Author: Kellye Arning

After back-to-back solid runs at Dover (Del.) International Speedway and Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, Danica Patrick and the No. 10 TaxAct Ford Fusion team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) travel to Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn for Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race.

Two weeks ago, Patrick finished 10th at Dover and, last weekend, the No. 10 team took home a 16th-place effort at Pocono. Now, the series ventures to one of Patrick’s top tracks on the circuit. She finished 13th in the June 2013 event and has a total of four top-20 finishes in eight NASCAR Cup Series starts at the 2-mile oval.

Her 13th-place run was the third top-15 finish in her career and came when her team elected to take only right-side tires on the final pit stop. She drove hard for the final stint and wound up with the solid finish.

In June 2014, she went down a lap early in the race but got it back on lap 147 and drove to a solid top-20 finish. The following August, she once again earned a top-20 result at Michigan.

The next year, Patrick started the Michigan 400 in June from the 19th position, led two laps and scored a 16th-place finish in the rain-shortened event.

In addition to scoring solid runs at Michigan in the NASCAR Cup Series, Patrick had done a good job in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and IndyCar Series prior to that.

In August 2012, she started an impressive fifth and led one lap en route to an 18th-place Xfinity Series finish. And, in August 2007, she started ninth, led five laps and finished seventh in the IndyCar Series.

In July 2006, Patrick was running eighth when she ran out of fuel just three laps from the end of what would have been a top-10 IndyCar finish. She ended up 17th.

As NASCAR Cup Series teams head to Michigan, TaxAct, a leading provider of affordable digital and downloadable tax software for individuals, business owners and tax professionals, will serve as primary sponsor of Patrick’s No. 10 Ford on Sunday. The race marks the fifth event this year in which TaxAct, the official DIY tax prep partner of SHR and Patrick, has served as the primary sponsor of the No. 10 Ford. The company’s mission is to empower people to navigate the complexities of tax and finance with ease and accuracy – at a clear, transparent and fair price.

TaxAct is back on Patrick’s No. 10 Ford this weekend to help remind taxpayers who filed an extension on their 2016 tax return that all returns must be submitted to the IRS by October 16. To help filers beat the extension deadline, TaxAct is offering a 20 percent discount on all TaxAct Online 2016 editions. Filers can choose the product that best fits their tax situation and file their federal and state returns with ease. Tax filers can take advantage of the discount by visiting http://www.taxact.com/michigan. The offer is available through July 31.

After earning solid results the past two weeks, Patrick and the No. 10 TaxAct Ford team will be looking to bring home another good run this weekend at Michigan.

DANICA PATRICK, Driver of the No. 10 TaxAct Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

What are your thoughts on racing at Michigan?

“Michigan is a wide, fast track. There’s lots of room to move around and try different lines. I think it’s a momentum track and you have to focus on being smooth. At the end of the day, the car has to handle well. It has to feel good. It has to be a fast car. I think those are the challenges – getting your car to handle well and being smooth and consistent, lap after lap, at such a fast track.”

What kind of challenges does Michigan present?

“It’s really easy to have an imbalance at Michigan, whether it be getting the power down on exit or most of the time being tight. I feel like it produces some great racing and there’s a lot of drafting, so you can use that to help pass cars.”

Kevin Harvick is heading to the Irish Hills of Michigan with Jimmy John’s on the hood of his No. 4 Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) for Sunday’s FireKeepers 400 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Race at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn looking to score his first win of the season.

Jimmy John’s prides itself on being “Freaky Fast” and “Freaky Fresh,” which is the perfect fit for when the NASCAR Cup Series heads north to Michigan International Speedway. The wide racing surface, long straightaways and sweeping corners make Michigan the fastest track on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule.

The good news for Jimmy John’s and the No. 4 team is that Harvick has been among the best in the series at the 2-mile oval in recent years, scoring top-five finishes in seven of his last eight starts there.

Harvick scored four consecutive second-place finishes at Michigan from June 2013 through August 2014. He was runner-up to Greg Biffle by 2.989 seconds in June 2013. In August 2013, Harvick finished 1.018 seconds behind Joey Logano. In 2014, he followed Hendrick Motorsports drivers Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon across the finish line in the June and August races, respectively. That’s four races, four second-place finishes, to four different drivers.

His lone finish outside the top-five over the last eight NASCAR Cup Series races at Michigan came in June 2015, when he started second and led 63 laps. But rain shortened the scheduled 200-lap event to just 138 laps and he finished 29^th. He followed that by posting yet another runner-up effort in August 2015, when he started seventh, led 15 laps and finished 1.722 seconds behind race-winner Matt Kenseth.

Harvick scored back-to-back top-five finishes at Michigan in 2016. In June, he started 29^th and raced his way to a fifth-place finish. His next start in August, he started fourth, led 33 laps and finished fifth.

For his career, Harvick has been to victory lane at Michigan in each of NASCAR’s top three national touring series.

He scored an Xfinity Series win at Michigan in August 2003, when he led 10 laps and beat Kasey Kahne to the finish line under caution. His NASCAR Cup Series win came in August 2010, when he led 60 laps and outran Denny Hamlin to the finish line by 1.731 seconds. He scored a Camping World Truck Series win in August 2011, when he led 13 laps and finished ahead of Timothy Peters as the race ended under caution.

The 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion would like to add a fresh Cup Series win to his resume on Sunday at Michigan. A win would be Harvick’s first of the 2017 season and secure his place in NASCAR’s 2017 Playoffs.

KEVIN HARVICK, Driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Fusion:

What does it take to have a good finish at Michigan?

“How you finish at Michigan depends on how your day is going. If you’re having a good day, it’s not really hard to tell your guys what you need and everyone is in a good mood. If you’re having a bad day, you can get behind at Michigan really fast. Usually, when you’re hooked up at Michigan, the leaders have clean air and move through traffic pretty well. But, if you’re in the middle of the pack, you find yourself getting behind and going a lap down pretty quickly. You’re going to end up with a green-flag pit stop and a whole bunch of green-flag laps. You just have to be going from the time the green flag drops and keep yourself in position at the end.”

 Do you enjoy racing at Michigan International Speedway?

“I think we’ve finished really well there over the last couple of years and scored a lot of second-place finishes and top-fives. I learned a long time ago that sometimes those things happen, so it’s better to be on a top-five streak than a 10^th-place streak. The good thing about the racetrack is that it has definitely aged and the groove has spread out over the last couple of races, so you have a lot more options than you did a few years ago when they repaved it. Every time we go back there, it gets a little more racey. When we go back this time, there should be lots of room to race and you’ll see lots of speed. As we go through the restarts and traffic and different things, we’ll have to see how it all goes, but it should be interesting.”

What’s the fastest track on the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule?

Daytona? Talladega?

The answer is Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn.

The wide, sweeping corners and long straightaways of the 2-mile, D-shaped oval in the state’s scenic Irish Hills region provided the fastest two qualifying laps in 2016. Joey Logano won both poles at Michigan in 2016 with laps of 201.698 and 199.557 mph. The track record is 206.558 mph set by Jeff Gordon in August 2014.

Clint Bowyer, driver of the No. 14 Haas Automation Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), shakes his head when he describes Michigan.

“She’s a fast, fast racetrack,” Bowyer said. “It always gets your attention.”

Bowyer hasn’t won at Michigan, but his one top-five finish and 11 top-10s in 22 starts lends credibility when he talks about what it will take to win Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 Cup Series race.

“You have to have grip and a ton of horsepower,” said Bowyer, who has scored the ninth-most points in the last 10 Michigan races. “If you have both of those, you will be just fine.”

Bowyer said finding grip will also be a key to success at the high-speed track and even wondered if NASCAR and track officials will add VHT resin to the surface to increase grip, like it did at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway last month.

“I think Michigan is relatively one groove, so it will be interesting to see if the old VHT is going to show up in an attempt to make it a multi-groove track,” Bowyer said. “As the track ages, it will keep getting better and better. Right now, it seems the middle groove is where you want to be.”

Bowyer arrives at Michigan with momentum despite finishing 17th at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway last weekend after contact with the wall early in the race. It’s been a good run in 2017 for Bowyer and the Mike Bugarewicz-led team. Bowyer replaced three-time champion Tony Stewart, who retired from NASCAR racing at the end of the 2016 season. In his first year at SHR, Bowyer has posted two top-fives and five top-10s.

Bowyer will debut a new Haas Automation paint scheme this weekend. His car will reverse the red and black the No. 14 has campaigned in 2017. SHR plans to run this scheme in the remaining races it carries the Haas Automation livery.

Bowyer will enjoy a little extra support this weekend. Ford Performance headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan is about 70 miles from the speedway. Ford joined SHR in 2017 and the combination has already produced a Daytona 500 victory, nine top-fives and 22 top-10s.

Bowyer has driven for each current manufacturer in NASCAR. He said Ford support has been key to SHR’s success this year.

“It’s been really cool getting to know the Ford folks this season,” Bowyer said. “What I like about Ford is the people you see in our race shop or at the track are the decision makers. If you have a suggestion, they are right there to listen to anything you have to say. I know we are going to visit with a ton of Ford folks this weekend, so winning at Ford’s home track would be pretty awesome.”

CLINT BOWYER, Driver of the No. 14 Haas Automation Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Does stage racing reduce the number of fuel-mileage races?

“The stages, for the most part, have helped the fuel-mileage racing. Fuel mileage showed up at Charlotte, but that was a 600-mile race. That’s an exception. Hopefully, we won’t see that this weekend in Michigan. It’s part of the sport’s strategy and it’s cool every now and then, but I think all of us want to see a cool, side-by-side finish.”

NASCAR XFINITY Series Overview

Event:               Pocono Green 250 (Round 12 of 33)
Date:                 June 10, 2017
Location:          Pocono (Pa.) Raceway
Layout:             2.5-mile triangle

Cole Custer Notes of Interest 

• The Pocono Green 250 will mark Cole Custer’s 16^th career NASCAR XFINITY Series start and his first XFINITY Series start at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway. 
• Custer is looking to be the highest-finishing XFINITY Series regular and winner of the Rookie of the Race award for the third race in a row in the Pocono Green 250. He comes into Pocono fresh of a fourth-place finish last Saturday at Dover (Del.) International Speedway, which equaled his career-best XFINITY Series finish. It was his sixth top-10 and third top-five finish in 16 career XFINITY Series starts. Custer has earned four top-10s and two top-fives in the 2017 XFINITY series season. 
• Despite the Pocono Green 250 being Custer’s first XFINITY Series start at Pocono, he is no stranger to victory lane at the 2.5-mile triangle. He won the 2015 ARCA race at the “Tricky Triangle” after leading the final 18 laps. 
• In three combined starts at Pocono – one in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and two in the ARCA Series – Custer has one win, two top-five finishes and 18 laps led.
• Custer is third in the XFINITY Series Rookie of the Year standings, 18 points behind leader William Byron and six points behind second-place Daniel Hemric.
• Custer is tied with Byron for the most Rookie of the Race awards with four this season. Rookie of the Race awards are given to the highest-finishing XFINITY Series rookie at each respective track.
• Custer is 10^th in the NASCAR XFINITY Series driver standings, 133 points behind series leader Elliot Sadler.
• Custer’s best qualifying effort in the 11 XFINITY Series races run this season is third, earned in the seventh race of the season April 22 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. Custer has five top-10 starts and two top-five starts this season.

Cole Custer, Driver Q&A

What was it like to get an ARCA Series win at Pocono in 2015?

“It’s awesome to win at Pocono because it’s such a unique track. Everybody wants to win there because of the history behind it and how unique it is. Winning there in 2015 definitely gives me some confidence going into the weekend.” 

What is so tricky about the “Tricky Triangle?”

“It’s tough to figure out those three turns. A lot of times you’ll be better on one end than the other. It’s a kind of a tough track because you’re carrying so much speed going into a couple of the corners and they’re pretty much dead flat. You have to figure out how to use your brakes and max your speed going through those corners without sliding up the track. It’s just tough to figure out the flat corners.” 

What are your expectations for the Pocono Green 250?

“Well, our strong suit this year has been the larger tracks. Although I’ve run well there before, I wouldn’t say it’s my absolute best track, but I think our Haas Automation team has been putting together great Ford Mustangs at these larger tracks. I think we’ll have another fast Haas Automation Ford this weekend.”

You’re competing for your third consecutive highest-finishing XFINITY Series regular driver and rookie awards. What are your thoughts on racing with regular Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers each week?

“I think we need to race against the Cup drivers because it just makes us better. You need them around to learn from. I think the one thing they did that’s really smart is to limit their races. Limiting races is probably the best thing they can do because it helps showcase the XFINITY guys a little more. I think they’re on the right track with that.” 

Jeff Meendering, Crew Chief Q&A

What are your thoughts on racing at Pocono, where Custer has an ARCA Series win? 

“Pocono is a very unique track with its three corners. Turn one is similar to an intermediate style track, turn two is similar to a road course and turn three is a long, sweeping flat track that would be more like an Indy setup. Unfortunately, you can’t have three different setups for each corner, so you have to make that compromise between all of them. It definitely makes that track hard to set up for.”

While the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series teams are at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway this weekend for Sunday’s Axalta presents the Pocono 400, Danica Patrick, driver of the No. 10 Aspen Dental Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), will be one of several drivers looking to make history.

On Saturday, Patrick will be joined by seven of her NASCAR Cup Series peers for the FOX broadcast of the NASCAR Xfinity Series race. In what is believed to be an unprecedented move in national sports broadcasting, Saturday’s Xfinity race will be called entirely by active NASCAR Cup Series drivers, including Patrick’s SHR teammates Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer. The race broadcast is thought to be the first time a nationally televised live sporting event has featured an on-air team comprised strictly of athletes actively competing in that sport.

Patrick is also believed to have been the first woman to serve as an analyst during a NASCAR television race when she joined the FOX Sports team in the broadcast booth for the Xfinity Series race at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn in June 2015. She also served in that capacity for last year’s Xfinity Series race at Pocono.

This weekend, she will join fellow NASCAR Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin to co-host FOX race coverage from the Hollywood Hotel mobile studio. The race coverage will air live on FOX at 1 p.m. EDT on Saturday.

The next day, Patrick will get behind the wheel of the No. 10 Aspen Dental Ford for the Pocono 400. The race will mark her ninth start at the 2.5-mile track nicknamed the “Tricky Triangle” due to its unique triangular layout that was designed by two-time Indianapolis 500 champion Rodger Ward. Patrick’s best finish at Pocono is a 16th-place effort earned in August 2015.

Fresh off of a top-10 result at Dover (Del.) International Speedway, Patrick and the No. 10 Aspen Dental Ford team will be ready to score another top-10 finish at Pocono on Sunday after she helps make history Saturday in the FOX broadcast booth.

DANICA PATRICK, Driver of the No. 10 Aspen Dental Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

What are your overall thoughts on Pocono?

“It’s a neat place, definitely a unique track. It’s still a place where I don’t have a ton of experience. It’s just an odd place to set the car up because the corners are so different. If you are really good in turn one, then maybe two and three are a little off. Or if you’re good in three, maybe one and two are different. I will say that the straightaway is enormous. There’s a lot of distance between turns three and one.” 

Which of the three turns at Pocono is your favorite? Which is most challenging?

“My favorite corner at Pocono is honestly – it’s probably – turn one. You can make up a lot of ground if you’re good through there. It comes into a pretty good compression and you can drive off, down into the corner. If the car turns pretty well, you can pick up the throttle really hard. And while I like turn one, the most important corner is probably turn three, leading onto the front straightaway.”

Talk about the tunnel turn at Pocono and what makes it so tough.

“Well, the tunnel turn at Pocono is pretty flat. I think that’s really one of the big things that makes it so challenging. You need to carry a lot of speed and there’s not a lot of lifting that goes on. It’s flat, so I feel like that makes it harder and it really emphasizes issues with the car. And then, when there’s not banking to push the car into the track, then it’s really up to the driver to make sure you set the car right with the throttle, brake, and how you turn into the corner. All of those things make the tunnel turn tricky.”

Talk about taking part in the all-driver broadcast of Saturday’s Xfinity race broadcast on FOX.

“I think it is a great opportunity and a great idea. I think it will draw a lot of attention and perhaps revolutionize TV a little bit with sports in terms of who’s included and how they are. I think there’s nothing better than putting people in position who are the most current and aware of what’s going on. And then, on top of that, personalities who are prepared to give their honest opinion, as well. I think it’s going to be really cool. I’m up for the challenge.” 

Are you looking forward to the Pocono Xfinity race broadcast on Saturday?

“I think the all-driver Pocono Xfinity broadcast is going to be cool and funny. I think it’s actually OK if there are a bunch of goof-ups. I think that’s probably what’s going to make it interesting. Basically, as long as I don’t say, ‘Boom goes the dynamite,’ at any point in time, it will be OK.”

Do you have a prediction of who will be best and who will be worst on the broadcast?

“I have no idea. Kevin (Harvick) definitely has the most experience, and then pit road has a lot of youth but a lot of knowledge of just the cars in general.”

No. 14 Haas Automation Ford crew chief Mike Bugarewicz begins each Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series weekend with the hope of getting driver Clint Bowyer to victory lane. With two top-five finishes already in the 2017 season, a Bowyer trip to victory lane isn’t out of the realm of possibilities when the Cup Series travels to Pocono (Pa.) Raceway for Sunday’s Pocono 400.

Winning this weekend would be extra special for the man everyone at Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) calls “Buga,” who grew up in the backyard of the 2.5-mile track.

“There’s a simple, one-word description I have of Pocono, and it’s ‘home,’” Bugarewicz said. “I grew up about 20 minutes from the racetrack. I’ve raced up in the Northeast and attended many of the races at Pocono. I used to go to qualifying all the time there. Pocono means a lot to me. It would really mean a lot to me to have a win there at some point in my career. I haven’t been successful with that, yet, but I hope to change that shortly.”

Bugarewicz grew up in Lehighton, Pennsylvania competing on the high school football, wrestling and track and field teams. He also spent a lot of time watching his father race at Mahoning Valley (Pa.) Speedway and working on cars at his father’s business long before he even owned a driver’s license. He studied mechanical engineering and performed research for the U.S. Navy through Applied Research Laboratories in graduate school at Penn State University before heading to North Carolina to embark on a NASCAR career that peaked at SHR.

He won a championship serving as the lead engineer on SHR’s No. 4 car with driver Kevin Harvick in 2014. He took over the No. 14 crew chief duties in 2016 for driver Tony Stewart’s final year of NASCAR competition. Bugarewicz’s decision to pit Stewart with 25 laps remaining in the race at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway last year, despite dropping him to 32nd, turned out to be genius as a caution two laps later enable Stewart to take the lead. The three-time champion made a last-lap pass for his 49th and final Cup Series victory.

The victory propelled Stewart into the playoffs with Bugarewicz the only rookie crew chief among the 16 participants. The arrival of Clint Bowyer in 2017 hasn’t slowed the rate of success. The No. 14 is 10th in points after 13 races despite a 31st-place finish last weekend at Dover (Del.) Speedway. Bowyer had driven from 22nd to fourth in the opening 100 laps before an oil leak sent him behind the wall.

Bowyer’s happy-go-lucky personality and Bugarewicz’s seriousness are a contrast but make for a good combination.

“Man, it is the hardest thing to try to get a laugh out of him or a rise in any way other than just pissed or completely disgusted with me – it is a lot of fun though,” Bowyer said with a laugh, pointing out his 35-year-old crew chief is one of the youngest in the garage.

“The work ethic is what you care about and I think that is what he cares about with me,” Bowyer continued, “as long as I show up for my meetings and take my work seriously. It has been a while since I’ve had someone as dedicated as Mike is. You literally have to tell him to go home, go eat dinner with your family, take your wife out to dinner, do something to get your mind off this. He will call you and 9 or 10 o’clock at night and he is still working. That work ethic is instilled in pretty much everybody at Stewart-Haas, and Mike is no exception. We are very fortunate to have him. He has brought me a lot of good hot rods already.”

Sunday’s race will mark Bowyer’s 411th career Cup Series start and 23rd career Cup Series start at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, where he has two top-five finishes and nine top-10s and has led 91 laps. He knows winning Sunday would be special for his crew chief.

“Pocono is a really tough track with three different turns,” Bowyer said. “I want to make sure we qualify well so we can get a good starting position and pit stall. Winning in Pennsylvania with Buga would be cool. He’d be thrilled. Heck, so would all of us.”

JUSTIN PEIFFER, Interior Specialist of the No. 14 Haas Automation Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

(Editor’s note: Peiffer hails from Lebanon, Pennsylvania and works as the team’s interior specialist overseeing driver Clint Bowyer’s safety equipment and comfort each weekend. He’s already visited victory lane at Pocono working with Craig Goess, who won the 2010 ARCA race there.)

What are your thoughts on Pocono Raceway?

“Pocono is my home track. I grew up about an hour and 20 minutes south of there, so my family gets to come up there when we race twice a year. It’s one of my favorite tracks. I love the area. It would mean everything to win there, especially having your family there. I remember when I was a kid in the early ’90s watching races there. A win at Pocono would be really special.”

JOSH SOBECKI, Rear Tire Carrier of the No. 14 Haas Automation Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

(Editor’s note: Sobecki, a New Kensington, Pennsylvania native, said everyone in his home state knows the importance of Pocono.)

“I grew up watching dirt races, but we always knew Pocono was the big boy in Pennsylvania. It’s an unusual track, but it’s a great test of the teams to see how they handle the three different corners.”