Category: Post-Race Reports

Date:  June 4, 2023

Event:  Enjoy Illinois 300 presented by TicketSmarter (Round 15 of 36)

Series:  NASCAR Cup Series

Location:  Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Illinois (near St. Louis)

Layout:  1.25-mile oval

Format:  240 laps, broken into three stages (45 laps/95 laps/100 laps)

Note:  Race extended three laps past its scheduled 240-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.

Race Winner:  Kyle Busch of Richard Childress Racing

Stage 1 Winner:  Kyle Busch of Richard Childress Racing

Stage 2 Winner:  Ryan Blaney of Team Penske (Ford)

SHR Race Finish:            

●  Kevin Harvick (Started 4th, Finished 10th / Running, completed 243 of 243 laps)

●  Ryan Preece (Started 29th, Finished 17th / Running, completed 243 of 243 laps)

●  Aric Almirola (Started 24th, Finished 19th / Running, completed 243 of 243 laps)

●  Chase Briscoe (Started 25th, Finished 34th / Running, completed 193 of 243 laps)

SHR Points:

●  Kevin Harvick (3rd with 473 points, 22 out of first)

●  Aric Almirola (25th with 251 points, 244 out of first)

●  Ryan Preece (27th with 245 points, 250 out of first)

●  Chase Briscoe (31st with 175 points, 320 out of first)

SHR Notes:  

●  Harvick made his 805th career NASCAR Cup Series start on Sunday when he took the green flag at Gateway, tying NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon for ninth all-time. Harvick is on track to finish the year with 826 career starts, which will put him eighth all-time. He’s part of an impressive lineup that includes Richard Petty (1,185 starts), Ricky Rudd (906), Terry Labonte (890), Dave Marcis (883), Mark Martin (882), Kyle Petty (829), Bill Elliott (828), Darrell Waltrip (809) and Gordon (805). At age 47, Harvick was the fifth-youngest driver to make 800 starts.

●  Harvick earned his seventh top-10 of the season and his first top-10 in two career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Gateway.

●  This was Harvick’s fourth straight finish of 11th or better, a run highlighted by a second-place drive May 14 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.

●  Harvick finished sixth in Stage 1 to earn five bonus points and eighth in Stage 2 to earn three more bonus points.

●  This was Preece’s third straight top-20. He finished 15th at Darlington and 13th in the series’ prior race at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway.

Race Notes:       

●  Kyle Busch won the Enjoy Illinois 300 to score his 63rd career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his third of the season and his first at Gateway. His margin over second-place Denny Hamlin was .517 of a second.

●  There were 11 caution periods for a total of 67 laps.

●  Twenty-eight of the 36 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.

●  Ryan Blaney leaves Gateway as the new championship leader with a 13-point advantage over second-place William Byron.

Sound Bites:

“That was a really long day. I fought a tight racecar all day long and every time we came down pit road, my guys made really strong adjustments. It just wasn’t enough to get us to the front and stay there. There were so many cautions there at the end, I was just trying to save the car. Overall, it wasn’t a terrible day for us after qualifying 29th. The fans were out in full force today, too. That was awesome to see. We’ve just got to keep grinding for better finishes.” – Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang

“We battled handing issues all day and just couldn’t find it. We were loose to start the day and it felt like our car was tight on aero and loose mechanically. Our long-run speed was really all we had today and we could pass cars late in the run, but we had so many cautions in the final stage we didn’t have the chance to run those cars down. Drew (Blickensderfer, crew chief) put me on offense on the last 20 laps with fresh tires and I thought we could’ve driven up to 15th, but someone missed a shift on the last restart and stacked us up and put us behind. Just one of those days. We had to battle to get all we could get.” – Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Save Mart 350k on Sunday, June 11 at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway. The race begins at 3:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Date: May 29, 2023
Event: Coca-Cola 600 (Round 14 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway (1.5-mile oval)
Format: 400 laps, broken into four stages (100 laps/100 laps/100 laps/100 laps)

Race Winner: Ryan Blaney of Team Penske (Ford)
Stage 1 Winner: William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Chris Buescher of RFK Racing (Ford)
Stage 3 Winner: Ryan Blaney of Team Penske (Ford)

SHR Race Finish:
● Kevin Harvick (Started 2nd, Finished 11th / Running, completed 400 of 400 laps)
● Ryan Preece (Started 22nd, Finished 13th / Running, completed 400 of 400 laps)
● Chase Briscoe (Started 20th, Finished 20th / Running, completed 400 of 400 laps)
● Aric Almirola (Started 23rd, Finished 25th / Running, completed 400 of 400 laps)

SHR Points:
● Kevin Harvick (4th with 438 points, 8 out of first)
● Chase Briscoe (17th with 292 points, 154 out of first)
● Aric Almirola (26th with 233 points, 213 out of first)
● Ryan Preece (28th with 225 points, 221 out of first)

SHR Notes:
● Harvick finished second in Stage 2 to earn nine bonus points and eighth in Stage 3 to earn three more bonus points.
● Harvick led three times for 19 laps to increase his laps-led total at Charlotte to 624.
● Harvick has now led 11,584 laps since joining SHR in 2014. He has led 15,999 laps in his entire NASCAR Cup Series career. He is a single lap away from being one of just 11 drivers who have led 16,000 laps in their career.
● Preece’s 13th-place finish bettered his previous best result at Charlotte – 22nd, earned in the 2020 Coca-Cola 600.

Race Notes:
● Ryan Blaney won the Coca-Cola 600 to snap a 59-race winless streak and deliver team owner Roger Penske a sweep of the Memorial Day weekend as Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden won the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday.
● This was Blaney’s eighth career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his first on the 1.5-mile oval at Charlotte. His margin over second-place William Byron was .663 of a second.
● Blaney was the 10th different winner in the 14 NASCAR Cup Series races run this season.
● This was Ford’s 722nd all-time NASCAR Cup Series victory and its second of the season.
● This was Ford’s 33rd all-time NASCAR Cup Series victory at Charlotte. The manufacturer won its first race at the track on Oct. 16, 1960 with Speedy Thompson.
● There were 16 caution periods for a total of 83 laps.
● Twenty-five of the 37 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● Ross Chastain remains the championship leader after Charlotte with a one-point advantage over second-place Blaney.

Sound Bites:

“What a night. We battled all night long. Some of those cautions just did not work in our favor at all, but we had a good car and just needed track position and clean air. We made strong adjustments throughout the night and my crew was on it. I think we had a top-10 car. We’ll take 13th after a day like that and it’s definitely the momentum our team needed. Those top-10s and top-fives are coming and I’m looking forward to St. Louis.” – Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang

“It was a good night for our Smithfield Ford Mustang. It’s an honor and privilege to race on Memorial Day and it was an honor to fly Lance Corporal Daniel M. McVicker’s name on the windshield. Wish we could’ve brought it home a little bit better for them. We were running 10th with 20-somethng to go and got caught up in that restart wreck in the middle of (turns) one and two and got a lot of heavy damage that really hurt the racecar after that. Hate that we didn’t get out of here with a top-10. I felt like we certainly had a top-10 racecar. I got loose on an early restart, bent the right-rear toe-link, we fixed it, got two laps down, and then got all of our laps back and drove from the back and into the top-10. So, just really proud of the effort and the fight, but not the result. We fought hard and we’ll go get ready for Gateway. That was a really good track for us last year.” – Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang

Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Enjoy Illinois 300 presented by TicketSmarter on Sunday, June 4 at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Illinois, near St. Louis. The race begins at 3:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Date: May 21, 2023
Event: NASCAR All-Star Race and All-Star Open (non-points events)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway (.625-mile oval)

NASCAR All-Star Race: 200 laps, with a competition break at or around lap 100 (125 miles)
● Race Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports
Note: The NASCAR All-Star Race was comprised of drivers who won a points-paying race in 2022 or 2023, fulltime drivers who have previously won the All-Star Race, fulltime drivers who have won a NASCAR Cup Series championship, and drivers who advanced from the All-Star Open.

SHR Finish in NASCAR All-Star Race:
● Chase Briscoe (Started 5th, Finished 4th / Running, completed 200 of 200 laps)
● Kevin Harvick (Started 15th, Finished 18th / Running, completed 198 of 200 laps)

All-Star Open: 100 laps, with a competition break at or around lap 40 (62.5 miles)
● Race Winner: Josh Berry of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
● Second Place: Ty Gibbs of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
● Fan Vote Winner: Noah Gragson of Legacy Motor Club (Chevrolet)
Note:The All-Star Open was the undercard event to the NASCAR All-Star Race, where non-qualified drivers attempted to race their way into the All-Star Race by winning the Open, finishing second in the Open, or by winning the fan vote.

SHR Finish in All-Star Open:
● Aric Almirola (Started 9th, Finished 3rd / Running, completed 100 of 100 laps)
● Ryan Preece (Started 8th, Finished 4th / Running, completed 100 of 100 laps)

SHR Notes:
● This was Briscoe’s second All-Star Race. He finished 18th last year.
● Harvick has competed in every single NASCAR All-Star Race in his 23-year career, the most of any active NASCAR Cup Series driver.

Race Notes:
● Kyle Larson won the All-Star Race with a 4.537-second margin over runner-up Bubba Wallace. It was his third win in the All-Star Race.
● The All-Star Race featured just three lead changes between two different drivers – Larson and Daniel Suárez. Twenty-four drivers comprised the field.

Sound Bites:
“We were really, really fast at the end. I felt like if I could’ve ever just gotten the lead, I would’ve been hard to beat, but I’m sure a lot of other guys would say that too. It was definitely frustrating. We kind of got beat around there on that one restart. I went from running fourth to seventh or eighth, and had to drive back up to fourth. I felt like we were one of the few cars that could pass. I’m proud of that effort, but I would’ve obviously loved to win a million dollars. Truthfully, with how our last couple of weeks have been, just to get a good run and prove that we can run with these guys is nice.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang

Next Up:
The NASCAR Cup Series returns to points-paying racing on Sunday, May 28 with the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway. The race gets underway at 6 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Date: May 14, 2023
Event: Goodyear 400 (Round 13 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Darlington (S.C.) Raceway (1.366-mile oval)
Format: 293 laps, broken into three stages (90 laps/95 laps/108 laps)
Note: Race extended two laps past its scheduled 293-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.

Race Winner: William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports

Stage 1 Winner: Martin Truex Jr., of Joe Gibbs Racing

Stage 2 Winner: Ross Chastain of Trackhouse Racing

SHR Race Finish:
● Kevin Harvick (Started 20th, Finished 2nd / Running, completed 295 of 295 laps)
● Ryan Preece (Started 32nd, Finished 15th / Running, completed 295 of 295 laps)
● Chase Briscoe (Started 31st, Finished 17th / Running, completed 295 of 295 laps)
● Aric Almirola (Started 17th, Finished 21st / Running, completed 295 of 295 laps)

SHR Points:
● Kevin Harvick (3rd with 400 points, 29 out of first)
● Chase Briscoe (16th with 275 points, 154 out of first)
● Aric Almirola (26th with 221 points, 208 out of first)
● Ryan Preece (29th with 201 points, 228 out of first)

SHR Notes:
● This was Harvick’s best result so far this season. His previous best was a trio of fifth-place finishes – Feb. 26 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, March 12 at Phoenix Raceway and April 2 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway.
● Harvick earned his fourth top-five and his sixth top-10 of the season. It was also his 14th top-five and 19th top-10 in 31 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Darlington.
● Harvick’s 14 top-fives and 19 top-10s at Darlington are the most among active NASCAR Cup Series drivers. (Denny Hamlin is next best with 12 top-fives and 16 top-10s.)
● Harvick finished eighth in Stage 1 to earn three bonus points and seventh in Stage 2 to earn four more bonus points.
● Harvick led twice for five laps to increase his laps-led total at Darlington to a series-leading 818. (Hamlin is next best with 801 laps led at Darlington.)
● Harvick has now led 11,565 laps since joining SHR in 2014. He has led 15,980 laps in his entire NASCAR Cup Series career.

Race Notes:
● William Byron won the Goodyear 400 to score his seventh career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his third of the season and his first at Darlington. His margin over Harvick was .781 of a second.
● There were eight caution periods for a total of 47 laps.
● Twenty-two of the 36 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● Ross Chastain remains the championship leader after Darlington with a 27-point advantage over second-place Christopher Bell.

Sound Bites:

“We had a good car all day. We just could never get up toward the front. Our Sunny Delight Ford Mustang struggled in traffic today, but we were really good at the second half of the run and just struggled at the beginning of the run. We had good track position and then had a bad pit stop under green, but had everything work out at the end. I didn’t have anything for William (Byron). The front is tore up pretty good, but they did a great job and just kind of kept ourselves in the game and you never know what’s gonna happen.

“I think if you would’ve dropped us in first or second place we probably could’ve run there. The Fords struggle in traffic with this particular aero package and it’s hard to make up ground, and then we lost a bunch of ground on pit road under the green flag pit stop. Then we got toward the end and missed all the wrecks. Well, we came out the other side of the wrecks. We were in the wrecks, but just didn’t have any damage to the wheels and tires, just structural damage. William ended up being the only car that didn’t have damage and he just drove off, so still a good day for our Sunny Delight Ford Mustang and we’ll just keep plugging away.”

– Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 SUNNYD Ford Mustang

Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the non-points NASCAR All-Star Race on Sunday, May 21 at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway. The race starts at 8 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio beginning at 5:30 p.m. with the undercard NASCAR All-Star Open.

Date:  May 7, 2023

Event:  AdventHealth 400 (Round 12 of 36)

Series:  NASCAR Cup Series

Location:  Kansas Speedway in Kansas City (1.5-mile oval)

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

Race Winner:  Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing

Stage 1 Winner:  Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing

Stage 2 Winner:  Joey Logano of Team Penske

SHR Race Finish:            

●  Kevin Harvick (Started 13th, Finished 11th / Running, completed 267 of 267 laps)

●  Aric Almirola (Started 18th, Finished 13th / Running, completed 267 of 267 laps)

●  Ryan Preece (Started 28th, Finished 27th / Running, completed 266 of 267 laps)

●  Chase Briscoe (Started 31st, Finished 32nd / Running, completed 260 of 267 laps)

SHR Points:

●  Kevin Harvick (5th with 358 points, 46 out of first)

●  Chase Briscoe (17th with 255 points, 149 out of first)

●  Aric Almirola (25th with 205 points, 199 out of first)

●  Ryan Preece (28th with 179 points, 225 out of first)

Race Notes:       

●  Kevin Harvick is the only driver who has competed in every NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas, a run of 35 races dating back to the inaugural race on Sept. 30, 2001.

●  Denny Hamlin won the AdventHealth 400 to score his 49th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his fourth at Kansas. His margin over second-place Kyle Larson was 1.307 seconds.

●  Hamlin was the ninth different winner in the 12 NASCAR Cup Series races run this season.

●  There were 11 caution periods for a total of 57 laps.

●  Twenty-two of the 36 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.

●  Ross Chastain remains the championship leader after Kansas with a 31-point advantage over second-place Christopher Bell.

Sound Bites:

“We had an OK day. We got up there and I thought we were going to run top-10, and then out of nowhere, spun off of turn two. Our cars are really knife-edge right now. We’re having a lot of trouble getting our cars balanced where we need it to be. There is such a small window to get the balance where we need it to be, that it just makes it really difficult to race. We can be really tight, we can be really loose, but we can’t get it in the window where we need it to be – consistent. So, we’ll just keep working.” – Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Goodyear 400 on Sunday, May 14 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. The race begins at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Date:  May 1, 2023

Event:  Würth 400 (Round 11 of 36)

Series:  NASCAR Cup Series

Location:  Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway (1-mile, concrete oval)

Format:  400 laps, broken into three stages (120 laps/130 laps/250 laps)

Race Winner:  Martin Truex Jr., of Joe Gibbs Racing

Stage 1 Winner:  William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports

Stage 2 Winner:  Ross Chastain of Trackhouse Racing

SHR Race Finish:            

●  Ryan Preece (Started 30th, Finished 17th / Running, completed 399 of 400 laps)

●  Kevin Harvick (Started 12th, Finished 19th / Running, completed 399 of 400 laps)

●  Aric Almirola (Started 19th, Finished 24th / Running, completed 397 of 400 laps)

●  Chase Briscoe (Started 6th, Finished 30th / Running, completed 378 of 400 laps)

SHR Points:

●  Kevin Harvick (3rd with 332 points, 38 out of first)

●  Chase Briscoe (16th with 250 points, 120 out of first)

●  Aric Almirola (25th with 181 points, 189 out of first)

●  Ryan Preece (28th with 169 points, 201 out of first)

SHR Notes:        

●  Preece’s 17th-place finish bettered his previous best result at Dover – 18th, earned in 2021.

●  This was Harvick’s 43rd career NASCAR Cup Series start at Dover, the most among active drivers. The all-time leader in Cup Series starts at Dover is Ricky Rudd with 56. Rudd made his Cup debut at Dover on May 16, 1976, and his last start at the track came on June 4, 2007, a span of 31 years.

●  Harvick finished eighth in Stage 1 to earn three bonus points.

●  This was the first time Harvick has finished outside of the top-10 at Dover since a 17th-place result in October 2017.

●  Briscoe’s 30th-place result ended a three-race streak of top-fives. He finished fifth April 9 on the dirt at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, fifth April 16 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway and fourth last Sunday at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

Race Notes:       

●  Martin Truex Jr., won the Würth 400 to score his 32nd career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his fourth at Dover. His margin over second-place Ross Chastain was .505 of a second.

●  Truex was the eighth different winner in the 11 NASCAR Cup Series races run this season.

●  There were seven caution periods for a total of 46 laps.

●  Only 12 of the 36 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.

●  Chastain leaves Dover as the new championship leader with a three-point advantage over second-place Christopher Bell.

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the AdventHealth 400 on Sunday, May 7 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City. The race begins at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Date:  April 23, 2023

Event:  GEICO 500 (Round 10 of 36)

Series:  NASCAR Cup Series

Location:  Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway

Format:  188 laps, broken into three stages (60 laps/60 laps/68 laps)

Note:  Race extended eight laps past its scheduled 188-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.

Race Winner:  Kyle Busch of Richard Childress Racing

Stage 1 Winner:  Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports

Stage 2 Winner:  Aric Almirola of Stewart-Haas Racing

SHR Race Finish:            

●  Chase Briscoe (Started 4th, Finished 4th / Running, completed 196 of 196 laps)

●  Aric Almirola (Started 2nd, Finished 20th / Running, completed 196 of 196 laps)

●  Kevin Harvick (Started 11th, Finished 21st / Running, completed 196 of 196 laps)

●  Ryan Preece (Started 16th, Finished 34th / Accident, completed 189 of 196 laps)

SHR Points:

●  Kevin Harvick (3rd with 311 points, 20 out of first)

●  Chase Briscoe (15th with 243 points, 88 out of first)

●  Aric Almirola (24th with 170 points, 161 out of first)

●  Ryan Preece (28th with 149 points, 182 out of first)

Briscoe Notes:   

●  Briscoe earned his third top-five and his fourth top-10 of the season. It was also his first top-five and second top-10 in five career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Talladega.

●  This was Briscoe’s best finish so far this year. His previous best was a pair of fifth-place finishes – April 9 on the dirt at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway and last Sunday at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

●  This was Briscoe’s fifth straight top-15. He finished 15th March 26 at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, 12th April 2 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway, fifth April 9 on the dirt at Bristol and fifth last Sunday at Martinsville.

●  Briscoe led one lap, increasing his laps-led total at Talladega to two.

Almirola Notes: 

●  Almirola won Stage 2 to earn 10 bonus points and one playoff point.

●  Almirola led three times for 11 laps to increase his laps-led total at Talladega to 118.

Harvick Notes:  

●  The GEICO 500 marked Harvick’s 800th career NASCAR Cup Series start. He is the 10th driver in NASCAR’s 75-year history to reach this milestone and, at age 47, the fifth-youngest driver to make 800 starts. Harvick joins an impressive lineup that includes Richard Petty (1,185 starts), Ricky Rudd (906), Terry Labonte (890), Dave Marcis (883), Mark Martin (882), Kyle Petty (829), Bill Elliott (828), Darrell Waltrip (809) and Jeff Gordon (805). Harvick is on track to finish the year with 826 career starts, which would put him eighth all-time.

●  Harvick finished third in Stage 2 to earn eight bonus points.

●  Harvick led twice for 11 laps to increase his laps-led total at Talladega to 303.

●  Harvick has now led 11,560 laps since joining SHR in 2014. He has led 15,975 laps in his entire NASCAR Cup Series career.

Preece Notes:     

●  Preece finished ninth in Stage 1 to earn two bonus points and seventh in Stage 2 to earn four more bonus points.

●  Preece led once for two laps, increasing his laps-led total at Talladega to 14.

Race Notes:       

●  Kyle Busch won the GEICO 500 to score his 62nd career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his second of the season and his second at Talladega. Ryan Blaney finished in the runner-up position as the race ended under caution.

●  Twenty-seven of the 38 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.

●  There were eight cautions for a total of 34 laps.

●  Christopher Bell remains the championship leader after Talladega with an 11-point advantage over second-place Ross Chastain.

Sound Bites:

“Wild day. I made a huge mistake coming to pit road. We’re two laps down, and then we were one and was going to get the Lucky Dog at the end of Stage 2, and then (Joey) Logano had that speeding penalty and barely got us for the Lucky Dog. It was a battle all day long – very similar to how we kind of were at the end of last year, just continuing to fight and keep doing everything we could to try to maximize our day. At the end, found ourselves up there and in the top-five. I would’ve loved to have a little bit more, but if you told me we were going to finish fourth there – at any point of the race really, even there with 20 (laps) to go. We were so stuck in the back and couldn’t really do anything. So, cool to get this Mahindra ‘Old Goat’ Ford Mustang in the top-five and looking forward to next week.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Mahindra TractorsFord Mustang

“There’s so much to be proud of. We had a great racecar and ran up-front, led, was in position all day, and then just Ross (Chastain) doing Ross things on that restart. Wiped out the right side of our car, and either broke something in the right-front suspension or had the right-front tire go flat. So, it took a racecar that had a great shot to win and crashed. That part is frustrating, but we have a lot to be proud of. Drew (Blickensderfer, crew chief) and these guys gave us an unbelievable speedway car again, and we keep showing up to these places with an opportunity to win. The last few weeks we’ve had really fast racecars and run up front, so at some point we’re going to convert and win us one.” – Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Würth 400 on Sunday, April 30 at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway. The race begins at 2 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Date:  April 9, 2023

Event:  Food City Dirt Race (Round 8 of 36)

Series:  NASCAR Cup Series

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

Format:  250 laps, broken into three stages (75 laps/75 laps/100 laps)

Race Winner:  Christopher Bell of Joe Gibbs Racing

Stage 1 Winner:  Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports

Stage 2 Winner:  Tyler Reddick of 23XI Racing

SHR Race Finish:            

●  Chase Briscoe (Started 14th, Finished 5th / Running, completed 250 of 250 laps)

●  Kevin Harvick (Started 26th, Finished 9th / Running, completed 250 of 250 laps)

●  Ryan Preece (Started 8th, Finished 24th / Running, completed 250 of 250 laps)

●  Aric Almirola (Started 19th, Finished 31st / Running, completed 240 of 250 laps)

SHR Points:

●  Kevin Harvick (3rd with 255 points, 26 out of first)

●  Chase Briscoe (20th with 163 points, 118 out of first)

●  Ryan Preece (27th with 108 points, 173 out of first)

●  Aric Almirola (29th with 101 points, 180 out of first)

SHR Notes:        

●  Briscoe earned his first top-five and second top-10 of the season, It was also his first top-10 in three career NASCAR Cup Series starts on dirt at Bristol

●  This was Briscoe’s best finish so far this year. His previous best was seventh March 12 at Phoenix Raceway.

●  This was Briscoe’s third straight top-15. He finished 15th March 26 at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, and 12th last Sunday at Richmond (Va.) Raceway.

●  Briscoe finished seventh in Stage 1 to earn four bonus points and sixth in Stage 2 to earn five more bonus points.

●  Harvick earned his fifth top-10 of the season and his first top-10 in three career NASCAR Cup Series starts on dirt at Bristol.

●  This was Harvick’s second straight top-10. He finished fifth last Sunday at Richmond.

●  Preece finished fourth in Stage 1 to earn seven bonus points.

●  Almirola finished 10th in Stage 2 to earn a bonus point.

Race Notes:       

●  Christopher Bell won the Food City Dirt Race to score his fifth career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his first on dirt at Bristol.

●  Bell was the seventh different winner in the eight NASCAR Cup Series races run this season.

●  There were 14 caution periods for a total of 73 laps, including the final lap, as the race ended under caution.

●  All but 10 of the 37 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.

●  Bell leaves Bristol as the new championship leader with a 13-point advantage over second-place Ross Chastain.

Sound Bites:

“I just needed a little bit more on the top (of the track). I felt like I was OK. I just wasn’t quite as good. I thought the 45 (Tyler Reddick) was definitely probably the best. The 20 (Christopher Bell), I felt like I could kind of pace him, but it was going to be nearly impossible to pass him. There were a couple times I was close in (turns) one and two. I feel like I had my hands tied the whole time. I needed to be a little bit better. Overall, an awesome day for our Magical Vacation Planner Ford Mustang. A good, solid points night for us, which is something we haven’t had all season long. Wish we could’ve gotten the win. I thought it was an awesome race. I hope the fans thought it was, too. I had a lot of fun in the car.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Magical Vacation Planner Ford Mustang

“It just takes me too long to get going. It’s not that we don’t have a good car or can’t do it, it just takes me forever to figure out where I need to be. The more worn out and nasty the racetrack gets, the better I am, but it just took me too long to figure it out.” – Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang

“I think if we could’ve kept track position, we had a top-10 car. But when it got slick like that, I don’t know how many people were actually moving forward, but it was just try and hold on. Those last 75 laps or so, I mean, once you lose track position after Stage 1, man, you guys saw it, guys stayed out and they maintained it. What are you gonna do at that point? I don’t care if Chad (Johnston, crew chief) had a magic wand and I had a special set of tires that were staggered special, it wouldn’t have mattered. You just can’t do anything. There’s no grip anywhere. But that’s the third week in a row we’ve run top-10. It starts with running there to winning races, and we’ve showed speed, so that’s something. You’ve got speed but, ultimately, it’s certainly frustrating when you’re not getting the results of where you’re running and not really due to something that you can really control. But, at the end of the day, the clock resets at midnight. We’re moving forward and we’re gonna go to Martinsville with every bullet loaded, so we’ll be good.” – Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 41 United Rentals Ford Mustang

“I tried. I was out of my comfort zone already running up there and I was doing way better than I thought I was capable, and I started really getting a feel for it and a rhythm and started to get comfortable. Then I went down into turn one and tried a little bit harder and slid through the cushion and got in the fence and broke the right-rear toe link, and then we lost 10 laps changing the right-rear toe link. I’m just disappointed in myself and mad at myself for throwing away a good finish, but I was trying and just made a mistake.” – Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the NOCO 400 on Sunday, April 16 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. The race begins at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Date:  April 2, 2023

Event:  Richmond 400 (Round 7 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:  Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports

Stage 1 Winner:  William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports

Stage 2 Winner:  Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing

SHR Race Finish:            

●  Kevin Harvick (Started 10th, Finished 5th / Running, completed 400 of 400 laps)

●  Chase Briscoe (Started 19th, Finished 12th / Running, completed 400 of 400 laps)

●  Aric Almirola (Started 32nd, Finished 13th / Running, completed 400 of 400 laps)

●  Ryan Preece (Started 33rd, Finished 18th / Running, completed 400 of 400 laps)

SHR Points:

●  Kevin Harvick (5th with 227 points, 36 out of first)

●  Chase Briscoe (21st with 122 points, 141 out of first)

●  Aric Almirola (27th with 94 points, 169 out of first)

●  Ryan Preece (28th with 88 points, 175 out of first)

SHR Notes:        

●  Harvick earned his third top-five and his fourth top-10 of the season. It was also his 18th top-five and series-leading 30th top-10 in 44 career NASCAR Cup Series start at Richmond.

●  Harvick equaled his best result so far this season. He also finished fifth Feb. 26 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, and March 12 at Phoenix Raceway.

●  This was Harvick’s fourth straight top-10 at Richmond. He finished eighth in September 2021, second in April 2022 and he won in the series’ prior visit to the track last August.

●  Harvick finished fourth in Stage 1 to earn seven bonus points and ninth in Stage 2 to earn two more bonus points.

●  This was Briscoe’s second straight top-15. He finished 15th last Sunday at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas.

●  Briscoe finished 10th in Stage 2 to earn a bonus point.

●  This was Almirola’s best finish so far this year. His previous best was 21st in the season-opening Daytona 500.

●  This was Almirola’s second straight top-15 at Richmond. He finished eighth last August.

●  Preece’s 18th-place finish bettered his previous best finish at Richmond – 20th, earned twice (April 2019 and September 2020).

Race Notes:       

●  Kyle Larson won the Richmond 400 to score his 20th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his second at Richmond. His margin over second-place Josh Berry was 1.535 seconds.

●  Larson was the sixth different winner in the seven NASCAR Cup Series races run this season.

●  There were eight caution periods for a total of 54 laps.

●  Twenty-four of the 37 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.

●  Alex Bowman leaves Richmond as the championship leader with a four-point advantage over second-place Ross Chastain.

Sound Bites:

“We didn’t have a very smooth day and the car didn’t really do anything that I wanted it to do to have a shot at winning, but we fought hard all day. We were definitely expecting to be a little bit better, but that’s the way it goes.” – Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang

“We were just like a 12th-place car all day. The whole day we ran between 10th and 15th and just kind of depended on restarts and pit road. That kind of determined where we would fall out. The long run speed wasn’t probably as good as what we needed it to be, and our short run speed was kind of just OK to kind of hang on. So for how our season has been going, this was honestly a good day – just to kind of run 10th to 15th all day long and not have anything crazy happen. I’m looking forward to next week going to the dirt track, for sure.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang

“We struggled a little bit. I feel like this is one of my better places and I just thought we were a little bit off of where we needed to be. We’ve got some work to do before we come back, but proud to finally get out of a race with a decent day where we didn’t have anything catastrophic happen. We didn’t have everything go perfectly, but we were able to get out of here with a racecar that’s still in one piece and go forward from here. Hopefully, this is the start to turning our season around.” – Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang

“We got a top-20, but our team definitely deserved a top-10 finish. We were in it all day and my guys made great adjustments on our stops. That final caution at the end of the race threw everything off. We only had scuffs at the end and we were just off the pace. We lost a few spots in those final laps and were able to finish off the day 18th. Moving in the right direction and looking forward to Bristol Dirt next week.” – Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 41 United Rentals Ford Mustang

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Food City Dirt Race on Sunday, April 9 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. The race begins at 7 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Date:  March 26, 2023

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

Series:  NASCAR Cup Series

Location:  Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas (3.426-mile, 20-turn road course)

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

Note:  Race extended seven laps past its scheduled 68-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.

Race Winner:  Tyler Reddick of 23XI Racing

Stage 1 Winner:  William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports

Stage 2 Winner:  Tyler Reddick of 23XI Racing

SHR Race Finish:            

●  Kevin Harvick (Started 29th, Finished 13th / Running, completed 75 of 75 laps)

●  Chase Briscoe (Started 19th, Finished 15th / Running, completed 75 of 75 laps)

●  Aric Almirola (Started 39th, Finished 30th / Running, completed 74 of 75 laps)

●  Ryan Preece (Started 26th, Finished 32nd / Accident, completed 68 of 75 laps)

SHR Points:

●  Kevin Harvick (4th with 186 points, 25 out of first)

●  Chase Briscoe (23rd with 96 points, 115 out of first)

●  Aric Almirola (28th with 70 points, 141 out of first)

●  Ryan Preece (29th with 69 points, 142 out of first)

SHR Notes:        

●  Harvick finished fourth in Stage 2 to earn seven bonus points.

●  Briscoe finished ninth in Stage 2 to earn two bonus points.

●  Preece finished 10th in Stage 1 to earn a bonus point.

Race Notes:       

●  Tyler Reddick won the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix to score his fourth career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his first at COTA. His margin over second-place Kyle Busch was 1.411 seconds.

●  There were eight caution periods for a total of 17 laps.

●  All but 10 of the 39 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.

●  Ross Chastain leaves COTA as the championship leader with a 19-point advantage over second-place Busch.

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Richmond 400 on Sunday, April 2 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. The race begins at 3:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.