Month: September 2021

Riley Herbst Darlington NXS Race Report

Herbst Finishes 38th at Darlington
Accident Ends Monster Energy Ford Team’s Day Early

Date: Sept. 4, 2021
Event: Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 (Round 24 of 33)
Series: NASCAR Xfinity Series
Location: Darlington (S.C.) Raceway (1.366-mile oval)
Format: 147 laps, broken into three stages (45 laps/45 laps/57 laps)
Start/Finish: 7th / 38th (Accident, completed 107 of 152 laps)
Point Standing: 11th (555 points, 400 out of first)
Note: Race extended five laps past its scheduled 147-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.

Race Winner: Noah Gragson of JR Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Daniel Hemric of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 2 Winner: Noah Gragson of JR Motorsports (Chevrolet)

Overview:
Trouble found Riley Herbst and the No. 98 Monster Energy team again in Saturday’s Sports Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway after an accident ended the team’s day early and led to a 38th-place finish. The Las Vegas native was on a mission for a good finish from the drop of the green flag. He started seventh and, despite reporting an ill-handling racecar, Herbst continued to hold his position in the opening laps. The No. 98 Monster Energy driver ran in the top-10 for a majority of Stage 1 until his loose Ford Mustang caused him to fall back to 12th, where he ended the stage. When the caution came out on lap 45, crew chief Richard Boswell brought his driver down pit road for four tires, fuel and a major air-pressure adjustment to combat the balance issues. The Monster Energy team gained him three spots on pit road to restart seventh for Stage 2 on lap 53. On the restart, Herbst fought to stay in the top-10 but reported that his Ford Mustang needed more front turn. He fell back to 12th but surged forward in the final six laps of the stage as the front end of the car started to come back to him. Ultimately, he would end up 11th in the second stage. During the stage break, Herbst came down pit road for four fresh tires, fuel and another air-pressure adjustment. Unfortunately, Herbst was forced to come down pit road a second time to work on his Ford Mustang. He restarted the final stage 29th and didn’t waste time in his drive back to the front. He broke into the top-20 on lap 106, just eight laps after the start of the final stage. On lap 107, Herbst was continuing his race to the front when the No. 44 of Tommy Joe Martins slowed on the track in front of him. With nowhere to go, the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang collided with the back of the slow car. The team would have to end its day 40 laps short of the scheduled race distance.

Riley Herbst, driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“I’m fine. I really wanted to see the replay before I comment any further, but I didn’t know why they were stopping in the center of the straightaway at Darlington. That’s kind of crazy, but I think we’re still good on points and hopefully we can go to Richmond with that cushion. Hopefully, we can gain a few more points there and then we’ll be a little bit more comfortable for Bristol. It was up-and-down, for sure. We definitely got better there at the end and we had decent pace. It’s just frustrating why somebody is stopping on the back straightaway.”

Notes:
● Noah Gragson won the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 to score his third career Xfinity Series victory, his first of the season and his first at Darlington. His margin over second-place Harrison Burton was .219 of a second.
● There were eight caution periods for a total of 41 laps.
● Twenty-seven of the 40 drivers in the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 finished on the lead lap.
● AJ Allmendinger remains the championship leader after Darlington with a one-point advantage over second-place Austin Cindric

Next Up:
The next event on the Xfinity Series schedule is the Go Bowling 250 on Saturday, Sept. 11 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. The race starts at 2:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBCSN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

-SHR-

SHR Post-Race Report: Darlington

STEWART-HAAS RACING
Cook Out Southern 500

Date: Sept. 5, 2021
Event: Cook Out Southern 500 (Round 27 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Darlington (S.C.) Raceway (1.366-mile oval)
Format: 367 laps, broken into three stages (115 laps/115 laps/137 laps)

Race Winner: Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 1 Winner: Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 2 Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)

SHR Race Finish:
● Kevin Harvick (Started 9th, Finished 5th / Running, completed 367 of 367 laps)
● Cole Custer (Started 31st, Finished 11th / Running, completed 367 of 367 laps)
● Aric Almirola (Started 8th, Finished 16th / Running, completed 366 of 367 laps)
● Chase Briscoe (Started 24th, Finished 19th / Running, completed 366 of 367 laps)

SHR Points:
● Kevin Harvick (7th with 2,046 points, 20 points ahead of top-12 cutoff)
● Aric Almirola (11th with 2,029 points, three points ahead of top-12 cutoff)
● Chase Briscoe (23rd with 484 points)
● Cole Custer (28th with 421 points)

Playoff Standings (with two races to go before Round of 12):
1. Denny Hamlin (2,072 points) 1 win
2. Kyle Larson (2,106 points) +80 points
3. Martin Truex Jr. (2,062 points) +36 points
4. Kurt Busch (2,062 points) +26 points
5. Ryan Blaney (2,048 points) +22 points
6. Joey Logano (2,047 points) +21 points
7. Kevin Harvick (2,046 points) +20 points
8. Brad Keselowski (2,038 points) +12 points
9. Christopher Bell (2,031 points) +6 points
10. Chase Elliott (2,030 points) +4 points
11. Aric Almirola (2,029 points) +3 points
12. Alex Bowman (2,026 points) +0 points
13. Tyler Reddick (2,026 points) -0 points
14. Kyle Busch (2,024 points) -2 points
15. William Byron (2,017 points) -9 points
16. Michael McDowell (2,006 points) -20 points

SHR Notes:
● Harvick earned his seventh top-five and 17th top-10 of the season, and his 12th top-five and 17th top-10 in 28 career starts at Darlington.
● Harvick’s 12 top-fives and 17 top-10s at Darlington are the most among active NASCAR Cup Series drivers.
● This was Harvick’s 12th straight top-10 at Darlington. He hasn’t finished outside the top-10 since a 16th-place result in May 2012.
● This was Harvick’s seventh straight top-15, a streak that began July 11 with an 11th-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
● Harvick finished fifth in Stage 1 to earn six bonus points and fifth in Stage 2 to earn six more bonus points.
● Harvick led once for 20 laps, increasing his laps led total at Darlington to 802.
● Harvick has now led 11,270 laps since joining SHR in 2014. He has led 15,604 laps in his entire NASCAR Cup Series career.
● Almirola finished eighth in Stage 1 to earn three bonus points.
● Briscoe was the highest finishing NASCAR Cup Series rookie for the 23rd time this season.
● Custer earned his sixth top-15 of the season and his second top-15 in five career starts at Darlington.
● Custer’s 11th-place result bettered his previous best finish at Darlington – 12th, earned in last year’s Southern 500.

Race Notes:
● Denny Hamlin won the Cook Out Southern 500 to score his 45th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his fourth at Darlington. His margin over second-place Kyle Larson was .212 of a second.
● There were 11 caution periods for a total of 52 laps.
● Only 15 of the 37 drivers in the Cook Out Southern 500 finished on the lead lap.

Darlington Quotes

Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“We finished on a flat tire. We had to pit for a loose wheel or a tire coming apart or something and got a lap down, and then got the lucky dog and just a lot going on. That’s pretty typical of this race, though. I just want to thank everybody on our Busch Light Ford Mustang. Our guys have done a great job. We led a bunch of laps early and had a fast racecar and were able to capitalize on a good day. This is just always one of those races that has a lot of stuff happen and you have to keep yourself rolling and keep your car clean, and that’s what we did tonight. We had a few little issues, but we worked through them and were able to have a fast enough car that we could run top-five and the rest of it, for us to run first or second we would need to be first or second like we were earlier in clean air. When we had the clean air we drove away, so it’s just kind of the way it is everywhere.”

Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com/Founders Federal Credit Union Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“The HighPoint.com/Founders Federal Credit Union Ford Mustang was pretty good on the long run once we made some adjustments and the sun went down, but the handling just wasn’t where we needed it to be overall. We’ve still got time to get a win before the season’s over. This was just an off day that we’ll move on from and try to keep improving over the next nine races.”

Cole Custer, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Demo Day Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“Today was an up and down day. Our Ford Mustang started to come to us there at the end. Mike (Shiplett, crew chief) made a great call to keep us out in that second-to-last caution and put us back in the race. That strategy worked out in our favor, and we scored another top-15 for this HaasTooling.com Demo Day team.”

Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“We had a good car today, and we had good speed. We had a great day and our pit crew was on fire until the caution came out late in the race and put us a lap down. The strategy just didn’t play out for us there, but that’s how it goes. We controlled as much as we could control and showed we’re serious contenders.”

Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Federated Auto Parts 400 Salute to First Responders on Saturday, Sept. 11 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. The second race of the 10-race NASCAR Playoffs starts at 7:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBCSN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

-SHR-

In the Know – Darlington

“In the Know”
Darlington Raceway

The Cook Out Southern 500 is a NASCAR Crown Jewel. Darlington Raceway is a family tradition and a premier Labor Day weekend destination spot. The 2021 season marks the track’s 71st anniversary, and has hosted 120 NASCAR Cup Series races. The first was on September 4, 1950. It was the first 500-mile race in NASCAR history and the first on asphalt.

“The sport is ready for a return visit to Darlington this weekend, and there is a lot to be excited about,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “Darlington has so much history and is so important to our sport. It has been a staple on the Cup schedule since the 1950s, and has provided a serious challenge to drivers over the generations. The abrasive track surface puts the onus on drivers to manage their tires and team members to keep up with the track and perform fast and consistent pit stops throughout a long race.”

Our drivers will try to tame the Lady in Black, while we kick off the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. For the 15th time in his career, Harvick is a part of it. Harvick qualified for the playoffs by virtue of his ninth-place finish in the regular-season standings. This is his 12th consecutive playoff appearance. Harvick won the championship in 2014.

This is the fourth consecutive playoff appearance in Aric Almirola’s four years at Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) and fifth playoff appearance of his 12-year career. Almirola locked himself into the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs with his victory July 18 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon.

The Details

● Event: Cookout Southern 500 (Round 27 of 36)
● Time/Date: 6 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Sept. 5
● Location: Darlington (S.C.) Raceway
● Layout: 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval
● Laps/Miles: 367 laps/501.3 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 115 laps / Stage 2: 115 laps / Final Stage: 137 laps
● TV/Radio: NBCSN / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

What Our Drivers are Saying:

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

You say you’re not going to change your approach, despite not scoring a win yet this season. Is it hard to stick with what got you to the playoffs, or is this where your experience comes into play?
“You can pull something apart a whole lot faster than you can build it. As you look through the years, it’s very easy to sit back and just chime in and jump all over people. That’s really easy. Obviously, there are still times that you need to do that, but the thing I’ve learned is the fact that you’ve got a group of people around that you know can win and do the things that you need to do, but sometimes you’re just off. The problem solving in our world is difficult, and sometimes it’s a whole bunch of small things, and trying to push something – and I’ve done it a couple of times this year on the racetrack – you try to push something a little bit further than it can go and you wind up with the fenders torn off and you make bad worse. There’s no reason to make the problem worse than it needs to be. You have to be part of the process and the solution in order to solve the equation. Obviously, we all want to win and run better and do the things that we need to do, but Saturday night (at Daytona) kind of sums up the way it’s gone this year. You think you’re in a good position and don’t make it through the last corner. That’s just kind of the way that it’s gone. You ride the wave down just like you ride the wave up. You just hope that your wave down is shorter than most people’s and you can ride that wave back up when it’s right.”

Aric Almirola, Driver of the No. 10 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Looking through the playoffs what will it take to be successful and where do you think you team stacks up?
“As we eye the playoffs, it’s really just about doing everything perfect and maximizing the day that you have. All of those things add up to results and that’s what we really focus on as we dive into the playoffs – not making mistakes and not taking yourself out of contention, making sure we maximize every single race weekend and every single lap. I feel like we stack up nicely with the competition despite what the results of the year may show. The rules package in some of the first few races is the rules package that we’ve had the most success with and won with at New Hampshire. There are certainly going to be some challenges at a few of the tracks in the playoffs, and there will be some where our competition is better. I’m looking forward to the challenge and I think there are some really good tracks in the playoffs for us.”

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com/Founders Federal Credit Union Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

We know you’re capable of winning at Darlington, and the May race result showed that your comfort with the track has transferred to the Cup Series. Can you improve on that finish this weekend?
“I really think this will be a good racetrack for us. It’s too bad we’re not in the playoffs, but we ran really well there in the spring and nearly had a top-10. We’ve got a good baseline to work off of and hopefully we can keep chipping away at it this weekend and show the progress we’ve made.”

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

Is there a race you’re looking forward to more than any of the others over these last 10 events of the season?
“I would say Darlington is one I’m looking forward to. It’s one of those races that every driver looks forward to because of the challenge behind it and how much you can do as a driver. There are so many different lanes you can work and you’re running right up against the wall. It’s just a driver’s racetrack and I feel there’s not one guy who doesn’t feel excited when they hear Darlington is coming up.”

SHR Stats

Kevin Harvick is the defending winner of the Southern 500. In last year’s race, the driver of the No. 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang led three times for 32 laps, including the final 13, to beat second-place Austin Dillon by .343 of a second. It was Harvick’s eighth win of 2020. He would go on to win one more race – the Sept. 19 Bass Pro Shops/NRA Night Race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. His nine wins in a single season were a series-best and career-best, all in Harvick’s 20th year of NASCAR Cup Series racing.

Darlington is known as “The Track Too Tough To Tame” but Harvick has tamed the venerable 1.366-mile oval three times. The 45-year-old racer from Bakersfield, California, owns two Southern 500 victories (2014 and 2020) and one win in the track’s 400-mile race. In fact, Harvick enters Darlington with an impressive record – he hasn’t finished outside the top-10 since 2012.

In 12 starts at the 1.33-mile egg-shaped oval, Aric Almirola has earned two top-10 finishes, which came in back-to-back starts last year in May and September. In his most recent start, the Smithfield Ford team was forced to start at the rear of the field and, after proving to have speed by gaining 10 positions in only six laps, Almirola’s day was cut short when the No. 47 contacted his rear bumper and spun him into the inside wall.

Saturday’s 500-mile race will be Cole Custer’s 66th Cup Series start and his and his fifth on the 1.366-mile, egg-shaped oval. The reigning Cup Series Rookie of the Year’s 12th-place finish in the Southern 500 last September was the best of his three Darlington outings in 2020. In this year’s Southern 500 at Darlington in May, an accident during Stage 2 of the race ended his day prematurely.

When the Cup Series visited Darlington on May 9, Chase Briscoe started 22nd and worked his way into the top-10 over the course of the 293-lap race. With two laps to go, while battling for a 10th-place finish, he made contact with the outside wall and ultimately crossed the line 11th. In the Xfinity Series, Briscoe claimed the victory in the series’ first trip to The Lady in Black, outdueling the winningest driver in Xfinity Series history, Kyle Busch. In his three career Xfinity Series starts at Darlington, Briscoe has finished no worse than 11th. As the final 10-race stretch of the season begins for Chase Briscoe and the No. 14 Ford Mustang team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, so does the final push in the pursuit of the NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year title. Though Briscoe is not part of the playoff field, he does have a chance to become just the third driver to earn Rookie of the Year honors in NASCAR’s top three national series. He would also be the first former ARCA Racing Series Rookie of the Year titleholder to accomplish the feat.

Of Special Interest

Be sure to check out our merch hauler at Darlington Raceway this weekend! If you can’t attend in person, you can shop anytime at store.stewarthaasracing.com