Month: April 2022

In The Know – dover 

This weekend we head to Dover Motor Speedway, affectionately nicknamed the Monster Mile. Dover’s nickname came from its propensity to chew up and spit out even the most seasoned veteran. So, who will tame the beast on Sunday?

The Details

NASCAR Cup Series Overview

●  Event:  Dover 400 (Round 11 of 36)
●  Time/Date:  3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, May 1
●  Location:  Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway
●  Layout:  1-mile, concrete oval
●  Laps/Miles:  400 laps/400 miles
●  Stage Lengths:  Stage 1: 120 laps / Stage 2: 130 laps / Final Stage: 150 laps
●  TV/Radio:  FS1 / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

The BROADCAST

Who is ready for a monster weekend of racing? You can watch all the action from Dover on FS1.

SHR FAST FACTS

Kevin Harvick:
Harvick has three NASCAR Cup Series wins at Dover. In addition to the aforementioned victories in May 2018 and August 2020, Harvick won his first Dover race in October 2015. Harvick provided a prelude to that win by finishing second when the series raced at the 1-mile, concrete oval five months earlier for the FedEx 400.

No active driver has led more laps at Dover than Harvick. His 1,666 laps led are 453 more laps than next best Kyle Busch. That difference is more than an entire race distance at Dover. After Harvick and Busch, no other active driver has cracked the 1,000 laps-led mark at Dover. However, the all-time lap leader at Dover is seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson with a staggering 3,113 laps led.

Aric Almirola:
Although the statistics might not suggest it, Almirola and the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang team have come oh so close to hoisting the trophy at Dover in the Cup Series. In the fall 2018 race there, he started 11th and gradually made his way into the lead by the final stage. He led a total of 64 laps before a late caution, but contact with the wall while racing aggressively in the closing laps ruined his victory bid and left him with a 13th-place finish. It was the first time the Tampa, Florida, native led laps on the concrete mile oval.

Chase Briscoe:
The dirt racer from Mitchell, Indiana, found his way victory lane at the Monster Mile in the second race of the 2020 NASCAR Xfinity Series Saturday-Sunday doubleheader at the concrete oval. Briscoe started last in the Sunday race after going to a backup racecar and proceeded to lead three times for a race-high 107 laps en route to his sixth win of the season. He won the race by a commanding 2.463-second margin over second-place Ross Chastain.

In total, Briscoe has five starts in the Xfinity Series at Dover, his win in 2020 among his three top-five finishes and four top-10s. He also made one NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start at Dover in June 2017, finishing 12th after earning his first career NASCAR pole.

Cole Custer:
Sunday’s 400-mile race will be Custer’s 86th Cup Series start and his fourth at Dover. He’s riding a streak of back-to-back top-10 finishes at The Monster Mile after scoring an 11th-place finish in his Cup Series debut there. His most recent Dover outing was a 10th-place run last May, and was preceded by finishes of 11th and 10th during a Saturday-Sunday Dover doubleheader weekend in August 2020. Custer’s average Cup Series finish of 10.3 at Dover ranks best among tracks where he’s raced more than once.

Custer’s six outings at Dover in the NASCAR Xfinity Series collectively rank among his best in 104 career starts in that series from 2017 through 2019. His most recent, in October 2019, was his best. He qualified third in the No. 00 SHR Ford and led 31 laps en route to a victory by a one-second margin over runner-up Justin Allgaier. It was his fourth of four top-fives and fifth of five top-10s in his six Xfinity Series starts at Dover. In the May 2019 race, he qualified on the pole and led a race-high 155 of 200 laps before finishing fourth. That came on the heels of his runner-up finish in the October 2018 race, when he led 38 laps and crossed the finish line .525 of a second behind Christopher Bell. Custer finished fourth in his Dover Xfinity Series debut in May 2017 and eighth in the October 2017 race.

OUR WEEKLY WRAPS

We’re bringing some monster schemes to Dover. Check out our fresh wraps for the weekend.

What Our Drivers are Saying:

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

So far this season, we’ve raced on every style of track NASCAR has to offer, with the exception of Dover – a high-banked, high-speed, 1-mile concrete oval. What are the challenges that you’ll face at Dover?
“Dover is just a unique animal of its own just because of the fact it has those elevation changes and it has a lot of speed. Dover is going to be one of the most difficult places we go to in order to just say, ‘OK, this is what we’ve got to do from a driving standpoint to really be up to speed.’ The corners are really long, you have a huge compression when you go down the hill and the car sets, then you get back on the throttle and it shoots you back up out of the hill. It’s a physically demanding racetrack and it’s a racetrack where you definitely get the biggest sensation of speed of anywhere we go because of the way it compresses you down into the banking and tosses you up out of it.”

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

This is your last fulltime NASCAR Cup Series start at Dover. What are your feelings going into the weekend?
“I get asked what my favorite track is all the time during media days and meet-and-greets. My answer is always Dover and it shocks people. They would think Talladega or Daytona because I have had success there, but Dover is just a place I always love to race at. I got my first Truck Series win there and I always feel confident when we race there. It’s going to be bittersweet, but what will make it even sweeter is getting to victory lane again.” 

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

Is Dover a track you’ve enjoyed in the past?
“Yeah, I’ve always loved going there. It’s really high-speed, high-commitment, high-reward, and those are the kind of places I enjoy running. So yeah, I’ve always enjoyed going there and I’d love to get another win there. It’s one of my favorite racetracks, especially when we can move around and run other lanes, and that’s the area I’m kind of curious to see how this NextGen car kind of plays into that. It’ll be a really fast track this weekend, so hopefully we’ll have a fast car and be able to take advantage of it.”

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

It seems drivers either love or hate Dover. What are your feelings toward the racetrack?
“I love Dover. You’ve got to be really aggressive and just go for it, or it’ll eat you up. But you also have to be very strategic with how you work the gas pedal and make your way through the corners. There’s a reason it’s called the Monster Mile. If you aren’t ready for it, and don’t pay attention to those details, it can be a handful.”

WATCH: PIT GUN BREAKDOWN

Curious about the new single lug nut on the Gen 7 car? No. 4 rear tire changer Daniel Smith breaks down the difference between last year’s pit gun and this year’s pit gun.

13 YEARS WITH HUNT BROTHERS PIZZA

The 2022 season marks the 13th year of partnership between Harvick and Hunt Brothers Pizza. The nation’s largest brand of made-to-order pizza in the convenience store industry has sponsored Harvick for years in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Hunt Brothers Pizza joined Harvick fulltime in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2019 and has been a mainstay in NASCAR’s premier division ever since. With more than 8,000 locations in 30 states, Hunt Brothers Pizza offers original and thin-crust pizzas available as a grab-and-go Hunk A Pizza®, 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®. Hunt Brothers Pizza is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, and is family owned and operated. For additional information, visit www.HuntBrothersPizza.com or download the app.

In The Know – TALLADEGA 

After back-to-back-to-back races on the three shortest tracks on the NASCAR Cup Series tour, we head to the longest track, the 2.66-mile Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway oval, for Sunday’s GEICO 500.

The Details

NASCAR Cup Series Overview

●  Event:  GEICO 500 (Round 10 of 36)
●  Time/Date:  3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, April 24
●  Location:  Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway
●  Layout:  2.66-mile oval
●  Laps/Miles:  188 laps/500 miles
●  Stage Lengths:  Stage 1: 60 laps / Stage 2: 60 laps / Final Stage: 68 laps
●  TV/Radio:  FOX / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

The BROADCAST

Who is ready for some speed? You can watch all the action from Talladega on FS1 and Fox.

SHR FAST FACTS

Kevin Harvick:
Harvick comes into Talladega with back-to-back top-10 finishes at the 2.66-mile oval. The driver of the No. 4 GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang finished eighth last October and fourth in last year’s GEICO 500. It is the first time since early 2015 that Harvick has had consecutive top-10s at Talladega. In three straight races at Talladega in 2014-2015, Harvick finished seventh (May 2014), ninth (October 2014) and eighth (May 2015). Until last year, a top-10 was always followed by a finish of 20th or worse.

In last year’s GEICO 500, Harvick led three times for 12 laps, and in his return to Talladega in October for the YellaWood 500, he led five times for a race-high 16 laps, increasing his laps-led total at Talladega to 292.

Harvick has made 42 NASCAR Cup Series starts at Talladega, collecting eight top-fives and 18 top-10s, both of which are the second-most among all active Cup Series drivers. Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano are tied for the most top-fives with nine apiece. In the top-10 category, only Busch is ahead of Harvick with 22 top-10s.

Aric Almirola:
History at Talladega: In 24 career NASCAR Cup Series starts, Aric Almirola has one win, nine top-10 finishes, five top-fives, and has led 71 laps at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. In the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Talladega, Almirola visited victory lane in May 2017.

With his third-place finish in the June 2020 race at Talladega, Almirola tied the record of eight consecutive Talladega top-10s set by Dale Earnhardt Jr., from April 2001 to October 2004. Despite seeing his streak come to an abrupt end thanks to a multicar accident on lap 57 of the October 2020 race on the 2.66-mile oval, Almirola’s average finish in his last 10 Talladega outings is 11.1 – best in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Almirola has already shown strength in the NextGen car at superspeedways this year. In the season-opening Daytona 500, Almirola had a strong run before crossing the finish line fifth. Last month, on the newly repaved and reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway oval, which now races like a superspeedway, Almirola led six laps before he was spun while leading the inside lane, ultimately damaging the car and placing him 22nd.

Chase Briscoe:
Chase Briscoe and the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) visit Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway for the second superspeedway race of the year. Briscoe finished 11th at the 2.66-mile oval last April and returned in October to finish 14th.

In the first superspeedway race of 2022, the season-opening Daytona 500, Briscoe scored his first top-five finish in Cup Series competition with a third-place result, then bested that finish two weeks later with a win at Phoenix Raceway.

Briscoe is 10th in the driver standings, 79 points out of first following last weekend’s Food City Dirt Race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. He currently holds a spot in the 16-driver playoff field by virtue of his win March 13 at Phoenix.

Cole Custer:
Sunday’s 500-mile race will be Custer’s 85th Cup Series start and his fifth at Talladega. The 2020 Cup Series Rookie of the Year’s 10th-place finish there a year ago this weekend was the best of his first four Cup Series visits and was the first of his two top-10 finishes earned last season. He scored his second top-10 three weeks later on the concrete mile oval at Dover (Del.) International Speedway. Custer finished 13th in last October’s rain-shortened race at Talladega.

The 24-year-old from Ladera Ranch, California, had promising runs in both of his Talladega outings during his rookie season. In the spring race, he was set to restart fifth for the green-white-checkered finish, but his Mustang began to stumble from a lack of fuel, sending him to pit road for a splash-and-go. He finished 22nd. In the fall race, he was able to drive to the front on multiple occasions, but while running fifth just past the race’s halfway point, he was collected in a multicar incident that ended his day.

OUR WEEKLY WRAPS

Our superspeedway schemes are set. Check out the fresh wraps we’ll be bringing to Talladega.

What Our Drivers are Saying:

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

Describe the intensity of racing at Talladega.
“You have to be aggressive just for the fact that if you’re not aggressive, it always seems like you’re not going to be where you need to be. Nine times out of 10, the aggressor is going to be the guy who comes out on the good side of things just for the fact that you’re making things happen and you’re not waiting for something else to happen. When you wait for something else to happen, that’s usually when you get in trouble because it’s usually someone else’s mess. You can still get in trouble if you’re aggressive, but with the way things are, it’s best to stay aggressive and try to stay up front.”

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

You had success at the season-opening Daytona 500 and you ran up front at Atlanta. How confident are you heading to Talladega?
“We’re as confident this year as ever. We’ve run up front at Daytona and Atlanta this year. We had a shot at the Daytona 500 win at the end there, and we were in a position to race for a win at Atlanta before we were taken out toward the end. If we can continue to avoid the inevitable wrecks, we’ll be there again. I have no doubt about that.”

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

It seems you’re driving with a lot more confidence this year. Was there a moment that it changed for you?
“Yeah, I said earlier this year after the Phoenix win that I feel more like I belong in the Cup Series, and I think that as a lot to do with it. But I don’t know if there was one thing that changed it other than just experience. I’m here to win races and we work hard to make sure we put ourselves in position to do that. Races happen quickly and you have to make quick decisions. We know there are a few ways things could go when we make moves, but you can’t just hang back and stay out of trouble all the time. If I’ve got a chance to win or better my position, I have to take it. Sometimes it doesn’t work out and maybe you ruin someone else’s day, but it’s not on purpose. That’s never what I want and you hope that the other person understands, or is at least open to talking about it. You kind of know when you’re going to have to explain yourself and I have no problem doing that but, yeah, I definitely feel more confident in this position and all I can do is go out and do my best to put this team in position to win. We’re all really good drivers who are capable of winning and I feel more comfortable in my experience and knowing I’m capable, too.”

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

What do you think will be the key to running well on the dirt this weekend?
“I think it’s going to be important to get through your heat race good and kind of start your race off good because, if you start behind, it can definitely kind of throw you for a loop, and then you’re kind of fighting and maybe you do something that you don’t want to and you get yourself in a bad position. I think the heat race is important, and then it’s going to be a lot about attrition. I think just staying clean is going to be one of the biggest things, and not making mistakes and just being there at the end, because there are going to be a lot of guys who do make mistakes and it’s going to be a matter of limited mistakes. Last year, it was a lot to take in, being our first time on dirt there. And this weekend, we wipe the slate clean going back with the NextGen car.”

BEHIND THE SMOKE: EPISODE 1

Chase Briscoe returned to his dirt racing roots at Bristol on April 17th, and the No. 14 team gave us inside access to their entire weekend. Watch as all the highs and lows unfold. This is Behind The Smoke: Bristol Dirt.

Enter the gearwrench VIP racing sweepstakes

VIP me ASAP! GEARWRENCH is ready to make it happen. Enter the GEARWRENCH VIP Racing Sweepstakes for the chance to win a VIP racing experience with either the NASCAR Cup Series, Formula Drift or the NHRA. The winner and three of their best friends will go inside the ropes and behind the scenes at one of three events of their choice – the South Point 400 NASCAR race weekend Oct. 15-16 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the Formula DRIFT season finale Oct. 14-15 at Irwindale (Calif.) Speedway, or the NHRA season finale Nov. 12-13 at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona (Calif.). The grand prize includes hotel accommodations for up to three nights, transportation, a private meet-and-greet with GEARWRENCH drivers, VIP seating for the race, and $2,500 in GEARWRENCH products. In addition to the grand-prize winner, two first-prize winners will be randomly selected to receive $1,500 in tools, and four second-prize winners will be randomly selected to receive $500 in tools. And for the GEARWRENCH driver who refers the most entrants to the contest via their social media channels and their racecar, they get to donate $50,000 worth of GEARWRENCH product to the charities of their choice. So, scan that QR code on the C-post of Harvick’s No. 4 GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang if you’re on the grid before Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway or just go to GEARWRENCH.com.

BID ON AN EXCLUSIVE BENEFITING FEEDING AMERICA

Riding along with Custer for the first time this season will be SHR partner Wow Wow Classic Waffles, and Feeding America®, the largest hunger-relief organization in the United States with a network of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs. SHR and Wow Wow Classic Waffles are collaborating on an online auction that kicked off Tuesday, from which all proceeds will benefit Feeding America®. Fans can follow this link to bid on an exclusive VIP experience for two at the 2022 NASCAR race of the winning bidder’s choice. The winner will receive two VIP credentials that provide access to the NASCAR Cup Series garage and pit road through the race. Also included in the package are personalized garage, hauler and pit road tours, a 10-minute meet-and-greet with Custer, lunch with the No. 41 SHR Mustang team, and seats atop the team’s pit box during the race. One hundred percent of the final bid price of this auction will go directly to Feeding America®, through SHR’s partnership with Marson Foods and Wow Wow Waffles. The winner and guest must be 18 or older. The auction closes April 26.

earn pancoins with ihop

IHOP will adorn the No. 10 Smithfield Ford this weekend with a specialty paint scheme. IHOP is launching the International Bank of Pancakes, the brand’s first loyalty program designed to spread joy to guests. Unlike other banks that keep their fortunes under lock and key, IHOP is opening the vaults to share the wealth and spread happiness with its most loyal guests. To sign up, customers can create an account on IHOP.com or through the IHOP Mobile App. Guests can earn PanCoins – digital tokens they can redeem for rewards. Every $5 spent equals one PanCoin, or one pancake. Three PanCoins equal one Short Stack of Buttermilk Pancakes, while five PanCoins equal one Full Stack. PanCoins are housed on the Stack Market, where they can be traded for a coupon to use on a variety of tasty assets.

In The Know – bristol dirt

Ready to get dirty? The Food City Dirt Race is back! For the second straight spring race, Bristol’s concrete has been covered with dirt.  Get up-to-speed on everything you need to know as the Gen 7 takes to the dirt for the first time this weekend at Bristol Motorspeedway.

The Details

NASCAR Cup Series Overview

●  Event:  Food City Dirt Race (Round 9 of 36)
●  Time/Date:  7 p.m. EDT on Sunday, April 17
●  Location:  Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway
●  Layout:  .533-mile, high-banked, dirt oval
●  Laps/Miles:  250 laps/133.25 miles
●  Stage Lengths:  Stage 1: 75 laps / Stage 2: 75 laps / Final Stage: 100 laps
●  TV/Radio:  FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

The BROADCAST

Let’s kick up some dirt. You can watch all the action from Bristol Dirt on FS1.

SHR FAST FACTS

Kevin Harvick:
Kevin Harvick has made 41 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, but all of those have come on the concrete surface of the .533-mile, high-banked oval. Despite three wins, 14 top-fives, 21 top-10s and 1,209 laps led at the track since 2001, none of it matters this weekend in the series’ return to Bristol. For the second straight spring race, Bristol’s concrete has been covered with dirt, and Harvick’s past accolades have been buried. The Food City Dirt Race is back.

Aric Almirola:
Almirola started his racing career on dirt. He raced go-karts at Dirt Devil Speedway in Land O’Lakes, Florida, which was built and owned by his grandfather Sam Rodriguez, who was a well-known dirt Sprint car racer. Not only did Almirola start his racing career on dirt, he learned valuable lessons about how to operate a dirt track from age 11 to 18.

Almirola arrives at Martinsville eighth in the driver standings with 223 points, 65 out of first. He advanced three positions from the previous race weekend.

Chase Briscoe:
This weekend, Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang, returns to his roots. The third-generation dirt racer from Mitchell, Indiana, looks to capture his second win of the season in Sunday night’s 250-lap event. While Briscoe scored a 2020 NASCAR Xfinity Series victory on Bristol’s traditional high-banked, concrete surface, he hopes to be the first to conquer the Last Great Colosseum in the NextGen car in the Cup Series’ only dirt race this weekend.

Briscoe cut his teeth racing on the dirt tracks of Southern Indiana, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. His first time behind the wheel of a racecar came in 2001 driving a quarter midget. He won his first heat race and then won the feature event later that evening. Briscoe moved on to mini sprints and, when he was 13, stepped into a 410 sprint car, in which he finished 10th in a 40-car field in his first race.

In 2008, Briscoe made 37 starts in a 410 sprint car, racking up eight top-five finishes and 17 top-10s, including a win in the last race of the season at Paragon (Ind.) Speedway. With that win, he broke four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon’s record as the youngest to win a 410 sprint car race. Upon besting the NASCAR Hall of Famer’s record at the age of 13, Briscoe said, “It was pretty special to me to realize what I’d done, but I know I have to keep working. I don’t think about it a whole lot. I just go out every time like it’s just another race to try and win.”

Cole Custer:
Sunday night’s 250-lap race around the .533-mile, dirt-covered Bristol oval will be Custer’s 84th Cup Series start and his fifth at Bristol. The 24-year-old from Ladera Ranch, California, started 21st and finished 24th in last year’s inaugural Food City Dirt Race, the first Cup Series event held on dirt in 50 years.

The 2020 Cup Series Rookie of the Year was no stranger to competing on dirt in a NASCAR event when he arrived at Bristol last spring. He drove the No. 00 JR Motorsports entry in the 2015 and 2016 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races on the half-mile dirt oval at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, owned by SHR co-owner Tony Stewart. He qualified 24th and finished 29th in the July 2015 race, then came back a year later to finish sixth from 23rd on the grid.

OUR WEEKLY WRAPS

These schemes won’t be clean for long. Check out the wraps. we’ll have at Bristol Dirt.

What Our Drivers are Saying:

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

We’re back to the dirt at Bristol. With a year of reflection, how did that first dirt race at Bristol go for you?
“You know, Bristol Dirt was much easier than I anticipated it being because it wasn’t like a normal dirt race. I was expecting a normal dirt race, but when you look at Bristol Dirt and the way the cars drove, it was a lot of the same tendencies that you had with a normal Cup car. Being able to have all my stuff and all of the same tendencies just made it a lot better for me, even with all differences of racing on dirt.”

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

Talk about your dirt racing background.
“Growing up, I went to the dirt track to watch my grandpa race dirt Sprint cars, so that’s all I knew – scraping mud off of racecars. When I was growing up, my grandfather was always making fun of people who raced on asphalt. He said asphalt was for ‘getting to the racetrack.’ Then when I started go-kart racing, all of the racing was on dirt. It was a very different discipline and so that’s what I learned from. My grandpa actually built his own dirt go-kart track, so when I was 11 all the way to 18 years old, I helped prepare the track every single weekend there was an event at his track. I was very familiar with watering, grading and prepping the track and everything that was needed to go into making a good surface for the weekend. I have a lot of memories from starting on dirt, but as I started to stock-car race I transitioned to asphalt. My grandfather was a firm believer that if I was going to make it in NASCAR, I would need to become a great asphalt racer because he thought dirt racing would teach me bad habits. It’s been a long time since I’ve done much dirt racing. Before last year’s Bristol dirt race, I think the last time I raced dirt was the Prelude (to the Dream) that Tony Stewart hosted. I think I have eight total races in a racecar on dirt. I’ve had mild success at that.”

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

Do you have any solid expectations for this weekend’s Food City Dirt Race based on last year’s race and returning this year in the NextGen car?
“I don’t really know what to expect, just because I’ve never driven a car that has this type of suspension on dirt. So how it drives on dirt and what you feel is probably totally different than what I’ve experienced. The other big component is the tires. The sidewall is so much shorter and stiffer than what we had before, from a side-bite and lateral grip standpoint. It’ll be totally different how the car reacts and the grip level that you have compared to anything I’ve raced. But we’ve got a couple of practices and heat races to figure it out.”

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

What do you think will be the key to running well on the dirt this weekend?
“I think it’s going to be important to get through your heat race good and kind of start your race off good because, if you start behind, it can definitely kind of throw you for a loop, and then you’re kind of fighting and maybe you do something that you don’t want to and you get yourself in a bad position. I think the heat race is important, and then it’s going to be a lot about attrition. I think just staying clean is going to be one of the biggest things, and not making mistakes and just being there at the end, because there are going to be a lot of guys who do make mistakes and it’s going to be a matter of limited mistakes. Last year, it was a lot to take in, being our first time on dirt there. And this weekend, we wipe the slate clean going back with the NextGen car.”

BREAKING DOWN THE DIRT CAR

How do we prep the cars for some dirt racing? Crew Chief of the No. 14 HighPoint Ford Mustang, Johnny Klausmeier, shows us what’s different on the car this week for Bristol Dirt.

TAKE A BREAK WITH BUSCH LATTE

It’s not a commercial break. It’s a coffee break. Busch Light, or rather Busch Latte, is bringing the notion of a coffee break to NASCAR during the Food City Dirt Race Sunday night on FOX. During every commercial break, Busch Light will encourage fans to tweet using the hashtags #BuschLatteBreak #Sweepstakes. One winner will be selected from all the entries after each stage, and that person will be able to order a prize off the Busch Latte Menu. Each stage will have increasingly bigger prizes: The Stage 1 “tall” prize menu = Busch Latte merchandise (T-shirt, coozie, mug);  Stage 2 “grande” prize menu = Choice of a Busch Latte cooler, a Busch Light neon sign, or two tickets to an upcoming NASCAR Cup Series race; Stage 3 “trenta” prize menu = $1,000. So take that coffee break, we mean, that #BuschLatteBreak.

In The Know – MARTINSVILLE

It’s time for some Saturday night live short track racing. Get up-to-speed on everything you need to know as we head to Martinsville, VA as we tackle the shortest track on the NASCAR Cup Schedule.

The Details

NASCAR Cup Series Overview

• Event: Blu-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 (Round 8 of 36)
• Time/Date: 7:30 p.m. EDT on Saturday, April 9
• Location: Martinsville (Va.) Speedway
• Layout: .526-mile oval
• Laps/Miles: 400 laps/210.4 miles
• Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 80 laps / Stage 2: 100 laps / Final Stage: 220 laps
• TV/Radio: FS1 / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

The BROADCAST

Get ready for some Saturday Night entertainment. You can watch all the action from Martinsville on FS1.

SHR FAST FACTS

Kevin Harvick:
Baseball’s opening day is this week (April 7, to be specific) and Harvick is batting almost .500 when it comes to finishing among the top-10 at Martinsville. The driver of the No. 4 Subway Ford Mustang has made 41 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at the .526-mile oval and recorded 20 top-10s, tied with Kyle Busch for the second-highest tally among active Cup Series drivers. Only Denny Hamlin has more top-10s at Martinsville (22).

Harvick has tasted success in every type of car he has raced at Martinsville. In addition to his NASCAR Cup Series win, he has a NASCAR Xfinity Series triumph and three NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victories.

DYK? Harvick tested a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour car at Martinsville on Jan. 21, 2020. The Modified Tour is NASCAR’s oldest division and it is the only open-wheel series sanctioned by NASCAR. Compared to a NASCAR Cup Series car, a Tour car is 11 inches shorter in height and a little more than 23 inches wider. It also weighs nearly 800 pounds less. Harvick’s test came via Ryan Preece’s No. 6NY Tour car. Preece was the 2013 series champion and he earned the first of his 25 career Modified Tour victories at Martinsville on Sept. 20, 2008, leading 265 of the race’s 300 laps. Harvick and his company, KHI Management, represent Preece, who is SHR’s reserve driver in 2022.

Aric Almirola:
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.

In 26 starts at Martinsville, Almirola has earned six top-10 finishes, one top-five, and has led 75 laps on the .526-mile, paperclip-shaped oval.

Chase Briscoe:
Chase Briscoe is looking for his second win of the season in his No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) at the paperclip-shaped Martinsville (Va.) Speedway oval. In two Cup Series starts at the half-mile short track, Briscoe has a best finish of 22nd earned last fall. His best Cup Series result on a short track was an 11th-place finish earned last Sunday at Virginia’s other short track, Richmond Raceway.

Seven races into the 2022 season, Briscoe is ninth in points, 49 out of first. He currently holds a spot in the 16-driver playoff field by virtue of his win March 13 at Phoenix Raceway.

The 27-year-old driver from Mitchell, Indiana, made 15 short-track starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, scoring two wins – September 2020 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway and July 2019 at Iowa Speedway in Newton – and earning 10 top-10 finishes. When the Xfinity Series made its return to Martinsville in the fall of 2020 after a 13-year hiatus, Briscoe finished seventh.

Cole Custer:
Saturday night’s 400-lap race around the .526-mile, paperclip-shaped Martinsville layout will be Custer’s 83rd Cup Series start and his fifth at Martinsville. The 24-year-old from Ladera Ranch, California, had a best Martinsville finish of 13th in October 2020, and was 23rd the last time the series visited the track last October.

Custer, the 2020 Cup Series Rookie of the Year, had solid runs among his six NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races at Martinsville from 2014 through 2016. He qualified on the pole and led a race-high 96 of 200 laps before finishing fourth in the October 2015 race, when he drove the No. 00 JR Motorsports entry. His next-best Martinsville Truck Series finish of seventh came in the October 2016 race, his most recent, when he drove the JR Motorsports truck to a seventh-place finish after qualifying third and leading 17 laps. He drove to another front-row qualifying spot alongside polesitter and race-winner Joey Logano in the March 2015 Truck Series race at Martinsville, leading two laps of the race before finishing 16th in the JR Motorsports truck.

OUR WEEKLY WRAPS

We’re bringing some sharp schemes to the paperclip. Check out the wraps. we’ll have at Martinsville.

What Our Drivers are Saying:

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

This is your 22nd year in the sport, but you’re driving as hard as when it was just your second year in the sport. What keeps you going and competing at this level?
“I like where I race. I like Stewart-Haas Racing. I like the atmosphere. I like the people here. That’s really the biggest reason that I like to do it, especially this year. You’re with a group of people where you’re constantly problem solving. You’re trying to fix it faster than everybody else and come to something that is better than everybody else so you can win races. I like the core group of guys that I started here with. That’s why they all came here, and I guess I would feel like I’m abandoning them if I didn’t go a couple more years. For me, I still enjoy that challenge. I enjoy where this series is, and learning about the new car is not a bad thing to do as you go forward into the future and do something different.”

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

What is it about short-track racing that drivers love?
“Short-track racing is where we all came from. It’s where our sport began. You get to put the racing back in the driver’s hands and there’s a lot of beating and banging involved. You can’t pass much, so you have to stay mentally and physically focused the entire time. It’s close-quarter racing at its finest and even better when we get to race under the lights on a Saturday night.” 

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

Now that you’ve raced the NextGen on a true short track, what can we expect to see this weekend at Martinsville?
“I think we’ll see typical Martinsville – hard racing and a few guys mad at each other by the end of the race. In the past, brakes have come into play, guys using them up early in the race and having a hard time getting through the corners. And I think we’ll still see some issues where brakes are concerned but it might look a bit different than it has in the past. The track we raced on for the Clash is probably the closest to Martinsville, just half the size, so a lot of what you saw with the longer straightaways and tighter corners, and how guys were setting up passes, is likely what we’ll see this weekend. At least, I hope that’s how it goes. We ran pretty well there so, hopefully, we can take what we did there and have it translate to Martinsville. It’s always a fun race, but a lot more fun if you’re up near the front and out of the trouble happening further back in the field.”

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

What are your thoughts about the significance of doing well at Martinsville, being one of the iconic short tracks in NASCAR?
“Martinsville is definitely one every single driver wants to win because I think the driver can make a pretty big difference there. You get the grandfather clock, all the history about the place, every single driver wants to go there and get that trophy. It’s just one of those tracks I would call one of the crown jewel races because it’s one you want to check off your list.”

subway: Kevin Harvick’s full throttle ham

Harvick is back in the green-and-yellow colors of Subway this weekend at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway for the Blu-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400, and his front-running ways have earned Harvick his own Subway signature sub – the Full-Throttle Ham – which features thin-sliced Black Forest ham, crispy hickory-smoked bacon, pepper-jack cheese, and lettuce and tomato on fresh-baked artisan Italian bread, all finished with yellow mustard. The Full-Throttle Ham is sold exclusively on The Vault, available only at Subway.com and the Subway app, where sandwiches created by some of today’s most notable sports stars can be delivered straight to your door via Subway Delivery, powered by DoorDash. Subway has a $0 delivery fee on all Subway Delivery orders and guests can still earn and redeem Subway MyWay® Rewards points.

Looking for some entertainment? We put the No. 4 pit crew to the test to see if they can make their way to the Subway Vault, and you’ll want to watch the video to see if they delivered