CLINT BOWYER – 2020 Bristol I Race Report

Event: Food City presents the Supermarket Heroes 500 (Round 9 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway (.533-mile oval)
Format: 500 laps, broken into three stages (125 laps/125 laps/250 laps)
Start/Finish: 23rd/2nd (Running, completed 500 of 500 laps)
Point Standing: 12th with 232 points, 138 out of first

Race Winner:       Brad Keselowski of Team Penske (Ford)
Stage 1 Winner:  Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner:  Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-125):

Clint Bowyer started 23rd and finished 12th.
● The No. 14 “Built Ford Proud” Mustang held its position early in the race before stopping at the lap 20 competition caution.
● Bowyer moved from 29th to 19th before pitting during the second competition caution on lap 60.
● Bowyer began turning “crazy fast times” according to the crew driving from 17th to 12th before the end of the stage.
● During the stage break, Bowyer pitted for adjustments to help the car’s rotation in the turns.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 126-250):

Bowyer started 10th and finished sixth to earn five bonus points.
● The No. 14 “Built Ford Proud” Mustang faded to 16th by lap 180 with Bowyer reporting the car was “really tight.”
● Bowyer pitted for major adjustments to fix the issue during a caution on lap 200.
● The changes helped as Bowyer clawed back to 10th by lap 230 when a nine-car accident stopped the race for 11 minutes.
● Bowyer restarted the race in 10th with just 15 laps left and moved to eighth before another caution slowed the field.
● Bowyer jumped from eighth to sixth in the seven-lap green flag run to end the stage..

Final Stage Recap (Laps 251-500):

Bowyer started 14th, finished second.
● The No. 14 “Built Ford Proud” Mustang moved to eighth by the caution on lap 360.
● Over the next 70 laps, tight handling issues plus cars with fresher tires shuffled Bowyer back to 15th.
● Bowyer pitted for adjustments and restarted the race in 14th with 61 laps remaining.
● Things got worse as Brad Keselowski and Ryan Newman made contact sending Newman into Bowyer causing significant left-side damage to the No. 14.
● Bowyer restarted the race in 13th with 37 laps remaining. Immediately after the restart Bowyer deftly avoided a seven-car accident in front of him.
● Bowyer restarted ninth with 30 laps to go and used fresh tires to drive to fifth before the next caution flew with 10 to go.
● The race restarted with just five laps remaining and it didn’t take long for the leaders Joey Logano and Chase Elliott to start beating and banging.
● Bowyer never lifted as the pair collided and slid into the wall to claim second place.
● There weren’t enough laps to chase down Keselowski for the victory.

Notes:

●  Bowyer earned his second top-five and third top-10 of the season, and his eighth top-five and 16th top-10 in 29 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Bristol.
●  This is Bowyer’s fifth straight top-10 at Bristol and his seventh top-10 in the last nine races at Bristol.
●  Since joining SHR in 2017, Bowyer has only finished outside the top-10 once at Bristol.
●  Keselowski won the Food City presents the Supermarket Heroes 500 to score his 32nd career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his second of the season and his third at Bristol. His margin of victory over second-place Bowyer was .471 of a second.
●  This was Ford’s series-best fifth win of the season and its 691st all-time NASCAR Cup Series victory.
●  This was Ford’s 38th NASCAR Cup Series victory at Bristol. The last Ford driver to win at Bristol was Kurt Busch in August 2018 while a member of SHR.
●  There were 17 caution periods for a total of 102 laps.
●  Only 22 of the 40 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
●  Kevin Harvick remains the championship leader after Bristol with a 24-point advantage over second-place Joey Logano.

Clint Bowyer, driver of the No. 14 ‘Built Ford Proud’ Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

“Wow what a finish. That got wild. The boys hung in there and just kept digging. The old girl said “Built Ford Proud” when she probably should have said “Built Ford Tough” because she had all four corners knocked off it. We actually struggled pretty bad with our setup. I don’t know, it was floating the nose really bad up off the corner all day long. I could gain and make some ground up in the center of the corner in, and in the middle, but if I had to pass somebody and turn underneath of them I didn’t have the real estate. The outside was no man’s land for me. I couldn’t get my front end to turn at all.”

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Folds of Honor 500 on Sunday, June 7 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The race starts at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

COLE CUSTER – 2020 Bristol I Race Report

Event: Food City presents the Supermarket Heroes 500 (Round 9 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway (.533-mile oval)
Format: 500 laps, broken into three stages (125 laps/125 laps/250 laps)
Start/Finish: 22nd/35th (Accident, completed 228 of 500 laps)
Point Standing: 24th with 140 points, 230 out of first

Race Winner:      Brad Keselowski of Team Penske (Ford)
Stage 1 Winner:  Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsport (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner:  Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsport (Chevrolet)

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-125):             

● Cole Custer started 22nd and finished 26th.
● Throughout the first two cautions, Custer remained on the track in his HaasTooling.com Mustang even though he was tight to the center and off of the turns. He restarted 13th on lap 29.
● At the lap-62 competition caution, Custer pitted from 20th for fuel, four tires and adjustments to help with his tight handling condition. He restarted 24th.
● During the Stage 1 break, the 22-year-old pitted from 26th for fuel, four tires and adjustments to help with his tight-handling HaasTooling.com Mustang.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 126-250):

● Custer started 20th and finished 35th.
● The caution was thrown on lap 198 and the California native reported his car was improving and would like more of the previous adjustment. After visiting pit road, he restarted 21st on lap 207.
● Next caution was displayed on lap 211 with Custer in the 19th spot. He didn’t visit pit road and restarted 18th on lap 216.
● On lap 217, the caution was once again displayed with Custer in 17th.
● Custer restarted 17th on lap 221 after not pitting.
● On lap 228, Custer was collected in a multi-car accident, which ultimately ended his day and relegated him to a 35th-place finish.

Notes:

● Custer made his 12th career NASCAR Cup Series start and his first at Bristol.
● Brad Keselowski won the Food City presents the Supermarket Heroes 500 to score his 32nd career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his second of the season and his third at Bristol. His margin of victory over second-place Bowyer was .471 of a second.
● This was Ford’s series-best fifth win of the season and its 691st all-time NASCAR Cup Series victory.
● This was Ford’s 38th NASCAR Cup Series victory at Bristol. The last Ford driver to win at Bristol was Kurt Busch in August 2018 while a member of SHR.
● There were 17 caution periods for a total of 102 laps.
● Only 22 of the 40 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● Harvick remains the championship leader after Bristol with a 24-point advantage over second-place Joey Logano.

Cole Custer, Driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

“Well, that stinks. We were getting our car a lot better and then caught up in the wreck. Just so little time to react so you get caught up in them pretty easily here at Bristol. That’s just how it is here. I thought our HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang was getting a lot better. I felt like we could’ve run in the top-10. We were a lot better than where we were running. We were going forward, but our pit stall wasn’t helping us either. We were getting blocked in about every time and that hurt us too. We’ll move on to the next one, but man, I thought we were going to have a good day here.”

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Folds of Honor 500 on Sunday, June 7 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The race starts at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

KEVIN HARVICK – 2020 Bristol I Race Report

Event: Food City presents the Supermarket Heroes 500 (Round 9 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway (.533-mile oval)
Format: 500 laps, broken into three stages (125 laps/125 laps/250 laps)
Start/Finish: 8th/11th (Running, completed 500 of 500 laps)
Point Standing: 1st (370 points, 24 ahead of Joey Logano)

Race Winner: Brad Keselowski of Team Penske (Ford)
Stage 1 Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-125):

●  Kevin Harvick started eighth and finished sixth, earning five bonus points.
●  The No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang was fine early on. Harvick said he was “just saving my tires.”
●  Harvick pitted on lap 62 for four tires, fuel and a tires pressure and track bar adjustment. Came in 10th, and left seventh.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 126-250):

●  Kevin Harvick started sixth and finished third, earning eight bonus points.
●  The No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang pitted on lap 129 for four tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment. He entered the pits in sixth place.
●  On lap 204, Harvick pitted for four tires, fuel and a tire pressure adjustment. Harvick exited in fourth-place.

Stage 3 Recap (Laps 251-500):

Kevin Harvick started 14th and finished 11th.
● The No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang pitted on lap 253 for four tires, fuel and a tire pressure adjustment. Said car was still too tight.
● On lap 330, Harvick pitted for four tires and fuel. Said the cars balance was good.
● With 67 laps left, Harvick’s car got into the car driven by Erik Jones and then got into the SAFER Barrier on the outside retianing wall while in fifth place. He pitted twice for repairs and restarted 21st with 61 laps remaining.
● On lap 459, Harvick pitted for four tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment. Crew also made more repairs and Harvick restarted 19th.
● After restarting 19th, Harvick managed to work his way up to 11th place.

Notes:

●  Brad Keselowski won the Food City presents the Supermarket Heroes 500 to score his 32nd career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his second of the season and his third at Bristol. His margin of victory over second-place Clint Bowyer was .471 of a second.
●  This was Ford’s series-best fifth win of the season and its 691st all-time NASCAR Cup Series victory.
●  This was Ford’s 38th NASCAR Cup Series victory at Bristol. The last Ford driver to win at Bristol was Kurt Busch in August 2018 while a member of SHR.
●  There were 17 caution periods for a total of 102 laps.
●  Only 22 of the 40 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
●  Harvick remains the championship leader after Bristol with a 24-point advantage over second-place Joey Logano.
●  Harvick finished sixth in Stage 1 to earn five bonus points and third in Stage 2 to earn eight more bonus points.

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Folds of Honor 500 on Sunday, June 7 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The race starts at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

ARIC ALMIROLA – 2020 Bristol I Race Report

Event: Food City presents the Supermarket Heroes 500 (Round 9 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway (.533-mile oval)
Format: 500 laps, broken into three stages (125 laps/125 laps/250 laps)
Start/Finish: 2nd/29th (Accident, completed 470 of 500 laps)
Point Standing: 11th (240 points, 130 out of first)

Race Winner: Brad Keselowski of Team Penske (Ford)
Stage 1 Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-125):

●  Aric Almirola started second and finished fourth, earning seven stage points.
●  The Smithfield Ford driver started on the bottom groove and fell to sixth before a caution on lap six.
●  Almirola drove to fourth before the competition caution.
●  He restarted fourth and drove the No. 10 Ford to second-place before the second competition caution.
●  Almirola pitted for four tires, fuel and adjustments to restart third.
●  Starting on lap 110, Almirola tapped the No. 2 car’s bumper multiple times to ultimately make the pass. He noted tight-handling conditions during the run and held the No. 10 Ford inside the top-five.
●  He pitted at the end of the stage for four tires, fuel and air pressure adjustments.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 126-250):

●  Almirola started sixth and finished 21st.
●  Almirola raced the No. 10 Ford to fourth by lap 177.
●  He was scored second after a caution on lap 199. He said his car was good on the long runs and tight on the restarts.
●  Almirola pitted for four tires, fuel and air pressure adjustments to restart fifth.
●  After a red flag on lap 229, Almirola was scored eighth. On the restart, he said he may have a tire going down and pitted for four tires, fuel and adjustments.

Final Stage Recap (Laps 251-500):

●  Almirola started 10th and finished 29th.
●  Almirola advanced the Smithfield Ford six positions on the restart before a caution on lap 269.
●  He raced to third before a caution on lap 329. He pitted for four fresh tires, fuel and adjustments to restart third.
●  After another caution on lap 355, Almirola reported a loose wheel and pitted for four tires, fuel and chassis adjustments to restart 10th.
●  Almirola was contacted by the No. 2 car on the restart and dropped to 13th.
●  He rejoined the top-10 on lap 393.
●  Almirola pitted under caution on lap 433 from eighth-place for four tires, fuel and more chassis adjustments after noting loose-handling conditions. He came off pit road in seventh.
●  Another caution was called with 43 laps to go. Almirola opted not to pit with 19 laps on his tires.
●  During the restart, Almirola was involved in an accident and hit the outside wall. He was forced to pit to repair damage and returned to the track two laps down. He retired the No. 10 Smithfield Ford on lap 470 due to unrepairable damage.

Notes:

● Brad Keselowski won the Food City presents the Supermarket Heroes 500 to score his 32nd career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his second of the season and his third at Bristol. His margin of victory over second-place Clint Bowyer was .471 of a second.
●  This was Ford’s series-best fifth win of the season and its 691st all-time NASCAR Cup Series victory.
●  This was Ford’s 38th NASCAR Cup Series victory at Bristol. The last Ford driver to win at Bristol was Kurt Busch in August 2018 while a member of SHR.
●  There were 17 caution periods for a total of 102 laps.
●  Only 22 of the 40 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
●  Kevin Harvick remains the championship leader after Bristol with a 24-point advantage over second-place Joey Logano.

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

“Man. We had such a good car today. We would have had a shot at a top-three finish. That’s Bristol. I felt like I had a tire going down at one point, so we pitted and even came back to the top-10 from that pretty quickly. We had a loose-wheel later and had to pit under caution that put us 10th. We were definitely making our way back towards the front and had a promising finish if we didn’t get caught up there. It looked like the 19 got into me. The car just took off towards the wall and we were done. I hate it for this Smithfield Ford team. We’re flirting on the edge of some really good runs. The good news is we came to Bristol with a setup that can win, so we’ll have confidence coming back.”

Next Up: 

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Folds of Honor 500 on Sunday, June 7 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The race starts at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

COLE CUSTER – 2020 Bristol I Race Advance

Cole Custer and the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Mustang team venture a little more than four hours to the north and west from their Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) headquarters to Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway for Sunday’s Supermarket Heroes 500. Custer will make his first Cup Series start at the Tennessee track and 12th career Cup Series start.

The No. 41 Ford Mustang will sport the colors of co-owner Gene Haas’ newest holding, HaasTooling.com, for the short-track event. Haas Tooling was launched a few weeks ago as a way for CNC machinists to purchase high quality cutting tools at great prices. Haas’ cutting tools are sold exclusively online at HaasTooling.com and shipped directly to end users.

Custer spent the last week honing his craft at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway for the season’s longest race – Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600, and Thursday night’s Alsco Uniforms 500k. His first Cup Series start at the 1.5-mile track last Sunday netted Custer a 12th-place finish after recovering from falling one lap down earlier in the race. He earned an 18th-place finish in Thursday night’s 500-kilometer – 310-mile – race after battling a loose-handling No. 41 Mustang.

The Cup Series has completed one race at a short track this season at Phoenix Raceway in March, where Custer and the No. 41 team finished ninth. The series will run a similar package this weekend at Bristol and the HaasTooling.com driver hopes to capture another top-10 this weekend.

In the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Custer had six consecutive starts at Bristol from 2017 through 2019. Five of those resulted in top-five qualifying positions. The California native has two Xfinity Series pole awards at Bristol – April 2018 and 2019. Custer has four top-10 finishes in the series at Bristol, with 31 laps led. Custer also has three Bristol outings in the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series at Bristol, all starting in the top-10 with a pair of top-10 finishes and 111 laps led.

While the NASCAR season has resumed, the sport also continues to do its part during the COVID-19 pandemic. SHR’s partnership with Novant Health continues to expand. So far, SHR has helped transport and deliver millions of face masks for Novant, in addition to building intensive care unit webcam carts. Now, SHR is now providing 25,000 square feet of property adjacent to its shop in Kannapolis, North Carolina, for Novant’s partnership with Zipline, the world’s only national-scale, on-demand drone logistics service. Zipline will deliver medical supplies via its fleet of drones to Novant Health’s integrated system of physician practices, hospitals and outpatient centers. Click here to download b-roll of site build, drone delivery and interviews.

In SHR’s 70 starts at Bristol, the team has earned two pole awards and two victories. The championship team has 10 top-fives, 29 top-10s and 873 laps led at the high-banked, concrete oval.

Haas Automation, founded by Haas in 1983, 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.

Even though Custer had a trio of starts in the Cup Series in 2018, 2020 officially marks his Rookie of the Year campaign in NASCAR’s most prestigious series. He’s competing for rookie honors with notables Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick. The three have battled against each other in the Xfinity Series and are making the full-time transition to the Cup Series together. Custer was the third-highest-finishing rookie at Charlotte Thursday night and looks to improve his position Sunday afternoon at a track where he’s run well in the past.

 

COLE CUSTER, Driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

 

You’ve wrapped up a couple races at a mile-and-a-half track. Do you feel like you learned a lot, and can apply some things to the other mile-and-a-halves coming up?

“We’ve learned a ton as a team over the last four races and running the 550 horsepower package. I think I have a better understanding of the cars now and it’s just applying it in the future.”

In the Xfinity Series, you’ve done really well at Bristol as long as you haven’t had something happen. Why do you think you excel there, or what makes it suit your driving style so much?

“Bristol has been a good track for me in Xfinity. It’s a track that has always come a little natural to me, I feel like. I like the feel of it and being able to move around in the lanes. It’s a lot about keeping momentum. The bottom is about hooking the line. Sunday it’s just a matter of running a lot longer race and a lot of cars to pass, which makes it chaotic.”

You had a ninth-place finish at Phoenix earlier this year. You’ll run the same package at Bristol. Do you favor the 750 package?

“I think the 750 horsepower package is definitely something that’s more natural to me because it’s similar to the Xfinity car. A lot of the stuff I did in the Xfinity car transfers over to this 750 package in the Cup Series. It doesn’t do that with the 550 horsepower package we run at a lot track in Cup. So I’d say I’m more comfortable and used to the 750.”

We’re going back to a little bit of a traditional NASCAR schedule with one race per week. Are you looking forward to going back to more of a traditional schedule? Or were you really starting to like the two races per week schedule?

“I think it was nice to kind of mix it up with the mid-week races. It was interesting and I think it might get used in the future some. I don’t think it’s something you could do all year long though. You need to have a break at some point. It’ll be nice to go back to our week by week schedule to catch our breath and look at what we learned to apply to future races.”

ARIC ALMIROLA – 2020 Bristol I Race Advance

Aric Almirola and the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) continue their return to racing after the COVID-19 postponements with a fan and driver favorite – short-track competition at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.

Sunday, avid and new fans of the NASCAR Cup Series will get the chance to witness the typically action-packed, 500-lap race that will test the physical and mental stamina of its drivers.

“Bristol is the ultimate test of physical stamina mixed with finesse of how you position your racecar,” Almirola said. “You’re on the edge of your seat every lap and the slightest mistake can set you back. It helps to be in great shape for races like Bristol when you get toward the end of the long, green-flag run. During the break, I stayed busy with my workout regimen to prepare for races like this with heat training and cycling.”

After four races in 12 days, Almirola and the Smithfield Ford team are excited to mix up the racing styles and get back to short-track racing – something they think the fans will enjoy.

“NASCAR has done such an incredible job getting us back racing,” Almirola said. “We’re one of the only sports to watch right now and Sunday  will be a prime time for new fans to see what NASCAR is all about. They’re going to see beating and banging the entire race, cars barely holding on, and frustration from a lot of us drivers. I think we’re going to gain a lot of new race fans Sunday and I hope the No. 10 Smithfield car is up front to gain some new fans for ourselves.”

Almirola’s 2019 outcomes at Bristol were not favorable for the 36-year-old – not of his own fault. After a solid sixth-place qualifying run in the April 2019 Bristol event, Almirola was struck by the No. 24 car and taken out of the race on lap three. Following another solid fifth-place qualifying effort in the August race, Almirola made contact with a lapped car that ultimately led him to finish 18 laps off the pace.

“Bristol is a track I always look forward to going to,” Almirola said. “We just haven’t had luck on our side the last few races there. I feel confident there, too. We just need some things to go our way to actually finish a solid race.”

Almirola and the Smithfield Ford team have restarted the season with one top-10 and have held their ninth-place position in the standings with 225 points – 106 behind leader Kevin Harvick.

He has one top-five and three top-10s in 20 starts at Bristol since 2007. His best finish there was third in the Food City 500 on March 16, 2004. In addition to his Cup Series experience at Bristol, Almirola has seven NASCAR Xfinity Series starts with four of those resulting in top-10 finishes.

Almirola will sport the iconic black, white and gold Smithfield Ford Mustang this weekend at Bristol. Smithfield Foods Inc., who will sponsor Almirola’s car at the majority of races this season, is an American food company with agricultural roots and a global reach. Its 40,000 U.S. employees are dedicated to producing “Good Food. Responsibly®,” and have made it one of the world’s leading vertically integrated protein companies.

The starting grid for Sunday’s race was determined Friday by random draw in order of owner points positions. Almirola will start the Food City Presents the Supermarket Heroes 500 from second.

 

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

 

How does Bristol’s track surface change during the race?

“Bristol is one of those places where the track changes throughout the run, especially in the last couple of years, when they put the (traction) compound down on the bottom groove. That has tended to get rubbered up and get really slick as the run moves on and the cars migrate to the top of the racetrack. The top of the racetrack is not very good when it’s clean but, when it starts to rubber up, it actually gains momentum and gets faster, so the groove moves around a lot from run to run and throughout the run, and that makes it fun and it makes it exciting. As a driver, it gives you the option to search around and look for speed.”

Sunday’s race honors Supermarket Heroes. How important is it to recognize these essential workers in the midst of the Coronavirus outbreak? 

“The food workers are every bit as important as the front-line workers. We have to have food to survive as a nation and we have to have medical resources. You can’t have just one or the other. I think it’s so cool that we are acknowledging them this weekend because they are the heartbeat of our nation. We wake up every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Without them, we don’t have that.”

KEVIN HARVICK – 2020 Bristol I Race Advance

Kevin Harvick will compete in his fifth race in 15 days on Sunday, May 31 in the Food City presents the Supermarket Heroes 500 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. That’s a lot of races in 15 days, but not for someone like Harvick.

The driver of the No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) drove in four races in eight days back in 2007.

It was the year of the great rainout at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn. Harvick drove in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Michigan on Saturday, Aug. 18 and finished third. The Cup Series race ended up running on Tuesday, Aug. 21 after it was rained out Sunday and Monday.

Harvick then headed south to Bristol for the Xfinity Series race on Friday, Aug. 24 and finished 16th. Finally, on Saturday, Aug. 25, he finished 16th in the Bristol Cup Series race.

He raced a total of 1,055.7 miles during that 2007 stretch. By the end of this past Thursday night’s 500-kilometer race at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, he will have driven have driven 1,595.588 miles since the Cup Series resumed its suspended season April 17 with the first of two races at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. And he has another 250 miles coming up Sunday at Bristol.

So while the schedule has been odd, because of Harvick’s experience, he’s sort of been through this before. And he has been successful at Bristol before, as well.

Harvick has two wins, one pole, 12 top-five finishes, 19 top-10s and has led a total of 912 laps in his 38 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Bristol. His average start is 16.7, his average finish is 13.8 and he has a lap-completion rate of 96.7 percent – 18,401 of the 19,027 laps available.

He has competed in 29 NASCAR Xfinity Series races there with five wins, 15 top-fives and 24 top-10 finishes with two pole positions. He has driven in five NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series events at Bristol and has one win and four top-10s.

Harvick will also have the support of longtime partner Hunt Brothers Pizza at Bristol Sunday.

With more than 7,800 locations in 30 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. To find a Hunt Brothers Pizza location, download the Hunt Brothers Pizza app by visitingwww.huntbrotherspizza.com/app/

Hunt Brothers Pizza has partnered with Harvick for 11 years and last visited victory lane with him when he won the 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. In 2019, Hunt Brothers moved up to the Cup Series as a primary sponsor for three races and, in 2020, will be on Harvick’s car five times.

Harvick has also won two Truck Series races with Hunt Brothers as a sponsor at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, and at Bristol, both in 2011. The company also sponsored him in the non-points NASCAR All-Star Race at Charlotte in 2014 and 2015. Harvick finished second in both races.

Harvick is hoping he can heat up at Bristol and score his second victory of 2020. And if he leads just one more lap, he will have led 10,000 laps in his SHR career dating back to 2014.

 

KEVIN HARVICK, Driver of the No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing: 

 

Is it hard to communicate inside the racecar at Bristol because everything happens so fast?

“It’s definitely loud and hard for the teams to hear. One of the hardest things at Bristol is just to see what’s going on. I have crashed at Bristol and gone back to watch it on TV and you’re like, ‘What in the hell were you doing? You just ran into four or five cars that have been sitting there for two seconds.’ But, Bristol is a very demanding racetrack. It’s very hard because things happen so fast, communication is hard. It’s easy to make a mistake or pile into a wreck. It’s easy to wreck somebody or to get into a fight. It’s easy to do a lot of things because there is just so much happening. It’s a tough place to race, to put it all together, and it’s mentally and physically exhausting.”

Can you talk about “the bounty” and Chase Elliott defeating Kyle Busch in the Truck Series race last Tuesday?

“I was sitting in my motorhome in Las Vegas and I woke up the next morning after Kyle (Busch) had won and saw a tweet from Kyle Larson that just had two cherries in it, which basically symbolizes cherry picking. When Delana (Harvick) and I used to own truck teams, that used to fly all over me, because I know how much time, effort and money it takes to get those trucks on the racetrack. I know how much work Kyle puts into putting those vehicles on the racetrack and I just thought, ‘What the heck, let’s put some money on the line and see if we can get some of these guys to come out and race in the Truck Series.’ You look at it the other night, with everything that has gone on in our sport with Chase (Elliott) and Kyle, to have them battling it out in the Truck Series and have Marcus Anthony Lemonis jump on board, it just wound up being a lot of fun. I really have a lot of respect for what Kyle Busch does and the effort he puts into putting those racetrucks on track and sometimes I think people forget the art of promoting. Sometimes you have to go out and give a little bit of nudge to create a little bit of excitement. As a fan, I love the Truck Series. I love to watch racing and, as a fan, I sat up with my son the other night watching and wondering what was going to happen. It was fun and exciting and it’s going to end up being a great donation once Chase decides where he wants take that $100,000 for charity during a time when there are so many things bigger than our sport right now. Our sport, once again, is going to step up just like we did during the first iRacing event at Homestead-Miami Speedway to donate some money to charity.”

CLINT BOWYER – 2020 Bristol I Race Advance

The slogan ‘Built Ford Proud’ is three simple words that hold so much history and meaning.

“There are hundreds of thousands of Ford employees and millions of customers all over the world who know exactly what ‘Built Ford Proud’ means,” said Clint Bowyer, whose No. 14 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) will carry blue and white “Built Ford Proud” decals Sunday in the 500-lap NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.

For most race fans the “Built Ford Proud” slogan creates images of the Mustang – Ford’s sporty coupe that Bowyer races in NASCAR – or the Ford F-150, the company’s popular pickup truck. The F-150 has been America’s best-selling truck for 43 consecutive years and the best-selling vehicle overall for 38 consecutive years.

“Built Ford Proud” represents the decades of hard work, consistent determination to be the best and ultimately, it represents the American spirit. When America faces a challenge the Ford Motor Company has a strong heritage of help.

The story of the “Arsenal of Democracy” and Ford Motor Company’s contributions to the war effort during World War II is one that is well known. Tanks, jeeps, and planes were rolling off Ford assembly lines. On the civilian front, Ford was providing resources for successful Victory Gardens as an answer to widespread food rationing.

In 1941, one of the greatest causes if infant mortality was premature birth, especially in rural areas of the country where the only substitute for the warmth of the mother’s body, the incubator, was seldom available. Henry Ford overheard a conversation about the development of a portable incubator, then had his experts and production line workers address the problem. Soon, infants were in Ford incubators across the country.

By the late 1940s, the Polio crisis was rising in the U.S. Ford plastics plant, production engineering facility, and tool & die departments combined talents to produce an iron lung for polio victims.

The examples are many and still apply today as Ford is once again answering the call to help America amid the COVID-19 virus. Ford joined forces with firms such as 3M and GE Healthcare to quickly expand production of urgently needed medical equipment and supplies for healthcare workers, first responders, and patients. From leveraging its in-house 3D printing capability to produce components for use in personal protective equipment, to beginning the production of urgently needed ventilators, Ford is stepping up.

“We are all in this together,” said Bowyer, whose No. 14 Mustang will carry an in-car camera Sunday at Bristol. “I’m proud of the way NASCAR, Ford and SHR are helping everyone out. This is bigger than racing.”

Since the onset of the pandemic, SHR has been building intensive care unit webcam carts for Novant Health. The team began building a prototype cart in mid-April for use in hospital ICUs. SHR recently delivered 10 of its ICU webcam carts to Novant Health with the plan to build 110 units over the coming weeks for use across Novant Health’s integrated system of physician practices, hospitals and outpatient centers.

NASCAR has led the way in the return of sports in America. Sunday will continue to see NASCAR operate under a comprehensive health and safety plan that permits no fans, limited crew, strict social distancing, and mandated personal protective equipment and health screenings for all, just as it did for each of the two races held in both Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway and Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.

It’s been rough sledding for Bowyer since NASCAR’s return to racing after the pandemic suspended competition for 10 weeks. He’s been consistently shown having one of the fastest cars on the track in the four races, but accidents, penalties and bad luck have plagued his finishes.

He enters Sunday’s race 14th in points after finishing 16th in Thursday night’s 500-kilometer race at Charlotte despite three penalties on pit road. A few days before, in Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600, Bowyer moved from 20th to 11th-place before a mechanical issue sent his No. 14 Mustang into the wall on lap 96 of the 400-lap race, leaving him with a 40th-place finish.

Bowyer finished 17th and 22nd in the two Darlington races the previous week. He ran in the top-six most of the May 17 race before problems in the final stage dropped him to 17th. On May 20 at Darlington, he won the first two stages – a first for a driver in 2020 – and led 71 laps to surpass the 3,000-laps-led mark for his career. But, once again, very late-race trouble that saw wall contact and a spin resulted in a disappointing finish.

Bowyer hopes Bristol is the track where he can turn it around. He owns seven top-five finishes in 28 starts there, including four consecutive top-10s. In last year’s April race at Bristol, Bowyer started eighth and finished second in Stage 1, and eighth in Stage 2. He took the lead with 125 laps remaining, but contact with Joey Logano with 60 laps remaining ruined his bid for victory, leaving him with a seventh-place finish.

Bowyer jokingly wished it would rain in Charlotte this week so NASCAR would schedule doubleheaders at Bristol. That could be because he has finished in the top-eight at Bristol in seven of the last nine races.

“I just like the place,” he said. “I’m a short-track racer and have a lot of confidence on these short tracks coming up. I hope it starts Sunday.”

There isn’t much rest planned for the days after Bristol. The Cup Series will return to action at Atlanta Motor Speedway on June 7, Martinsville (Va.) Speedway on June 10, Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway on June 14, and Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway on June 21.

 

CLINT BOWYER, Driver of the No. 14 ‘Built Ford Proud’ Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

 

What has it been like to be part of the Ford Family?

“What a treat. There are certain things in life, and I guess it all depends on how you grew up, but there are certain things that just hit you. Those surreal moments. I was texting my father, and a guy who means a lot to me and is really close to him and has been around hot rods and drag racing all my life, my whole upbringing. I was like, ‘You are never going to believe this. I am at Henry Ford’s estate with his great-grandson Edsel as a host at dinner.’ Did you hear what I just said? I am from a little town in Kansas and here I am at Henry Ford’s estate, looking at a power plant that he built off the river that charged his estate with the help of Edison. Edison, yes, that guy. It is unbelievable. It was just, my gosh. The pride that Edsel has in his family’s history. It was super cool to sit across the table from Edsel and hear him speak about the history and impact it has made in his life and in our country. It really was a surreal moment that hit me in a big way and I very much appreciated it. It was a very cool night.”

What are your thoughts on Bristol Motor Speedway?

“Anybody who hates Bristol shouldn’t be in racing because this is the mecca of all racetracks. This is the granddaddy of them all. There’s no question. Look at this place. Look at the grandstands. I mean, there’s nothing like this place, and tracks like this we need all across the country. A fan, if they want to be a fan of this sport, they need to learn short-track racing and they need to learn of Bristol Motor Speedway. There’s not a fan, a family member, a friend, anybody that I know that I wouldn’t point in the direction of Bristol Motor Speedway so, as a racer on the racetrack, it’s no different.”

What makes Bristol so special?

“Just the unknown, being able to go for it, being able to not worry about an aero push or horsepower deficit or whatever the case may be – get ahold of the steering wheel, get ahold of the gas pedal and make something happen and this is a track where you can do that.”

CLINT BOWYER – 2020 Charlotte II Race Report

Event: Alsco Uniforms 500k (Round 8 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway (1.5-mile oval)
Format: 208 laps, broken into three stages (55 laps/60 laps/93 laps)
Start/Finish: 39th/16th (Running, completed 208 of 208 laps)
Point Standing:14th with 192 points, 139 out of first

Race Winner:      Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner:  Joey Logano of Team Penske (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner:  Alex Bowman of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-55):

Clint Bowyer started 39th and finished 26th.
● The No. 14 PEAK Coolant & Antifreeze Ford Mustang moved from 39th to 29th by the lap 20 competition caution.
● A pit road speeding penalty forced Bowyer to pit twice during the caution and restart 37th on lap 25.
● Bowyer raced in 32nd-place when lightning and rain stopped the race on lap 31 for 75 minutes.
● Bowyer pitted before the restart, but too many crew members over the wall forced the No. 14 to the back of the field.
● Despite reporting he had “no rear grip,” Bowyer worked his way to 26th by the end of the stage.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 56-115):

Started 23rd, finished 11th.
● The No. 14 PEAK Coolant & Antifreeze Ford Mustang suffered minor damage after contact with another car during the opening laps of the stage.
● Bowyer stayed on the track during the lap 74 caution and restarted the race in 12th on lap 78.
● Bowyer quickly moved to ninth before the cars with newer tires dropped him to 11th by the end of the stage.
● Another pit road speeding penalty dropped him from ninth to 30th before the start of the final stage.

Final Stage Recap (Laps 116-208):

Started 30th, finished 16th.
● The No. 14 PEAK Coolant and Antifreeze Ford Mustang climbed to 24th with 70 to go.
● Bowyer pitted during the lap 145 caution and restarted 21st with 60 laps remaining.
● Bowyer moved to 18th with 40 laps to go and 16th with 30 to go.
● Bowyer held his position for the final laps of the race to finish 16th.

Notes:

●  Chase Elliott won the Alsco Uniforms 500k to score his seventh career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his first at Charlotte’s oval. His margin of victory over second-place Denny Hamlin was 2.208 seconds.
●  There were seven caution periods for a total of 37 laps.
●  Only 22 of the 40 drivers in the Alsco Uniforms 500k finished on the lead lap
●  Kevin Harvick remains the championship leader after Charlotte with a 14-point advantage over second-place Joey Logano.

Clint Bowyer, driver of the No. 14 PEAK Coolant & Antifreeze Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

“We need to figure something out for this place. We just had too many penalties tonight. We can’t make those kinds of mistakes.”

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Supermarket Heroes 500 on Sunday, May 31 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. The race starts at 3:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

KEVIN HARVICK – 2020 Charlotte II Race Report

Event: Alsco Uniforms 500k (Round 8 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway (1.5-mile oval)
Format: 208 laps, broken into three stages (55 laps/60 laps/93 laps)
Start/Finish: 16th/10th (Running, completed 208 of 208 laps)
Point Standing: 1st (331 points, 14 ahead of Joey Logano)

Race Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Joey Logano of Team Penske (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner: Alex Bowman of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-55):

●  Kevin Harvick started 16th and finished fourth, earning seven bonus points.
●  The Busch Light Ford Mustang driver said the car wasn’t bad. Moved up to sixth-place before he pitted for four tires, fuel and a tire pressure adjustment and tape on the grill. Restarted 14th as several drivers took two tires or stayed out.
●  By lap 31, Harvick was up to ninth when a rain delay stopped the race for almost 75 minutes.
●  On lap 43, Harvick cracked the top-five.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 56-115):

●  Kevin Harvick started third and finished fifth, earning six bonus points.
●  The Busch Light Ford Mustang driver pits for four tires and fuel on lap 59. Says No. 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang is a little tight, but good otherwise. Came in fourth, left third.
●  On lap 75 under caution, Harvick gave up the lead and pitted for four tires and fuel. Came out 16th.
●  By lap 89, Harvick was back in the top-10 and by lap 97 was in the top-five.

Stage 3 Recap (Laps 116-208):

●  Kevin Harvick started third and finished 10th.
●  The No. 4 Busch Light Ford pitted on lap 117 for four tires, fuel and no changes.
●  Harvick pitted for the final time on lap 146 for four tires, fuel and no changes. Came in first place and left in first place.
●  The No. 4 car led until lap 181, but was passed by eventual winner Chase Elliott. Harvick’s car faded and he finished 10th.

Notes:

●  Chase Elliott won the Alsco Uniforms 500k to score his seventh career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his first at Charlotte’s oval. His margin of victory over second-place Denny Hamlin was 2.208 seconds.
●  There were seven caution periods for a total of 37 laps and 22 of the 40 drivers in the Alsco Uniforms 500k finished on the lead lap.
●  Harvick remains the championship leader after Charlotte with a 14-point advantage over second-place Joey Logano.
●  Harvick earned his eighth top-10 of the season and his 19th top-10 in 38 career NASCAR Cup Series starts on the oval at Charlotte.
●  Harvick is the only NASCAR Cup Series driver to have finished in the top-10 in all eight races held this season.
●  Harvick has finished among the top-10 in 13 straight NASCAR Cup Series races, a streak that began on Oct. 20, 2019 when he finished ninth in the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City.
●  This was Harvick’s third straight top-10 at Charlotte’s oval. He finished sixth last Sunday in the Coca-Cola 600.
●  Harvick has finished outside the top-10 at Charlotte’s oval just twice since joining SHR in 2014.
●  Harvick finished fourth in Stage 1 to earn seven bonus points and fifth in Stage 2 to earn six more bonus points.
●  Harvick led three times for a race-high 63 laps to increase his laps-led total at Charlotte’s oval to 605.
●  Harvick has now led 9,999 laps since joining SHR in 2014. He has led 14,425 laps in his entire NASCAR Cup Series career.

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

“It just falls off after lap 30 and we knew that’s what we had with our Busch Light Ford and it went straight 60 some laps. They did a really good job turning the car around. It was the total opposite of what we ran last Sunday, so it was a good test session for us. We just didn’t need a long run.”

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Food City presents the Supermarket Heroes 500 on Sunday, May 31 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. The race starts at 3:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.