In The Know – New Hampshire
We head to the Magic Mile this weekend where SHR has won three of the last four races (2018, 2019 and 2021). Get up-to-speed on race info, driver stats, our weekly wraps and more below as we look to earn our lobster in New Hampshire.
The Details
NASCAR Cup Series Overview
● Event: Ambetter 301 (Round 20 of 36)
● Time/Date: 3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, July 17
● Location: New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon
● Layout: 1.058-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 301 laps / 318.46 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 70 laps / Stage 2: 115 laps / Final Stage: 116 laps
● TV/Radio: USA / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
BROADCAST
SHR FAST FACTS
Kevin Harvick:
Harvick has won two of the last four races at New Hampshire (2018 and 2019), and in his last eight starts at “The Magic Mile”, he only has one finish outside the top-six. Harvick finished sixth last year at New Hampshire, and he comes into this year’s Ambetter 301 looking to score his fifth straight top-10.
While Harvick has always been good at New Hampshire, his performance at the track took a dramatic turn upward when he joined SHR in 2014. In the 12 races contested at New Hampshire since wheeling the No. 4 car for SHR, Harvick has scored three wins and has only four finishes outside of the top-five. And of his 831 career laps led at New Hampshire, 512 have come in the last 11 races (46.5 percent)
Aric Almirola:
Almirola is the most recent NASCAR Cup Series race winner at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.After a two-hour rain delay, Almirola and the field battled daylight during the race last July. With darkness closing in on the 1.058-mile oval, Almirola sprung to life late and pulled off the surprise victory, his and Stewart-Haas Racing’s first of the year. The win catapulted Almirola from 27th in the standings to the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year and fifth time in his career.
History at New Hampshire: While last year’s win was his first at New Hampshire, Almirola has been on a hot streak there since joining SHR. In the last four races at “The Magic Mile,” Almirola is ranked second overall behind only teammate Kevin Harvick. In his first start at New Hampshire with SHR in 2018, he finished third, then 11th the following year. In 2020, he started from the pole and finished seventh before returning last year for his first career victory at the track. In 18 starts at New Hampshire, Almirola has four top-10 finishes and two top-fives with 56 laps led.
Almirola has already shown success at a track like New Hampshire in the NextGen car. The No. 10 driver finished fifth at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Illinois, which is a flat, 1.25-mile oval with similarities to New Hampshire in turns three and four
Chase Briscoe:
Briscoe is 18th in the driver standings with seven races remaining in the regular season. He currently holds a spot in the 16-driver playoff field by virtue of his March 13 win at Phoenix Raceway.
In last year’s 301-lap event at New Hampshire, Briscoe started 19th and finished 27th in his first start at “The Magic Mile” in nearly two years.
Cole Custer:
Sunday’s race on the flat, 1.058-mile New Hampshire Motor Speedway oval will be Custer’s 95th career NASCAR Cup Series start and his third at New Hampshire. He started 14th and finished eighth in his first start there during his 2020 Cup Series Rookie of the Year campaign. He started 21st and finished 14th there last July.
In his three New Hampshire starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series from 2017 through 2019, Custer finished in the top-10 in all three, his best resulting in a runner-up finish from the pole in his most recent outing. His first two appearances resulted in ninth-place finishes. All three outings came behind the wheel of the No. 00 SHR Ford.
OUR WEEKLY WRAPS
Our schemes this week are as fresh as the lobster. Check them out.
What Our Drivers are Saying:
Kevin Harvick, Driver of the No. 4 GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
Phoenix Raceway is your best track, statistically, but New Hampshire isn’t far off from your results at Phoenix. Four career wins and eight top-fives in the last 11 races is proof of that. Are there similarities between Phoenix and New Hampshire?
“Flat tracks have always been really good for me in my career. When you look at SHR and the things we’ve been able to accomplish at Loudon and Phoenix, they’ve kind of followed that same trend. A lot of that goes back to that open test time we had at Milwaukee and Nashville. Those are the places where we would practice and practice and practice. Our guys have done a great job of having a good short-track, flat-track program, and Loudon is a place that has followed along with Phoenix and the success that we’ve had there and to be able to capitalize on that success and continue it at another track.”
Aric Almirola, Driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
Do you feel like you have to make the playoffs to consider it a great year?
“Making the playoffs is the goal. You can’t run for a championship if you don’t make the playoffs. We start every year with a list of goals and the priority is to do everything you can to make the playoffs, whether that is on points or winning races. We’ve done a good job this year of scoring points and putting ourselves in a position that typically would have us racing our way in by points. But with this atypical year, we’ve had a ton of different winners. I feel like we are having a good year and that’s crazy to feel that way considering where we are in the points. I feel like I’ve had as good of a year as any year at Stewart-Haas and the playoffs were achieved in those years. To be on the outside right now just speaks to the competitiveness. Last weekend, you saw Corey Lajoie almost win it, and he’s outside of the top-30, so it’s a crazy year where anyone can win it at any time.”
Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
We saw some aggression on the flatter, shorter tracks like Gateway. Is that what we’ll see at New Hampshire?
“For sure. I feel like on the short tracks, this car’s been kind of harder to pass with. And I think guys know that now, especially now that we’ve run a couple of them. So I think you’re definitely going to see more aggression. And I think New Hampshire is going to be a handful, just from how rough the racetrack is in this car, getting on the limiters and things like that.”
Cole Custer, Driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
What do you think it will take to enable you and the team to run up front on a more consistent basis?
“It’s just the little things with this brand new car. There’s been a lot of learning this year trying to figure out what these cars really want, setup-wise, to run up front. I think we’re starting to dial that in a little bit more and more, and I think execution from there, if we can do that, we’ll be where we need to be.”
MENTOR & MENTEE: RACING TOUGH
In episode 1 of our 8-part series, Mentor & Mentee presented by Mahindra Tractors, Chase Briscoe and Tony Stewart talk about racing tough and everything that comes with it.
