Author: Ashlyn Siske

Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), heads into the second round of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs at Richmond (Va.) Raceway with statistics on his side.

Five of the past seven champions have been 37 years of age or older when they captured the Cup Series title and, though Harvick’s 39^th-place finish last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway wasn’t how he wanted to start his playoff run, his Freaky Fast team is just fueling up for the fight to the finish as the team tries for its second championship in four years.

The 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion finished the 26-race regular season as the series leader with seven points-paying wins, 19 top-five finishes, 22 top-10s, 1,220 laps led and 50 playoff points, but second in total regular-season points. He is now fourth in the reset playoff standings with 2,060 points after his Las Vegas result, 38 ahead of the top-12 cutoff as he enters the penultimate race in the Round of 12 prior, which will be followed by the first elimination race at the Charlotte Motor (N.C.) Speedway “roval.”

Richmond has been a consistent track for Harvick through his career. In 35 Cup Series starts at the three-quarter-mile oval, Harvick owns three victories, 13 top-five finishes and 10 top-10s. He has an average Richmond finish of 10.3 with 99.2 percent of laps completed. He earned his most recent Busch Pole Award at the track in April 2016.

In the past 10 races on tracks 1 mile or less, Harvick has led 255 laps and has completed every lap. He owns two victories – ISM Raceway near Phoenix and Dover (Del.) International Speedway, six top-five finishes and eight top-10s.

The Jimmy John’s team has been the freak of the field this year with its success in most every statistical category. It has embodied the essence of the freaks who work for Jimmy John’s and their obsession with making the perfect sandwich for their customers.

While being Freaky Fast is nothing new to Jimmy John’s employees or Harvick’s Jimmy John’s crew, they are celebrating the arrival of something new – the new 9-Grain Wheat Sub. It marks the first time Jimmy John’s has added a new bread to its lineup in more than 20 years.

The new 9-Grain Wheat Sub features a delicious blend of wheat, rye, flaxseed, quinoa, millet, oats, barley, amaranth and spelt, as well as honey, coconut and molasses. It is available with any Jimmy John’s sandwich at no extra charge.

Like the traditional French bread, the new 9-Grain Wheat Sub will be freshly baked in-store every day. It is the latest in a series of products that Jimmy John’s has rolled out this year as a part of the Freak Yeah campaign, including the popular Kickin’ Ranch®, the 16-inch Giant Sandwich and a sliced version of Jimmy John’s World-Famous Pickles, all of which can be applied to the new 9-Grain Wheat Sub.

More good news for Harvick and the No. 4 team is that they started the playoffs last weekend with 50 playoffs points. Those will be a huge benefit as the team attempts to advance out of the Round of 16 and into the Round of 12. In fact, the playoff points could be beneficial through each of the first three rounds as long as the team advances.

Therefore, Harvick and the No. 4 team have their goals set for this weekend’s race – to earn stage points and get their Freaky Fast Ford back to victory lane at Richmond.

KEVIN HARVICK, Driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Why has Richmond caused so many run-ins over the years, or conflicts between drivers? Will there be more drama this year as it becomes a playoff race?

“I don’t really know. For us, it’s really the same as any other race. You want to go there and prepare the best you can. Being a short track, it’s just one of those places where sometimes you have to move somebody out of the way and sometimes that doesn’t go over well. Any time you have short-track racing, there are going to be things that happen and that should be interesting in the second week of the playoffs.”

Is it better to race with your emotions in check?

“I think, emotionally, you can get yourself in trouble. Especially for me, to have those emotions under control opens the door for less noise. I can deal with the noise, but I don’t like the noise and disruption that comes with that noise for my team because they have to start answering questions and looking at things on the Internet to take their focus off of what is most important. It’s most important for them to focus on the details of the car. Having a good mental mindset is something I’ve been working on over the past month and a half to make sure that mentally I was ready to be relaxed and focused.”

Aric Almirola and the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Fusion team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) return to Richmond (Va.) Raceway this weekend for the second time this season after scoring the highest SHR finish of sixth in the opening Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoff race last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

In this year’s April Cup Series event at Richmond, Almirola ran as high as second before ending up 17^th. He finished Stages 1 and 2 of the race second and third, respectively and was close to finishing out the event in the top-10 before a late-race restart caused him to go four-wide and get shuffled back to midpack.

Almirola heads into Saturday night’s race, the second in Round 1 of the Cup Series playoffs, ninth in the playoff standings with 2,034 points. The Tampa native is 12 markers ahead of the top-12 cutoff, with the first elimination race the following weekend at the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway “roval.”

This weekend, Almirola’s Smithfield livery will look a little different from the traditional black, white and gold scheme. The No. 10 Ford Fusion will sport Smithfield’s summer grilling paint scheme. Additionally, fans who submitted their “Hero of the Grill” nominee earlier this season via SmithfieldGetGrilling.com will have their grilling heroes names included on Almirola’s car this weekend.

The three-quarter-mile oval facility at Richmond, which just completed an infield renovation, typically puts on one of the best shows in the sport. The 34-year-old Almirola has six starts at tracks a mile or less in length this season, completing every lap except at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in August when a mechanical issue forced the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Fusion behind the wall for repairs.

In 13 starts at the Richmond oval, Almirola has captured one top-five finish and four top-10s. He has an average Richmond finish of 16.3 with 99.9 percent of laps completed. He earned his best finish of fourth in September 2015. He  has six Richmond starts in the Xfinity Series with one top-10 finish, 10 laps led and an average finish of 16.2.

Fans can still enter for their chance to win Smithfield’s Smoke Machine Mustang designed by team co-owner Tony Stewart with the help of drifting champion Vaughn Gittin Jr. They helped create a one-of-a-kind Ford Mustang RTR Spec 3 that will be given away to one lucky fan. Fans can register for their chance to win the suped-up Mustang and a trip to November’s Ford Championship Weekend at Homestead by visiting SmithfieldRacing.com, or by texting SMOKE to 82257.

Richmond marks the 25^th points-paying event during which the Smithfield livery has adorned Almirola’s No. 10 Ford Fusion. Smithfield, a brand of Smithfield Foods, which is based approximately five hours northeast of SHR headquarters in Smithfield, Virginia, is in its seventh season with Almirola and its first with SHR. Founded in 1936, Smithfield is a leading provider of high-quality pork products, with a vast product portfolio including smoked meats, hams, bacon, sausage, ribs, and a wide variety of fresh pork cuts.

In 27 Cup Series outings this year, Almirola has an average start of 17.8 and an average finish of 14.3, with one top-five finish and 11 top-10s. He’s also led 115 laps this season, already a career best. Almirola is third among the four-driver SHR contingent in the playoff point standings.

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

This is your first year at Stewart-Haas Racing and you’ve also been paired with a new crew chief Johnny Klausmeier. How has it been working with him?

“It’s been good. We’ve been showing up with fast racecars every week and Johnny has really taken control and is doing a great job leading the 10 team. He has a really calm demeanor about him. We’re in a pretty stressful, high-intensity situation in the playoffs. It’s been nice to have him as a leader. It’s been nice to have that calm voice, and he’s very calculated and detail oriented. All of those things have made him great to work with.”

You’re 12 points to the good in the standings, but you finished 17^th at Richmond earlier this season. How do you feel going into this weekend?

“We actually had a really fast Smithfield Ford Fusion at Richmond earlier this season. In the first stage, we drove from 25^th all of the way up to second and almost won the stage. The next stage, we finished third, and then some strategy, pit-stop cycles and things like that didn’t play in our favor. Other than that, we had a top-five car in the first two stages and a top-10 car in the final stage. If we can find that speed we had early in the race back in April, and can carry that throughout the whole race this weekend, we’ll be fine. I feel good about this weekend. Of all places, going to Richmond, I feel good about having a shot at going for the win.”

It seemed a little warm during last week’s race at Las Vegas. But to Kurt Busch, a native of Las Vegas, it was not hot enough.

Perhaps that’s why his No. 41 Ford for Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway is sponsored by State Water Heaters and Haas Automation.

In 1946, State Water Heaters was founded by Herbert Lindahl as a small entrepreneurial company producing coal- and wood-burning stoves in a garage in Nashville, Tennessee. In the years that followed, State expanded and became a leader in the water-heating industry through steadfast commitments to seeking new materials, new technology and innovative engineering techniques.

Busch is hoping that State Water Heaters can bring him more heat – and some luck – as week two of the 10-week NASCAR Cup Series playoffs are taking place. The No. 41 team is in sixth place, 24 points to the good with two races to go before the 16-driver playoff field gets cut to 12.

Busch was running in the top-five for much of Sunday’s Las Vegas race, but a late accident not of his making placed him in 21^st. He would very much like to pad his lead over 13^th place before next week’s Round of 16 finale on the new “roval” at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway.

In 35 NASCAR Cup Series starts at Richmond, Busch owns a pair of victories, the in September 2005, when he started fifth and led 185 laps en route to the win, and the second in April 2015 driving a Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR)-prepared racecar. He dominated the latter event, leading six times for a race-high 291 laps and holding off teammate Kevin Harvick to score his first win 2015.

In addition to his success in NASCAR’s top series, Busch also won in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Richmond in April 2012.

Busch is hoping to take the No. 41 State Water Heaters/Haas Automation/Monster Energy Ford Fusion for SHR to victory lane for a third time at Richmond in the Cup Series.

And he would be “warmly” greeted in victory lane.  

KURT BUSCH, Driver of the No. 41 State Water Heaters/Haas Automation Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

How important is Richmond with the uncertainly of the new “roval” next week at Charlotte?   

“There will be a lot of anxiety, a lot of unknowns and a lot of interesting, unique things that are going to come out of the road race with it being a cutoff race. It’s a very important race to have a smooth day. And, based on testing, nobody’s had a smooth day getting around that track. So it puts emphasis on Richmond and, right now, I think everybody’s looking at Richmond like, ‘Man I want to win that one, that way I don’t have the stress of the roval.’ Plus, it’s great that we have State Water Heaters on our car for Richmond along with Haas Automation, Monster Energy and Ford. State Water Heaters will be with us at Texas, as well. They are a great partner.”

Talk about the upgrades to Richmond Raceway.

“It’ll be great. Every track that redoes the garage area – places like Daytona and Vegas – they seem to make it very fan friendly. The way our atmosphere around our races has changed, everyone wants to be in the pits and, yet, you don’t want too congested of a workspace and so, to create the viewing areas and the different platforms and different places to get food and drink, it’s great for our fans to be near our workspace.”

Your thoughts about the track since you starting running there in 2002?   

“It’s a cool short track. It really challenges you to make sure you have the drive off as far as the forward bite off corner exit. But, there are a lot of restarts where you just have to haul the mail and cut through the center of the corner hard and lay down the hard lap times, those fast lap times. It’s a fun, challenging track. You have to be ready for a lot of things at Richmond.”

What is the hardest thing to figure out at Richmond? 

“For me, it’s turn four. The races I’ve won there, I had a good car on the exit of turn four. Races I’ve lost or ran poorly, my exit of turn four wasn’t that good. It’s really a tough corner to get good traction put down.”

Event:               Go Bowling 250 (Round 27 of 33)
Date:                Sept. 21, 2018
Location:          Richmond (Va.) Raceway
Layout:             .75-mile oval

Cole Custer Notes of Interest

• The Go Bowling 250 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway will be the first race of 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs. The playoffs begin with 12 eligible drivers and are divided into three rounds with the first two rounds consisting of three races apiece and a final, single-race round at the Homestead-Miami Speedway season finale. Four drivers are eliminated after each of the first two rounds to ultimately establish four finalists at Homestead. Drivers automatically qualify for the next round with a win in the current round with the remaining spots determined by the point standings. At Homestead, the top-finishing driver among the four finalists wins the championship.
• Custer will begin the 2018 Xfinity Series playoffs from the fourth seed with 2,011 points, 28 behind leader Justin Allgaier.
• Custer is no stranger to victory lane at Richmond. In 2014, he took the checkered flag after leading 52 laps in the K&N Pro Series East race. In Custer’s five combined starts at Richmond in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East (two races) and NASCAR Xfinity Series (three races), he has a win, two top-five finishes, three top-10s and 76 laps led.
• In 64 career Xfinity Series starts, 42 Camping World Truck Series starts and 29 K&N Pro Series starts since 2015, Custer has five wins, seven poles, 16 top-five finishes, 32 top-10s and 1,077 laps led at tracks that are a mile in length or shorter.
• Custer’s second-place finishes May 26 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway and Sept. 1 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway are his best in 26 races this season.
• Custer’s average starting position of 6.2 and five pole awards in the 2018 Xfinity Series season lead all Xfinity Series regulars. He has earned 19 top-five starts and 24 top-10 starts this season.
• Custer’s 21 top-10 finishes is tied with Elliott Sadler and Allgaier for most among Xfinity Series regulars.
• Custer has also earned 11 top-five finishes and has led 240 laps this season.
• Go Bowling will serve as the primary sponsor of the No. 00 Ford Mustang at Richmond for the first time this season. comis the go-to site for consumers to learn more about the sport of bowling, including information about the more than 1,700 bowling centers around the country. The site helps fans find local bowling centers, promotional offers, video bowling tips and other bowling information. To learn more about Go Bowling, visit GoBowling.com.
• Custer will attend Wednesday’s Professional Women’s Bowling Association (PWBA) Tour Championship in Richmond’s historic Old Dominion Building. The event will be televised live by CBS Sports Network.
• In Custer’s most recent start at Richmond April 20, he earned his fifth pole award of the season and led the first 43 laps of Stage 1. He raced in and around the top-five until the team was handed a penalty on pit road for an uncontrolled tire. He started the final stage from the rear and rallied the No. 00 Ford to a sixth-place finish.
• Last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Custer raced inside the top-five for the majority of the race after leading the first three laps and earning a third-place finish.\
• Custer will pull a double-duty weekend by making his third career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series start in Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond.

Cole Custer, Driver Q&A

This is your second straight appearance in the NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs. Is your mindset different than last year, when the Go Bowling Ford team started from scratch?

“My mindset is different from last year. We proved to ourselves that we had a championship-winning team at Homestead. Going into the playoffs this time, I’ll have to bring the intensity and focus up. If we start to get all of the little things right, I think we can compete with anyone for the championship. We’ve shown the speed. Now we need to execute every time. ”

Richmond is a unique track. What does it take to get around the .75-mile track faster than anyone else?  

“Richmond is tough because of how much tire falloff we get. The biggest thing there is to make sure you balance your short- and long-run speed. We ran well there earlier this year and I think we learned a ton for this weekend. As long as we don’t make any mistakes like we did on pit road earlier in the year, there’s no reason why we can’t win or have a solid finish.” 

Jeff Meendering, Crew Chief Q&A

What have you learned from Richmond and what will it take to make it to the next round of the playoffs?

“We really hit on something good earlier in the year and led a good amount of laps. We just have to work together to manage the short- and long-run speeds and manage the tires. We’re always going to compete for a win, but making it into the next round each weekend means no mistakes. The pit crew got a penalty on pit road last year that put us to the rear of the field. If we were able to start back in the front of the field, we could have competed for a win.”

Who’s the most important member of a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series team? Some will say the driver and others might argue the crew chief. Cases could be made for mechanics, pit crew and spotters, but No. 14 ITsavvy Ford driver Clint Bowyer suggests someone who probably wouldn’t make the list of most race fans – the Information Technology (IT) guy.

He’s serious.

“Stewart Haas Racing (SHR) is a four-car team and we have tons of extremely talented folks, but I’m going to tell you the number-one guy that we can’t do without on a race weekend or, especially at a test, is our IT guy,” Bowyer said. “If he’s sick, we’re all sick and that racecar is going to be sick. It’s unbelievable how much we lean on that side of things, on the technology side.”

It’s fitting that, this weekend at Richmond (Va.) Raceway, Bowyer and SHR debut ITsavvy (pronounced I-T-savvy) as a new primary sponsor in the Cup Series. The Addison, Illinois-based company is one of the fastest-growing resources for integrated IT products and technology solutions in the United States. ITsavvy has catapulted from a Midwest start-up to a national leader in IT products and solutions, very rapidly.

Founded in 2004 by Mike Theriault and Chris Kurpeikis, ITsavvy has been consistently recognized as one of the fastest-growing businesses of its type. ITsavvy is a single-source, end-to-end IT partner. The company combines a comprehensive, value-added reseller business of more than a million computer, hardware and software products with an industry-leading advanced solutions group. ITsavvy has access to $8 billion in daily inventory in 46 distribution centers around the country with the ability to ship in-stock items the same day they are ordered.

ITsavvy will also serve as the primary sponsor on Bowyer’s No. 14 Ford at ISM Raceway near Phoenix later this season. Bowyer hopes the relationship will provide a competitive advantage to the No. 14 team and his SHR teammates.

“If you walk through our race shop and throughout the garage, you’ll see how our racecars and our entire industry rely on technology,” Bowyer said. “From engine diagnostics to fuel-mileage calculations, our business is dependent on technology solutions. The senior-level introductions our sport can make will lead to new business opportunities for ITsavvy. Every company needs what ITsavvy provides, and we’re excited to facilitate those introductions.”

ITsavvy appears on the No. 14 at a critical time in the 2018 season. Bowyer heads to Richmond 11th in points after finishing 23rd in the playoff-opening race Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. To advance to the second round of the playoffs that begin in two weeks, Bowyer must be in the top-12 among the 16 playoff drivers after the Richmond race and the new road course “roval” event at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway.

Since the winner at each track automatically advances to the next playoff round, Bowyer has come up with a simple solution to any potential drama at Charlotte.

“You want to get your work done this weekend in Richmond,” Bowyer said. “You want a big enough cushion going into the roval at Charlotte because that’s going to be one of the biggest wildcards in the playoffs. We really wanted to finish well last weekend in Las Vegas and this weekend in Richmond because nobody knows what’s going to happen in Charlotte. Nobody wants to go there knowing they have to have a great finish to advance to the next round. We want to go win Richmond and then go to Charlotte and watch all the other guys sweat.”

Bowyer has won twice at Richmond and posted 13 top-10s in 25 start at the three-quarter-mile oval. In April, he led 45 laps and finished second in Stage 2 before finishing ninth in the race. There would be no better time than Saturday night in a playoff situation at Richmond to add a third win to his 2018 resume.

If he does visit victory lane, the Emporia, Kansas native will have a long list of corporate partners, crew members and supporters to thank – especially the IT guy.
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CLINT BOWYER, Driver of the No. 14 ITsavvy Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing:

What are your thoughts on Richmond Raceway?

“It’s just a perfect racetrack. It’s always been that way. Ever since I started in the Xfinity Series with Richard (Childress), it’s always fit my driving style. It’s that short track and I’ve always said that I wish we had four or five of these all across the country. They certainly hit the mark when they were making Richmond. I have a lot of fun there – prerace and everything else. The fan base there has always been good. It’s a good vibe and a good feel for a racetrack being that it kind of reminds you of pulling into the old fairgrounds at a dirt track. There are houses across the street and this is what short-track racing is all about.”

Can you win the championship?

“I think we’ve got to go out and live up to our capabilities. If we do that, we’ll have a shot to go to Homestead. Everyone thinks they can win. I do. I really, truly do. It’s not smoke and mirrors. I believe I’ve seen enough out of our race team that I’m confident in our opportunity ahead. If we can go out and get those mistakes behind us, I’ve said over the last month and a half, we’re capable of winning. There is only one thing that makes you confident and that is success, and we’ve had that success to enable me to be confident.”