Author: Jess Smith

Smithfield and Almirola Return to Stewart-Haas Racing with Multiyear Agreement Beginning in 2023

Smithfield To Serve as Anchor Partner of No. 10 Ford Mustang with Largest Allotment of Races as a Primary Partner Since Joining SHR in 2018

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Aug. 26, 2022) – Smithfield Foods and NASCAR Cup Series driver Aric Almirola will continue their longstanding partnership as both return to Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) with a multiyear agreement that begins in 2023.

The 2023 season will be the 12th consecutive year that Smithfield has partnered with Almirola and its sixth together at SHR. The renewed pact comes with a significantly heightened presence as Smithfield will be the anchor partner of Almirola’s No. 10 Ford Mustang for the largest allotment of races since joining SHR in 2018.

The extension also marks a turnabout for Almirola. The 38-year-old from Tampa, Florida, came into 2022 ready to relish every moment, for his original plan was to retire at season’s end. In the course of this year, Almirola has discovered a new balance between his passion for racing and dedication to his family. His wife, Janice, and kids, Alex and Abby, join him on most race weekends, oftentimes enjoying once-in-a-lifetime experiences together as they travel the country. His rapport with crew chief Drew Blickensderfer has flourished, and the intense pressure he had put on himself was replaced with the joy of simply being present. Almirola was reinvigorated, and when Smithfield broached the subject of continuing together beyond 2022, Almirola accepted.

“I’ve learned a lot this year and perhaps the biggest learning was to never say never,” Almirola said. “I came into this year ready to soak everything up, and I have. I already knew I had the coolest job in the world, but being with my family and being there for Janice and Alex and Abby was really important. My desire to compete and win never wavered, but I didn’t want it to come at the expense of family. We found a way to accommodate both and I’ve never been happier.

“Smithfield is a big part of that. They’ve been a part of my life for 11 years and, really, my entire NASCAR Cup Series career. They’re family to me. And, of course, it’s always nice to be wanted. Smithfield wanted me to continue representing them. Stewart-Haas Racing wanted me to continue driving their racecars. Everything just aligned and it’s something we all embraced.

“The original decision to step away from fulltime racing at the end of the season was a family one, and so is this decision. Janice, Alex and Abby are just as excited as I am to continue racing the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang.”

The Smithfield/Almirola pairing is one of the most tenured in NASCAR. Almirola teamed up with Smithfield in 2012 while at Richard Petty Motorsports for his first full year in the NASCAR Cup Series. Almirola and Smithfield moved to SHR in 2018 where the two immediately found success, making the NASCAR Playoffs, winning in October at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway and finishing a career-high fifth in points. Almirola went on to score a career-best 18 top-10 finishes in 2020 before earning another victory in 2021 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon to put him into the playoffs for a fourth consecutive season.

“Aric has been a part of the Smithfield family for more than a decade and we’re very happy to have him back in the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang,” said Shane Smith, president and CEO, Smithfield Foods. “Just as Aric discovered new ways to enjoy this sport, Smithfield did too. I was at this year’s Daytona 500 with him and it was electric. NASCAR is exactly where we need to be. It’s where our customers are, and no one reaches them better than Aric Almirola. He’s an incredibly talented racer and devoted family man who embodies Smithfield’s values. From day one, Aric has embraced our commitment to do good for our customers, employees and communities. This is a reinvestment in Aric, in Stewart-Haas Racing and in NASCAR.”

Tony Stewart, co-owner of SHR with Haas Automation founder Gene Haas, was a driving force behind Almirola joining SHR in 2018. Stewart first met Almirola in 2004 when they were teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing. Stewart was already a NASCAR Cup Series champion with the first of his three titles in hand (2002, 2005 and 2011) while Almirola was just beginning his NASCAR career after being selected as one of the first two drivers for Gibbs’ diversity program.

“All of us at SHR are very happy to have Aric back in our Smithfield Ford Mustang,” Stewart said. “I’ve always admired Aric because he’s always working to better himself, to find a better way. This year is proof of that.

“We’re in a tough sport, in terms of the competition and in terms of the commitment it takes to compete at this level. Even with all that, Aric has found a way to compete and enjoy life. That sounds simple, but achieving it is hard, yet Aric makes it look simple. It’s one of his many attributes, and it’s one of the many reasons why he’s such a good fit for Smithfield and for us. I’m proud of him and proud to extend our partnership with Smithfield.”

About Smithfield Foods, Inc.:
Headquartered in Smithfield, Virginia, since 1936, Smithfield Foods, Inc., is an American food company with agricultural roots and a global reach. With more than 60,000 jobs globally, we are dedicated to producing “Good food. Responsibly.®” and serve as one of the world’s leading vertically integrated protein companies. We have pioneered sustainability standards for more than two decades, including our industry-leading commitments to become carbon negative in our U.S. company-owned operations and reduce GHG emissions 30 percent across our entire U.S. value chain by 2030. We believe in the power of protein to end food insecurity and have donated hundreds of millions of food servings to our communities. Smithfield boasts a portfolio of high-quality iconic brands, such as Smithfield®, Eckrich® and Nathan’s Famous®, among many others. For more information, visit www.SmithfieldFoods.com, and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

About Stewart-Haas Racing:
Stewart-Haas Racing is the title-winning NASCAR team co-owned by three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Tony Stewart and Gene Haas, founder of Haas Automation – the largest CNC machine tool builder in North America. The Kannapolis, North Carolina-based organization has won two NASCAR Cup Series titles, one NASCAR Xfinity Series championship and more than 90 NASCAR races, including such crown-jewel events as the Daytona 500, Brickyard 400 and Southern 500. For more information, please visit us online at StewartHaasRacing.com and on social at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn.

 -SHR-

SHR Post-Race Recap: Watkins Glen

Date:  Aug. 21, 2022
Event:  Go Bowling! At The Glen (Round 25 of 36)
Series:  NASCAR Cup Series
Location:  Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International (2.45-mile, seven-turn road course)
Format:  90 laps, broken into three stages (20 laps/20 laps/50 laps)
Race Winner:  Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports
Stage 1 Winner:  Chase Briscoe of Stewart-Haas Racing
Stage 2 Winner:  Joey Logano of Team Penske

SHR Race Finish:
●  Cole Custer (Started 29th, Finished 11th / Running, completed 90 of 90 laps)
●  Kevin Harvick (Started 24th, Finished 12th / Running, completed 90 of 90 laps)
●  Chase Briscoe (Started 14th, Finished 25th / Running, completed 90 of 90 laps)
●  Aric Almirola (Started 35th, Finished 29th / Running, completed 90 of 90 laps)

SHR Points:
●  Kevin Harvick (8th with 690 points, 232 out of first)
●  Chase Briscoe (16th with 571 points, 351 out of first)
●  Aric Almirola (18th with 560 points, 362 out of first)
●  Cole Custer (26th with 431 points, 491 out of first)

SHR Notes:
●  Custer earned his seventh top-15 of the season and his first top-15 in two career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Watkins Glen.
●  Custer’s 11th-place result bettered his previous best finish at Watkins Glen – 18th, earned in his first start at the track last August.
●  Custer finished ninth in Stage 2 to earn two bonus points.
●  Custer led once for seven laps – his first laps led at Watkins Glen.
●  This was Harvick’s fourth straight finish of 12th or better at Watkins Glen. He finished eighth in this race last year, seventh in 2019 and 10th in 2018. (The NASCAR Cup Series did not race at Watkins Glen in 2020 due to restrictions related to COVID-19.)
●  Briscoe finished first in Stage 1 to earn 10 bonus points and one valuable playoff point.
●  Briscoe led once for seven laps – his first laps led at Watkins Glen.

Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Coke Zero Sugar 400 on Saturday, Aug. 27 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. The regular-season finale begins at 7 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBC and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

-SHR-

In the Know – Watkins Glen

In The Know – Watkins glen

The Go Bowling! At The Glen serves as the fifth of six road-course races on the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule. Get up-to-speed on race info, driver stats, our weekly wraps, and more as we take on the twists and turns of road racing in the Empire State.

The Details

NASCAR Cup Series Overview

●  Event:  Go Bowling! At The Glen (Round 25 of 36)
●  Time/Date:  3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 21
●  Location:  Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International
●  Layout:  2.45-mile, seven-turn road course
●  Laps/Miles:  90 laps / 220.5 miles
●  Stage Lengths:  Stage 1: 20 laps / Stage 2: 20 laps / Final Stage: 50 laps
●  TV/Radio:  USA / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

BROADCAST


SHR FAST FACTS

Kevin Harvick:
After enduring a 65-race winless streak, Kevin Harvick is now undefeated in his last two NASCAR Cup Series starts. Harvick earned a breakthrough win Aug. 7 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn and promptly followed it with another victory in the very next race last Sunday at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. It marked the eighth time in Harvick’s 22-year-and-counting Cup Series career that he has scored back-to-back wins.

Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing, has made a total of 53 NASCAR Cup Series starts on road courses. He has 21 starts at Sonoma, 20 at Watkins Glen, four at the Charlotte Roval and two apiece at COTA, Road America, Indianapolis and the road course at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. He has scored two road-course wins – Watkins Glen in 2006 and Sonoma in 2017 – along with 11 top-fives and 26 top-10s with 195 laps led.

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

Aric Almirola:
 In 10 NASCAR Cup Series starts at Watkins Glen, Almirola has five top-20 finishes with a best of 12th in the 2019 race. He has also competed in two NASCAR Xfinity Series races there with a best finish of fifth in the 2018 race while driving the No. 98 Go Bowling Ford. He also finished eighth in the 2011 Xfinity Series race.

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

Chase Briscoe:
In his lone Xfinity Series start at Watkins Glen in 2019, Briscoe started and finished sixth.

The 27-year-old racer from Mitchell, Indiana, has picked up two Xfinity Series wins on road courses. His first career Xfinity Series victory was in the series’ inaugural race on the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval in 2018. He also fulfilled his childhood dream of kissing the historic Yard of Bricks when he scored his fifth win of the 2020 season on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

Briscoe finished among the top-10 in all but three of the 10 road-course races in which he competed in the Xfinity Series. And in his lone NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start on a road course – the 2017 race at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Bowmanville, Ontario – Briscoe finished seventh in a Ford F-150.

Cole Custer:
Cole Custer will make his milestone 100th career NASCAR Cup Series start when he and his No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) head to Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International for the penultimate road-course race of the season, Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen.

Sunday’s 90-lap race will be Custer’s second on the seven-turn, 2.45-mile Watkins Glen circuit and his 14th Cup Series start on a road course. Custer equaled his career-best Cup Series road-course finish of ninth in the July 31 event on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway circuit. He also finished ninth in the October 2020 race on the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval.

In his three Watkins Glen starts in the Xfinity Series from 2017 through 2019, all in the No. 00 SHR Ford, Custer finished in the top-12 in all three, his best resulting in a sixth-place finish in 2018. He debuted with a 12th-place finish in 2017 and added a seventh-place finish in 2019.

OUR WEEKLY WRAPS

We’re ready for some road racing in New York state. Check out our schemes for The Glen.

What Our Drivers are Saying:

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

What’s a Watkins Glen moment that stands out for you?
“Watkins Glen is home to one of my favorite wins because I was able to beat Tony (Stewart). That was a fun day. Tony has always been really good at Watkins Glen and had a lot of success up there. It’s just a fast racetrack with some unique corners that determine the amount of speed that’s in the lap just because of where the car placement is. The thing that I remember about racing Tony that year is just how good he was in the braking zone going into the ‘bus stop’ in the back. He was always a good road racer and, in those years, he was getting in the Grand-Am cars and he wouldn’t even practice. He would just show up at the races and jump in the car and be competitive. That was just what he did, and he could do that in pretty much anything, and Watkins Glen was just another one of those places that stood out for him through the years where he just dominated.”

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

You had a solid run at Richmond last weekend. How does that help your confidence heading to the final two races of the regular season?
“When the clouds came and the track cooled, we kind of lost it. The first couple runs of the race we were so fast. We drove from 32nd up to the top-five. Our car was really good on the long run. We took care of the tires really well and it did everything I needed it to do. As the pace picked up and the track cooled off, I just couldn’t get the car to rotate like I needed it to and just couldn’t quite carry the speed those other cars could. It was a good day. We have had a rough month, so to go there and rebound and have a good run was important. We need a win, but to have a good run is a confidence booster.”

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

What makes Watkins Glen so different from other road courses?
“It’s not as technical as some of the others. You have to focus a lot on the balance of the car to be able to get around it. It’s a very high-speed track and there isn’t really a slow corner that you can use to set up a pass if you get behind. We’ve seen with the new car it’s been tough to pass, and guys have been really aggressive on the road courses, so I think we’ll for sure see some guys making moves that might not work.”

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

How would you evaluate the road-course program at SHR?
“I would say, for us as an organization, we’ve been solid in the road-course races. You definitely always want to be better, but I feel like we’ve been in the mix more often than not, at least. I feel like we can run top-10 most of the time and, from there, it’s just a matter of one adjustment and one thing going right on pit road and you’re in the top-five and looking for a win. So I think it’s just a matter of fine-tuning it a little bit, but I’ve been pretty happy with our road-course cars. It’s just a matter of having the whole race play out right.

MENTOR & MENTEE: INVEST IN YOUR PEOPLE

People are our greatest asset, and no one knows that better than the boss, Tony Stewart. Hear Chase Briscoe and Tony Stewart talk about what it means to invest in the team around you. 

 

 

 

SHR Post-Race Recap: Richmond

Date:  Aug. 14, 2022
Event:  Federated Auto Parts 400 (Round 24 of 36)
Series:  NASCAR Cup Series
Location:  Richmond (Va.) Raceway (.75-mile oval)
Format:  400 laps, broken into three stages (70 laps/160 laps/170 laps)
Race Winner:  Kevin Harvick of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)

SHR Race Finish:
●  Kevin Harvick (Started 13th, Finished 1st / Running, completed 400 of 400 laps)
●  Aric Almirola (Started 32nd, Finished 8th / Running, completed 400 of 400 laps)
●  Chase Briscoe (Started 15th, Finished 23rd / Running, completed 397 of 400 laps)
●  Cole Custer (Started 7th, Finished 26th / Running, completed 397 of 400 laps)

SHR Points:
●  Kevin Harvick (8th with 665 points, 217 out of first)
●  Aric Almirola (16th with 552 points, 330 out of first)
●  Chase Briscoe (17th with 549 points, 333 out of first)
●  Cole Custer (25th with 403 points, 479 out of first)

Victory Notes:
●  Harvick’s victory in the Federated Auto Parts 400 marked the 95th overall win for SHR. It was the organization’s 69th points-paying NASCAR Cup Series victory, its third of the season and its second at Richmond.
●  SHR scored its first win at Richmond on April 26, 2015 with former driver Kurt Busch.
●  This was SHR’s 33rd NASCAR Cup Series victory with Ford. Kurt Busch won the 2017 Daytona 500 to deliver the organization’s first win with Ford.
●  Harvick’s win in the Federated Auto Parts 400 was his milestone 60th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, tying him with Kyle Busch for ninth on the series’ all-time win list. It was Harvick’s second of the season and his fourth at Richmond. His margin over second-place Christopher Bell was .441 of a second.
●  Harvick has now won 25 NASCAR Cup Series races with Ford. He is one of only 13 drivers to win 20 or more races with the manufacturer. He stands 10th on Ford’s all-time win list and is now only one win away from tying Brad Keselowski, Junior Johnson and Fred Lorenzen for ninth. Harvick has won more races driving a Mustang (15) than any other driver since the iconic muscle car became Ford’s flagship model in 2019.
●  This was Ford’s 717th all-time NASCAR Cup Series victory, its sixth of the season and its second straight. Harvick won last Sunday at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn.
●  This was Ford’s 34th all-time NASCAR Cup Series win at Richmond. It won its first race at the track on May 5, 1957 with Paul Goldsmith.
●  This was Harvick’s 37th NASCAR Cup Series victory since joining SHR in 2014.

SHR Notes:
●  This was Harvick’s third straight top-10 at Richmond. He finished eighth in this race last year and second in the series’ prior visit to the track in April.
●  Since joining SHR in 2014, Harvick has only one finish outside the top-15 at Richmond.
●  Harvick’s 29 top-10s at Richmond are the most among active NASCAR Cup Series drivers.
●  Harvick finished fourth in Stage 2 to earn seven bonus points.
●  Harvick led twice for 55 laps, increasing his laps led total at Richmond to 1,235.
●  Harvick has now led 11,462 laps since joining SHR in 2014. He has led 15,888 laps in his entire NASCAR Cup Series career.
●  Almirola earned his seventh top-10 of the season and his eighth top-10 in 21 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Richmond.
●  Almirola finished sixth in Stage 2 to earn five bonus points.
●  Briscoe finished ninth in Stage 2 to earn two bonus points.
●  Custer finished ninth in Stage 1 to earn two bonus points.
●  Custer led once for two laps – his first laps led at Richmond.

SHR Sound Bites:

“It’s like I said last week, the cars have been running good week in and week out and you see that we have a lot better understanding of what’s going on with how we adjusted on the car after the first run and were able to get our car handling a lot better. I think as it got dark, the racetrack really came to our Mobil 1 Ford Mustang.We’re just going to keep doing the things that we’re doing. I think we just have to keep an open mind about things and keep progressing and keep understanding the car, understanding what we could have done better today, understanding what we could have done better in qualifying yesterday, and do the same thing over and over.You know, it’s not really fair to just look at results, because at the beginning of the year we didn’t fire off as good as we thought. We didn’t have the improvement. It took us a few months, but we’ve had three or maybe four months now of really solid runs, really good speed, ever since Dover really, that we’ve been really close. We’ve had some bad luck, had some mistakes that I’ve got to clean up. We’ve made progress through all of it. The results don’t always show it. We were running really well at the 600 and we ended up upside down. There’s no doubt in my mind we could’ve competed for a win at the Indy road course and we were on fire. We’re making highlight reels for all the wrong reasons. We’ve been fast in those processes, though. We just have to put it all together to show those results like we did here today. Just got to thank Mobil 1, Busch Light, GEARWRENCH, Hunt Brothers Pizza, Rheem, Ford, Xfinity, Morton Buildings, E-Z-Go, everybody who helps Stewart-Haas on this 4 car.” – Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang

“When the clouds came and the track cooled, we kind of lost it. The first couple runs of the race we were so fast. We drove from 32nd up to the top-five. Our Smithfield Ford Mustang was really good on the long run. We took care of the tires really well and it did everything I needed it to do. As the pace picked up and the track cooled off, I just couldn’t get the car to rotate like I needed it to and just couldn’t quite carry the speed those other cars could. It was a good day. We’ve had a rough month, so to come here and rebound and have a good run – we need a win, but to have a good run is a confidence booster.” – Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang

Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Go Bowling! At The Glen on Sunday, Aug. 21 at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International. The 90-lap race around the 2.45-mile, seven-turn road course begins at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by USA and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

-SHR-

In the Know – Richmond

In The Know – Richmond

Richmond marks the third-to-last race of the regular season before the NASCAR Playoffs begin Sept. 4 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. Get up-to-speed on race info, driver stats, our weekly wraps, and more as we head to Virginia, the state that is for racers.

The Details

NASCAR Cup Series Overview

● Event:  Federated Auto Parts 400 (Round 24 of 36)
● Time/Date:  3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 14
● 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:  USA / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

BROADCAST

SHR FAST FACTS

Kevin Harvick:
Speaking of winning, with his victory at Michigan, Harvick has now won in 18 of his 22 NASCAR Cup Series seasons. His first victory was on March 11, 2001 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Harvick has 59 career Cup Series wins, 28 of which have come since he turned 40. Now, the 46-year-old Harvick is 10th on the series’ all-time win list, and with his last 24 victories being with Ford, Harvick is also 10th on Ford’s all-time win list, where he is one of only 13 drivers to win 20 more races with the manufacturer.

Harvick has made 777 career NASCAR Cup Series starts, with 125 of those starts coming on short tracks. And of his 59 Cup Series wins, seven have been on short tracks, with Richmond accounting for three of those victories. Harvick scored his first Richmond win in September 2006, his second in September 2011 and his third in April 2013.

Harvick joined Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) in 2014 and has since recorded 36 of his 59 career NASCAR Cup Series wins. However, none of them have been at Richmond. But Harvick has remained stout at the .75-mile oval. In his last 16 starts at Richmond as a member of SHR, Harvick has three runner-up finishes, nine top-fives and 12 top-10s. He has only one finish outside of the top-15.

Aric Almirola:
In 20 starts, Almirola has earned seven top-10 finishes, two top-fives, and has led one lap on the .75-mile Richmond (Va.) Raceway oval. In his last seven qualifying attempts there, he has started outside the top-10 just twice with a best start of sixth in the September 2016 race.

Almirola has shown speed at shorter tracks this season. He qualified second at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway and secured a top-10 finish. Almirola qualified fifth at Phoenix Raceway in March and had a fast Smithfield Ford. He qualified 10th in his last visit to Richmond this past April, but an ill-timed caution put him two laps down, ultimately finishing 21st.

Chase Briscoe:
Briscoe, a dirt-racer from Indiana, struggled to find success on the short tracks throughout his time in NASCAR’s Camping World Truck Series, Xfinity Series and in his first year in the Cup Series in 2021. When this Cup Series season began with the Busch Light Clash at the L.A. Coliseum on Feb. 6, Briscoe was consistently one of the best on track through practice, qualifying and the first laps of the race. The first points-paying race of the year at a track 1 mile or shorter came March 13 at Phoenix Raceway, a track that had seemed to have a stranglehold on Briscoe. However, the 27-year-old conquered Phoenix this time to earn his first Cup Series victory.

Since the win at Phoenix, Briscoe has finished no worse than 15th  in six starts on tracks 1 mile or shorter, with the exception of his 22nd-place result April 17 on the dirt at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, when he led 59 laps but spun on the final lap while attempting a pass for the win. Last year, Briscoe’s best finish on the shorter tracks on the NASCAR schedule was a 13th-place result earned in the fall at Bristol.

Cole Custer:
Sunday’s 400-lap race will be Custer’s 99th career Cup Series start and his sixth at Richmond. His 14th-place finish in the September 2020 race there is the best of his previous five outings and it helped him earn that year’s Cup Series Rookie of the Year honors. He qualified 12th and finished 22nd in this season’s first Richmond race April 3.

In NASCAR Xfinity Series competition, Custer’s seven career starts at Richmond is more than he’s had at any other track. Best among those starts was the April 2019 race, when he qualified fourth in the No. 00 SHR Ford, led a race-high 122 of 250 laps and took the checkered flag 2.639 seconds ahead of runner-up and fellow Ford driver Austin Cindric. He followed that up with a third-place finish in that year’s September race for his fourth Xfinity Series top-six in seven Richmond starts. Custer also started on the pole and led 43 laps en route to a sixth-place finish in the April 2018 race in his SHR Ford, and scored a sixth-place finish in his Richmond debut in the Xfinity Series, driving the No. 5 JR Motorsports entry in the April 2016 race.

OUR WEEKLY WRAPS

Check out the schemes we’re bringing to Richmond for some short track racing.

What Our Drivers are Saying:

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

You won last Sunday at Michigan. After developing the NextGen car and finally getting that coveted victory, what has this car been like to get it to where you want it to be?
“It’s all totally different. I think after the Roval test last year, I knew not to have any expectations for this year. We were either going to be on the front side of this thing or we were going to be behind. There wasn’t going to really be any middle road. We found out we were behind and had to start really going to work, and I think as you look at this particular car, everything about it is different. You’ve got an electronic mirror, which I love, because it’s just so easy to use, right in your line of sight, you don’t have to move your eyes as far. But when you talk about stuff like that, you have to be very open-minded to, just, change. For me, I was prepared for change. I was prepared for work. We had a pretty extensive plan this year of using the simulator and trying to make it better, to make it fit with what we do at the racetrack with the short practices.”

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

What kind of challenge does a short track like Richmond bring?
“I would say Richmond is one of the most challenging racetracks we go to for managing your tires throughout the run. The first 10, 15 or 20 laps of the run can make you feel like Superman roaring through the field, but you will pay a major penalty for that by lap 40. It makes it fun because, when we show up at Richmond, it really is about managing tire fall-off and making sure your car stays consistent throughout the run as the tires fall off.”

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

We’re getting closer to the end of the regular season. Is Richmond a place you feel like you can improve your playoff standing before Daytona?
“I think so. We’ve been really strong on the short tracks this year and SHR has done a great job getting the most we can out of these cars. So, yeah, I think we can have a really good day. The most important thing for us is to survive and have a good points day. We’re definitely in a better place than we were two or three weeks ago but we can’t get too comfortable. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a lot of big wrecks at Richmond, but there was a time when it was really easy to get caught in someone else’s mess, so we have to stay on the lookout for that and do the best we can to be there at the end.”

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

You’ve run at Richmond so much during your career, are you immersed in footage and data from your previous runs there to figure out how you’re going to get around there Sunday?
“Yeah, that’s every weekend for me. I look at old races and try and talk to (SHR teammate) Kevin (Harvick) every weekend to find out what he’s looking for. He’s been a huge help the last few years. All of my teammates have been. It was tough going straight to racing with no practice or qualifying the last two years. You can look at as much film and data as you want, but you’re still missing the experience of actually being out there. You know what you need to work on, but you really don’t learn as much until you’re actually out there on the track. In the spring race this year, it was huge to have the chance to practice and qualify before the race. Hopefully, that experience will help put us over the top on Sunday.”

Relive Harvick’s clutch win

Kevin Harvick snapped a 65-race winless streak at a critical time in the season, needing a win to get into the playoffs. Relive the magical moments of The Closer’s victory and the moment he proved all the doubters wrong. 

 

MENTOR & MENTEE: Highs & lows

The boss Tony Stewart has some advice for Chase Briscoe on the highs and lows of our sport: racers keep diggin’ no matter what. Hear all of the boss’ advice to Chase on episode 3 of our Mentor & Mentee series presented by Mahindra Tractors. 

 

 

SHR Post-Race Recap: Michigan

Date:  Aug. 7, 2022
Event:  FireKeepers Casino 400 (Round 23 of 36)
Series:  NASCAR Cup Series
Location:  Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn (2-mile oval)
Format:  200 laps, broken into three stages (45 laps/75 laps/80 laps)
Race Winner:  Kevin Harvick of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)

SHR Race Finish:
●  Kevin Harvick (Started 16th, Finished 1st / Running, completed 200 of 200 laps)
●  Chase Briscoe (Started 23rd, Finished 20th / Running, completed 200 of 200 laps)
●  Cole Custer (Started 17th, Finished 31st / Accident, completed 94 of 200 laps)
●  Aric Almirola (Started 18th, Finished 34th / Accident, completed 25 of 200 laps)

SHR Points:
●  Kevin Harvick (9th with 618 points, 229 out of first)
●  Chase Briscoe (15th with 533 points, 314 out of first)
●  Aric Almirola (18th with 518 points, 329 out of first)
●  Cole Custer (25th with 390 points, 457 out of first)

Victory Notes:
●  Harvick’s victory in the FireKeepers Casino 400 marked the 94th overall win for SHR. It was the organization’s 68th points-paying NASCAR Cup Series victory, its second of the season and its seventh at Michigan. SHR has now won six of the past eight NASCAR Cup Series races at Michigan.
●  SHR scored its maiden Michigan win via former driver Kurt Busch in June 2015, and former driver Clint Bowyer earned the team’s second win at the 2-mile oval in June 2018. Harvick’s first victory at the track came in August 2018 before he went on a run of three straight wins, returning to victory lane in August 2019 before sweeping the track’s doubleheader in 2020.
●  This was SHR’s 32nd NASCAR Cup Series victory with Ford. Busch won the 2017 Daytona 500 to deliver the organization’s first win with Ford.
●  Harvick’s win in the FireKeepers Casino 400 was his 59th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his series-leading sixth at Michigan. His margin over second-place Bubba Wallace 2.903 seconds.
●  Harvick was the 15th different winner in the 23 NASCAR Cup Series races run this season.
●  Harvick has now won 24 NASCAR Cup Series races with Ford. He is one of only 13 drivers to win 20 or more races with the manufacturer. He is tied with Matt Kenseth for 10th all time.
●  This was Ford’s 716th all-time NASCAR Cup Series victory and its fifth of the season.
●  This was Ford’s series-leading 43rd win at Michigan, which is the most at any track currently on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule. Ford scored its first Michigan win with NASCAR Hall of Famer David Pearson on Aug. 17, 1969.
●  This was Ford’s eighth straight win at Michigan, a streak that started with Bowyer in June 2018.
●  This was Harvick’s 59th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, maintaining his 10th-place standing on the series’ all-time win list.
●  This was Harvick’s 36th NASCAR Cup Series victory since joining SHR in 2014.

SHR Notes:
●  Harvick now has 16 top-five and 22 top-10 finishes at Michigan, the most among active NASCAR Cup Series drivers at Michigan.
●  Harvick finished eighth in Stage 1 to earn three bonus points.
●  Harvick led once for 38 laps to increase his laps led total at Michigan to 737, the most among all active drivers.
●  Harvick has now led 11,407 laps since joining SHR in 2014. He has led 15,833 laps in his entire NASCAR Cup Series career.
●  Briscoe finished 10th in Stage 1 to earn a bonus point.

SHR Sound Bites:
“Just good timing for sure. We’ve had several good runs the last few weeks – Loudon and Pocono where the car ran good and just didn’t have everything work out. I’m just really proud of everybody on our Busch Light Apple Ford Mustang. They’ve been digging all year long trying to make these Mustangs run faster. Our guys have done a good job in trying to take what we have, maximize it and do the things that we need to do. I’m just really proud of everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing. Everybody who doubted us doesn’t know us. They obviously know we thrive in these types of situations and a lot of things went our way today, which we haven’t had all year long. There at the end, we pitted and didn’t go a lap down and then the caution came out and got control of the race. That’s the thing I struggled with most today was traffic and restarts and just having to make up ground, but once I got clear track, that baby was hunting.” – Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Busch Light Apple #BuschelOfBusch Ford Mustang

“Our Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford Mustang was really good to start the race. We were able to make some good gains but we were so tight. The guys did a great job working on it, but I got in the wall toward the end and didn’t help. We’re still in a good place, just got to get through the next few races and make sure we get to move on to the playoffs.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers / Cummins Ford Mustang

“We don’t really know what started all of that. I mean, we blew three left-front tires in probably a matter of 20 laps, so I don’t know what happened and why they kept blowing. It just seems like that’s the way our year has gone. We can’t seem to catch a break in most of these races. I don’t know. It just sucks to have another day end short, but we’ll move on to the next one.”– Cole Custer, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang

“I got hit in the left rear and spun out and then we all crashed. We just can’t seem to catch a break. I think some of the guys that were slower cars stayed out and that kind of jumbled up the field and then everybody swarms them and they can’t get out of the way.” – Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang

Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Federated Auto Parts 400 on Sunday, Aug. 14 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. The race begins at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by USA and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

In the Know – Michigan

In The Know – MICHIGAN

We head to the Great Lake State this week to take on 400 miles on the 2-mile oval of Michigan International Speedway. Get up-to-speed on race info, driver stats, our weekly wraps and more.

The Details

NASCAR Cup Series Overview

● Event: FireKeepers Casino 400 (Round 23 of 36)
● Time/Date: 3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 7
● Location: Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn
● Layout: 2-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 200 laps/400 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 45 laps / Stage 2: 75 laps / Final Stage: 80 laps
● TV/Radio: USA Network / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

BROADCAST

SHR FAST FACTS

Kevin Harvick:
The FireKeepers Casino 400 will mark Harvick’s 42nd career NASCAR Cup Series start at Michigan, the most among active drivers. Since making his first start at the track on June 10, 2001, Harvick has scored five wins, 15 top-five and 21 top-10 finishes while leading 699 laps, all of which are series bests. Harvick’s five wins are two more than Kurt Busch, Kyle Larson and Joey Logano, all of whom are tied with three wins apiece. Harvick’s 15 top-fives are five more than next best Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. (10 top-fives apiece). Harvick’s 21 top-10s are four more than nearest pursuers Busch and Logano (17 top-10s each), as are his 699 laps led, which is 109 more laps than Logano (590 laps led).

Harvick’s first NASCAR Cup Series win at Michigan came on Aug. 15, 2010. Fifteen races passed before Harvick’s second win on Aug. 12, 2018, but in that span he finished second six times, including a run of four straight runner-up finishes (2013-2014).

The victory on Aug. 12, 2018 might have been one of the most satisfying of Harvick’s career. Upon climbing from his car on the start/finish line, Harvick waved his son, Keelan, over to grab the checkered flag. Then after Harvick completed his TV interview, a then 6-year-old Keelan rode with his dad around the racetrack and on to victory lane. It was a tradition that continued a year later when Harvick successfully defended his win at Michigan. This time, Keelan joined his dad on pit road and rode in the car en route to the frontstretch, riding shotgun as Harvick performed an epic burnout on the way to the start/finish line to pick up another checkered flag.

Aric Almirola:
In 18 NASCAR Cup series starts at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Almirola has two top-10 finishes and 13 laps led. He has three NASCAR Xfinity series starts there with a best finish of eighth, and has one win in the NASCAR Camping World Truck series in only two starts, the win coming in June 2010.

Almirola and the No. 10 Smithfield Ford team have proven they can find speed at 2-mile ovals. In just their second points-paying start in the NextGen car Feb. 27 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, they finished sixth.

Chase Briscoe:
In the 2021 edition of the FireKeepers 400, Briscoe’s Cup Series debut at Michigan, he started 21st and was riding comfortably inside the top-10 with just three laps to go before contact with Kurt Busch caused damage to the nose of the No. 14 Ford Mustang. While the injured car became a handful for Briscoe in the closing laps, he held on for an 11th-place finish.

Prior to last year, Briscoe never finished outside of the top-10 in his three previous starts there, each in a different series. In his lone NASCAR Xfinity Series start in 2019, he started 14th and finished seventh. He finished ninth in his only NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start there in 2017, and second in the 2016 ARCA Menards Racing Series event.

With 22 races complete and four remaining before the playoff field is set, Briscoe sits 15th in the driver standings with one win, earned in March at Phoenix Raceway. The win earned Briscoe a chance to make the Cup Series playoffs for the first time, provided there are no more than 16 different race winners following the Aug. 27 regular season finale at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.

Cole Custer:
After equaling his season-best finish of ninth during last Sunday on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Cole Custer and his No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) head to the Irish Hills for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn.

Sunday’s 200-lap race will be Custer’s 98th career Cup Series start and his fourth on the 2-mile Michigan oval. In a Saturday-Sunday doubleheader weekend during his 2020 Rookie of the Year season, he posted finishes of 34th and 25th, respectively. Custer bettered those results during last year’s return to the Irish Hills with a 23rd-place finish.

In three NASCAR Xfinity Series appearances at Michigan from 2017 through 2019, all in the No. 00 SHR Ford, Custer never finished outside the top-12 or qualified worse than seventh. His best outing was a third-place finish from the fourth starting position in 2018. He finished 10th from seventh on the grid in 2017, and finished 12th from sixth on the grid in 2019.

OUR WEEKLY WRAPS

Check out the schemes we’re bringing to Michigan this week.

What Our Drivers are Saying:

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

You’ve enjoyed a lot of success at Michigan. Does that experience have any bearing when you return there with the NextGen car?
“Maybe. You can have a baseline interpretation, but it seems to have migrated in a number of different directions at different racetracks and different scenarios this year just because of the different characteristics that come with the car. Places that we haven’t been, you just don’t really know where it’s going to go. You go to some of these places, I think Darlington is a good example, where California, Darlington, places that have been super rough, have been really difficult to navigate in traffic, and even by yourself sometimes, because of the way that the cars bounce around.”

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

Do you feel confident heading to Michigan?
“Michigan is always a weird place for me because, in my mind, I feel like I run well there. I won a Truck race there years ago and, from that point forward, I just always loved going to Michigan. My wife’s family is from Michigan, so I go to Michigan with such a great attitude. We have had a few top-five cars at Michigan and didn’t execute and things didn’t go our way with the restarts and I didn’t get the result, so I’m confident this 10 team can bring us a fast car. I’m excited about going back. Going to Michigan, there’s always a lot of pride for the manufacturers. I’d love to go there and keep the trophy in Ford’s backyard.”

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

In the last four races, you’ve raced on the 1.5-mile Atlanta superspeedway oval, the flat, 1-mile New Hampshire oval, the Pocono triangle, and the Indianapolis road course. Does the diversity of the 2022 schedule make it tough for teams to find a rhythm?
“It’s definitely tough. You go to a road course and then you have a short track and then you’re racing in a pack and drafting. The consistency just isn’t there. I feel like, my first year, there were a lot of mile-and-a-half tracks in a row, and it was kind of easy to get in a rhythm. We haven’t had a true mile-and-a-half since the Coca-Cola 600 in May. I don’t think you can really put Atlanta in that category now, which really changes things. So, that part makes it a little tougher because the schedule is so back and forth, a lot of different racetracks. But to be fair, it should be hard to get into a rhythm. The diverse schedule makes it interesting. We’re supposed to be some of the best drivers in the world. I like how tough the schedule is but, yes, it is hard to get in a rhythm.”

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

With the regular season winding down, what can you look back on as some of the positives so far this year?
“We’ve shown speed at times. We went to Bristol and sat on the pole. That was really cool for my first Cup pole. I’m not a dirt guy, so it was pretty surprising to me. But it was cool to have that. It was fun to go to Fontana and win the Xfinity race. And also the road courses, we’ve been pretty fast, ran top-10 at all of them but just didn’t have the finishes. Martinsville, we were good. It’s just a matter of having it all come together.”

MENTOR & MENTEE: Highs & lows

The boss Tony Stewart has some advice for Chase Briscoe on the highs and lows of our sport: racers keep diggin’ no matter what. Hear all of the boss’ advice to Chase on episode 3 of our Mentor & Mentee series presented by Mahindra Tractors. 

 

 

Stewart-Haas Racing Announces New Executive Leadership Structure

President Brett Frood Departing to Become Commissioner of National Lacrosse League; Brian McKinley Promoted to Chief Commercial Officer; Greg Zipadelli Named Chief Competition Officer

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. (Aug. 2, 2022) – Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) has announced a new executive leadership structure that will take effect on Sept. 1.

President Brett Frood, who has been a part of SHR since its inception in 2009, is departing his day-to-day duties with the championship-winning NASCAR team to become commissioner of the National Lacrosse League (NLL). However, Frood will remain as an executive advisor to SHR and the board chairman for all Tony Stewart-related entities.

In that role, Frood will assist in the transition of Brian McKinley from vice president of sales to chief commercial officer for SHR, as well as facilitate the expanded responsibilities of Greg Zipadelli, who becomes SHR’s chief competition officer after serving as vice president of competition since 2012. Joe Custer, currently co-president, will continue in his leadership role, and all members of the executive team will maintain its fiduciary oversight for SHR co-owners Stewart and Gene Haas.

“I’m honored to have had the opportunity to work for Tony and Gene, and humbled to have been in the trenches with such committed and impressive colleagues at Stewart-Haas Racing,” Frood said. “SHR is filled with individuals who are self-motivated and passionate in our collective pursuits of success. It’s why we’ve accomplished so much together. My 14 years here have been some of the most satisfying of my professional career and I’ll be forever grateful.

“Becoming commissioner of the National Lacrosse League is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I appreciate the support everyone has provided me at Stewart-Haas Racing as I embark on this new chapter. I’ll look forward to maintaining a meaningful connection with the organization in my advisory role. Brian McKinley and Greg Zipadelli have the experience, acumen and drive to absorb the elevated responsibilities of Stewart-Haas Racing and position it for continued success in the years to come.”

Frood’s original passion is lacrosse. The Elbridge, New York-native was captain of the Brown University lacrosse team, which during his time with the Brown Bears won two Ivy League titles (1994 and 1995) and made an appearance in the 1994 NCAA Final Four. Frood has continued his involvement in the sport, where he has been a club and high school coach for more than a decade.

“Brett is the type of person that puts 100 percent effort into any project,” said Stewart, who recruited Frood 18 years ago upon his graduation from Harvard Business School. “No job is too big, but no job is beneath him, either. He’s negotiated multi-million dollar contracts and then the next day has stood in the mud at Eldora Speedway to hang sponsor banners. He’s not afraid to roll up his sleeves and get dirty. That’s just how he is. I’m lucky to have him and SHR is in a great place because of him.

“I know his passion for lacrosse, and being commissioner of the National Lacrosse League is a dream job for him. They’re getting one of the most trustworthy, detail-oriented people I’ve ever met. And thankfully for us, we’ll still have an opportunity to leverage his expertise from a different vantage point.

“Obviously, I think a lot of Greg Zipadelli. We won two championships together and a lot of races. He brought the same determination that made us so successful together on the racetrack to Stewart-Haas Racing.

“Brian McKinley joined SHR two years ago and in his short time here has already made a big impact. He’s helped secure new partnerships and made strong bonds with partners who have been a part of our race team for years. Brian has earned this opportunity and I know that between him and Zippy, we’re well positioned for continued success.”

Zipadelli was Stewart’s crew chief in the NASCAR Cup Series for 10 years, beginning with his rookie season in 1999. It was a pairing that delivered two championships (2002 and 2005) and 33 victories, and as SHR transitioned from a two-car team to a three-car organization in 2012, Stewart hand-picked Zipadelli to lead SHR’s competition department. Today, SHR fields four cars in the NASCAR Cup Series and one in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

McKinley joined SHR in 2020 and has since secured numerous partnerships, including Mahindra Ag North America, GEARWRENCH®, Subway®, Magical Vacation Planner, PristineAuction.com and Renegade Insurance, among others. Prior to joining SHR, McKinley was the co-head of global partnerships at Feld Entertainment, managing more than $40 million worth of partner activation across seven live touring properties, including Monster Energy® AMA Supercross, Monster Jam and Disney on Ice. Before his tenure at Feld, McKinley was the vice president of sports marketing at Herbalife International. He led a global sponsorship strategy for the $4 billion health nutrition company that encompassed more than 250 partnerships across 90 countries.

About Stewart-Haas Racing:
Stewart-Haas Racing is the title-winning NASCAR team co-owned by three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Tony Stewart and Gene Haas, founder of Haas Automation – the largest CNC machine tool builder in North America. The Kannapolis, North Carolina-based organization has won two NASCAR Cup Series titles, one NASCAR Xfinity Series championship and more than 90 NASCAR races, including such crown-jewel events as the Daytona 500, Brickyard 400 and Southern 500. For more information, please visit us online at StewartHaasRacing.com and on social at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn.

-SHR-

SHR Post-Race Recap: Indy

Date:  July 31, 2022
Event:  Verizon 200 at the Brickyard (Round 22 of 36)
Series:  NASCAR Cup Series
Location:  Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2.439-mile, 14-turn road course)
Format:  82 laps, broken into three stages (15 laps/20 laps/47 laps)
Note:  Race extended four laps past its scheduled 82-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.
Race Winner:  Tyler Reddick of Richard Childress Racing
Stage 1 Winner:  Chase Briscoe of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)

SHR Race Finish:
●  Cole Custer (Started 24th, Finished 9th / Running, completed 86 of 86 laps)
●  Chase Briscoe (Started 3rd, Finished 23rd / Running, completed 86 of 86 laps)
●  Kevin Harvick (Started 18th, Finished 33rd / Accident, completed 64 of 86 laps)
●  Aric Almirola (Started 14th, Finished 38th / Accident, completed 24 of 86 laps)

SHR Points:
●  Kevin Harvick (10th with 575 points, 246 out of first)
●  Chase Briscoe (15th with 515 points, 306 out of first)
●  Aric Almirola (16th with 515 points, 306 out of first)
●  Cole Custer (25th with 384 points, 437 out of first)

SHR Notes:
●  Custer earned his second top-10 of the season and his first top-10 in two career NASCAR Cup Series starts on the road course at Indianapolis.
●  Custer’s ninth-place result equaled his previous best finish this season. He also finished ninth July 10 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
●  Custer finished eighth in Stage 2 to earn three bonus points.
●  Briscoe won Stage 1 to earn 10 bonus points and one playoff point. He finished seventh in Stage 2 to earn four more bonus points.
●  Briscoe led once for five laps, increasing his laps led total on the road course at Indianapolis to 17.

Race Notes:
●  Tyler Reddick won the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard to score his second career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his second of the season and his first on the road course at Indianapolis. His margin over second-place Austin Cindric was 1.065 seconds.
●  There were five caution periods for a total of 15 laps.
●  Twenty-eight of the 38 drivers in the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard finished on the lead lap.
●  Chase Elliott remains the championship leader after Indianapolis with a 125-point advantage over second-place Ryan Blaney.

SHR Sound Bites:

“You just hope for the best pretty much every time on a restart going through turn one. We were able to have it worked out pretty good the last couple times, but we just had a long-run car. Honestly, we were one of the best cars on the track when it was a long run, but we just couldn’t fire off good. It’s good to come up with a solid run and hopefully get ourselves a little bit better points-wise and keep chipping away at it, but move on to the next one.” – Cole Custer, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang

“It was a situation where we had to try to get that first stage win and it just kind of buried us after that. We got back there and struggled to get back up there. A couple of times we thought we were going to be OK, and then I just made a mistake. There at the end, that restart was just chaos and tore us up. Obviously, I wish we would’ve finished a lot better than where we ended up. I don’t think we had anything for the 8 car (Reddick), but us and the 2 (Cindric) were pretty close and he ended up second. That was kind of the strategy we had, to kind of play today for our points and playoff situation. Obviously, the playoffs are more important than trying to win here. It’s unfortunate we had to be in that situation but, overall, we were able to get a playoff point, which will be big come playoff time.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang

“We broke the left-front suspension. I got into turn one and locked up the rear tires and it just kind of took off on me and I got into the 5 (Kyle Larson). I hate it for those guys. I hate it for our guys. Man, this was just a frustrating weekend. I felt like the guys did a great job of bringing me a car that was pretty good and thought we were going to have a good day. Just not the day we were hoping for. I made a mistake or I’m not sure what happened, but I locked up the tires getting into one and killed our day and tore up the 5 car at the same time.” – Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Mobil 1 / GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang

Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the FireKeepers Casino 400 on Sunday, Aug. 7 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn. The race begins at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by USA and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

In the Know – Indianapolis

In The Know – INDIANAPOLIS 

The Verizon 200 at the Brickyard serves as the fourth of six road-course races on the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule. Get up-to-speed on race info, driver stats, our weekly wraps and more as we go road racing this weekend.

The Details

NASCAR Cup Series Overview

●  Event:  Verizon 200 at the Brickyard (Round 22 of 36)
●  Time/Date:  2:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, July 31
●  Location:  Indianapolis Motor Speedway
●  Layout:  2.439-mile, 14-turn road course
●  Laps/Miles:  82 laps / 200 miles
●  Stage Lengths:  Stage 1: 15 laps / Stage 2: 20 laps / Final Stage: 47 laps
●  TV/Radio:  NBC / IMS Radio Network / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

BROADCAST

SHR FAST FACTS

Kevin Harvick:
Harvick, driver of the No. 4 GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing, has made a total of 52 NASCAR Cup Series starts on road courses. He has 21 starts at Sonoma, 20 at Watkins Glen, four at the Charlotte Roval, two apiece at COTA, Road America, and the road course at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, and one on the road course at Indianapolis – last year’s inaugural Verizon 200 at the Brickyard where Harvick finished 14th. He has scored two road-course wins – Watkins Glen in 2006 and Sonoma in 2017 – along with 11 top-fives and 26 top-10s with 195 laps led.

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

Harvick’s second career road-course win also had a connection to Stewart. When Harvick won at Sonoma in 2017, he gave Stewart-Haas Racing its second straight victory at the 1.99-mile, 10-turn road course. The winner in 2016? None other than Stewart. It ended up being his 49th and final NASCAR Cup Series victory as Stewart retired from NASCAR racing at the conclusion of the season.

Aric Almirola:
After 21 races this season, Aric Almirola is the only driver in the NASCAR Cup Series without a DNF (Did Not Finish).

Almirola has 31 road-course starts in the NASCAR Cup Series with two top-10 finishes and a best of eighth at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway, five top-20s at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International with a best finish of 12th, three top-20s on the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval with a best finish of 14th, and a top-12 finish in the non-points Busch Clash in 2020 on the Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway road course.


Chase Briscoe:
Just 85 miles south of Indianapolis sits the town of Mitchell, Indiana. The old railroad town spans 3.6 square miles with a population of less than 4,000. But it was in the center of town at a family shop on 14th Street that a young boy watched his father and grandfather prepare cars for the local dirt tracks while dreaming of his shot of carrying on the family legacy and someday returning back home again to Indiana to race at the most famous venue in motorsports – the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This weekend, Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), will have two shots to once again kiss the bricks and climb the fence in victory at the Brickyard – first in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race driving the No. 07 Ford Mustang for SS Greenlight Racing, and then on Sunday in the Verizon 200 NASCAR Cup Series race.

The son of Kevin, an accomplished dirt racer, and grandson of Richard, a renowned car owner and builder, Briscoe aspired to follow in the footsteps of his favorite driver and fellow Hoosier Tony Stewart. Stewart, at the time a Cup Series champion, would return home to race at the local short tracks when not behind the wheel of the No. 14 SHR entry, often competing against Kevin as the youngest Briscoe looked on. He practiced his victory celebration dressed in a replica of Stewart’s uniform and helmet until he was old enough to start racing himself. At the age of 14, Briscoe earned his first sprint car win at Paragon Speedway, marking the end of NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon’s reign as the youngest driver to win in a 410 sprint car. From there, Briscoe blazed a path of his own in the stock car world, dominating his first season in the ARCA Menards Series to become the 2016 champion, then earning his first NASCAR Truck Series win in 2017 in his 23rd start.

But it was after a breakthrough 2020 season in the Xfinity Series that saw Briscoe visit victory lane nine times that he finally felt like he was overcoming the odds that always seemed to be stacked against him. Just six years after leaving home to pursue a dream, he found himself back in Indiana, sitting next to his idol as he and his family were told he’d be the next driver of the famed No. 14 Ford Mustang for SHR in the Cup Series. Last year, when the series returned to Indianapolis to compete on the road course for the first time, Briscoe was introduced as the pilot of the No. 14 in front of hundreds of friends, family members and residents of Mitchell who had turned up to see him race at his home track, and he made sure to put on a show for the hometown crowd.

Twenty-four races into his rookie season and determined to earn his first Cup Series win at Indianapolis a year ago, Briscoe qualified second, missing the pole by just .426 of a second, and took the lead on lap two of the race. He finished the first stage in ninth, but from there struggled with a series of flat-spotted tires and green-flag pit stops until a caution on lap 79 set up Briscoe to restart third for the first attempt at a green-white-checkered finish on lap 88. That run was halted by the second multicar incident in a 12-lap span, and Briscoe once again restarted third, behind leader Denny Hamlin, for the second attempt at a green-white-checkered finish. As Hamlin drove wide into turn one and cars bunched up on the restart, Briscoe slid off into the grass. He returned to the track right behind Hamlin and was vying for the lead when contact sent Hamlin’s No. 11 into a spin. Briscoe was subsequently served a penalty for his venture through the grass and making contact with the leader and was parked for the final lap of the race, resulting in a 26th-place finish.

Briscoe’s move for the lead might have ruffled feathers, but his composure when confronted by Hamlin following the race made many take notice of his commitment to carrying on the legacy of the No. 14. Stewart stood by, observing his driver’s tenacity with pride, a moment that Briscoe has noted as a turning point in his career. “Personally, I felt like I was doing my job,” he said. “I’m there to win. But, to have Tony tell me he was proud of me for standing up for myself, that made me realize I’m doing the right thing. He’s the guy I looked up to as a kid and the driver I always wanted to be. He knew who he was and didn’t let anyone push him around, and it’s time for me to do the same.”

Briscoe has been a standout on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn Indianapolis road course layout since his first outing there in 2020 during the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ inaugural race on the circuit. He started 12th in the 38-car field and took the lead for the first time on lap 24, eventually leading five times for a race-high 30 laps. Over the final two laps, the Hoosier had to battle road-course ace AJ Allmendinger, who took the lead from Briscoe on lap 59 and sent him to third after the SHR pilot overdrove a corner. But Briscoe set his sights on regaining the lead and repositioned himself at the front of the field with a powerful drive past second-place Austin Cindric and leader Allmendinger on the penultimate lap. Briscoe wheeled his Ford Mustang throughout the hallowed grounds of the Brickyard en route to victory, beating runner-up Justin Haley to the finish line by a 1.717-second margin. It was Briscoe’s fifth of nine wins in 2020.

It was three months later that Briscoe was announced as the next driver of the No. 14, and he completed the 2021 season having earned Cup Series Rookie of the Year honors. He once again drew attention when he began the 2022 season with a third-place finish in the Daytona 500, then scored his first Cup Series win in the fourth race of the season at Phoenix Raceway.

With 21 of 36 races complete this season, Briscoe has three top-fives and four top-10 finishes, a career-best for the 27-year-old who earned three top-10s in his rookie season. Briscoe is currently 16th in points and holds a spot in the 16-driver playoff field with five races remaining in the regular season.

Cole Custer:

Custer has one other start at the facility, when he drove to an impressive fifth-place finish in the 2020 Brickyard 400 on its iconic 2.5-mile oval. It was his first of two top-fives during his Cup Series Rookie of the Year campaign, which he followed up with a dramatic victory the following weekend at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta.

Sunday’s race will be Custer’s 13th road-course start in the Cup Series. He qualified 10th and finished 15th in the July 3 race at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. He posted stout qualifying efforts at the previous two road-course races – third for the March 27 event at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, and sixth for the June 12 race at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway – but late-race, multicar chaos foiled his bids for finishes deep inside the top-10 at both events. Custer’s best Cup Series finish on a road course was ninth in the October 2020 race on the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval.

 

OUR WEEKLY WRAPS

Check out the schemes we’re bringing to the Brickyard this week.

What Our Drivers are Saying:

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

Last year’s road-course race at Indianapolis turned into a bumper-car race, particularly at the end when Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin traded bumps that sent them both off the track and into an animated post-race discussion on pit road. What’s OK and what’s not OK in road-course racing, because we saw similar bumping and banging earlier this year at COTA?
“Road-course racing in general has become rougher over the last decade just because of the stage racing and the double-file restarts and everything that comes with that. I wish we could implement our choose rule in some of these situations at places like that because I think it would make it even more entertaining. But road-course racing has just progressively gotten rougher, and now with the new car and not having to worry about caving in a fender or something, you can pretty much just lay it in there and see what happens.”

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

You’re two positions behind the playoff cut line right now and 140 points out. What is the game plan for the next five races?
“Win. Fortunately, we’re 13th in the point standings so a win would put us in a good spot if we had more than 16 winners before the playoffs begin. There has been so much parity this year that you don’t know who’s going to be good each weekend. There are some guys that are better on road courses than others, but you look at Michigan, Richmond and Daytona as complete wild cards. We even had guys far back in the standings that have run top-three at road courses, too. Hopefully, this weekend is one we show a lot of speed. A lot can change in the next five weeks and we hope it doesn’t come down to a Hail Mary at Daytona.”

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

How are you feeling about returning to Indianapolis this weekend and running double duty?
“I’m excited. There’s a lot of pressure that I put on myself during Indy weekend. I want to go there and win both practice sessions, both qualifying sessions and both races and that’s kind of the mentality I start with weeks out because I know it’s something that is definitely attainable. When you go to Indy being an Indiana guy, you have pressure coming from everywhere. There are a lot of people, friends and just fans, that don’t get to see me race anywhere else that are from that area. So, I’m definitely excited to get there and pull double duty. It looks like the Xfinity race is going to have a lot of Cup guys, so it’ll be a good test for Sunday. I’m really looking forward to getting there and spending a week at home.”

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

f you could have the keys to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a day, what would you do?
“I’d probably just go over and see all the trophies and all the history in the museum there. It’s one of the coolest things. They have some special stuff downstairs that I think would be really cool to see, all the historic stuff that they have there. Having the first (Cup Series) road-course race there last year was huge, it was historic, and it was a crazy race. Indy is obviously the most historic track maybe in the world, definitely in the United States, so I’m really looking forward to going back.”

MENTOR & MENTEE: HARNESSING EMOTIONS

Harnessing your emotions is an advantage. Tony Stewart and Chase Briscoe talk about staying in control when it matters on the latest episode Mentor & Mentee presented by Mahindra Tractors.