Month: March 2024

Richmond 400 Pre-Race Report

Event: Richmond 400 (Round 7 of 36)

Time/Date: 7 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 31

Location: Richmond (Va.) Raceway

Layout: .75-mile oval

Laps/Miles: 400 laps/300 miles

Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 70 laps / Stage 2: 160 laps / Final Stage: 170 laps

TV/Radio: FOX / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

 

SHR Fast Facts:

– Short-track racing is where Noah Gragson’s career began. The Las Vegas native owns victories in two of the United States’ most prestigious Late Model races – the 2017 Winchester 400 at the half-mile Winchester (Ind.) Speedway, and the 2018 Snowball Derby at the half-mile Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida.

–  The next race on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is Richmond (Va.) Raceway and the 33-year-old Cup Series rookie Josh Berry has turned laps there in the NextGen car. Making his Cup Series debut at .75-mile oval last year subbing for an injured Chase Elliott, Berry qualified 30th before driving through the field to take home a runner-up finish, leading 10 laps along the way. Coincidentally, Berry’s spotter this season is Eddie D’Hondt, Chase Elliott’s former spotter who helped him navigate the Richmond traffic to his runner-up finish last year.

– Chase Briscoe comes into Richmond (Va.) Raceway on a streak of quiet consistency that emulates his overall history at the .75-mile oval. The driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Stewart-Haas Racing has had three straight finishes of 13th or better. He finished a season-best ninth March 10 at Phoenix Raceway and 13th March 17 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway before earning another 13th-place drive last Sunday at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas. The runs have placed Briscoe a respectable 17th in the championship standings, just three points and one position away from the top-16 – the cutoff spot for the 10-race championship, which is still 20 races away. In the marathon that is the NASCAR Cup Series, consistency is key, and just as Briscoe has shown top-15 reliability in the early races of 2024, he’s been similarly reliable at Richmond across both the Cup Series and the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

– With Richmond’s worn-out asphalt and low-banked, 14-degree turns, the track echoes characteristics of the Northeast venues where Ryan Preece honed his skills on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. Preece underscored those parallels during a Modified Tour event at Richmond in 2021 when the Berlin, Connecticut-native scored a dominating victory. It was the 25th of his 26 career wins on the Modified Tour.

OUR WEEKLY WRAPS:

WHAT OUR DRIVERS ARE SAYING:

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang

The tire wear we saw in the last short-track race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway – did you like it or dislike it?

“I don’t really know how I feel about it, to be honest. I thought that it was definitely unique. I did like the fact that there was a little more strategy involved. And I even felt like, on the driver’s side, it put a little more in your hands instead of whoever had the best car was going to be really good. We probably don’t need it as drastic to where they just blow out, but I do think a good mix of that would be really cool to have, especially for the short-track races, for sure.”

Noah Gragson, Driver of the No. 10 Superior Essex Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Would you like to see that kind of tire fall-off at Richmond?

“I would like to see the tire pace slowed down as you run rather than the tire wearing out all the way to the cords. I think there are two different ways. At Bristol, the tread wore all the way off to where you didn’t have grip and that’s why you had to pace off your runs. Personally, I’d like it if they’d slow down on the grip loss the harder you push on a tire, just being able to lose grip rather than the tread depth of the tire.”

Josh Berry, Driver of the No. 4 SUNNYD Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Richmond is another short track that you’ve called one of your favorites. What are your expectations of yourself this weekend?

“I think Richmond is one of the tracks that we expect to run well at. Stewart-Haas as a whole has been good on short tracks and has a good program, and I have had success there in the Xfinity Series, as well as in the Cup Series last year in the No. 9 car. I think it’s one of the places that we circle on our calendar knowing that I have a long history in short-track racing, and Rodney (Childers, crew chief) comes from that same background. I think it will be a strong showing, we just have to go execute to the best of our ability and there is no reason we can’t go run in the top-10.”

Ryan Preece, Driver of the No. 41 United Rentals Ford Mustang Dark Horse

What are your thoughts on tire wear at Richmond? Could we see something like what we saw at Bristol?

“Richmond is a large short track, but it’s still a short track. The track surface is worn out, so tire heat and falloff is a real thing at Richmond. Turns one and two, and turns three and four are completely different corners, so being disciplined in hitting your marks and having a car with good balance is important at Richmond. If you’re fighting a car that’s too tight or too loose, the issue will only be exaggerated the longer the run goes.”

EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix Post-Race Report

Date: March 24, 2024

Event: EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (Round 6 of 36)

Series: NASCAR Cup Series

Location: Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas (3.426-mile,

20-turn road course)

Format: 68 laps, broken into three stages (15 laps/15 laps/38 laps)

 

SHR Finish:
– Chase Briscoe (Started 32nd, Finished 13th / Running, completed 68 of 68 laps)
– Ryan Preece (Started 24th, Finished 24th / Running, completed 68 of 68 laps)
– Noah Gragson (Started 39th, Finished 35th / Running, completed 67 of 68 laps)
– Josh Berry (Started 31st, Finished 36th / Running, completed 67 of 68 laps)

SHR Points:
– Chase Briscoe (17th with 131 points, 89 out of first)
– Josh Berry (29th with 76 points, 144 out of first)
– Ryan Preece (31st with 73 points, 147 out of first)
– Noah Gragson (34th with 58 points, 162 out of first)

SHR Notes:
– Briscoe earned his fourth top-15 of the season and his third top-15 in four career NASCAR Cup Series starts at COTA.
– This was Briscoe’s third straight result of 13th or better. He finished ninth March 10 at Phoenix Raceway and 13th last Sunday at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.
– Preece finished fifth in Stage 2 to earn six bonus points.
– Berry finished 10th in Stage 2 to earn a bonus point.
– This was Berry’s first career NASCAR Cup Series start at COTA.

Sound Bites:

“Our race was OK overall. I felt like, starting 32nd, that for the first couple of laps we were able to drive up to 17th and were going to be in a really good spot coming to the end of the first stage. I bottomed out really hard into the esses and it made me miss a corner and that really changed the whole complexity of our race. I had to go to the back and then drove back up there to the top-10. At the end with eight to go I made a huge mistake and got in the dirt in turn eight and allowed those guys to all swallow me up those last couple of laps. I thought we made our Mustang better throughout the day. I thought we had a solid 10th-place car, but we don’t really have anything else for the rest of the guys. We need to do some work, but to finish right outside of the top-10, we’ve been able to do that pretty much every week this year. If we aren’t in the top-10, we’re just a couple of spots outside of it. We’ve been really consistent, which is nice. We just need to get a little bit better and then, hopefully, we can improve on the finishes.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“We just could never get track position. Every time we went up there we’d get spun or wrecked or whatever. I felt like we had a pretty good racecar, just nothing to show for it.” – Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“We struggled from the get-go. We made some spots up at the beginning of the race and then fell back. Was kind of off the pace and knew we were probably worse than we were in practice, so we decided to come down pit road at the end of stage two and make some extensive changes to the setup, just wholesaling it and throwing everything we could at it. We were hoping to get a caution there at the end to get racked back up, but never did. Definitely a brutal day, but still proud of everyone on this team. A long day with nothing to show for it.” – Noah Gragson, driver of the No. 10 Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“We got better throughout the race. Our lap times were pretty good at the end. We just needed some more cautions to bunch everything up and help our odds. It was a tough weekend and going into it we knew it would be hard, but we learned a lot and we’ll be better for the next one.” – Josh Berry, driver of the No. 4 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Richmond 400 on Sunday, March 31 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. The race begins at 7 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix Pre-Race Report

Event: EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (Round 6 of 36)

Time/Date: 3:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 24

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

 

SHR Fast Facts:

– Briscoe has 19 career road-course starts in the NASCAR Cup Series with five top-10 finishes spread across COTA (sixth in 2021), Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin (sixth in 2021), Watkins Glen (ninth in 2021), the Charlotte Roval (ninth in 20222) and the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (sixth in 2023).

– Across the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, ARCA Menards Series and NASCAR K&N Series, Gragson has made a total of 37 road-course starts – three in Cup, 21 in Xfinity, two in Trucks, one in ARCA and 10 in K&N – amassing four wins, 16 top-fives and 27 top-10s with 161 laps led.

– Ryan Preece’s most recent road-course outing resulted in an 11th-place finish last October on the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval and he is poised to navigate both right and left turns again this weekend at COTA. His best road-course finish in the Cup Series was his ninth-place effort after qualifying sixth on the Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway road course in February 2021, driving for JTG Daugherty Racing.

– Josh Berry and the NASCAR Cup Series field heads to Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, for the first road-course race on the 2024 schedule. It will be Berry’s first Cup Series start on a serpentine-style track, but he has made two starts at COTA in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Most recently, the 33-year-old Cup Series rookie notched a top-10 result in his JR Motorsports entry in the Xfinity Series race there last March, crossing the finish line eighth in just his second start there. Berry has 15 starts on road courses in the Xfinity Series, nabbing four top-five results, nine top-10s, an average starting position of 14.4 and an average finish of 12.3.

OUR WEEKLY WRAPS:

WHAT OUR DRIVERS ARE SAYING:

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse

How would you rate yourself as a road-course driver?

“I feel like I’m above average. I’ve definitely had way more success in the lower series compared to Cup, where I’ve been kind of hit-or-miss. We’d run really, really good, or we were just off. Truthfully, I feel like the NextGen car has definitely hurt me quite a bit on the road-course side. I feel like the old car with just how badly it drove, you were always slipping and sliding around, it didn’t want to stop. I feel like this NextGen car certainly has closed up the gap. The guys who were typically off on road courses are definitely closer because the NextGen car is just easier to drive on the road courses – it stops better, it turns better, it just does everything better. I feel like I’ve been good on road courses from a speed standpoint, just need to find that little bit more to finally seal the deal on a road course.”

Noah Gragson, Driver of the No. 10 Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Some guys like road courses, others don’t. Where do you stand when it comes to competing on road courses?

“We used to just have two or three, or maybe only one on the Truck schedule, and my thinking was, ‘Oh man, this’ll be cool, I’ll get to do something different.’ Now there are five or six road courses – at one point, there were seven on the schedule – so it’s a big chunk of our season. You have to be good at it, but I’d also say it’s just another race where you have to carry the same amount of intensity. It felt a little more unique and special when there was just a limited number of road courses.”

Ryan Preece, Driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

You’ve had your share of success on road courses in your career. How do you approach learning and improving your performance on road courses, especially considering the unique challenges that this style of track creates?

“Road courses somewhat resemble short-track racing in terms of how you approach braking, so adapting to this style of racing has come with a baseline given my background. Channeling into that and utilizing the tools at your fingertips is what you have to do to be successful. I enjoy the challenges that this style of racing presents, and I’m certainly looking forward to COTA, as it’s a track where I enjoy racing.”

Josh Berry, Driver of the No. 4 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

What is the most challenging part of COTA? Where can you make the biggest gains?

“Like I said before, learning the braking zones there is important – there are some high-speed portions that you can lose a lot of time in if you aren’t good in that section. It’s cool, though, because a lot of the course flows together, right? Like, how the corners lead into one another. It’s going to be important for me to learn how to exit one corner and then enter the next, and how they flow from one to the next so I can make the best laps I can.”

Food City 500 Post-Race Report

Date: March 17, 2024

Event: Food City 500 (Round 5 of 36)

Series: NASCAR Cup Series

Location: Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway (.533-mile, concrete oval)

Format: 500 laps, broken into three stages (125 laps/125 laps/250 laps)

SHR Finish:
– Josh Berry (Started 2nd, Finished 12th / Running, completed 499 of 500 laps)

– Chase Briscoe (Started 6th, Finished 13th / Running, completed 498 of 500 laps)

– Ryan Preece (Started 25th, Finished 14th / Running, completed 498 of 500 laps)

– Noah Gragson (Started 22nd, Finished 34th / Running, completed 494 of 500 laps)

SHR Points:
– Chase Briscoe (19th with 107 points, 78 out of first)
– Josh Berry (27th with 74 points, 111 out of first)
– Noah Gragson (32nd with 56 points, 129 out of first)
– Ryan Preece (34th with 54 points, 131 out of first)

SHR Notes:
– Berry earned his first top-15 of the season and it came in his first career NASCAR Cup Series start at Bristol.
– This was Berry’s best finish so far this year. His previous best was 20th, earned March 3 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
– Berry finished 10th in Stage 1 to earn one bonus point.
– Berry led twice for 25 laps – his first laps led at Bristol.
– Berry was the highest finishing rookie.
– Berry qualified second for the Food City 500, his best qualifying effort in 17 career NASCAR Cup Series starts. His previous best was 14th, earned Feb. 24 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
– Briscoe earned his third top-15 of the season and his third top-15 in four career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Bristol.
– Briscoe’s 13th-place result equaled his previous best finish at Bristol, originally earned in September 2021.
– Preece earned his first top-15 of the season and his fourth top-15 in seven career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Bristol.
– This was Preece’s best finish so far this year. His previous best was 16th, earned Feb. 25 at Atlanta.
– Preece finished ninth in Stage 1 to earn two bonus points and 10th in Stage 2 to earn one more bonus point.

Sound Bites:

“That was a good weekend. We had good speed. I was really pretty happy with the car, but obviously there were a number of issues going on and I’m really kind of speechless on that part, but I thought we did a good job managing everything. We just seemed to make some adjustments at the end that seemed to cause the (tire) cording a little bit sooner and that kind of tied our hands a little bit there toward the end. But all in all, it was a great effort. Hate that we didn’t get a top-10, but it was a positive day and, honestly with everything going on, it was a lot of fun.” – Josh Berry, driver of the No. 4 SUNNYD Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“Crazy race, by far the most bizarre race I’ve ever been a part of trying to not go hard at all trying to save your tires, and then you’d feel good and they would just go all at once – they would be blowing. It was definitely weird just how you had to run that race, a cat-and-mouse game, which I think would’ve been really fun if you didn’t have to worry about the tires blowing or coming apart. Thirteenth for us, we were definitely way better than 13th, but there at the end my tire went down and I was just trying to make it to the end without having to pit again. To be frustrated with 13th from where we were last year just as a season says a lot about where we are this year. We’ll just have to move on and continue to get better.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“I’d rather things go the way they did today than get beat by somebody with a faster car that day. Obviously, they’ve got some work to do, the (tire) wear was excessive, but we maximized our day. If we didn’t have that tire come apart there at the end, we could’ve finished maybe top-10, but it is what it is.” – Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“We put ourselves in a box there early. We made a lot of speed on the first run, got up to 13th running the outside, then we cut a right-front down, or wore the right-front all the way down to the cords. Came down pit road, got trapped a lap down. We just didn’t execute today, especially myself, I hit the wall later in the race getting up into the marbles. There was a ton of tire rubber out there. But there are no excuses. I need to get it together for the Bass Pro Shops team and just didn’t run a good race. I appreciate all the hard work by everyone. We’ll keep it going. It was a tough weekend, a tough result, but we’ve got to rebound next weekend.” – Noah Gragson, driver of the No. 10 Bass Pro Shops/Ranger Boats/Tracker Boats & ATVS Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix on Sunday, March 24 at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas. The race begins at 3:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

TRUEWERK Partners With Stewart-Haas Racing

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. (March 14, 2024) – TRUEWERK, the direct-to-consumer performance workwear brand, has partnered with Stewart-Haas Racing, the championship-winning NASCAR team co-owned by NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart and Haas Automation founder Gene Haas.

TRUEWERK is outfitting Stewart-Haas from head to toe, with team members wearing the company’s high-performance gear at the track, in the gym and in the office as the official performance workwear, apparel and uniform provider for Stewart-Haas.

TRUEWERK engineers the world’s highest-performance workwear and the company collaborated with Stewart-Haas to develop an all-new apparel collection, combining proven performers, such as the T1 WerkPants, redesigned classics like hoodies and polos, along with a new-to-market selection, specifically its S1 StormShell rain gear that saw action in the season-opening Daytona 500, which was postponed a day to due to rain.

Image“We’re proud to partner with Stewart-Haas Racing and outfit its team members in our most technically advanced uniform program to date,” said Brian Ciciora, founder and CEO, TRUEWERK. “Stewart-Haas is built from the same DNA as the TRUEWERK community – obsessed with innovation, progression and performance in everything we do. We’re thrilled to be a part of Stewart-Haas for years to come and to help them perform at the highest level.”

Stewart-Haas was in need of an apparel partner that could furnish superior workwear able to withstand the rigors its crew members endure while simultaneously providing comfort in a variety of weather conditions, all with a sharp and consistent style. For Stewart-Haas driver Ryan Preece, TRUEWERK successfully delivered the trifecta of function, comfort and style.

“From the moment I got all my TRUEWERK gear, I threw out all the other stuff I had because there was absolutely no comparison,” said Preece, who wheels the No. 41 Ford Mustang Dark Horse in the NASCAR Cup Series. “I’m in their T1 WerkPants everyday – at the shop and at the track. Their T-shirts, polos, half-zips, hoodies, jackets – I’ve got them all and I wear them all. When you see me at the track, you’ll see me decked out in TRUEWERK.”

TRUEWERK will be decked out on Preece’s No. 41 Ford Mustang during the Coke Zero Sugar 400 Aug. 24 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. The penultimate race of the NASCAR Cup Series’ regular season will serve as TRUEWERK’s debut as a primary sponsor, with the No. 41 TRUEWERK Ford Mustang getting prime-time exposure on NBC when the race goes green at 7:30 p.m. EDT.

“Ryan Preece embodies the ethic, teamwork and commitment to excellence that’s synonymous with the TRUEWERK community,” Ciciora said. “A mechanic at heart, Ryan understands that a crew’s skill, judgment and the honed execution creates speed on the track, just as much as driving performance. It’s his commitment to the entire program that makes us so proud to be a part of Stewart-Haas.”

Beyond the sponsorship of Preece’s No. 41 Ford, TRUEWERK secured naming rights for Stewart-Haas’ state-of-the-art campus training facility, known now as the TRUEWERK Performance Center.

NASCAR fans and industry personnel who want to experience the function, comfort and style of TRUEWERK can do so directly at TRUEWERK.com.

Food City 500 Pre-Race Report

Event: Food City 500 (Round 5 of 36)

Time/Date: 3:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 17

Location: Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway

Layout: .533-mile, concrete oval

Laps/Miles: 500 laps/266.5 miles

Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 125 laps / Stage 2: 125 laps / Final Stage: 250 laps

TV/Radio: FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

 

SHR Fast Facts: 

– Chase Briscoe enters the high banks of Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway on a high after scoring his highest finish of the season last Sunday at Phoenix Raceway. Briscoe wheeled his No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse to a strong ninth-place drive in the 312-lap race around the 1-mile desert oval, putting the Mitchell, Indiana, native at .500 for the year when it comes to top-10 finishes. Briscoe scored a 10th-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500 and, four races into the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season, Briscoe is 19th in the championship standings.

– Josh Berry heads to his home state this weekend for Sunday’s 500-mile race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. It will be the NASCAR Cup Series debut on the high-banked, .533-mile oval’s concrete surface for the native of Hendersonville, Tennessee, located some 295 south and west of Bristol on the outskirts of Nashville. Berry does have one Cup Series start at Bristol, albeit in last year’s April race subbing for an injured Chase Elliott when the concrete surface was covered with dirt.

– Sunday’s Food City 500 returns to the concrete of Bristol Motor Speedway and Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Stewart-Haas Racing, is poised for a breakthrough performance on the half-mile, high-banked oval in Eastern Tennessee. Preece has competed in three different racing divisions at Bristol – the NASCAR Cup Series, the NASCAR Xfinity Series and the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour – for a total of 17 starts and 4,877 laps, or the equivalent of 2,600 miles, roughly the same distance between Preece’s hometown of Berlin, Connecticut, and Phoenix Raceway, site of last Sunday’s Cup Series race.

– With three finishes of 12th or better in the four NASCAR Cup Series races run this season, Noah Gragson is rolling. The driver of the No. 10 Bass Pro Shops/Ranger Boats/Tracker Boats & ATVS Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Stewart-Haas Racing has an average finish of 15.8, with his only blemish being a 36th-place result in the year’s second race at Atlanta Motor Speedway when he was collected in a multicar accident on just the second lap. In his 39 career Cup Series starts prior to this season, Gragson has never had such a stretch of front-running consistency. Now, the 25-year-old Las Vegas native turns his attention to Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, site of Sunday’s Food City 500, where he will make his first Cup Series start on the concrete-clad, .533-mile oval.

OUR WEEKLY WRAPS

WHAT OUR DRIVERS ARE SAYING:

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Are you happy to see the spring Bristol race return to concrete, or are you one of the guys who enjoyed the dirt race?

“I’m all about just going to Bristol, in general, but I definitely loved the dirt race. I feel like the Cup Series needs to have at least one dirt race. Truthfully, the first year was not the greatest race, but the last two years I thought was a really, really good race. I was kind of bummed to see it leave. That was obviously a race I always looked forward to and one that felt like I could go to and run up front at every year we did it. It’s kind of bittersweet getting rid of it, but at the same time, Bristol on the concrete is always one of the more fun races on the schedule. Maybe one day we can go back to dirt racing, but, yeah, I’m definitely going to miss it. ”

Josh Berry, Driver of the No. 4 SUNNYD Ford Mustang Dark Horse

You’re heading to Bristol Motor Speedway in your home state of Tennessee, and you have a deep history in short-track racing. Do you feel any kind of pressure as one of the drivers to watch this weekend?

“Bristol is a short track but it’s its own animal. It’s unique in how it races when compared to a Martinsville or Richmond layout. I think for us, we are going to keep preparing the same way we have each week. We try to prepare for as many scenarios as we can each week no matter the track. I think if we qualify well and have a clean day on pit road, the finishes will come and that’s all we can really do at this point.”

Ryan Preece, Driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Do you feel that Bristol is one of the best opportunities for you and the team to potentially capitalize on with a strong finishing position, based on your past success at the track?

“It’s certainly been a track that has been good to me. It’s one of the stronger racetracks that we go to, so the confidence is pretty high. We’re building toward being consistent, and hopefully we can show up and have that speed.”

Noah Gragson, Driver of the No. 10 Bass Pro Shops/Ranger Boats/Tracker Boats & ATVs Ford Mustang Dark Horse

You’ve never raced a Cup car on the concrete at Bristol, so you’re a Cup rookie in regard to Cup racing at Bristol. How challenging is that and what have you been doing to prepare for it?

“I’ve spent a lot of time in the sim getting ready for Bristol. I like that track a lot. I feel like I know where I need to be around that track, at least in an Xfinity car and a Truck. Going there in a Cup car, it’s going to take constant learning and being aware all day and seeing how we can improve from the start of practice, qualifying, the race, and then, hopefully, when we go back there for the night race in the fall we can be even better and fire off with more confidence. But we’re going into it pretty open-minded right now.”

Shriners Children’s 500k Post-Race Report

Date: March 10, 2024

Event: Shriners Children’s 500k (Round 4 of 36)

Series: NASCAR Cup Series

Location: Phoenix Raceway (1-mile oval)

Format: 312 laps, broken into three stages (60 laps/125 laps/127 laps)

 

SHR Finish:
– Chase Briscoe (Started 8th, Finished 9th / Running, completed 312 of 312 laps)
– Noah Gragson (Started 7th, Finished 12th / Running, completed 312 of 312 laps)
– Ryan Preece (Started 27th, Finished 23rd / Running, completed 311 of 312 laps)
– Josh Berry (Started 36th, Finished 26th / Running, completed 310 of 312 laps)

SHR Points:
– Chase Briscoe (19th with 83 points, 68 out of first)
– Noah Gragson (26th with 53 points, 98 out of first)
– Josh Berry (31st with 48 points, 103 out of first)
– Ryan Preece (35th with 28 points, 123 out of first)

SHR Notes:
– Briscoe earned his second top-10 of the season and his fourth top-10 in seven career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Phoenix.
– This was Briscoe’s best finish so far this year. His previous best was 10th, earned in the season-opening Daytona 500.
– Briscoe finished ninth in Stage 1 to earn two bonus points.
– Gragson earned his third top-12 of the season and his first top-12 in two career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Phoenix.
– Gragson’s 12th-place result bettered his previous best finish at Phoenix – 29th, earned last March.
– Gragson finished eighth in Stage 2 to earn three bonus points.

Sound Bites:

“It was a good day for us to finish in the top-10 because there were parts where we were 20th on back there. I’m happy with how we finished. We had good speed all weekend. We have stuff that we can clean up to keep more up front the whole race. The package, honestly, I thought the package was better, but the tires were an issue. The tires are so good that I think if you put this package on the right tire it would be better, for sure. We still have work to do. It was hard to pass. We were all kind of the same speed and I feel like it just comes down to the tire.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“I thought that was a lot of fun. Our SERVPRO guys did a great job. We had really fast pit stops. It is easy to Monday-Morning Quarterback it, but I have a lot of faith in Drew (Blickensderfer, crew chief) and the rest of these guys. They’ve been really good for me in building my confidence. We are a tight group and I have these guys’ backs. Looking back, we probably should’ve taken two tires because those guys finished up there, but we’ll keep going and keep learning, every race, every weekend. It’s still early. It’s the fourth race. We ran inside the top-10 for most of the day and it’s kind of a bummer, but it’s exciting to be good and to be disappointed with a 12th-place finish. That’s exciting for our team. We want to keep it going.” – Noah Gragson, driver of the No. 10 SERVPRO Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“On days like today, I think you just take away more laps and experience on restarts and on pit road and all that stuff. But we definitely struggled today, on some runs more than others. But just a lot to look at and learn from so we can be better when we come back.” – Josh Berry, driver of the No. 4 SUNNYD Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Food City 500 on Sunday, March 17 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. The race begins at 3:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Shriners Children’s 500k Pre-Race Report

Event: Shriners Children’s 500k (Round 4 of 36)

Time/Date: 3:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 10

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

 

SHR FAST FACTS

Josh Berry takes on the second leg of the West Coast swing Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, where he’ll be bringing back the bright colors of SUNNYD to his No. 4 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Stewart-Haas Racing for his second career NASCAR Cup Series start at the desert mile oval. The 33-year-old rookie has five NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Phoenix, which resulted in one top-five finish, three top-10s, an average starting position of 9.6 and an average finishing position of 13.2. He finished outside the top-15 just once in Xfinity Series competition at Phoenix. His lone Cup Series start came last March, when he was subbing for an injured Chase Elliott. He started that race 17th and finished 10th.

From the ashes of a 36th-place finish in the second NASCAR Cup Series race of the year at Atlanta Motor Speedway that nullified a strong ninth-place drive from the season-opening Daytona 500, Noah Gragson rose like a Phoenix last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The driver of the No. 10 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Stewart-Haas Racing scratched and clawed his way from 30th on the grid to finish an impressive sixth at the end of the 267-lap race. It was his first step out of the points hole that left him last in the championship standings after Atlanta. Gragson’s Las Vegas exploits allowed him to climb eight spots in points to 34th heading into this weekend’s Shriners Children’s 500k at Phoenix Raceway.

Briscoe’s best result at Phoenix is the best kind of result – a victory, and it wasn’t just any victory. In his 40th career NASCAR Cup Series start and just his third at Phoenix, Briscoe held off Tyler Reddick, Ross Chastain and the all-time winningest driver in NASCAR history at Phoenix, Kevin Harvick, to win his first Cup Series race. Briscoe had earned the right to fight for the win even before some late-race teeth gnashing brought on by a green-white-checkered finish. Briscoe started sixth and led three times for 101 laps before taking the checkered flag with a .771 of a second margin over runner-up Chastain. In addition to the triumph being Briscoe’s maiden Cup Series win, the native of Mitchell, Indiana, also became the 200th different race winner in Cup Series history.

Ryan Preece and his NASCAR Cup Series counterparts head to Phoenix Raceway this weekend for the Shriners Children’s 500k NASCAR Cup Series race. Sunday’s 312-lap contest around the 1-mile oval debuts a new short-track rules package, as Preece’s No. 41 United Rentals Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Stewart-Haas Racing will be outfitted with a simplified rear diffuser and a higher rear spoiler compared to last year’s specifications. The aim is to put more of the race in the driver’s hands, where nuanced throttle control will be key to maintaining grip and managing tire wear. The updated package is a welcome one for Preece, who honed these exact traits on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour – NASCAR’s oldest division and the only open-wheel series sanctioned by NASCAR. Preece won the Tour championship in 2013 and properly leveraged that title and his 26 Tour victories into additional opportunities across NASCAR’s top-three national touring series – Craftsman Truck, Xfinity and Cup.

OUR WEEKLY WRAPS:

WHAT OUR DRIVERS ARE SAYING:

Josh Berry, No. 4 SUNNYD® Ford Mustang Dark Horse

The restarts at Phoenix can get a little crazy – how do you manage your level of aggression and your positioning on the track, especially late in the race?

“It’s hard and so much can happen that is out of your control. The biggest thing for me is to study those restarts and see which moves are good and which aren’t. Not every restart is going to be perfect, especially if you’re in the pack, but it’s just important to have the right mentality about making those moves and also keeping your car clean, especially early in the race.”​

Noah Gragson, No. 10 SERVPRO Ford Mustang Dark Horse

You only have one NASCAR Cup Series start at Phoenix, but you still have plenty of experience there with eight Xfinity Series starts, three Truck Series starts and one K&N West start. Talk about your career progression at Phoenix – how you’ve learned and developed overall, and what you’ve learned by making laps at that track.

“I first started going there in 2015 for the K&N West championship race. Didn’t run great there, thought I hated the place, and then ran pretty good in the Trucks, and didn’t run too good there in Xfinity, but started running really good and ended up winning a race there in Xfinity and got a lot of second-place finishes, third-place finishes there. The Cup Series race was really bad there last year. Looking forward to how the No. 10 SERVPRO Ford Mustang drives there at Phoenix. It’s a fun track, it’s a challenging track, and it always seems like it’s different, the way the sticky stuff is sprayed down in the corners. But it always puts on a good show for the fans.”

Chase Briscoe, No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse

You earned your first career NASCAR Cup Series win two years ago at Phoenix. Describe the race, what you did to win, and what it was like to take the checkered flag.

“It was obviously a super special day and one that I’ll certainly never forget. I remember truthfully going there that weekend not super excited. Phoenix had never been a track that I necessarily looked forward to going to. I looked at it as one of my three worst racetracks. I remember going there that weekend trying to be optimistic, but kind of knowing it could potentially be a weekend of struggle. I put a ton of work in trying to get better at Phoenix, but I still felt I had a long way to go. I remember practicing and qualifying and being extremely happy with my car and I felt like Sunday I definitely was going to be in the mix as far as a top-five goes. I didn’t necessarily feel like I had winning speed, but felt I had a car capable of being up front. I was able to slowly creep our way forward all day until we found ourselves in the lead and I just remember it not being an easy one to seal the deal. I had to hold off Chase Elliott for like 60, 70 laps, and our pit crew did an amazing job keeping us out front, and they actually got me the lead again on pit road. I remember having a restart with, I want to say 18 or so to go, and starting on the front row with Kevin Harvick at Phoenix going for the win, which was really cool to go heads-up against not only my teammate, but also a guy who had done it all there. It was just a really cool day, and I felt like I definitely had to go and earn it. I think we had a restart with four or five to go, too, and it was me and Ross Chastain and Tyler Reddick and we were all going for our first win at the time. It was a really hard one to win and one of those races where you really had to keep your elbows up and just a really cool day overall.”

Ryan Preece, No. 41 United Rentals Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Phoenix isn’t necessarily a short track as it’s a mile in length, but it features qualities that are similar with its minimal banking and relatively flat straights. What approach are you and the team taking into this race?

“I feel like last year, our strength as a company was at the short tracks. Phoenix falls under that category to us. In the last race at Phoenix, I felt like we had a top-15 car. My hope for this year, with the improvements that have been made, is that we can continue to take steps forward and consistently be where we want to be on performance. We’re excited for the short tracks coming up and want to kick off the first one by running a clean race with a car that is able to do everything right.” 

Las Vegas 400 Post-Race Report

 

Date: March 3, 2024

Event: Las Vegas 400 (Round 3 of 36)

Series: NASCAR Cup Series

Location: Las Vegas Motor Speedway (1.5-mile oval)

Format: 267 laps, broken into three stages (80 laps/85 laps/102 laps)

 

SHR Finish:
– Noah Gragson (Started 30th, Finished 6th / Running, completed 267 of 267 laps)
– Josh Berry (Started 26th, Finished 20th / Running, completed 267 of 267 laps)
– Chase Briscoe (Started 6th, Finished 21st / Running, completed 267 of 267 laps)
– Ryan Preece (Started 36th, Finished 23rd / Running, completed 267 of 267 laps)

 

SHR Points:
– Chase Briscoe (20th with 53 points, 65 out of first)
– Josh Berry (30th with 37 points, 81 out of first)
– Noah Gragson (34th with 25 points, 93 out of first)
– Ryan Preece (36th with 14 points, 104 out of first)

 

SHR Notes:
– Gragson earned his second top-10 of the season and his first top-10 in three career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Las Vegas.
– This was Gragson’s best finish so far this year. His previous best was ninth, earned in the season-opening Daytona 500.
– Gragson’s sixth-place result bettered his previous best finish at Las Vegas  11th, earned in October 2022.
– This was Berry’s best finish so far this year. His previous best was 25th, earned in the season-opening Daytona 500.
– Berry’s 20th-place result bettered his previous best finish at Las Vegas – 29th, earned last March.
– Briscoe led one lap, increasing his laps-led total at Las Vegas to seven.

 

Sound Bites:

“These guys are good. It feels good to do it in front of the hometown crowd. I was battling Ty (Gibbs) and Ross (Chastain) there at the end for a top-five. I really wanted a top-five, but coming from 30th to sixth, I’m just really proud of everyone’s effort. This Mustang Dark Horse is bitchin’. It’s fast and it’s been really good. This compared to last year just has a lot more speed. You can go where you want. We’ve got a good pit crew and just a good team. We’re going to take this and get back into the positives in points and just keep on working, keep on learning and becoming better than we were yesterday and just keep that attitude. I think we’ve got the tightest group in the garage. They’re awesome to work with and I love every one of them.” – Noah Gragson, driver of the No. 10 Fanttik Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“I think we saw a lot of potential with the new (Ford Mustang Dark Horse) body style. Definitely each run it seemed like as a company, one of our cars was stronger than the other. But we learned a lot and our car definitely had some speed. We’ve just got to work on fine-tuning it and I need to work on starting just a little bit closer to the front, and all of those things start to compound and we have a little bit better of a day. But overall I thought we were solid.” – Josh Berry, driver of the No. 4 Mobil 1/Take 5 Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“Before (the contact with Ryan Blaney), I thought our car was pretty good. We weren’t good enough to win, I didn’t think, but we were definitely a fifth- to 10th-place car fairly easily. I was able to pass a lot of cars. That second run of the race, we kind of went backward, but after that we were able to continue to go forward and I was really happy with the way my car was driving. After the contact, as soon as it happened, I went into the next corner and we were a half a second slower that lap and just continued to stay a half a second slower than we had been for the rest of the race. Kind of head-scratching, not really sure what happened as far as why we lost a half a second. Definitely a tough one to swallow when we had that good of a car – we definitely had a top-10 car and ended up finishing 21st. That part’s kind of frustrating, but we’re going to Phoenix where we’ve had speed in the past and see if we can just get a better run.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“We just did what we could with what we had for the day. Without practice, really, what we had was really what it was going to be. That’s that.” – Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Shriners Children’s 500k on Sunday, March 10 at Phoenix Raceway. The race begins at 3:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.