Category: Pre-Race Reports

Event:               Bar Harbor 200 (Round 29 of 33)
Date:                Oct. 6, 2018
Location:          Dover (Del.) International Speedway
Layout:             Concrete mile oval

Cole Custer Notes of Interest

• • The Bar Harbor 200 will be Cole Custer’s fourth NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Dover (Del.) International Speedway and ninth overall start at the concrete mile oval.
  • The Bar Harbor 200 will be the third and final race of the first round of the 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs. The playoffs began with 12 eligible drivers and are divided into three rounds with the first two rounds consisting of three races apiece, followed by a final, single-race round at the Homestead-Miami Speedway season finale. Four drivers are eliminated after each of the first two rounds to ultimately establish four finalists at Homestead. Drivers automatically qualify for the next round with a win in the current round with the remaining spots determined by the point standings. At Homestead, the top-finishing driver among the four finalists wins the championship.
  • Custer is fourth in the 2018 Xfinity Series playoffs with 2,083 points, 49 behind leader Christopher Bell and 14 ahead of the cutoff to advance to the second round.
  • Custer’s second-place finishes May 26 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway and Sept. 1 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway are his best in 28 races this season.
  • Custer’s average starting position of 6.1 and five pole awards in the 2018 Xfinity Series season lead all series regulars. He has earned 20 top-five starts and 25 top-10 starts this season.
  • Custer has earned 11 top-five finishes, 22 top-10s, five poles and has led 240 laps this season.
  • Last weekend at Charlotte in the first-ever road-course-styled playoff race, Custer finished second in the first two stages before earning his fifth consecutive road-course top-10.
  • No Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers are eligible to race in the Bar Harbor 200 Xfinity Series race at Dover. 
  • In Custer’s eight overall starts at Dover, three are in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, two are in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series and three are in the Xfinity Series. Custer’s best overall finish at Dover is fourth, earned in the Xfinity Series race June 3, 2017.
  • In the 2015 Truck Series race at Dover, Custer led 67 laps and ran in and around the top-five until lap 138, when a fueling issue pushed him off the lead lap in 13^th place, where he would ultimately finish the race.
  • In 66 Xfinity Series starts, 42 Camping World Truck Series starts and 29 K&N Pro Series starts since 2015, Custer has five wins, eight poles, 16 top-five finishes, 32 top-10s and 1,077 laps led at tracks that are a mile in length or shorter.

Cole Custer, Driver Q&A

Your short-track program is improving, as we saw at Richmond and Bristol. Is Dover the one to win?

“We’ve had a lot of improvements at tracks this year and I think Dover will be another one. We have some good ideas of how to make our Haas Automation Mustangs a little faster and a lot more notes to go off of. It’s been great to run up front at a few of these short tracks, too, and it has taught me a lot.”

Describe a qualifying lap at Dover.

“You come in shaking. It’s pretty crazy. You’re getting all that you can out of it and you’re just on edge the whole time. It’s so fast for such a small place.”

How nerve-racking was the Charlotte roval, and are you happy you decided to play it safe and earn the extra points? 

“The roval was the most nerve-racking race of the season because we didn’t know what to expect. I think we did a great job all weekend going for points and getting ourselves in a good position for Dover. We would have had a shot at the win if we pitted early but, with so many unknowns, I’m happy with our decision to get more points. If you think about it, the 18 points we earned with the stage finishes earned us more after finishing seventh than staying out of the pits to finish second.”

Do you feel like you have enough points to bring you into the next round?

“We have a good cushion going into Dover, but you can’t ever be comfortable. This weekend, we just have to execute well and hit our marks. I think we need to try and get as many points as we can in Dover to get the best cushion we can. We still want to go out and win stages and the race, though, so we can build some playoff points.”

Jeff Meendering, Crew Chief Q&A

There’s no arguing that you have unloaded fast Haas Automation Fords every weekend – especially at short tracks. To what do you attribute the success at short tracks this year?

“Short tracks are all unique in size, shape and banking. You have to develop individual setups for each track, where a lot of the intermediate tracks we go to take a fairly similar setup and you can transfer things you learn from one track to the other. It definitely takes longer to build a good short-track notebook, but we’re getting there.”

Kurt Busch is singing “Movin’ Right Along” as he heads to Dover (Del.) International Speedway for Sunday’s Gander Outdoors 400 NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series race.

“Movin’ Right Along,” was recorded in Busch’s birth year of 1978 for the 1979 smash-hit film The Muppet Movie. Frank Oz was the voice of Fozzie Bear while the late Jim Henson was the voice of Kermit the Frog. The two-minute, 57-second song was the second song on the gold album and got as high as No. 32 on the Billboard 200 charts. The album even won a Grammy in 1980 for Best Children’s Album.

But Busch isn’t going to California, Rhode Island or Saskatchewan as they sing about in Movin’ Right Along. Instead he’s headed to Dover, Talladega and Kansas City after advancing to the upcoming Round of 12 of the NASCAR playoffs. He’s seventh in points, and in his first visits to those events in 2018, he posted finishes of fifth at Dover, second at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, and eighth at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City. If that happens again, Busch will transfer to the Round of 8.

Perhaps Busch should bring Kermit and Fozzie Bear along with him in his No. 41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) at Dover.

He has one win, eight career top-five finishes and 10 top-10s at Dover. Additionally, the 40-year-old driver has led 426 laps, has an average starting position of 11.5, an average finish of 18.3, and has completed 92.7 percent (13,362 of 14,415) of the laps he’s contested there.

He finished fifth in May 2018 after starting ninth.

Busch scored a huge Dover win in October 2011, when he started second and led 90 of 400 laps. He grabbed the lead from Jimmie Johnson on the final restart and paced the final 42 circuits to win by .908 of a second over Johnson.

If Busch can score a victory at Dover this weekend, he’ll be Movin’ Right Along with an automatic bid to the Round of 8.

And he’ll probably need to bring Kermit the Frog and Fozzie Bear along – after a stop in Saskatchewan to celebrate, of course.

KURT BUSCH, Driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation/Monster Energy Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

What is it about Dover that makes it such a challenging racetrack, and what do you have to do to be successful there? 

“The tough thing about Dover is things happen so quickly. At any moment, at any time, somebody can spin in front of you or you can lose control off the corners and you are going to wreck. There is no real forgiveness about Dover. That is what makes it tough. To be good there, you have to be good on corner exit. The track really rubbers in so you can see the concrete change to black as the weekend progresses. On corner exit, you get really tight or really loose. The time I won there, I could almost hold it wide open on corner exit. That is what you’ve got to have.”

Do you feel it has earned its nickname? 

“It’s called the Monster Mile for a reason – the track can chew up cars and spit them out. It’s because of those tough transitions into the corners with the high banking and even the high-banked straightaways. It’s tough to do that sharp of a turn on a mile racetrack. It’s like you literally jump down into the corner and then jump back up out of the corner onto the straightaway, and so those points of the track are the toughest part – the transition from straightaway to corner. It’s a fun track to drive.”

How physically demanding of a racetrack is Dover? 

“You’re just on edge there and, the speed that you have to carry on corner exit, you’re right there at the wall every corner exit and you do it 800 times with 400 laps and two corner exits. That makes it tough. This race will wear you out, for sure, and you have to pace yourself.”

Event:               Drive for the Cure 200 (Round 28 of 33)
Date:                Sept. 29, 2018
Location:          Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway
Layout:             2.28-mile, 17-turn road course

Cole Custer Notes of Interest

• The Drive for the Cure 200 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway will be the second race of the 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs. The playoffs begin with 12 eligible drivers and are divided into three rounds with the first two rounds consisting of three races apiece followed by a final, single-race round at the Homestead-Miami Speedway season finale. Four drivers are eliminated after each of the first two rounds to ultimately establish four finalists at Homestead. Drivers automatically qualify for the next round with a win in the current round with the remaining spots determined by the point standings. At Homestead, the top-finishing driver among the four finalists wins the championship.
• Custer is ninth in the 2018 Xfinity Series playoffs with 2,035 points, 55 behind leader Justin Allgaier but tied with Brandon Jones for the eighth and final position that will advance to the second round. 
• Custer’s second-place finishes May 26 at Charlotte and Sept. 1 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway are his best in 26 races this season.
• Custer’s average starting position of 6.1 and five pole awards in the 2018 Xfinity Series season lead all series regulars. He has earned 20 top-five starts and 25 top-10 starts this season.\
• Custer has earned 21 top 10 finishes, 11 top-fives, five poles and has led 240 laps this season.
• Custer owns 11 top-10 finishes, five top-fives, two poles and led 80 laps in 15 road-course starts.
• Custer is competing for his fifth consecutive top-10 finish at a road course and second consecutive top-five road-course finish. He is the only driver to have earned a top-10 in each of the last four road-course races.
• In Custer’s recent road-course start at Road America near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, he raced as high as second place and ran in and around the top-five for the majority of the race.

Cole Custer, Driver Q&A

Is the Charlotte “roval” a complete unknown and how do you feel about having a track like this in the middle of the playoffs?

“The roval is definitely a track where no one knows exactly what to expect, but I think it’s just going to be a balance of being aggressive and not putting yourself in bad positions. Having a track like this in the playoffs is definitely risky, but can also open up a lot of opportunity.”

You’re currently ninth in the playoff standings but tied in points for the cutoff spot to advance to Round 2. Is the plan to just survive?  

“I don’t think you can go in there with the plans to just survive. You’re going to have to race hard and be aggressive. We’ve had pretty good speed at all the road courses and I feel like our team is able to learn things fast, so I’m expecting us to be a factor to win.” 

What are the challenges of running a road course?

“In road-course racing, the competition is more on the driver’s shoulders compared to your traditional oval-styled track. You’re on the edge of your seat for the entire race and even the smallest mistake could take you out of the race. I enjoy road-course racing and challenging my skills as a driver.”

Jeff Meendering, Crew Chief Q&A

What are the expectations of the roval from a crew chief’s perspective?

“We really don’t know what we’re looking at until we get there on Thursday. We have put together some fast road-course cars with good balance around the corners, but when you get to that oval portion you have to have a car with good speed. Our team has adapted quickly to any competition changes thrown our way, so I expect us to compete for a win so we can go to Dover stress free.”

Aric Almirola and the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Fusion team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) make the short journey from the team’s headquarters in Kannapolis, North Carolina to Charlotte Motor Speedway in nearby Concord. The Smithfield team heads into the weekend with momentum from Saturday night’s race at Richmond (Va.) Raceway, where it posted a fifth-place finish.

Instead of competing solely on the traditional four-turn, 1.5-mile Charlotte oval this weekend, the Cup Series competitors will for the first time navigate a 17-turn circuit that combines the oval and an infield road course. Affectionately dubbed the Charlotte “roval,” Almirola participated in a July test on the new circuit that was adventurous for all the drivers. The new configuration presented several challenges and caused multiple cars to venture off of the racing surface. The roval is the first track of its kind to be part of the 10-race NASCAR playoffs.

This weekend’s event is the third and final road-course event of the season. In Almirola’s other two road-course starts of 2018, he was eighth at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway, then 22^nd at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International after suffering damage from an early on-track incident. Unlike his Sonoma and Watkins Glen weekends, Almirola won’t have the benefit of extra track time to learn the Charlotte roval as new series rules prohibit him from competing in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race.

In Almirola’s previous nine starts at road courses, he has completed every lap and has an average start of 25.0 and an average finish of 19.6.

Charlotte signals the final race in the opening Round of 16 of the Cup Series playoffs. If Almirola advances on to the Round of 12, he will go farther than during his previous playoff appearance in 2014. The 34-year-old is second among his four SHR teammates in the standings with 2,079 points, 23 ahead of the top-12 cutoff.

This weekend marks Almirola’s 13^th career start at Charlotte. The Tampa native captured the pole award in his first Cup Series start there in May 2012. In total, he has an average start of 15.9 and an average finish of 18.5, including four laps led there. This past May, he started ninth and brought the Smithfield Ford home 13^th.

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

Charlotte marks the 26^th points-paying event during which the Smithfield livery has adorned Almirola’s No. 10 Ford Fusion. Smithfield, a brand of Smithfield Foods, which is based approximately five hours northeast of SHR headquarters in Smithfield, Virginia, is in its seventh season with Almirola and its first with SHR. Founded in 1936, Smithfield is a leading provider of high-quality pork products, with a vast product portfolio including smoked meats, hams, bacon, sausage, ribs, and a wide variety of fresh pork cuts.

Through the first 28 races this season, Almirola has an average start of 17.3 and an average finish of 13.7 with two top-five finishes and 12 top-10s. He’s also led 116 laps this season, already a career best.

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

Some people have picked the No. 10 team to be the surprise in the playoffs. How do you feel about that?  

“We certainly have the pace to do it. We have speed each and every weekend and that part is honestly the hardest part to get. You can’t just go into the playoffs and find a tenth-and-a-half or two-tenths on the competition. We’ve got the speed. We just have to do all of the other things right around the fact that we have a fast racecar. I think we could surprise a lot of people in the playoffs.”

What are you expecting with the roval this weekend?

“I think the biggest challenge of the roval is the unknown. We are all going into it without any real experience there. Even though we tested there, the track continues to change where they put curbing, and the tire that Goodyear is going to bring has changed. It’s really an unknown and I think all of the drivers are a little nervous about it. The fans, on the other hand, are going to see an interesting race. The track is very narrow, low on grip, and it’s going to be sketchy, so it’s going to be a challenge to run two-wide. We are going to be beating and banging trying to battle for position in the slow, technical parts of the track in the infield, and then we’ll be flying around the oval portion of the track.”

Is the roval or Talladega more a wildcard in the playoffs?

“I think the roval is more of a wildcard than Talladega. There are just so many question marks going into the roval.”

The biggest wildcard in the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season isn’t the restrictor plate race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, where multicar wrecks and wild finishes are business as usual. Instead, the newest track on the circuit, the 2.28-mile, 17-turn “roval” road course at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, is where the Cup Series holds its third and final Round of 16 playoff race Sunday with the promise of salvation or elimination for four drivers with championship hopes.

“It’s downright scary,” said No. 14 Mobil 1/Advance Auto Parts Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) driver Clint Bowyer. “The roval has become the biggest wildcard of the season, without a doubt. It’s a way bigger unknown than Talladega, now. Nobody has any idea what to expect and, if they do expect anything, it probably isn’t good.”

Bowyer has more on the line Sunday than most. After finishing 23rd due to a late-race accident in the playoff opener Sept. 16 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, followed by a hard-fought 10th-place finish at Richmond (Va.) Raceway Saturday night, Bowyer arrives at Charlotte 13th in the standings, four points behind the 12th-place transfer spot into the next playoff round. If he climbs into the top 12 by the time the checkered flag falls Sunday, he’ll advance to the Round of 12 that begins Oct. 7 at Dover (Del.) International Speedway.

Bowyer spent a day testing the roval on July 17 and it did little to ease his concern as he saw several drivers wreck while running by themselves. Nobody has raced on the new layout side-by-side.

“From the time you pull out on the track to the time you get off, it’s just sketchy,” Bowyer said. “You are just tip-toeing. There’s no room for error at all. The grip level isn’t great like in turn three. If you get to sliding a little bit getting in there and you look over at them tires, you realize there’s no room. If that thing gets out from under you, you are going to be in the fence and you are going to be in it hard. It’s not something you are going to limp away from.”

Now, for an even bigger scare for the drivers whose title bids will be on the line Sunday, Goodyear will make wet-weather tires available in the event of rain, making it even more challenging to navigate the high-speed oval portion of the track and the low-speed, twisting, left-and-right turns in the course’s infield portion. Wet-weather tires were last used in the NASCAR Xfinity Series event Aug. 4 at Watkins (N.Y.) Glen International.

But let’s think positive.

Bowyer’s No. 14 Ford will carry the Mobil 1 paint scheme this weekend. Mobil 1 plays an integral role in SHR’s success. Mobil 1’s lubricant technology helps to reduce frictional loss in his Ford engines to maximize fuel mileage, increase horsepower and turn more rpm, providing an advantage over competitors. Mobil 1 also helps reduce friction in suspension components, providing maximum tire grip as well as helping to reduce steering compliance to give its teams an edge behind the wheel. Not only does Mobil 1 help improve the on-track efficiency of SHR, but the on-track testing helps lead to new lubricant technology developments such as Mobil 1 Annual Protection, which allows drivers to travel up to 20,000 miles, or one full year, between oil changes. In its 16th consecutive season as the “Official Motor Oil of NASCAR,” Mobil 1 is used by more than 50 percent of teams throughout NASCAR’s top three series.

Bowyer drove the Mobil 1 paint scheme Sept. 10 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he led a race-high 37 laps and finished fifth in the 400-mile regular-season finale. He’s confident he can repeat that performance and advance to the Round of 12 despite the unique challenge posed by Charlotte’s roval.

“You have to go into this weekend with a positive attitude,” Bowyer said. “You can’t beat yourself before you get there. We’ve had a lot of success on road courses at SHR and I have no doubt we can do that again this weekend.”

In fact, Bowyer has the Cup Series’ second-best average finish of 5.2 in the four road course races since he joined SHR in 2017 with three top-five finishes. Only Kyle Busch’s average finish of 5.0 is better on road courses over that time.

While Bowyer and the most of the 16 playoff drivers might be holding their breath Sunday, wondering whether the roval brings salvation or elimination, there’s one group of folks who are in for an exciting show – the race fans.

CLINT BOWYER, Driver of the No. 14 Mobil 1/Advance Auto Parts Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing:

What is your roval strategy?

“We are just going to go there and do the best we can. I have confidence in this race team and we have the capability of going out there and winning the race and certainly we can move into the top-12.”

Not as a driver battling to advance to Round of 12, but as a race fan, what do you think of the roval?

“I’d buy a good ticket or get in front of a television and get that popcorn and whatever else out, because I expect those final laps Sunday are going to be some of the most memorable of the season. It’s probably going to be really calm for a while, but there will be a few late cautions and then it will be chaos. We’ve never seen anything like we are about to see. Nobody has any idea what to expect.”

How can I get a Mobil 1 hat?

“It’s great to have partners Mobil 1 and Advanced Auto Parts on the No. 14 this weekend. Mobil 1 is in the engine of my car and on the shelf at your local Advanced Auto Parts stores. This weekend marks the launch of a great promotion at Advanced Auto Parts stores around the country, where you can receive a free Mobil 1 ball cap when you buy five of Mobil 1. Make sure you go out and get yours.”

Event:               Drive for the Cure 200 presented by Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (Round 28 of 33)
Date:                Sept. 29, 2018
Location:          Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway  
Layout:             2.28-mile, 17-turn road course
Television:        3 p.m. EDT on NBCSN

Chase Briscoe Notes of Interest

• Chase Briscoe will start his fourth race in the No. 98 Nutri Chomps/Ford Performance Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing with Biagi-DenBeste (SHR) on Saturday at Charlotte (N.C) Motor Speedway’s roval.
• Saturday marks the first time Nutri Chomps joins Briscoe on the No. 98 SHR Ford. Nutri Chomps are a 100 percent rawhide-free, vitamin and mineral enriched, high-protein dog chew made of chicken and pork skin. Nutri Chomps is one of several product lines by Scott Pet, Inc. Scott Pet is headquartered in Rockville, Indiana, and is a family-owned manufacturer and distributor of quality pet products for more than 40 years. Scott Pet began a relationship with Briscoe in 2016 while he was competing in the ARCA Series.
• As a member of the Ford Performance Driver Development Program, Briscoe also will race the SHR Mustang Oct. 20 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City. Briscoe has run 10 Xfinity Series races with Roush Fenway Racing in 2018, as well as several sports car races.
• Briscoe will be joined in the Charlotte field by SHR teammate Cole Custer in the No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang.
• The 98 Ford makes its 11^th appearance of 2018 at Charlotte. Aric Almirola, Kevin Harvick and Briscoe have shared driving duties. Harvick won Feb. 24 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
• Briscoe has made 12 starts in Xfinity Series competition this season. He has scored three top-10 finishes with his best result of ninth coming at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois, and at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
• In 2017 Truck Series competition, Briscoe earned four poles and won the season-ending Ford EcoBoost 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Briscoe’s 10 top-fives and 14 top-10s enabled him to make the Truck Series playoffs, where he finished sixth in points and scored the series’ rookie of the year and most popular driver awards.
• Briscoe won six races en route to the 2016 ARCA Series championship.
• The 23-year-old Mitchell, Indiana native is a third-generation driver. His grandfather, Richard Briscoe, is a legendary sprint car team owner and his father, Kevin Briscoe, raced sprint cars for over 20 years and won more than 150 feature events.
• Briscoe’s first time behind the wheel of a racecar came in 2001 in a quarter midget. In 37 starts driving 410 sprint cars, Briscoe racked up eight top-fives and 17 top-10s, including a win in the last race of the season, where he broke Jeff Gordon’s record as being the youngest driver (13) to win a 410 sprint car race.

Chase Briscoe Quotes:

What are your thoughts on the Charlotte road course?

“I’m glad we can bring Nutri Chomps to the track with us this weekend when we race the No. 98 Ford. Nobody knows what to expect this Saturday. It’s going to be wild. I’ve gotten some road-course experience in sports cars this year with Ford and I’ve had a lot of fun. My guess is you are going to see a pretty calm race until the end, then it’s going to turn into some of the wildest racing of the year. The fans should get their money’s worth on Saturday. I just hope our Nutri Chomps/Ford Performance Mustang is at the front when the dust settles.”

The punk-rock band Green Day released a song titled “Wake Me Up When September Ends” as part of its 2004 album American Idiot. While the song was released in 2004, it may never be as timely or relevant as it is right now for Kevin Harvick and the No. 4 Jimmy John’s new 9-Grain Wheat Ford Fusion team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) as they head to Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway for Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race – the final event in the Round of 16 and first cutoff race of the 2018 NASCAR playoffs.

The 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion is the series leader with seven points-paying wins, 20 top-five finishes, 23 top-10s, and 1,274 laps led.

However, his bid for a second NASCAR Cup Series championship got off to a rough start after cutting a right-front tire in the playoff opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway that led to him retiring from the race early with a 38^th-place finish. Harvick and the team rebounded strongly with a runner-up finish Saturday night at Richmond (Va.) Raceway to all but secure his advancement into the Round of 12.

He is now third in the playoff standings with 2,113 points, 57 ahead of the final transfer position and will clinch his position in the Round of 12 by just starting the race at Charlotte. That’s good news for Harvick and the No. 4 team as they enter the first elimination race of the playoffs. But there’s a huge unknown to contend with this weekend – the 2.28-mile, 17-turn road course and oval hybrid known as the “roval” at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Harvick now will race at Charlotte for playoff points by way of stage wins and a race win. Fortunately, he knows his way around both road courses and 1.5-mile ovals.

The Bakersfield, California, native is one of only three active drivers to claim a NASCAR Cup Series victory at both Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International and Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway. Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. are the others to make that claim. Harvick added his first career win at Sonoma in June 2017, when he started 12th, led 24 laps and finished ahead of SHR teammate Clint Bowyer when the race ended under caution. He also won the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race at Sonoma the day before.

Harvick’s lone Cup Series victory at Watkins Glen came in 2006, when he started seventh and led 28 of 90 laps and beat current SHR co-owner Tony Stewart to the finish line by .892 of a second.

The driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s new 9-Grain Wheat Ford Fusion has age and experience on his side.

Five of the past seven champions have been 37 years of age or older when they captured the Cup Series title and his Freaky Fast team is just fueling up for the fight to the finish as the team tries for its second championship.

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

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

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

The No. 4 team will be playoff point racing at the roval – trying to win at all costs. Otherwise, it’s wake me up when September ends.

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

What will be the best places to pass and the most treacherous parts of the new roval track at Charlotte?

“I think the treacherous part of the course is the whole course. I don’t think there is really a safe spot on the course. As far as where you are going to pass, I don’t know that answer, either. I think there are so many unknowns about the course until we actually go do it and see what happens. Obviously, everyone is a little unsure of what you need to do, where you can pass and what the strategy will be. Who knows what will happen if it rains. There are just a number of unknowns that come from the roval that I don’t have an answer for.”

Will it be nervous time for those drivers who are not locked into the Round of 12?

“I’m glad it’s in the first round. I’m glad that we had a good regular season. There are no guarantees, but having some extra points should help. You don’t want to go in having to win at the roval – I can promise you that.”

What’s it like having all four Stewart-Haas Racing cars in the NASCAR playoffs for the first time?

“That’s a great accomplishment for Stewart-Haas Racing and all the guys and girls back at the shop who put the cars together. I think it really shows the effort and the chemistry of everything that we have going on at the organization, not even two years into a manufacturer change. Aric (Almirola) being there for one year and Clint (Bowyer) being there for two years. There are new crew chiefs and a lot of things that have changed, but I think you see the evolution of things getting better and really from an organization standpoint. When you start seeing the results of all four cars, that’s when you know that the processes and the things that you’re doing are working well.”

Ashton Kutcher said it best during the popular film released to widespread acclaim in December 2000 – “Dude, Where’s My Car?”

Standing with Seann William Scott, who was playing the character Chester Greenburg, they didn’t know where their car was parked. And Kutcher, who was playing Jesse Montgomery III, said simply, “Dude, where’s my car?”

Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation/Monster Energy Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), might be saying, “Dude, where’s my oval?” as the NASCAR Monster Cup Series heads to Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway this weekend.

Busch has competed in 36 point-paying races on the 1.5-mile oval at Charlotte, as well as 19 non-points races. But the 55 races he’s competed in on the 1.5-mile oval won’t help him as this week, he will drive on the 2.28-mile, 17-turn Charlotte “roval.”

And this isn’t Sonoma Raceway in northern California or Watkins Glen International in the state of New York. It’s half oval and half road course. Thus, the hybrid term roval.

Think back to the 1971 Questor Grand Prix conducted at Ontario (Calif.) Motor Speedway. It used parts of the oval and road course at the track. But don’t expect Jackie Stewart or Mario Andretti – the latter who won the Questor Grand Prix – to be in Charlotte.

Busch has tested twice on the Charlotte roval – in October 2017 and in July 2018. And like everyone else, he doesn’t know what to expect this weekend, other than to expect the unexpected.

Busch has he been good at Sonoma and Watkins Glen. Busch has one pole, one win, four top-threes, seven top-fives and nine top-10s and has led a total of 198 laps in his 18 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Sonoma.

His only road-course win in the Cup Series came at Sonoma in 2011 and it was a dominant victory as he led a race-high 76 laps. He passed Denny Hamlin for the lead on lap 13 and stayed out front for the next 19 circuits around the 1.99-mile track. He relinquished the lead twice for scheduled, green-flag pit stops and took over the top spot for the final time on lap 88, then led the final 23 laps.

He’s even had success at Sonoma in the NASCAR Southwest Tour Series, finishing third in 1998 after starting 19th and winning the 1999 race after starting third.

He hasn’t been bad at Watkins Glen, either, as he finished second there in the Truck Series in 2000. In his three NASCAR Xfinity Series races at Watkins Glen, he started first in each, won in 2006 and 2011, and finished third in 2007. In those three races, Busch led 98 of the 250 laps available – 39.2 percent

Busch has one pole, three top-five finishes and nine top-10s at Watkins Glen in Cup competition.

But the roval is new to the series competitors. And hopefully, at the end of this race, Busch can ask, “Dude, where’s victory lane?”

KURT BUSCH, Driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation/Monster Energy Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Thoughts on the roval? 

“There will be a lot of anxiety, a lot of unknowns and a lot of interesting, unique things that are going to come out of the road race with it being a cutoff race. It’s a very important race to have a smooth day. And, based on testing, nobody’s had a smooth day getting around that track.”

How did your tests go on the roval?

“I’ve been there twice. They changed the track layout since the last time I was there and the tire is going to be a little bit different since the last time I tested. And, now, I’ve been doing simulation work with Ford over in the simulator and making laps and trying to be as comfortable as I can heading there.”

Is it going to be a little bit crazy?   

“That’s going to be a pretty big mix-up, shake-’em-up and we hope to survive that one, in all honesty. We just need to not make mistakes at that one and not get caught up in other people’s mistakes and that’s how we’ll get through this first round.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Is it better to race with your emotions in check?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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