Author: Kellye Arning

As the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season gets underway with the 59^th running of the Daytona 500 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, Danica Patrick and the No. 10 Aspen Dental Ford Fusion team fielded by Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) return to Daytona with a smile, refreshed and ready to kick off a new year.

Before festivities get underway for the Daytona 500, the No. 10 team will first focus on Saturday’s Advance Auto Parts Clash. With the 2017 tax filing season underway, TaxAct, long known for being the best deal during tax season, will serve as primary sponsor of Patrick’s No. 10 Ford Fusion in Saturday night’s non-points race. The event marks the first of four events in which TaxAct, the official tax preparation software partner of SHR and Patrick, will serve as the primary sponsor of the No. 10 Ford Fusion this year.

Once the Clash is complete, focus will shift to the “Great American Race,” with qualifying for the Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 19. Four years ago, Patrick made history on qualifying day by becoming the first woman to win a NASCAR Cup Series pole when she set the fastest time in qualifying for the Daytona 500.

She followed up that effort with a history-making run in the 55th running of the Daytona 500, when she led five laps to become the first woman to lead a NASCAR race under green. Patrick finished the race in eighth place, the highest finishing position ever for a woman in the iconic event.

All told in Cup Series competition at Daytona, Patrick has led seven laps and earned two top-10 finishes and three top-20s. In the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Daytona, she’s led 34 laps and scored one top-10 and three top-20s. And in her lone ARCA Racing Series start at Daytona, Patrick netted a sixth-place finish.

As Patrick returns to Daytona for her sixth start in the Daytona 500, her No. 10 Ford Fusion will feature the blue-and-white branding of Aspen Dental. It was announced earlier this week that the company, one of the largest and fastest-growing brands in the United States, has expanded its partnership with SHR to become the lead sponsor of Patrick and the No. 10 team during the 2017 season.

There are nearly 600 Aspen Dental practices across 35 states and each practice offers patients a safe, welcoming and judgment-free environment to address their dental challenges. Every Aspen Dental practice offers a full range of dental and denture services – including comprehensive exams, cleanings, extractions, fillings, periodontal treatment, whitening, oral surgery, crown and bridge work – allowing patients to have the peace of mind that they are taken care of and protected, so they can focus on getting the healthy mouth they deserve. In 2016, Aspen Dental practices recorded more than 4.1 million patient visits and welcomed nearly 900,000 new patients.

Patrick has shined a spotlight on oral health across a multitude of channels with Aspen Dental since 2014 and will continue to do so throughout the 2017 season, starting with the biggest race of the year – the Daytona 500.

One year ago, Patrick kicked off the year with new crew chief Billy Scott. This week, Patrick and Scott return to Daytona set to build and improve on the relationship they forged throughout the 2016 season, and there would be no better way to start off the year than by the No. 10 Aspen Dental Ford Fusion team leaving Daytona with a smile.

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

When I say Daytona 500, what comes to mind?

“At the beginning of the season, there’s always so much talk about how you do those first five races of the season and, you know, it’s like if you get an F on your paper at the start of the year, you spend all year just trying to get back to an A or a B, and I feel like that’s obviously how it works in our series, too. If you start the year off not so great and at a place like Daytona, where it’s speedway racing and there’s a lot of wrecks, I mean, it’s very possible to finish 40th that day, or 30-something, and that’s obviously a bad start to the season. But, you know, just those first handful of races are so important and so it’s really nice when you can start off with one of the more challenging ones to get that great finish. And, on top of that, for it to also be Daytona, it’s a cool way to kick off the season for us, as a sport, to have our biggest race of the season be first, and it draws a lot of eyes and I hope that we put on a good show.”

What are your goals and expectations for 2017?

“The goal is to do better all the time and hopefully some of the things that have changed within in our team, the big one being the changeover to Ford, will open up some opportunities and possibilities and just some pure potential for the team and we can improve. Hopefully, there is more room to improve now, so that’s kind of exciting to me. I’m optimistic and hopefully it will be something that makes a difference. I think if you’re in the top-15 every weekend, then you do a little bit better and then you’re in the top-10 and then, once you’re in the top-10 with good pit stops, good strategy and all the things that play into it – some of the new formats for the races can play into segment wins – so I think it’s important to be realistic. So, to tell you to go out and win races and segments is not something I necessarily think is going to happen right away, but we’ll assess. We’ll assess how strong we are as a team. A few years back, we were really strong and I felt like that’s where I was running by the end of the year, was up in the top-15 and getting into the top-10, so hopefully we can get back to that and work from there.” 

Do you think the new race format NASCAR has implemented will be beneficial?

“I think that the new structure for the races is cool. I think that winning is something that, for a fan, it’s easy to understand and, for a really casual fan, it’s even easier to understand. I think that having a lot more winners every week and throughout the year is a cool thing, but what I have said is I feel like this is definitely going to be a big chore for the crew chiefs. If I were them, I would already be nervous or trying to think of scenarios. I’d probably be going to bed and waking up thinking, ‘If this happened and then we were running here, but we were fast…’ You’re running through all these scenarios in your head with ‘what would you do?’ I feel like it’s going to be challenging because, as far as a driver goes, I do try and drive the fastest laps I can every single lap. I’m doing my best unless there’s a reason to slow down, like fuel or tires are going off or something like that, or you want to maintain your tire life – something like that. So, I think it’s going be exciting as long as the information of the format can be translated to the fan or average fan in a simple, understandable way. I think it will be cool.”

What is it about Daytona International Speedway that you like?

“I think I’ve always had the good fortune of driving for good teams that have good cars. I also think that my IndyCar background is very similar to the style of racing that the superspeedways bring to NASCAR. That was full-speed, flat-out, don’t-lift-if-you-don’t-have-to racing where you have to keep your momentum up and lots of big-pack racing. For me, that was a big comfort zone when I came over to NASCAR, that it was a lot like the IndyCar days of driving on mile-and-a-half speedways. It’s all about having an awareness of what’s around you, making good decisions and trying to stay out of trouble until the end.”

Describe the intensity of restrictor-plate racing.  

“It’s super easy to drive around the track flat-out by yourself. It’s not hard at all. When you put all of the other cars around you, it’s not necessarily about how the car feels on the track, although that can be an issue, for sure, at times. It’s more about what everyone else is doing around you. You’re constantly looking at what’s happening in front of you. You’re also looking at what’s behind you. Probably more important than what’s happening in front of you is what’s happening behind you – who’s coming, who’s following you, who’s helping you move forward. There have been plenty of times that I’ve gone to the bottom and complained, ‘Where’s my help?’ It seems like I’ll slot in on the bottom line and then everyone behind me disappears. You really have to have people behind you, pushing you. The race is constantly evolving and you and your spotter have to be on it. It’s a big race for spotters, so having a really good one that you trust is very important.”

-SHR-

Let us re-introduce you to Clint Bowyer.

You might remember him. He finished second in the 2012 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship and third in the 2007 title chase. He has eight NASCAR Cup Series victories and won the 2008 NASCAR Xfinity Series title after leaving his hometown of Emporia, Kansas for racing glory in 2004.

He’s NASCAR’s everyman, whose collar is as blue as his Kansas City Royals hat and his smile as wide as a wheat field.

He’s been quiet the last two seasons, but that only proves how much of a team sport NASCAR is these days. Midway through 2015, his two-car Michael Waltrip Racing team announced it was going out of business at the end of the season. In 2016, Bowyer, needing a temporary home before joining Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) in 2017, drove for an HScott Motorsports team that was still early in its development.

Out of sight usually means out of mind in NASCAR, but Bowyer will be front and center in 2017. He’ll climb into a car worthy of his skill as he replaces the retired and future Hall of Famer Tony Stewart in SHR’s No. 14 Ford Fusion under the leadership of second-year crew chief Mike “Buga” Bugarewicz. After engineering a playoff appearance with Stewart in 2016, expectations of pairing Bowyer with “Buga” – the only rookie crew chief in the 2016 playoffs – are sky high in 2017.

Bowyer will make his SHR debut Feb. 26 driving the No. 14 Mobil 1 Ford Fusion in NASCAR’s most prestigious event – the 59th running of the Daytona 500.

“This is the best opportunity I’ve ever had,” Bowyer said. “Everybody knows that. Getting in the No. 14 Ford isn’t easy. It’s going to be a challenge. The first thing you think about is Tony’s fan base. There are a whole lot of people I don’t want to let down. I want to make all those people proud of the No. 14 this year, proud of me being in that No. 14, and proud of Tony’s decision to put me in it this year. The pressure is probably there but, to be honest with you, from where I’ve come to looking forward to this opportunity for more than a year, there’s more excitement than pressure.”

Bowyer won’t be the only new addition to SHR in 2017. Since its inception in 2009, SHR has posted 36 victories and two championships with Stewart and Kevin Harvick, so it came as a bit of a shock to the motorsports world when it was announced in February 2016 that SHR would welcome Ford Performance as the four-car team’s manufacturer beginning in 2017. The move should provide a boost under the hood and in aerodynamics, as well as in the SHR engineering meetings with the global motorsports company bringing its expertise to its Kannapolis, North Carolina, operation. As the sport grows, the long-term alliance of SHR and Ford Performance could lead to the next wave of dominance that Bowyer expects to surf for the next several years.

If the SHR-Ford-Bowyer combination bears the fruit many expect, then Bowyer’s return to prominence will be a boon to NASCAR. The former dirt racer can boast success on every type of track the series visits. Four of his eight career NASCAR Cup Series victories have come on short tracks, two on restrictor-plate tracks, one on an ultra-fast 1.5-mile track and one on a road course. He’s won everywhere and he’s won in everything. Three times he’s finished in the top-five in the standings and earned eight victories in the Xfinity Series and three in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

Chasing checkered flags is what has driven Bowyer since racing dirt bikes in Kansas. He proved proficient at collecting trophies as he transitioned from two wheels to four, from dirt to asphalt, from Xfinity to Cup. Another trophy and another checkered flag is what drives Bowyer, and from the cockpit of his No. 14 Mobil 1 Ford Fusion, he’s in the best position to secure those highly-sought items.

CLINT BOWYER, Driver of the No. 14 Mobil 1 Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

What does the Daytona 500 mean to you?

“This is the biggest race of the year. It’s the race everyone wants to win. You know we have spent a lot of time talking about the stages and new format this offseason but, for this race, throw all that out the window. I’m here to win this Daytona 500. I can’t wait. I have a new opportunity with a new race team. It’s a new everything for me so I’m going down there to work hard in every practice session and get myself prepared to win this baby. I’m hungry and I want to go out there and get established right off the bat as a frontrunner with our team. And I think, ‘Hey, I think I can win the Daytona 500.’ I’ve come close many times.”

How predictable is the Daytona 500?

“It’s one of those things where you can be leading coming to the white flag and finish 15th to 20th. I’ve done that. I’ve also been way back in the pack, then somehow picked my way through it on the last lap and got a good, solid finish. It’s a rollercoaster, just like it has been with everybody. I mean, that’s what the Daytona 500 is. You go from thinking, ‘I got ’em!’ to ‘Oh, no! How have we done so wrong?’ I mean, it’s just one of those emotional rollercoaster races where you just never know what’s going to happen. I had the thing won in 2010, and they literally used the Bondo out of the haulers to fix the track. I didn’t win that year but, before that happened, I just knew I had it won. Whether it’s a track surface, somebody hitting a jet dryer and blowing up, or coming down to a green-and-white checkered at the end, you just never know the recipe and what it’s going to take to win that ultra-special race.”

What are your thoughts on SHR?

“These are the best teammates I’ve ever had, the best equipment I’ve ever had, the best ownership and a fantastic lineup of sponsors. Everything is here. That’s what will breed all of the success. When Tony Stewart and Gene Haas hire you and put you in a car that Tony drove to a championship, that gives you a great deal of confidence. It was a huge confidence booster and it’s what I needed.”

Why do you say you feel more excitement than pressure in 2017?

“You know, you walk into SHR and you see everyone busting their rear ends to make this transition to Ford. Doug Yates (President and CEO of Roush Yates Engines) was at the shop the other day and I laughed because I’ve had my butt whupped by his horsepower for a lot of years, especially on restrictor-plate tracks. I always took notes on how well those Roush Yates engines ran. I’m really looking forward to getting that horsepower under the hood. You see how much success (Ford drivers) Brad (Keselowski) and Joey (Logano) have had with these aero packages. You go back to having teammates – particularly teammates like the ones I now have at SHR. Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch and Danica Patrick, who each bring a lot to the table. I think they will help me be a better racecar driver and ultimately more successful. That’s all exciting.”

Is joining SHR the year it moves to Ford good timing?

“If you are going to change, you might as well change everything. If there was ever a culture that was a great fit for me, it’s SHR. It seems like everybody at SHR is someone I’ve either worked with before or I’m already friends with. It’s just a perfect fit. The culture is me. They take care of business and have a lot of fun doing it. That’s what I love that about SHR. I think I’ll fit in well. With the transition to Ford, the thing I’ve noticed right off the bat is you are talking to the head honchos. Raj Nair (Executive Vice President of Global Product Development and Chief Technical Officer) is the guy who brought Ford Performance to what it is today. Whether it’s a meeting at the shop or going over to Ford Performance, he and his counterparts are the ones you talk with, making sure you have what you need to be successful at the racetrack. That means a lot to a racecar driver.”

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