe finished Stage 2 in fourth, earning an seven stage points.
– The No. 98 Ford started seventh in the final stage.
– Briscoe pitted for fuel only on lap 65 and raced up to the fifth position by the end of the pit cycle with 17 laps remaining.
– He continued his march toward the front and was racing in the third position when he stayed out under caution with seven laps remaining.
– The team restarted fourth and pushed Custer to the lead on the restart, but a late caution forced the race to overtime.
– The No. 98 Ford started the overtime on the front row, but ultimately crossed the finish line in the third position.
– Briscoe and the No. 98 team’s third-place result is their best of the season.
– Briscoe now has six top-five finishes and nine top-10 finishes through the first 12 Xfinity starts of 2019.

Next Up: LTi Printing 250 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan on June 8 at 1:30 p.m. EDT broadcast by Fox Sports 1.

Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 98 Nutri Chomps Ford Mustang:

“We started there side-by-side on the last restart and I honestly thought that I beat him on the restart. Tyler Reddick is normally one of the best pushers in the series. (Christopher) Bell is normally really good at pushing too, but I don’t think he got the restart that the rest of us got, so I just didn’t quite have the push. I was just too tight honestly at the end. Even if I had the lead I would have been too tight to hold those guys off. Overall a really good day for Stewart-Haas Racing with Fred Biagi with Cole scoring the win and us running third. It was another weekend where we rebounded after a rough stretch of practice for our Nutri Chomps Ford. Now we go to Michigan and hope to get a little bit better. We’ve had speed and have been running top-five and top-three a lot, but we just haven’t quite figured out the last couple tenths we need to pick up the win, so hopefully we can find it here soon. Now we go to Michigan in Ford’s back yard looking for a win.”