Month: August 2019

Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), heads to Darlington (S.C.) Raceway’s annual “Throwback Weekend” with a paint scheme made famous by three-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion and co-owner of SHR, Tony Stewart.

In 2002, Stewart piloted the iconic orange, black and white No. 20 car to three victories, 15 top-five finishes, 20 top-10s, two poles and led 745 laps on the season en route to his first Cup Series title. That 2002 championship campaign was the springboard to what would go on to be a Hall of Fame-worthy career that Stewart concluded with two more championships as a driver and 49 race wins. He added another championship as the co-owner of SHR when Kevin Harvick blazed to the 2014 Cup Series title.

This weekend, Almirola will pay homage to Stewart’s 2002 championship by featuring that orange, black and white paint scheme with the No. 10 and Smithfield logos adorning his Ford Mustang.

It’s this paint scheme that reminds Almirola of his humble beginnings and love for motorsports as a young fan of Stewart.

“I am so pumped about the throwback car we are running in Darlington with Tony’s 2002 championship car,” he said. “In 2002, I was graduating high school and heading off to college at UCF. I was trying my hardest to figure out how I was going to make it as a racecar driver. NASCAR was where I wanted to go no matter what and, because of that, I watched every NASCAR race every weekend. I was a huge Tony Stewart fan. To see him win the championship that year was awesome. Shortly after, I moved to North Carolina to drive for Joe Gibbs and the Late Model I drove was a version of Tony’s iconic paint scheme and was sponsored by Home Depot, like him. That was so cool for me to move to North Carolina and drive the No. 20 car with Tony’s paint scheme. Now, for it all to come full circle driving for his race team and running his 2002 championship scheme really means a lot to me.”

On May 22 of this year, Stewart was voted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2020 along with, fittingly, Joe Gibbs, Bobby Labonte, Waddell Wilson and Buddy Baker. A special NASCAR Hall of Fame decal will be visible on the decklid of Almirola’s Ford Mustang this weekend in honor or Stewart’s accomplishments.

In Stewart’s 618 NASCAR Cup Series starts, 24 came at Darlington with best finishes of third in 2009 and 2012.

“Could you imagine seeing that paint scheme in victory lane for the first time at Darlington with Tony there,” Almirola said. “That would be so cool to get a win at a crown jewel race like Darlington with all of that excitement and history surrounding it.”

Almirola’s best finish in his seven starts at the 1.366 mile oval is 11th, earned in 2015.

Sunday night’s 500-mile race at Darlington marks the 21st points-paying event during which the Smithfield livery has adorned Almirola’s No. 10 Ford Mustang this year. Smithfield, a brand of Smithfield Foods, based in Smithfield, Virginia, is in its eighth season with Almirola and its second 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.

As the season enters the dog days of summer, fans can get VIP, behind-the-scenes access in following “Aric ‘Beyond the 10’” by subscribing to his YouTube channel and following episodes on Facebook and Instagram TV. Episodes showcase never-before-seen footage of Almirola at the racetrack, on family trips, and “A Day in the Life” during the week, as well as all that goes into a NASCAR Cup Series driver’s season. Click here to subscribe on YouTube and watch the latest episode.

Almirola is 13th in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series standings with 654 points – 278 out of first place and a 65-point margin over the top-16 playoff cutoff with just two races left in the regular season.

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

What is your favorite part of the weekend at Darlington?

“I like the fact that it is a laid-back feeling. When you think about racing back in the ’70s and ’80s, it wasn’t so corporate. It wasn’t so clean-cut, it wasn’t what it kind of is today. It was more laid back and, kind of, ‘boys have at it,’ like they say, so I kind of like that. Doing it once a year is fun. I just go into it with the attitude where it is a very relaxed environment and fun, and it allows you to kind of goof around and enjoy the moment.”

What does Darlington mean to you?

“Darlington is an incredible weekend. It’s Labor Day weekend and what they’ve done over the last several years with the throwback weekend and everyone who participates and gets involved, it’s so much fun. To honor the past and the present is just a really fun weekend. It a special place and it has been on the NASCAR circuit for so long. All of the nostalgia really takes you back to the roots of NASCAR and it’s one of the places you really want to win at.”

What would it mean to win at Darlington?

“The Southern 500 is one of NASCAR’s crown jewels. It is such a physically demanding track, it’s such a demanding track on the car, on the crew, on everybody. When you win at Darlington, you’ve done something. Darlington is just a really tough racetrack. It’s called ‘Too Tough to Tame’ and the ‘Lady in Black’ for a reason. It such a challenging place. To go there and have success, to walk away with a Southern 500 trophy, is a bucket list kind of race that you want to win.”

The Southern 500 is one of the four “crown jewels” of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. And Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Busch Big Buck Hunter Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), is one of only four drivers to win all four crown jewels.

Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Harvick are the only drivers to see the checkered flag first at the Daytona 500, Brickyard 400, Coca-Cola 600 and Southern 500.

Harvick is hoping he can score his second Southern 500 victory Sunday night at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway after leading 238 laps in a dominating win in the 2014 Southern 500.

For this weekend’s Southern 500, Harvick and the No. 4 team will bring a special paint scheme reflecting the team’s race-day partnership with Busch Big Buck Hunter, which offers an exclusive chance for viewers to take home a Big Buck Hunter machine of their own just by tuning in to the race.

To learn more about the partnership between Busch and Big Buck Hunter, visit Busch.com or the Busch social media channels – @BuschBeer.

In addition to his 2014 Southern 500 victory at Darlington, Harvick has three poles, seven top-five finishes, 11 top-10s and has led a total of 581 laps in his 22 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval. His average start there is 14.5, his average finish is 14.8 and he has a lap-completion rate of 95.9 percent – 7,475 of the 7,792 laps available.

While they’re modest personal statistics, the combination of Harvick competing at Darlington in SHR equipment is impressive. In his last five NASCAR Cup Series starts at Darlington – all of which have come with SHR – he has finished inside of the top-10 in each of the five events, including four top-fives. He has an average finish of 4.2 during that span. And of the 581 laps Harvick has led at Darlington dating back to his rookie year in 2001, a total of 518, or more than 89 percent, have come with SHR despite only four, or 22 percent, of his 22 Darlington starts being with SHR.

Harvick has competed in 16 NASCAR Xfinity Series races at Darlington with three top-fives and nine top-10 finishes with one pole position in August 2003. He has driven in two NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series events there with a best finish of fourth in March 2002.

Harvick has 47 career NASCAR Cup Series victories, which puts him 16th on the all-time list. He’s hoping he can score a win this weekend to put him in a tie with Herb Thomas for 15th place all time.

KEVIN HARVICK, Driver of the No. 4 Busch Big Buck Hunter Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing: 

How important is it in this current playoff format to be peaking at the right time?

“Any good momentum, especially from winning, is huge momentum. I think, for us, you look at last year and probably the best year I’ve ever had in my career in not winning the championship, there were probably a few things that go into not winning a championship. But I think you look at the 22 car and the momentum they had going into the last 10 races and that was more important at that particular time of the year than what we had done early in the year, so it’s definitely different. There are two parts to the season and obviously, to win the championship, you want to be hot at the right time, but winning races also makes the year more tolerable as you go through the first 26, so you’d love to put it all together. Unfortunately, it never seems like it all comes together. Even the year we won the championship in this format, it didn’t really all come together until the end of the year, just because we had so many parts failures and things go wrong, and building a team at the beginning of the year, but we had fast cars and were able to put it all together at the end of the year. We’ve been on both sides of it and you never know what each year is going to bring, especially in a year like this when you have a lot of rule changes and a lot of things that are different. For me, I didn’t really enjoy the change in rules and the change in things and it took me a few months to get over that and realize I drive cars for a living and I just need to make mine go faster than everybody else’s. And I think, once we started getting things settled down and getting our cars back to where we needed to be and in the right frame of mine, we’ve got things going in the right direction, so it’s been a good few months, really. We’ve had a chance to win some races that we didn’t win, as well, so it’s been OK.”

With our current format, is it easier to win a championship or more difficult?

“It’s different, and that’s really the only way you can explain it because it’s more fun to watch from a fan’s perspective, and I think everybody understands that. It’s no different than any other sport. You have to evolve and, in the end, we are in the entertainment business and we have to have people watching in order to put sponsors on the car and butts in the seats and those are the number-one priority. So in order to keep up with the times, you had to keep up with what people think is exciting and I think the format is exciting. I think it’s obviously from a competitor’s standpoint very intense and it’s hard to get to the final four, and so for us it’s really, once you get in the playoffs, it’s more of a survive-and-advance mentality. I think however you do that, whether it looks good on paper or not, you just have to get to the next round and that’s much different than collect as many points as you can and try to get to the end of the year as it was previously.”

Have you ever thought it would be neat to drive some of the throwback cars we’ve seen through the years?

“I think it’s intriguing to look back and watch and obviously that’s a cool part of our history, and I think Darlington has done a great job in bringing that story, that conversation back in, and it’s been a great weekend to kind of have those throwback conversations and styles. For me, I’m so in the moment of the things that we’re doing now and, looking back, I try to understand as much of it as I can, but it’s kind of like driving an Indy car – I never really had any interest to go back and do something different because I think it’s kind of, for me, I’m fortunate to be able to do what I do and the things that I do are in the now. But watching those old videos and watching those old cars go around the racetrack and realizing how much different the cars were then is very fun to watch and hearing the stories. I’d rather listen to the stories of the guys who drove the cars and worked on the cars and that, to me, is very interesting. We had Roger Penske on the radio show and you forget the knowledge of cars that he has, the knowledge of racing and the things that the guys who’ve been around for 50 years, 60 years in different forms of racing is very interesting for me to listen to. I could have talked to him all day and we always have good conversation. For whatever reason, he’s always liked me and I always liked having conversations with him, but whether it’s Roger Penske, or Dale Jarrett who doesn’t go as far back, but you listen to the old stories of those guys– and Kyle Petty – and the conversations are fun to have. But I never really imagined myself being in those cars because it was never really a reality or a possibility.”

When you hear those stories, does any driver stand out?

“I don’t remember who I had this conversation with, it might have been Kyle Petty, but one guy who is just an interesting topic of conversation that comes up is David Pearson, and the sole reason is the amount of success that he had not racing all the time. I think a lot of people don’t realize how good and how much better David Pearson’s stats would have looked if he would have been in the car as much as everybody else. It’s pretty intriguing to look at those stats and just kind of that guy who just raced and didn’t get all the real flashy headlines and things but, in the end, he won 105 races. That’s pretty good, and not racing all the time. So that, to me, is just one of the many interesting conversations of our past.”

Thoughts the Busch Big Buck Hunter paint scheme this week?

“I take pride in knowing that Busch Beer uses my car as a platform for much more than a billboard that happens to take the checkered flag at 200 mph. To know that this great-looking Big Buck Hunter Ford helps raise awareness around wildlife conservation motivates me even more to succeed on race day.”

Daniel Suárez and the No. 41 Haas Automation Mustang team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) make the relatively short drive to Darlington (S.C.) Raceway for Sunday night’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race under the lights. It will be the third career Cup Series start for Suárez at one of the sport’s oldest tracks.

Suárez enters this weekend coming off of an eighth-place finish two weeks ago at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. That strong run moved the 27-year-old up to the 16th and final playoff-eligible position in the point standings. With two regular-season races remaining, Suárez knows every point is valuable as he tries to secure a playoff spot for the first time in his Cup Series career. Last year, all four SHR entries secured a playoff spot and at least one regular-season victory. SHR teammate Kevin Harvick has already secured his spot in this year’s playoffs with his wins in July at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, and earlier this month at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn.

Once again, Darlington plays host to NASCAR’s annual “Throwback Weekend,” featuring unique, retro paint schemes on the racecars teams will sport with the blessing of their partners. Suárez’s No. 41 Haas Automation Mustang will shed its traditional red-and-black Haas scheme in favor of an orange-and-white look to mirror team co-owner Tony Stewart’s 2005 Cup Series championship-winning scheme – one of Stewart’s three Cup Series championship-winning themes the SHR contingent will showcase this weekend. Teammate Aric Almirola will pilot a replica of Stewart’s 2002 car, and Clint Bowyer will pilot Stewart’s 2011 championship car. It’s all designed to honor Stewart’s induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame next year. The three-time-champion driver and owner earned 49 wins, 187 top-fives and 308 top-10s, along with 15 pole awards during his illustrious career.

After spending last weekend’s final open date on this year’s schedule in his native country of Mexico for a friend’s wedding, Suárez returns to intense racing this weekend at Darlington. He has two Cup Series starts at the 1.366-mile, egg-shaped oval and knows he will need to greatly improve his finishing position from past results to help secure his spot in the playoffs. His first Cup Series start at Darlington ended prematurely with an accident, and last year’s race resulted in a 29th-place finish.

The Ford driver has been successful in two NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at the “Track Too Tough To Tame,” both resulting in third-place finishes after qualifying efforts of second and fifth, respectively, and he’s led 14 laps in the series there.

“Darlington is tough because the track is different from everywhere else we go,” Suárez said. “Corners one and two, we don’t have anything even close to those corners at other tracks. Corners three and four are tricky, and the fall-off on the (tire) grip is massive. It’s important to have a good, long-run car and decent short-run speed, as well, and stay away from the wall. The closer you go to the wall, the faster you go, and it’s so inviting, but you usually end up hitting it. You have to be smart and patient and know the limit.”

Haas Automation, founded in 1983 by SHR co-owner Gene Haas, is America’s leading builder of CNC machine tools. The company manufactures a complete line of vertical and horizontal machining centers, turning centers and rotary tables and indexers. All Haas products are constructed in the company’s 1.1-million-square-foot manufacturing facility in Oxnard, California, and distributed through a worldwide network of Haas Factory Outlets.

DANIEL SUÁREZ, Driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

With just a couple of races left before the playoffs, how do you feel about your chances of making the playoffs?

“We have momentum and we have good cars. I feel good about our chances to point our way into the playoffs. We’ll see what happens when we’re in it.”

Do you remember anything about Tony Stewart’s 2005 season, when he won the championship?

“Man, I don’t remember much about Tony’s 2005 season, which is the car I’m driving. But, I remember so much about the final race in his 2011 championship. I can pretty much replay everything in my head that he went through on the track at Homestead-Miami. It was really an unbelievable run. I didn’t even really know Tony back then. I knew the name but didn’t have any relationship with him. I just remember being like a fan and watching that whole race.”

Few NASCAR drivers must live up to a number and heritage like Clint Bowyer.

Nothing will exemplify that better than Sunday night’s running of the 70th Southern 500 at historic Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, when Bowyer’s No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Mobil 1 Ford will carry a nearly identical paint scheme to his car owner and 2020 Hall of Fame selection Tony Stewart’s 2011 championship-winning car at Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR).

The scheme is in keeping with “The Official Throwback Weekend of NASCAR,” during which the industry honors the sport’s history. Nearly all the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series teams will sport throwback paint schemes in the Southern 500.

“This is such a cool deal, honoring Tony and his victory in what was probably the most exciting championship in NASCAR history,” Bowyer said, referring to the 2011 Stewart vs. Carl Edwards championship battle that ended in a points deadlock and was determined via tiebreaker. “Who can ever forget what Tony and Carl did in the playoffs that year? I hope this brings back good memories for Tony, the fans and everyone in the sport.”

In 2017, Bowyer inherited the steering wheel of the No. 14 from three-time-champion Stewart, who retired from NASCAR racing at the end of the 2016 season after a 49-win Cup Series career and hundreds of victories in many other forms of racing. Since starting SHR with co-owner Gene Haas in 2009, Stewart piloted a car carrying the No. 14 to victory lane 16 times – the most of any driver in the Cup Series.

The No. 14 had its own legacy in motorsports before Stewart.

His boyhood hero A.J. Foyt made the number legendary in open-wheel racing. Foyt’s driving career included four Indianapolis 500 wins among his hundreds of open-wheel victories, plus checkered flags in NASCAR’s Daytona 500 and sportscar racing’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. For the record, Foyt also drove the No. 14 in 42 NASCAR races, but with that number he was winless with just a single top-five finish.

Stewart lived up to his hero’s standards when he took over the No. 14. Now it’s Bowyer’s turn. In his 96 races in the No. 14 so far, Bowyer has posted two victories, 20 top-five finishes and 39 top-10s.

“Between Tony and A.J., those are about the biggest shoes anyone will ever have to fill,” Bowyer said. “We are doing our best to make Tony proud as both the car owner as well as the driver of the No. 14.”

Bowyer’s SHR teammates Aric Almirola and Daniel Suarez will also honor Stewart’s 2002 and 2005 championship titles with special paint schemes on their cars this weekend.

The No. 14 has appeared in 1,224 Cup Series races and notched 44 wins. In addition to Stewart’s 16 victories, Fonty Flock won 14 races in the No. 14, including the first for the number at Occoneechee Speedway in Hillsborough, North Carolina in April 1951. Four other drivers have scored wins in the No. 14: Jim Paschal with seven, Herschel McGriff with four, Bowyer’s two, and Bobby Allison with one.

Bowyer relishes his turn with the famous number and wants to climb higher on that list. He arrives at Darlington after enjoying the final off weekend of the 2019 season when he and his family of four enjoyed a weekend at their farm in Mocksville, North Carolina.

At the last Cup Series race two weekends ago, Bowyer finished seventh at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. He needs a good run at Darlington to earn a playoff position. Bowyer is 17th in the standings, just two points behind Suarez, who holds the 16th and final playoff spot. Only Darlington and the Sept. 8 race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway remain on the schedule before the playoffs begin Sept. 15 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“We know how important these next two races are,” Bowyer said. “Everyone in the sport knows and everyone will be watching. We know if we run like we are capable of running, we will be fine. Now, we just have to go out and do it this weekend at Darlington and next weekend at Indy.”

Bowyer’s No. 14 will carry the decals of Rush Truck Centers and Mobil 1 this weekend in Darlington.

Rush Truck Centers has been the primary partner on the No. 14 team since Bowyer arrived at SHR in 2017, and has been with the organization since 2010. The Texas-based company 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 expected to need 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 and knows that, with Bowyer’s background, he is the right guy to help get the message out.

In its 17th 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. It also provides primary sponsorships on Bowyer’s and Kevin Harvick’s Mustangs at SHR during various Cup Series weekends throughout the year. The Mobil 1 brand also serves as an associate sponsor for all four SHR drivers at all other races. Since 2011, ExxonMobil has been providing lubricant technology support to the SHR team, which helped drivers Stewart and Harvick earn series championships for SHR in 2011 and 2014.

“Both of those companies supported our plans to honor Tony this weekend and we’re extremely grateful to both Rush Truck Centers and Mobil 1,” Bowyer said. “I hope, by the end of the night at Darlington, we give them and all of our fans of the No. 14 something to cheer about.”

CLINT BOWYER, Driver of the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Mobil 1 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

What do you think of Darlington?

“Darlington is not good to me. I don’t know what I do wrong there. I’ve always run well there, been up front and everything is going fine, (but) it’s one of those tracks where you get down to the end and I can’t finish the damn thing. We’ve got to be able to figure that out because I really do enjoy the challenge of Darlington. That is an extremely difficult track to get around. It’s an animal. Trying to stay out of the wall, that’s obviously first and foremost, but being able to navigate traffic because you’re always in it. Even if you’re the leader, you’re in traffic. It’s a bear, but a lot of fun.”

Is Darlington fun for drivers and fans?

“I always look forward to going there. I love that old-school aspect of the fans – as big as the racetrack is, the infield seems extremely tight. We take the dog out at night to watch people take in our racing, and that’s one of my favorite things to do is cruise around and see how people take our sport and enjoy our sport in different ways. It’s all aspects. Some people enjoy family. Some people, they’re college buddies. They’ve got a new college crowd down there in (turns) one and two that’s super-killer for all those guys throwing a big party for them, and having a large time as their school is getting back going. But it’s always been a special race and a challenging race and a lot of fun to go down there, as well.”

What do you think of the older cars racing at Darlington?

“I always thought it would be neat, if you could, to be able to put those cars back on the track and have us be able to race them – or even today’s technology, just make the rules mandate those old cars and see. The crazy thing is, you can’t unlearn the evolution of racing and everything that we’ve learned over the years. These engineers and guys, they could make those guys so much faster than they were back then, but it’s not fair. It’s not fair to the guys back then. They didn’t have the tools and simulation and all the things they have today, so I can tell you because of those cars that racing is where it is. Those guys taught these kids and these guys who are building chassis and making these cars go fast today learned from those guys, and they learn pretty fast. But it would be cool to be able to go back and put those old jalopies back on the track and see what would happen. The only thing I never figured out about them is how hot those guys looked and everything else, and every time we take the windows out of our cars, it’s like putting air conditioning in them. I can’t tell you how much cooler my car was in Watkins Glen than any other racetrack. Simply taking out the right-side window makes a huge difference, so those cars even had wing windows in them, for crying out loud. I need a wing window.”

Race Name: Sport Clips Haircuts VFW 200 (Race 24 of 33)
Venue: Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina
Television: 4:00 p.m. EDT on NBC
Point Standings: 
– Cole Custer: 3rd; trails points leader by 135 points
– Chase Briscoe: 6th; trails points leader by 222 points
Appearances:
– Cole and Chase will be signing autographs on Saturday from 11:00am to 11:30am at the Ford Performance display in the fan zone.

• Custer has 11 top-fives, 15 top-10s, five pole awards and has led 782 laps through 23 races in 2019
• Crew chief Mike Shiplett has six starts with one top-fives, two top-10’s and one pole coming in August of 2018.
• Custer will be throwing it back to 1996 with the replica Buckshot Jones No. 00. View the unveil here.
• Click here for Custer’s career stats.
• Click here for Custer’s stats at Darlington Raceway.
• Click here for photos of Cole.

Production Alliance Group is a premium live-event and creative development company. Passion for our craft has allowed us to work with top names and brands in both corporate and entertainment industries. We bring creative excellence and relevant execution to every opportunity, big or small. We engage and collaborate with our customers and industry partners…and together create experiences that move and impressions that last.

Darlington always seems like one of the most fun races of the year. What are you looking forward to the most about 2019’s Official Throwback Weekend?

“Throwback weekend is always a lot of fun because our partners allow us to switch up their logos a little bit to fit whatever scheme we are looking at running. Numerous fans have asked when we were going to run a Buckshot Jones scheme since he was in the No. 00 back in the 90’s. Well, we’ve been listening and brought back that Aquafresh scheme that he ran in 1996 and I can’t thank Production Alliance Group enough for letting us change things up on their first-ever primary race. One of the best things for the weekend is that Buckshot will actually be joining us but before he committed to coming for the weekend, he texted me and told me he was actually going to jump in the car and drive it, so who knows who you will see in the No. 00 this weekend.”

Race Name: Sport Clips Haircuts VFW 200 (Race 24 of 33)
Venue: Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina
Television: 4:00 p.m. EDT on NBC
Point Standings: 
– Cole Custer: 3rd; trails points leader by 135 points
– Chase Briscoe: 6th; trails points leader by 222 points
Appearances:
– Cole and Chase will be signing autographs on Saturday from 11:00am to 11:30am at the Ford Performance display in the fan zone.

• To add to his list of tracks he is visiting for the first time in 2019, Briscoe’s first ever laps at Darlington Raceway will be during practice on Friday.
• Through 23 races in 2019, Briscoe has one win, nine top-fives, 18 top-10’s and an average finish of 8.3.
• The No. 98 Ford Performance Mustang will carry the colors of Parnelli Jones’s 1963 Indy 500 winning car as part of Darlington’s annual Throwback Weekend.
• You can see the official unveil video of Chase’s No. 98 throwback scheme here.
• Click here for Briscoe’s career stats.
• Click here for photos of Chase.

Ford’s racing program is part of the Ford Performance organization based in Dearborn, Mich. It is responsible for major racing operations globally, including NASCAR, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, FIA World Endurance Championship, FIA World Rally Championship, Virgin Australia Supercars, Formula Drift, and NHRA Funny Car and sportsman drag racing. In addition, the organization also oversees the development of Ford’s racing engines, as well as the outreach programs with all Ford Clubs and Ford enthusiasts. For more information regarding Ford racing’s activities, please visit www.fordperformance.com, www.facebook.com/FordPerformance, Ford Performance on Instagram and @FordPerformance on Twitter.

This will be your first race at Darlington and your first time taking part in the throwback weekend festivities. How excited are you to tackle the track that’s ‘Too Tough to Tame’ and honor Parnelli Jones on the 98?

“I am super excited to get to Darlington this weekend and hit the track with our throwback scheme. It’s a scheme that means a lot to me coming from the open-wheel ranks and it’s an honor to be able to pay tribute to Parnelli. With it being my first time running Darlington, I really hope I can give this car the run it deserves. If we can manage to avoid the infamous ‘Darlington Stripe’ and keep our nose clean, I think we can have a really good run.”