Month: March 2022

In The Know – COTA

This weekend marks NASCAR’s second appearance at COTA. The 3.426-mile, 20-turn road course was constructed in 2011 and has been America’s home to Formula One since the global motorsports series returned to America with the 2012 United States Grand Prix. Get up-to-speed on everything you need to know as we head to Austin, TX to take on our first road course of the season.

The Details

NASCAR Cup Series Overview

●  Event:  EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (Round 6 of 36)
●  Time/Date:  3:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 27
●  Location:  Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas
●  Layout:  3.426-mile, 20-turn road course
●  Laps/Miles:  68 laps/231.88 miles
●  Stage Lengths:  Stage 1: 15 laps / Stage 2: 15 laps / Final Stage: 38 laps
●  TV/Radio:  FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

The BRODCAST

The boss is back in the booth for COTA! Catch all the action on Fox.

SHR FAST FACTS

Kevin Harvick:
Harvick has made a total of 49 NASCAR Cup Series starts on road courses. He has 20 starts at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway, 20 at Watkins Glen, four at the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval, two on the road course at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, and one apiece at COTA, Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, and the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He has scored two wins – Watkins Glen in 2006 and Sonoma in 2017 – along with 10 top-fives and 24 top-10s with 195 laps led.

Harvick has two starts at COTA – one in the NASCAR Cup Series and one in the NASCAR Xfinity Series – and both came last year in NASCAR’s inaugural visit to the track. Harvick finished a strong fourth in the Xfinity Series race before suffering a DNF (Did Not Finish) in the Cup Series race due to an accident 19 laps into the 54-lap race, which was shortened 14 laps from its scheduled 68-lap distance due to heavy rain.

When Harvick scored his first road-course victory at Watkins Glen in 2006, he had to beat his current team owner to do it. Tony Stewart – the “Stewart” in Stewart-Haas Racing – had won the past two NASCAR Cup Series races at the seven-turn, 2.45-mile road course and was poised to capture a third straight win as he was leading Harvick with four laps to go in the 90-lap race. But Harvick, who had already led once for 24 laps, passed Stewart on lap 87 as the two drag-raced down the frontstretch and into turn one. Harvick held onto the lead despite Stewart in his rearview mirror, earning a margin of victory of .892 of a second.

Aric Almirola:
Aric Almirola is the only driver in the NASCAR Cup Series who has finished on the lead lap in every race this season.

Almirola’s average finish of 10.2 through the first five races places him second among all drivers this season. It’s his best average finish through five races in 10 fulltime Cup Series seasons.

Almirola is the only NASCAR Cup Series driver to finish in the top-10 in this year’s opening three races. He finished fifth in the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, sixth at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, and sixth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Almirola’s top-10 streak ended with a 12th-place finish at Phoenix Raceway despite running inside the top-10 throughout the race.

Chase Briscoe:
Chase Briscoe and the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) head to Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, for the sixth stop on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule. The 27-year-old driver is fresh off a frustrating 15th-place result at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Briscoe started on the pole and led five of the first six laps of the race before getting hung out of the pack and falling toward the back of the field. The No. 14 team worked its way back into the top-five before Briscoe and Ford Performance teammate Ryan Blaney got loose while making a run for the lead and made contact with the outside wall on the final lap.

With five races complete, Briscoe currently holds a spot in the 16-driver playoff field by virtue of his win two weekends ago at Phoenix Raceway. He has two top-five finishes and sits third in points, 15 behind leader Chase Elliott.

In last year’s inaugural event at COTA, Briscoe earned his first Cup Series top-10, finishing sixth after starting 27th. He went on to earn two additional top-10s, both coming at road course events – sixth at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, and ninth at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International. When the Cup Series took to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in August, Briscoe qualified second and led 12 laps, nearly earning his first Cup Series victory before going off track with two laps to go and incurring a penalty that ended his bid.

Cole Custer:
This weekend’s 68-lap, 231-mile race marks Custer’s 81st career NASCAR Cup Series start and his 10th on a road course. His best road-course outing in the Cup Series was an impressive ninth-place run on the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval in October 2020. In February 2021, he rallied for a 13th-place finish on the Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway road course after dropping back as far as 24th while avoiding a multicar accident in the closing laps.

In his 11 road-course outings in the NASCAR Xfinity Series from 2017 through 2019, Custer finished outside the top-10 just once with a best result of fourth in the 2018 race at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

Custer has top-10s in all three of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series outings on road courses, all three occurring at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario. His best was his most recent, a second-place run from the pole with a race-high 39 laps led in the No. 00 JR Motorsports entry in 2016. He also made three starts apiece on the road courses at Sonoma and Watkins Glen in NASCAR K&N Pro Series competition, with best finishes of third in the 2016 East Series race at Watkins Glen after having qualified on the pole there the previous year, and fourth in the 2019 West Series race at Sonoma.

OUR WEEKLY WRAPS

We’re bringing some sharp schemes to our first road course race of the season. Check out the wraps. we’ll have at COTA.

What Our Drivers are Saying:

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

Last year’s race at COTA was your first at the track. How did you prepare to race on a track you had never been to before?
“My big thing is just memorizing what’s next on the racetrack. You’re never going to get a good feel for the elevation, but I think the Ford simulator gives the best sense of how our GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang will perform at COTA. You’re able to sit in your own seat and have your own steering wheel and you’re just in a more realistic surrounding. In iRacing, I spent a lot of time in the V8 Supercar just making laps and trying to make sure I knew the direction of the corners before I got to the simulator so I understood what I was getting into.”

Aric Almirola, Driver of the No. 10 Rush Truck Centers/Mobil Delvac 1 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Do you enjoy road racing, and how do you continue to hone your craft?
“I have enjoyed road racing and I’ve strived to get better at it. Road racing is not something I grew up doing. I grew up racing go-karts on dirt ovals and then I went to stock car racing on asphalt ovals. I never did any road racing at all until I actually got to NASCAR. That was when I got introduced to road racing and I had a steep learning curve to catch up. I have really enjoyed honing my craft at road racing and trying to figure out how to get better. Having Ford Performance as our partner is so key to improving us on road courses, as well. I’m going to spend about four hours this week sitting in the simulator, logging laps at COTA to get as much practice as possible. That’s really our only chance to practice, so I’m going to put full focus on it this week and hope it pays off.”

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

What are your thoughts about COTA based on last year’s race?
“From the racetrack standpoint, I feel like I’m kind of going there for the first time, just because last year I don’t think I ever ran a single lap in the dry. I think we practiced, qualified, everything in the wet, so it’s going to be like learning a whole new racetrack this week. I know from a facility standpoint it’s pretty remarkable. It’s super cool to go out there. Even last year in the rain, there were a ton of fans out there, so I’m excited to see what it looks like this year. I didn’t get to do a ton of exploring in the city last year, but I know Austin is a really cool town. I’m going to try to do a little bit more this year while we’re there, just because we’re there a little bit longer than usual. I’m super excited to get back. I’m really excited, truthfully, just to get this Next Gen car on a road course. Based on some of the testing we did on the (Charlotte) Roval, they’re a blast to run on the road course. I’m curious to see what the racing will be like. I think it will definitely change the landscape of these road-course races. I think you’re going to see a lot more guys that are competitive than in years past because you can drive this car so much harder. It does a lot of things a lot better than the old car, so it’ll be interesting to see how that works out and plays out. It looks like the weather is going to be really good and it should be a great show.”

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

In general, what is it like to race on a road course in a stock car?
“It’s like driving a bulldozer around. A lot of road courses are meant for small cars that can move around that are really agile, where a stock car is really bulky and we’re beating and banging around. But this new NextGen car should handle a lot better than what we’re used to. The body being more symmetrical is a huge benefit. The changes to steering and the sequential shifter will all make a difference this weekend. We’ve seen a lot of great racing with the new car but now we get to see what it does on a road course which should make for some really exciting racing.”

OF INTEREST: THE COTA TRACK

Contrast best describes a lap around COTA. High speed and rapid changes of direction comprise the layout between turns two and 10, with this first sector akin to the Maggotts-Becketts-Chapel complex at the famed Silverstone Circuit in England. The end of the lap from turn 12 through turn 20 before hitting the frontstretch features low-speed combinations. The long backstraight, however, is where drivers want to retain as much speed as possible to either attack or defend through the tight turn 12. This corner, along with the uphill run to turn one and the hairpin in turn 11, provide good passing opportunities.

One cure: helping to speed up the cure

Custer and the No. 41 Ford Mustang team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) will be joined for the first time this season by the One Cure project, which is led by the Flint Animal Cancer Center at Colorado State University with a mission to find a cancer cure through research benefiting man’s best friend. It is founded on the principle that cancer affects all creatures and that treatment breakthroughs come through collaboration between scientists and doctors working with people and animals. This approach is known as comparative oncology and it is the guiding concept of One Cure and the Flint Animal Cancer Center. The center works to improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer in pets, and teams with the human medical field to translate research findings that will help people with cancer.The center, located in Colorado State’s James L. Voss Veterinary Teaching Hospital, sees more than 1,500 new animal cancer patients every year, with approximately 130 of them enrolled in carefully monitored clinical trials specific to their cancer type. The canine and feline patients are helping pioneer cancer research, moving cutting-edge treatments out of the laboratory and into clinical practice, ultimately providing hope for the next generation of animal and human cancer patients. Learn more about their efforts here.

In The Know – Atlanta

We’re headed to the 404 of this weekend. Below is everything you need to know about SHR storylines heading into Atlanta and how to catch all the racing action over the weekend.

The Details

NASCAR Cup Series Overview

●  Event:  Folds of Honor 500 (Round 5 of 36)
●  Time/Date:  3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 20
●  Location:  Atlanta Motor Speedway
●  Layout:  1.54-mile oval
●  Laps/Miles:  325 laps/500.5 miles
●  Stage Lengths:  Stage 1: 105 laps / Stage 2: 105 laps / Final Stage: 115 laps
●  TV/Radio:  FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

The SCHEDULE

Friday’s on-track activity at Atlanta Motor Speedway was canceled due to weather, so NASCAR canceled Saturday’s qualifying session in order to get practice in. The lineup was set by the rulebook, and Chase Briscoe will the Cup Series field to green on Sunday.

The Cup Series’ practice is now set for 12:40 p.m. ET on Saturday, and the Cup Series race is Sunday at 3 p.m. ET. Catch all the action on Fox.

SHR FAST FACTS

Kevin Harvick:
Harvick has three NASCAR Cup Series wins at Atlanta. His first at the track was the first of his career, and it came a little over 20 years ago on March 11, 2001. The Cracker Barrel Old Country Store 500 was just Harvick’s third race in a Cup Series car. He started fifth in the 325-lap contest and led twice for 18 laps, including the final six. But Harvick had to earn the win on the final lap and hold off a then three-time champion in Jeff Gordon. Harvick succeeded, outdueling the eventual 2001 series champion to take the win by a scant .006 margin of victory – the seventh-closest finish in NASCAR history.

Of course, the backstory to that first win is significant. Harvick wasn’t just driving any racecar when he won at Atlanta. He was driving the racecar that less than a month earlier had been piloted by the sport’s titan, Dale Earnhardt. The seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion died on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. Team owner Richard Childress tabbed Harvick, who was racing for him in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, to pull double-duty and take over Earnhardt’s Cup ride. The No. 3, made iconic by Earnhardt, was changed to the No. 29 and Harvick made his Cup Series debut Feb. 25 at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham. Harvick started 36th that Sunday at Rockingham, but rain washed over the 1.017-mile oval just 51 laps into the 393-lap race. The race resumed at 11 a.m. ET on Monday, whereupon Harvick drove to a solid 14th-place finish. He then traveled to Las Vegas on Tuesday, married his wife, DeLana, on Wednesday, and was back in a racecar on Friday, competing in both the Xfinity Series and Cup Series events at Las Vegas. After finishing eighth on Sunday to score his first career top-10 in the Cup Series, Harvick headed to Atlanta where the first of his 58 career Cup Series wins was secured.

Aric Almirola:
Almirola’s average finish of 7.3 through the first four races tops all drivers this season. It’s his best average finish through four races in 10 full-time Cup Series seasons. His average finish is even more impressive in light of the No. 10 team’s average starting position of 23.5, which ranks 25th in the series.

Almirola’s track record at superspeedways provides a promising outlook for success at Atlanta this weekend, where drivers and teams are expecting pack-style racing akin to events at Daytona and Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. Almirola has two wins, seven top-fives, 13 top-10s and 84 laps led at Daytona and Talladega. Last June, he scored his eighth-consecutive top-10 at Talladega to tie the track record for most consecutive top-10s. The mark was originally set by Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr., between April 2001 and October 2004. Almirola finished fifth in his most recent superspeedway start in this year’s season-opening Daytona 500.

Almirola arrives at Atlanta sixth in the driver standings with 122 points, 14 out of first.

Chase Briscoe:
Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), earned his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory Sunday at Phoenix Raceway. He joins Alan Kulwicki (1988) and Bobby Hamilton (1996) as the third driver to earn his first Cup Series win at the desert mile oval. He is also the first Cup Series driver to take a car carrying the No. 14 to victory lane at Phoenix, and is the 200th Cup Series winner of all time.

Briscoe started sixth at Phoenix and led three times for 101 laps. He held off a late-race charge from Tyler Reddick and Ross Chastain during a lap-293 restart and was in the top spot when the caution flag flew on lap 305 of the scheduled 312-lap race, setting up a green-white-checkered shootout. The 27-year-old from Mitchell, Indiana, then drove away from Reddick, Chastain and nine-time Phoenix winner and SHR teammate Kevin Harvick, among others, to score his first win in NASCAR’s top series and the first win for the No. 14 team since 2018. Clint Bowyer drove the No. 14 SHR Ford to victory in that year’s June race at Michigan.

Sunday’s Phoenix win came in just the 40th career start for the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year. It was just the fourth race for the new NextGen car, NASCAR’s latest version of stock car that debuted in 1949. In four races this season, Briscoe has earned a win, two top-three finishes and his career-best staring position on an oval – third at Las Vegas Motor Speedway the previous weekend. He is tied with Kyle Larson for fourth in the driver standings and currently holds a spot in the 16-driver playoff field.

Cole Custer:
Cole Custer, driver of the No. 41 Dixie Vodka Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), will be making his milestone 80th career NASCAR Cup Series start during Sunday’s Folds of Honor 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. But even though the 2020 Cup Series Rookie of the Year has made three previous Cup Series starts on the 1.54-mile oval and another four in NASCAR’s Xfinity Series and Camping World Truck Series combined, he will in essence be seeing the 62-year-old facility for the first time this weekend. The track underwent a wholesale reconfiguration and repave since Custer and his fellow Cup Series competitors last raced there in July, its banking increased from 24 to 28 degrees, the racing surface narrowed from 55 to 40 feet wide, and it has been completely resurfaced with fresh asphalt and an improved, high-tech drainage system.

OUR WEEKLY WRAPS

Harvick flying with the Mobil 1 Pegasus. Almirola sizzling with Smithfield. Briscoe in HighPoint.com blue.  Custer looking smooth with Dixie Vodka. We’ve got some great wraps heading to Atlanta.

What Our Drivers are Saying:

Kevin Harvick, Driver of the No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

You’re going to a whole new Atlanta with a whole new car. How do you tackle that?
“Atlanta is a race where you have some actual practice, so that’s a good thing. It’s another element that you have to add in there with the grip level of the racetrack and the new asphalt and everything that comes with that, and where to run on the racetrack. So, you have things that are just going to chew up time on practice day as far as learning what you need to do from the driver’s seat, and that progression of the racetrack definitely affects the handling of the racecar. There are just so many challenges in the beginning of the year with new racetracks and new cars and logistics and you just have to be very open-minded. You have to take it one step at a time and not get too frustrated with everything that’s going to be going on because there’s going to be a lot to digest.”

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

Do you think the configuration will race similarly to Talladega and Daytona?
“I don’t know. I don’t think so because it’s not as big of a racetrack. The corner radiuses are a lot narrower and tighter and so I don’t know how it’s going to play out. I know that our cars will probably drive fine. I think there is going to be a ton of grip with that high of banking and a newly paved track, but I don’t know how the cars are going to race. Are we going to pack race or not? All of those things are a big question mark.”

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Have you noticed any significant strides in yourself or the team compared to last year?
“I think from a confidence standpoint I feel like I belong this year. Last year, it was very ‘eyes wide open.’ I was racing against guys I had watched on TV for years and that I’ve looked up to. Now I don’t look at the 18 car and go, ‘That’s Kyle Busch.’ It’s just the 18 car, another guy out there. I think that confidence has come a long way. Obviously with the results, the confidence builds. I feel like I belong. Especially, now, winning, I’ve proven I belong in the Cup Series. When you come in in your rookie year, you think you’re ready, but you’re never ready. To run up front and lead laps is special, for sure.”

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

The Daytona 500 and the West Coast swing are in the rearview mirror. How do you like the new NextGen car, so far?
“I think from my experience with the car they’ve done a solid job. Obviously, the mile-and-a-half tracks, where a lot of aerodynamics come into play, has been very interesting. You don’t have the sideforce that you want in the car to really have the confidence that you want, but it makes it very interesting as the driver to kind of find that limit and try not to go over because I think we’ve seen a lot of guys do that. And then, I think we’ve seen a lot of people who aren’t usually in the top-10 from the past racing up front. It’s been crazy. Even after four races, I think it’s still very much an even playing field just because nobody has figured out this car completely, yet. It’s anybody’s game right now and this weekend brings another new adventure.”

OF INTEREST: ATLANTA’S RECONSTRUCTION

Atlanta’s sports venues seemingly age quickly. The Georgia Dome, which played host to the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and was the site of two Super Bowls (1994 and 2000) and the 1996 Summer Olympics, only lasted 25 years before being demolished in favor of the state-of-the-art Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which opened its doors in August 2017. Nearby Turner Field was home to the Atlanta Braves for just 19 years before the MLB team moved to a brand-new stadium – Truist Park – just north of the city in March 2017. (Turner Field still exists, but it’s now a football stadium for Georgia State University, whose football program debuted in 2010.) Atlanta Motor Speedway has taken a page from the playbook of its stick-and-ball neighbors and reinvented itself for a second time after a massive reconfiguration back in 1997 changed the track from a regular, 1.522-mile oval to a quad-oval that measured in at 1.54 miles. That layout quickly became one of the fastest on the entire NASCAR Cup Series schedule, a point proven when Geoff Bodine ventured onto the new surface on Nov. 15, 1997 and turned a lap at 197.478 mph – a track record that was never broken. Now, 25 years later, like its Atlanta sports venue brethren, the Atlanta Motor Speedway we once knew is all new. It is still 1.54 miles in length, but the banking has been increased from 24 degrees to 28 degrees, and the track has been narrowed from 55-feet wide to 40-feet wide, and it’s all covered in fresh asphalt. The goal of the reconstruction was to re-create the kind of pack-style racing seen at the behemoth, 2.5-mile Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway and the even bigger 2.66-mile Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. Will it work? We’ll find out when cars hit the track this Friday for practice before qualifying on Saturday and the Folds of Honor 500 on Sunday.

In The Know – Phoenix

We’re ready to bring the heat to Phoenix. Below is everything you need to know about SHR storylines and how to catch all the racing action in the desert this weekend.

The Details

NASCAR Cup Series Overview

●  Event:  Ruoff Mortgage 500k (Round 4 of 36)
●  Time/Date:  3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 13
●  Location:  Phoenix Raceway
●  Layout:  1-mile oval
●  Laps/Miles:  312 laps/312 miles (502 kilometers)
●  Stage Lengths:  Stage 1: 60 laps / Stage 2: 125 laps / Final Stage: 127 laps
●  TV/Radio:  FOX / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

The Broadcast Schedule

Take in all the racing action from Phoenix. From practice and qualifying to the grand finale on Sunday,  there is plenty of racing action to catch.

SHR FAST FACTS

Kevin Harvick:
Who owns Phoenix Raceway? NASCAR or Kevin Harvick? NASCAR owns the facility, at least on paper, but Harvick owns the track. The driver of the No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) has won a record nine NASCAR Cup Series races at the 1-mile oval. No other active Cup Series driver has won more than three races at Phoenix. Former Cup Series driver Jimmie Johnson is the closest to Harvick with four wins at the track.

Harvick hasn’t finished outside the top-10 in his last 17 starts at Phoenix. The last time he finished outside the top-10 was March 3, 2013 when he finished 13th. That was nearly 10 years ago when the San Francisco Giants were the reigning World Series champions, the Baltimore Ravens were just a month removed from winning Super Bowl XLVII, the Miami Heat were marching toward their second straight NBA championship, and the Chicago Blackhawks were on their way to hoisting the Stanley Cup. Kyle Larson, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion, still wasn’t old enough to enjoy a Busch Light, and Austin Cindric, winner of this year’s Daytona 500, was in eighth grade.

Of Harvick’s nine NASCAR Cup Series victories at Phoenix, he won four straight between November 2013 and March 2015. The streak ended when Harvick finished second at Phoenix in November 2015, but when the series returned to the track in March 2016, Harvick won again. Harvick is the only driver to win four Cup Series races in a row at Phoenix. Johnson was next best with three straight wins between November 2007 and November 2008. Only five drivers have won consecutive Cup Series races at Phoenix, but Harvick is the only driver to win consecutive races twice, as he also swept both races in 2006.

In 38 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Phoenix, Harvick has earned an average finish of 8.8, the best of any active Cup Series driver. Denny Hamlin is next best with an average finish of 10.5 over 33 Cup Series starts.

Aric Almirola:
Almirola is the only NASCAR Cup Series driver with three consecutive top-10 finishes in the first three races of the season. He finished fifth in the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, sixth at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, and sixth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway – making it Almirola’s best season through three races in 10 fulltime Cup Series seasons.

Almirola’s average finish of 5.7 through the first three races tops all drivers this season. His average finish is even more impressive in light of the No. 10 team’s average starting position of 29.7, which ranks 34th in the series.

History at Phoenix Raceway: Phoenix is the track where Almirola has arguably been most consistent in recent years. In his last eight starts there, he has earned five top-10 finishes – two of those being top-fours. He’s also led 33 laps at the mile oval. His most recent finish was sixth at the 2021 season finale on Nov. 7.

Chase Briscoe:
Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), makes his third Phoenix start in the NASCAR Cup Series during Sunday’s Ruoff Mortgage 500. In the previous two, Briscoe has a best finish of 22nd earned last March. An accident on lap 153 in the season finale last November brought an early end to the rookie’s day and relegated the No. 14 team to a 35th-place finish.

The 2021 Cup Series Rookie of the Year has one top-five so far this year, a series-best finish earned in the season-opening Daytona 500. Just last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Briscoe earned his best Cup Series qualifying effort after placing the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford fourth on the grid for Sunday’s race. He ran as high as third and scored three bonus points with his eighth-place finish in the first stage before a series of incidents caused damage that brought his day to an early end.

Through the first three races of 2022, Briscoe has an average starting position of 12.3 and average finish of 18, compared to an average start of 26th and finish of 23rd in as many races last season. In 2021, he led a total of 18 laps, which he has already bested with a total of 20 laps led following last weekend’s race at Las Vegas. Briscoe sits 14th in the driver standings, 39 points behind the leader.

Cole Custer:
Sunday’s Ruoff Mortgage 500k at Phoenix Raceway marks the 79th NASCAR Cup Series start of Cole Custer’s career and takes him to the track where he scored his first of nine career Cup Series top-10s.

That March 2020 race on the desert mile oval was just the seventh career Cup Series start for the driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) and it resulted in a ninth-place finish from the 38th starting position. He followed it up with another near-top-10 in the 2020 season finale at Phoenix that capped his Cup Series Rookie of the Year season. But that top-10 bid was derailed by an unscheduled pit stop to replace a loose wheel during the final stage. Custer finished 13th at Phoenix in last year’s Cup Series finale.

In six NASCAR Xfinity Series outings at Phoenix from 2017 through 2019, all behind the wheel of the No. 00 SHR Ford, Custer started in the top-four and finished in the top-eight in each of the last five, with a best result of second from the second starting position in the November 2018 race. He finished .810 of a second behind Justin Allgaier in that race after recording four of his six career Xfinity Series laps led at Phoenix.

OUR WEEKLY WRAPS

We’ve got hot schemes headed to Pheonix. Check out our weekly wraps.

What Our Drivers are Saying:

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

You have nine wins at Phoenix, with the last one coming in March 2018. And even when the track was repaved and the start-finish line was moved to the dogleg, you’ve never finished outside the top-10. How different is the new layout compared to the old layout and what have you done to adapt?
“When they moved the start-finish line, there was nothing really different, other than the restart. The restarts have become much more exciting because of the fact that you can use the apron and everything that happens going into what is now turn one. So, the restarts are the biggest difference since they moved the start-finish line. This configuration of racetrack is much different than what we had in the late ’90s, early 2000s. That track used to be very low on grip, and this one’s become lower on grip and now, with the resin that they add on the racetrack, you have to kind of adapt just because of the fact that you never know what the grip level is going to be. The resin and the start-finish line have added a couple of different elements to it that we didn’t have in the past.”

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

What’s the most important thing to be successful at Phoenix?
“You have to have everything at Phoenix. You have to have downforce, grip in your car and good brakes. You have to make sure your car turns well through the center of turns one and two, which is a sharp, banked corner. And then you have turns three and four, which are really fast and sweeping and flat. You’ve got to have a car that’s versatile and is a good compromise for both corners. We had that at Loudon, where we won, and we had it at Martinsville last fall.”

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Are you more comfortable with the NextGen heading into Phoenix since this was one of the tracks where you tested?
“I think so. You just have a little more knowledge of what to expect. I still think there is plenty to learn. A race situation is a lot different than a testing or practice situation, but we’re starting off in a different place than we were the last two weeks at Fontana and Las Vegas. There’s a little bit of a notebook, but we’re still so early in the schedule we’re going to keep adding to it every race.”

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

How much do you think you’ll be able to take from this weekend’s race to this year’s November race?
“You’ll definitely be able to take some things. Obviously, we’ve had a test there already, so we have an idea of what we’re looking for. This car and what we’re thinking about will change a lot by the time November comes around, but you’ll still have that baseline of the first Phoenix race and that’s where the championship happens, so there will still be a lot of emphasis on it.”

cheese or pepperoni pizza?

With Hunt Brothers Pizza on the No. 4 car this weekend, we went around the shop and asked a very important question: cheese or pepperoni? Find out what slice the shop favors in this week’s episode of GEARWRENCH Garage Talk.

In The Know – LAS VEGAS

You better bet we’re going to bring the speed to Las Vegas. Below is everything you need to know about SHR storylines and how to catch all the racing action this weekend.

The Details

NASCAR Cup Series Overview

● Event: Las Vegas 400 (Round 3 of 36)
● Time/Date: 3:30 p.m. EST on Sunday, March 6
● Location: Las Vegas Motor Speedway
● Layout: 1.5-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 267 laps/400 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 80 laps / Stage 2: 85 laps / Final Stage: 102 laps
● TV/Radio: FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

The Broadcast Schedule

You won’t want to miss any of the action from fabulous Las Vegas. From practice and qualifying to the grand finale on Sunday,  there is plenty of racing action to catch.

SHR FAST FACTS

Kevin Harvick:
With Kevin Harvick now in his 22nd year of NASCAR Cup Series competition, a familiar name has rejoined the driver of the No. 4 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR). Rheem, America’s No. 1 water heating brand and major air conditioning and heating manufacturer, is commemorating its 15th year in racing, and as a part of the celebration, Rheem has partnered with Harvick and the No. 4 team for three Cup Series races in 2022, beginning with Sunday’s Las Vegas 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The pairing reunites Rheem with Harvick, a relationship that began in 2007 when Harvick won the Daytona 500 in dramatic fashion, beating NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin for the victory by .02 of a second in a frantic, green-white-checkered finish. It led to Rheem serving as a primary partner for Harvick’s NASCAR Xfinity Series team, Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI), in 2008. Rheem’s debut with KHI came on May 2, 2008 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway where Harvick finished second in the Lipton Tea 250. Harvick delivered Rheem its first victory as a primary sponsor on Feb. 27, 2010 when he won the Sam’s Town 300 at Las Vegas. Rheem aligned as a primary partner with Harvick in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2011 and stayed with him through the 2013 season before Harvick joined SHR in 2014. Harvick will drive the No. 4 Rheem Ford Mustang again May 8 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway and Sept. 11 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City.

Harvick’s red-and-black No. 4 Rheem/Smurfit Kappa Ford Mustang will carry a touch of purple this weekend at Las Vegas. A purple heart embossed with the letters “SK” is featured over the car’s doorsill next to Harvick’s name. The decal is in memory of Sue Karli, a founding member of the Rheem Racing program who first began working with Harvick and his wife, DeLana, in 2001 as a representative of Hershey’s, which sponsored Harvick in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Karli joined Rheem in 2007 and helped launch its hospitality program. She hosted hundreds of Rheem Racing events at NASCAR races before waging a courageous fight with pancreatic cancer. Karli ultimately succumbed to the disease in July 2019. Purple was her favorite color, and it also symbolizes pancreatic cancer awareness. To learn more, please visit the Pancreatic Action Network, or PanCAN at www.pancan.org.

Since joining SHR in 2014, Harvick has finished among the top-10 in eight of the 12 NASCAR Cup Series races contested at Las Vegas. In that span, Harvick has led 621 laps and won twice – March 2015 and March 2018

Aric Almirola:
In the first two races of the 2022 season, 19 different drivers have earned a top-10 finish. Almirola is the only driver who has finished inside the top-10 consecutively. With his fifth- and sixth-place finishes in the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway and last Sunday at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, Almirola’s average finish of 5.5 tops all drivers. This also marks the first time in his career that he has earned consecutive top-10s in the first two races of a season.

Almirola arrives at Las Vegas seventh in the driver standings with 66 points, 19 out of first.

Chase Briscoe:
Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway looking for his second top-five result of the season. Briscoe started off his second full-time NASCAR Cup Series season with a third-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500.

The new NextGen car that is designed to level the playing field, and experience from this year’s first two Cup Series races may be just what Briscoe needs to make another run at Las Vegas victory lane. He swept both NASCAR Xfinity Series races at the venue during the 2020 season and both wins aided in his pursuit of the championship. The first win on Feb. 23 secured Briscoe’s spot in the 12-driver playoff field, and the follow-up win in October locked him into the Round of 8. The No. 98 team went on to win once more at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City to advance to the Championship 4.

Cole Custer:
Sunday’s 400-mile race marks Custer’s 78th in the Cup Series and his sixth at Las Vegas. The 24-year-old Southern California native’s 16th-place finish in September 2020 was his best previous result at the desert oval. He started 28th and finished 29th in his previous outing last September.

Coming off last Sunday’s 11th-place finish at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, Custer arrives at Las Vegas 16th in the driver standings, 37 points behind leader Austin Cindric. Custer finished 20th in the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.

Also last weekend at Fontana, Custer scored his 10th career NASCAR Xfinity Series victory in dominating fashion behind the wheel of the No. 07 for SS GreenLight Racing. He qualified second, led a race-high 80 laps and cros

OUR WEEKLY WRAPS

We’re going to bet that our schemes are going to look great when they hit the track. Check out our wraps for Las Vegas.

What Our Drivers are Saying:

Kevin Harvick, Driver of the No. 4 Rheem/Smurfit Kappa Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Las Vegas marks a reunion with Rheem, who you ushered into the sport in spectacular fashion by winning their first race – the 2007 Daytona 500. What’s it like to be back with Rheem 15 years later?
“It’s been 15 years since we first started working with Rheem and it’s great to be back with them. The NASCAR fan is their customer, and we’ve worked really hard to understand that relationship to ensure Rheem gets a good return on its investment. This year kind of throws it back to how it all began with Rheem being a primary sponsor on one of my racecars. I’m proud to carry their colors again in 2022.

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

You mentioned you get to race for the pure joy of it this year. What does that mean to you?
“Yes, it has made me reminiscent of just my love for the sport, my love for racing, and I felt like I talked about it in the video that we put out on YouTube, that I fell in love with this sport sitting in the grandstands as a fan as I’m sure most every other racecar driver did, right?  And I watched my grandfather race and he was wildly successful on a local level, and I loved it. I loved being at the racetrack, and then I got the opportunity to get in a go-kart and feel what that felt like. When I was sitting in the grandstands, I could just dream about it and imagine how awesome it must be to drive a racecar and go as fast as you possibly can, but then I got to experience it and I fell even more in love with racing, and just the pureness of it as a kid is so cool. Like, I’m doing it for a hobby. I’m doing it because I love it and there’s no real pressure at all. When I was go-kart racing, the only goal was to do as best as I could and to learn and to get better each and every time I went back to the racetrack. I eventually was fortunate enough to take a hobby and turn it into a profession so, yeah, I am super grateful for what racing has meant to me and where it’s taken me in my life, both professionally and personally. And, yeah, I have reminisced quite a bit about it knowing that this year will be it.”

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

You got to experience the new practice and qualifying format for the first time last weekend. What did you learn about how to use those 15 minutes of track time?
“I was nice to have practice and qualifying back. With the new car, you can’t really change anything. You can only make very minor adjustments. It is really just to kind of get a shakedown and have a general idea of what your car is going to do when it goes off into the corner on lap one of the race. I think qualifying was something that needed to come back. Doing the metrics deal last year, if you got buried in points, you kind of just sucked for the whole year. It will be crucial for the teams to truly be on their game when they unload. It is hard to do that when we don’t really have any experience with this car. The simulators are going to get more and more use and it will be interesting to see what teams hit it right.”

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

You and your fellow SHR teams have had a solid first two races overall. How are you feeling as you head to Las Vegas this weekend?
“I think right now we’ve done a really solid job. We’ve been competitive at every single race, so far. Are we where we want to be? Are we leading a bunch of laps and up front? I think we still have a little bit of room to grow, but the guys have done a great job over the offseason working hard on this car and this is our year to rebound. We’re working as hard as we can to try and get our cars back up front, but it’s been solid so far. I think we have cars that are driving well and we have stuff that we can build on for the rest of the year.”