MOORESVILLE | The MotorSportsNews.Net(work)

Bass Pro Shops, TrueTimber® and Black Rifle Coffee Extend Partnership with Noah Gragson and JRM’s No. 9 Team for 2021

by MikeNovember 19, 2020November 19, 2020

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Nov. 19, 2020) – JR Motorsports announced today the return of Bass Pro Shops, TrueTimber® Camo and Black Rifle Coffee as co-primary partners aboard Noah Gragson’s No. 9 entry for all 33 NASCAR Xfinity Series events in 2021. (more…)

No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang: Cole Custer Supermarket Heroes 500 Race Advance

by MikeMay 30, 2020

KANNAPOLIS, North Carolina (May 29, 2020) – Cole Custer and the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Mustang team venture a little more than four hours to the north and west from their Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) headquarters to Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway for Sunday’s Supermarket Heroes 500. Custer will make his first Cup Series start at the Tennessee track and 12th career Cup Series start.

The No. 41 Ford Mustang will sport the colors of co-owner Gene Haas’ newest holding, HaasTooling.com, for the short-track event. Haas Tooling was launched a few weeks ago as a way for CNC machinists to purchase high quality cutting tools at great prices. Haas’ cutting tools are sold exclusively online at HaasTooling.com and shipped directly to end users.
Custer spent the last week honing his craft at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway for the season’s longest race – Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600, and Thursday night’s Alsco Uniforms 500k. His first Cup Series start at the 1.5-mile track last Sunday netted Custer a 12th-place finish after recovering from falling one lap down earlier in the race. He earned an 18th-place finish in Thursday night’s 500-kilometer – 310-mile – race after battling a loose-handling No. 41 Mustang.
The Cup Series has completed one race at a short track this season at Phoenix Raceway in March, where Custer and the No. 41 team finished ninth. The series will run a similar package this weekend at Bristol and the HaasTooling.com driver hopes to capture another top-10 this weekend.

In the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Custer had six consecutive starts at Bristol from 2017 through 2019. Five of those resulted in top-five qualifying positions. The California native has two Xfinity Series pole awards at Bristol – April 2018 and 2019. Custer has four top-10 finishes in the series at Bristol, with 31 laps led. Custer also has three Bristol outings in the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series at Bristol, all starting in the top-10 with a pair of top-10 finishes and 111 laps led.
While the NASCAR season has resumed, the sport also continues to do its part during the COVID-19 pandemic. SHR’s partnership with Novant Health continues to expand. So far, SHR has helped transport and deliver millions of face masks for Novant, in addition to building intensive care unit webcam carts. Now, SHR is now providing 25,000 square feet of property adjacent to its shop in Kannapolis, North Carolina, for Novant’s partnership with Zipline, the world’s only national-scale, on-demand drone logistics service. Zipline will deliver medical supplies via its fleet of drones to Novant Health’s integrated system of physician practices, hospitals and outpatient centers. Click here to download b-roll of site build, drone delivery and interviews.

In SHR’s 70 starts at Bristol, the team has earned two pole awards and two victories. The championship team has 10 top-fives, 29 top-10s and 873 laps led at the high-banked, concrete oval.
Haas Automation, founded by Haas in 1983, is America’s leading builder of CNC machine tools. The company manufactures a complete line of vertical and horizontal machining centers, turning centers and rotary tables and indexers. All Haas products are constructed in the company’s 1.1-million-square-foot manufacturing facility in Oxnard, California, and distributed through a worldwide network of Haas Factory Outlets.
Even though Custer had a trio of starts in the Cup Series in 2018, 2020 officially marks his Rookie of the Year campaign in NASCAR’s most prestigious series. He’s competing for rookie honors with notables Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick. The three have battled against each other in the Xfinity Series and are making the full-time transition to the Cup Series together. Custer was the third-highest-finishing rookie at Charlotte Thursday night and looks to improve his position Sunday afternoon at a track where he’s run well in the past.

Cole Custer: Driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

You’ve wrapped up a couple races at a mile-and-a-half track. Do you feel like you learned a lot, and can apply some things to the other mile-and-a-halves coming up?

“We’ve learned a ton as a team over the last four races and running the 550 horsepower package. I think I have a better understanding of the cars now and it’s just applying it in the future.”
In the Xfinity Series, you’ve done really well at Bristol as long as you haven’t had something happen. Why do you think you excel there, or what makes it suit your driving style so much?
“Bristol has been a good track for me in Xfinity. It’s a track that has always come a little natural to me, I feel like. I like the feel of it and being able to move around in the lanes. It’s a lot about keeping momentum. The bottom is about hooking the line. Sunday it’s just a matter of running a lot longer race and a lot of cars to pass, which makes it chaotic.”
You had a ninth-place finish at Phoenix earlier this year. You’ll run the same package at Bristol. Do you favor the 750 package?
“I think the 750 horsepower package is definitely something that’s more natural to me because it’s similar to the Xfinity car. A lot of the stuff I did in the Xfinity car transfers over to this 750 package in the Cup Series. It doesn’t do that with the 550 horsepower package we run at a lot track in Cup. So I’d say I’m more comfortable and used to the 750.”
We’re going back to a little bit of a traditional NASCAR schedule with one race per week. Are you looking forward to going back to more of a traditional schedule? Or were you really starting to like the two races per week schedule?
“I think it was nice to kind of mix it up with the mid-week races. It was interesting and I think it might get used in the future some. I don’t think it’s something you could do all year long though. You need to have a break at some point. It’ll be nice to go back to our week by week schedule to catch our breath and look at what we learned to apply to future races.”

No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Team Report
Race 9 of 36 – Supermarket Heroes 500 – Bristol

Car No. 41: HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Team Report

At Track PR Contact: Lauren Emling with True Speed Communication (Lauren.Emling@TrueSpeedCommunication.com)

Primary Team:

Driver: Cole Custer

Hometown: Ladera Ranch, California

Crew Chief: Mike Shiplett

Hometown: Amherst, Ohio

Engine Specialist: Evan Cupples

Hometown: Hudson, Illinois

Car Chief: Tony Cardamone

Hometown: Bristol, Virginia

Engine Builder: Roush Yates Engines

Headquarters: Mooresville, North Carolina

Spotter: Andy Houston

Hometown: Hickory, North Carolina

Over-The-Wall Crew:

Fuelman: Chad Emmons

Hometown: Tyler, Texas
Carrier: Dwayne Moore

Hometown: Griffin, Georgia

Jackman: Brett Morrell

Hometown: Windham, Maine

Front Changer: Josh Leslie

Hometown: Mount Clemens, Michigan

Rear Changer: Coleman Dollarhide
Hometown: Hickory, North Carolina

Bristol Motor Speedway Notes of Interest:

Cole Custer will make his first Cup Series start Sunday afternoon at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. The start will bring his career Cup Series total to 12.
The California native earned 12th- and 18th-place finishes at the series’ most recent events at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway.
2020 marks Custer’s first fulltime season in the Cup Series and he will contend for Rookie of the Year honors along with four other Cup Series competitors.
The Ford driver has six NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Bristol, all from the top-10 position on the grid, and he has two top-five finishes and four top-10s. Two of his top-10 starts were from the pole – April 2017 and April 2018. He also has three NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series starts at the half-mile track with a best finish of sixth.

It’s Good To Be Genuine Toyota Racing: Daniel Suárez Supermarket Heroes 500 at Bristol Preview

by MikeMay 30, 2020

MOORESVILLE, North Carolina (May 29, 2020) – It’s time for a little change of scenery for Daniel Suárez and the No. 96 It’s Good To Be Genuine Toyota Camry team for Gaunt Brothers Racing (GBR). After four races in the Carolinas during an 11-day stretch that ended a 70-day hiatus for the NASCAR Cup Series due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they’ll take to the concrete, high-banked, half-mile Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway oval for the some short-track racing.

Sunday’s Supermarket Heroes 500 marks the ninth race of 2020 for the Cup Series competitors and the fifth since the suspended schedule was resumed April 17 with the first of two consecutive races at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. Suárez and his No. 96 Toyota finished 25th in NASCAR’s return to racing at Darlington, and followed it up with a 27th-place finish three days later in the first Wednesday-night Cup Series race in 36 years. They then moved to Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway for last Sunday night’s traditional Memorial Day-weekend Coca-Cola 600, followed by Thursday’s night’s Alsco Uniforms 500k, netting 28th-place results in both.

The fifth Cup Series race in the last two weeks takes Suárez and his It’s Good To Be Genuine Toyota Camry – a nod to its partner’s Parts & Service heritage – to one of his more successful racetracks. His history on the Bristol oval began in 2012 with his first of three NASCAR K&N Pro Series East outings – all in Toyota equipment. Suárez also has a pair of Bristol starts in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series, six in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and six in the Cup Series. In his most recent Truck Series outing, he started second and led 77 laps before an accident ended his day 16 laps from the finish. His five top-six finishes in six Xfinity Series starts are highlighted by runner-up finishes to Joey Logano and Kyle Busch, respectively, in April 2015 and August 2017.

In last year’s two Bristol Cup Series races, Suárez brought home finishes of eighth in both, driving the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing entry, and he almost added another top-10 when he drove his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to an 11th-place finish there in April 2018. His average Cup Series finish at Bristol is 13.0, his average start 17.7. But Suárez will have to work hard to make forward progress from the wave of the green flag Sunday as he’ll start 37th on a grid for which the top 36 positions – all reserved for chartered teams – were decided Friday by random draw, and positions 37 through 40 – all non-chartered teams – lined up by car owner points.

No matter, Suárez is at his most comfortable when the battle is toughest, and he and his teammates look forward to the typical 500 laps of beating and banging among 40 competitors fighting for position in the tight quarters of the half-mile Bristol Motor Speedway oval on Sunday afternoon in the hills of East Tennessee.

Daniel Suárez: Driver of the No. 96 It’s Good To Be Genuine Toyota Camry for Gaunt Brothers Racing:

You’re coming off a pair of 28th-place finishes at Charlotte and are headed to Bristol. Your thoughts?

“Right now, it’s all about taking baby steps – baby steps. Obviously we have a lot of work to do to get where we are going and it’s not going to happen all in one race. It’s a process and it will continue to be a process until we get there. Everyone knows we started out behind in a lot of areas. We just need time. We need races. We need practice. We need a lot of things and we continue to work very hard. We’re not in the best position, but that is why we are all here, to try to do each of our jobs the best we can and to keep making our cars better and better. We have done a good job of keeping the cars in one piece and we continue to develop what we have.”

Bristol is one of your best tracks, results-wise, since you started racing there in the K&N East Series back in 2012. How do you like racing there?

“I like Bristol a lot. It’s a fun place to race – a lot of fun. When the stands are filled with fans, it’s one of the most exciting tracks we go to. It will be strange to race there with no fans. Like I said at Darlington and Charlotte, I hope it’s not something we get used to because we’re all about the fans. Bristol is especially fun when you have a fast racecar. We’ve been working hard to show up with a setup on our It’s Good To Be Genuine Toyota that is as good as possible and will make it fun for us on Sunday.”

You’ve normally started closer to the front at Bristol, but this time you’ll have to start 37th as the first of the non-chartered teams. How big of a challenge will that be?

“Starting 37th is a huge disadvantage at Bristol, but it is what it is. You start the race and you’re already half a lap down. I think it will be an even bigger challenge because we will not have practice and no qualifying. We’ll just do everything we can with what we have to work with and the challenges that we face and try and keep taking baby steps forward.”

No. 96 It’s Good To Be Genuine Toyota Camry Team Report
Race 9 of 36 – Supermarket Heroes 500 – Bristol

Car No. 96: It’s Good To Be Genuine Toyota Camry

PR Contact: Laz Denes with True Speed Communication (Laz.Denes@TrueSpeedCommunication.com)

Primary Team:

Driver: Daniel Suárez

Hometown: Monterrey, Mexico

Crew Chief: Dave Winston

Hometown: Miami, Florida

Technical Director: Nick Ollila

Hometown: Warren, Michigan

Car Chief: Mark Hillman

Hometown: Lockport, New York

Engine Specialist: Kirk Butterfield

Hometown: Carrollton, Ohio

Engine Builder: Toyota Racing Development

Headquarters: Costa Mesa, California

Spotter: Steve Barkdoll

Hometown: Garrison, Iowa

Over-The-Wall Crew:

Gas Man: Cory White

Hometown: Vinson, Iowa

Front Tire Changer: Mike Mead

Hometown: Sherrills Ford, North Carolina

Rear Tire Changer: Brandon Traino

Hometown: Cherry Hill, New Jersey

Tire Carrier: Mason Harris

Hometown: Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia

Jackman: Joel Bouagnon

Hometown: St. Charles, Illinois

Windshield: Mark Hillman

Hometown: Lockport, New York

Supermarket Heroes 500 Notes of Interest:

After piloting the No. 19 NASCAR Cup Series Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2017 and 2018, then the No. 41 Cup Series entry for Stewart-Haas Racing in 2019, Suárez joined the single-car No. 96 Toyota Camry effort for Gaunt Brothers Racing (GBR) for the full 2020 season.
Suárez will be making his 116th career NASCAR Cup Series start in Sunday’s Supermarket Heroes 500 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. He has career totals of eight top-five finishes, 32 top-10s and 241 laps led, with an average start of 16.2 and an average finish of 17.6. He also has qualified on the pole twice.
In six previous Cup Series outings on the .533-mile, high-banked concrete oval at Bristol, Suárez has best finishes of eighth in his two 2019 starts there in his Stewart-Haas Racing entry, and a best starts of 12th in the August 2017 and April 2018 races in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. He led five laps in the April 2018 race, in which he finished 11th. Suárez’s average Bristol start is 17.7 and average finish is 13.0.
Suárez has a pair of runner-up finishes and three other top-six results in six career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Bristol. He finished second to Joey Logano in the April 2015 race and second to Kyle Busch in the August 2017 race. His best Xfinity Series start at Bristol is third in August 2016, the year he won the Xfinity Series championship. His average Bristol start in the series is 7.7 and his average finish is 8.0.
In most recent NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series race at Bristol in August 2016, Suárez started second and led 77 laps before an accident ended his day 16 laps from the finish. In his only other Truck Series start there in August 2015, he qualified 16th and finished 30th. Both Truck Series outings were with Joe Gibbs Racing.
Suárez also has competed in three NASCAR K&N Pro Series East races at Bristol with a best start of 17th in his most recent outing in March 2014, and a best finish of 15th in his first race there in March 2012.
Crew chief Dave Winston, a native of Miami, Florida, and a veteran of 67 Cup Series races atop the pit box, has called the shots at four previous races at Bristol. He collaborated with driver Alex Bowman in the No. 23 BK Racing Toyota in the April and August 2014 races, both which ended up with 33rd-place finishes. The duo came back for the fall 2014 race and started 33rd and finished 30th. His driver Michael McDowell finished 29th and 19th in the April and August 2016 races, respectively, for the No. 95 Leavine Family Racing entry.
On May 11, GBR announced the addition of longtime motorsports veteran Nick Ollila as technical director. The native of Warren, Michigan, will oversee the team’s engineering department and returns to the United States after a three-year stint serving in the same capacity with Kelly Racing in the Virgin Australian Supercars Championship. Ollila and team owner Marty Gaunt first worked together in 1997 when the two were at Kranefuss-Haas Racing. Their NASCAR paths crossed again 10 years later when both worked at Red Bull Racing – Gaunt as general manager and Ollila as chief aerodynamicist. NASCAR is where Ollila has spent the bulk of his career, which includes being the drivetrain specialist at Rod Osterlund Racing in 1980 when Dale Earnhardt won the first of his seven Cup Series championships. Ollila’s racing career began at Team Penske in 1972 as a mechanic. He prepared cars for each of the series in which the organization competed, a lineup that included IndyCar, NASCAR, Can-Am, Formula 5000, sports cars and Formula One. NASCAR became Ollila’s focus in late 1976. He joined DiGard Racing as the team’s drivetrain specialist, working with NASCAR Hall of Famer Darrell Waltrip until the end of the 1978 season, whereupon he went to work for Osterlund. IndyCar and Penske beckoned in 1982, and Ollila returned as the team’s engine builder, enjoying four championships (1982, 1983, 1985 and 1988) and four Indianapolis 500 victories (1984, 1985, 1987 and 1988). That Penske connection led Ollila back to NASCAR in 1990, when he became the lead engineer for Hall of Fame driver Rusty Wallace. It was the beginning of a 20-year stint in NASCAR.
Sunday marks the third Cup Series start at Bristol for the No. 96 Gaunt Brothers Toyota. Both previous starts were in 2018 with driver D.J. Kennington starting 35th and finishing 27th in the April race, and Jesse Little starting 33rd and finishing 35th in the August race.
Coca-Cola and CommScope continue their respective partnerships with Suárez at Gaunt Brothers Racing. The iconic Coca-Cola brand has been with Suárez since 2015 when he won the Xfinity Series rookie-of-the-year title. CommScope, a leader in communication network technology, has been with Suárez through its ARRIS and Ruckus Networks brands since 2014, when he first competed in the Xfinity Series.

No. 10 Smithfield Ford Racing: Aric Almirola Bristol I Race Advance

by MikeMay 30, 2020

KANNAPOLIS, North Carolina (May 29, 2020) – Aric Almirola and the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) continue their return to racing after the COVID-19 postponements with a fan and driver favorite – short-track competition at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.

Sunday, avid and new fans of the NASCAR Cup Series will get the chance to witness the typically action-packed, 500-lap race that will test the physical and mental stamina of its drivers.

“Bristol is the ultimate test of physical stamina mixed with finesse of how you position your racecar,” Almirola said. “You’re on the edge of your seat every lap and the slightest mistake can set you back. It helps to be in great shape for races like Bristol when you get toward the end of the long, green-flag run. During the break, I stayed busy with my workout regimen to prepare for races like this with heat training and cycling.”

After four races in 12 days, Almirola and the Smithfield Ford team are excited to mix up the racing styles and get back to short-track racing – something they think the fans will enjoy.

“NASCAR has done such an incredible job getting us back racing,” Almirola said. “We’re one of the only sports to watch right now and Sunday will be a prime time for new fans to see what NASCAR is all about. They’re going to see beating and banging the entire race, cars barely holding on, and frustration from a lot of us drivers. I think we’re going to gain a lot of new race fans Sunday and I hope the No. 10 Smithfield car is up front to gain some new fans for ourselves.”

Almirola’s 2019 outcomes at Bristol were not favorable for the 36-year-old – not of his own fault. After a solid sixth-place qualifying run in the April 2019 Bristol event, Almirola was struck by the No. 24 car and taken out of the race on lap three. Following another solid fifth-place qualifying effort in the August race, Almirola made contact with a lapped car that ultimately led him to finish 18 laps off the pace.

“Bristol is a track I always look forward to going to,” Almirola said. “We just haven’t had luck on our side the last few races there. I feel confident there, too. We just need some things to go our way to actually finish a solid race.”

Almirola and the Smithfield Ford team have restarted the season with one top-10 and have held their ninth-place position in the standings with 225 points – 106 behind leader Kevin Harvick.

He has one top-five and three top-10s in 20 starts at Bristol since 2007. His best finish there was third in the Food City 500 on March 16, 2004. In addition to his Cup Series experience at Bristol, Almirola has seven NASCAR Xfinity Series starts with four of those resulting in top-10 finishes.

Almirola will sport the iconic black, white and gold Smithfield Ford Mustang this weekend at Bristol. Smithfield Foods Inc., who will sponsor Almirola’s car at the majority of races this season, is an American food company with agricultural roots and a global reach. Its 40,000 U.S. employees are dedicated to producing “Good Food. Responsibly®,” and have made it one of the world’s leading vertically integrated protein companies.

The starting grid for Sunday’s race was determined Friday by random draw in order of owner points positions. Almirola will start the Food City Presents the Supermarket Heroes 500 from second.

Aric Almirola: Driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

How does Bristol’s track surface change during the race?

“Bristol is one of those places where the track changes throughout the run, especially in the last couple of years, when they put the (traction) compound down on the bottom groove. That has tended to get rubbered up and get really slick as the run moves on and the cars migrate to the top of the racetrack. The top of the racetrack is not very good when it’s clean but, when it starts to rubber up, it actually gains momentum and gets faster, so the groove moves around a lot from run to run and throughout the run, and that makes it fun and it makes it exciting. As a driver, it gives you the option to search around and look for speed.”

Sunday’s race honors Supermarket Heroes. How important is it to recognize these essential workers in the midst of the Coronavirus outbreak?

“The food workers are every bit as important as the front-line workers. We have to have food to survive as a nation and we have to have medical resources. You can’t have just one or the other. I think it’s so cool that we are acknowledging them this weekend because they are the heartbeat of our nation. We wake up every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Without them, we don’t have that.”

No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang Team Report
Round 8 of 36 – Food City Presents the Supermarket Heroes 500 – Bristol Motor Speedway

Car No. 10: Smithfield Ford Mustang Team Report

At Track PR Contact: Dakota Hunter with True Speed Communication (Dakota.Hunter@TrueSpeedCommunication.com)

Primary Team:

Driver: Aric Almirola

Hometown: Tampa, Florida

Crew Chief: Mike Bugarewicz

Hometown: Lehighton, Pennsylvania

Car Chief: Jerry Cook

Hometown: Toledo, Ohio

Engine Builder: Roush Yates Racing

Headquarters: Mooresville, North Carolina

Engine Tuner: Matt Moeller

Hometown: Monroe, New York

Spotter: Joel Edmonds

Hometown: Dobson, North Carolina

Over-The-Wall Crew:

Gas Man: James “Ace” Keener

Hometown: Fortuna, California

Front Tire Changer: Clay Robinson

Hometown: Simi Valley, Calif.

Tire Carrier: Tyler Bullard

Hometown: King, North Carolina

Rear Tire Changer: Chris McMullen

Hometown: Canton, Michigan

Jackman: Corbin Martin

Hometown: Winston Salem, North Carolina

Notes of Interest:

● Almirola will make his 22nd Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway start in the NASCAR Cup Series Sunday to bring his total of career Cup Series starts to 325.

o The Smithfield driver is looking to capture his fourth top-10 finish of the season.

● In Almirola’s three NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series starts at “The Last Great Colosseum,” he finished second, sixth and 32nd, the latter due to an accident.

● The Smithfield driver has seven NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Bristol with one top-five finish and four top-10s.

● Career: Almirola has career totals of two wins, two poles, 18 top-five finishes, 64 top-10s and 543 laps led in 324 starts.

● Points: Almirola sits ninth in the driver standings with 225 points – 106 behind leader and SHR teammate Kevin Harvick.

● Last win: Almirola’s Oct. 14, 2018 win at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway was his most recent in the Cup Series.

● ‘Beyond the 10’ – Almirola is back with season two of his YouTube documentary series, where fans can get VIP, behind-the-scenes access by subscribing to his YouTube channel. Episodes showcase never-before-seen footage of Almirola at the racetrack, on iRacing, and “A Day in the Life” during the week, as well as all that goes into a NASCAR Cup Series driver’s season. Click here to subscribe on YouTube and watch the latest episode.

● Crew chief Mike Bugarewicz is in his fifth full-time season at SHR and his first with Almirola. To learn more click here.

No. 98 HighPoint.com: Chase Briscoe Bristol NXS Advance

by MikeMay 30, 2020

NASCAR Xfinity Series Overview

Event: Cheddar’s 300 presented by Alsco (Round 7 of 33)

Date: June 1, 2020

Location: Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway

Layout: .533-mile oval

Chase Briscoe Notes of Interest

• The Cheddar’s 300 presented by Alsco is the seventh event of the 33-race NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule. It will mark the third event for the Xfinity Series since racing returned May 21 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway after a 10-week hiatus amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

• The No. 98 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang will carry the name of Xfinity employee and National Guardsman Peterson Ferlene Monday night at Bristol Motor Speedway. Ferlene has eight years of active service in the National Guard, and on March 23 he began providing critical service at Hard Rock Stadium near Miami in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of his duties include screening and directing first responders, along with the general public, as they arrive for testing at the stadium. Ferlene has been a communications technician with Comcast since January 2018 and he recently appeared in the Florida Region Tech Agenda thanks to his heroic actions on Feb. 6 when he saved the life of a Comcast customer.

• In four career Xfinity Series starts at Bristol, Briscoe has two top-five finishes, both of which were earned in 2019 – a fourth-place effort in the April 6 Alsco 300 and a second-place drive in the Aug. 16 Food City 300.

• In addition to his Xfinity Series experience at Bristol, Briscoe has one NASCAR Truck Series start at the .533-mile oval. In 2017, Briscoe started 15th and finished 12th in the UNOH 200.

• Briscoe comes into Bristol as the championship leader with an eight point-advantage over second-place Austin Cindric. Briscoe has three top-five and four top-10 finishes this season, punctuated by victories Feb. 23 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and May 21 at Darlington.

• Briscoe was poised for another strong result in his No. 98 Ford Mustang last Monday night at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway until oil on the racetrack sent him into the turn-three wall 47 laps short of the finish. Briscoe began the race from eighth in the 37-car field and climbed to as high as second. Following pit stops at the end of the second stage, Briscoe’s race began to come undone as he was cited for a series of pit road penalties over the course of the next 50 laps. Mired in the middle of the field, Briscoe became a victim of circumstance on lap 156 when his No. 98 Ford Mustang slipped up the banking and into the wall after the engine on Timmy Hill’s Toyota broke and spewed fluid onto the racetrack. While the No. 98 team was able to make repairs, Briscoe returned to the track in 18th, two laps down to the leaders. But on lap 172, a cut tire sent Briscoe back into the wall, deepening the damage to his racecar.

• Briscoe won the 2019 rookie-of-the-year title in the Xfinity Series and is racing for a championship in 2020. He already has one title to his name – the 2016 ARCA Racing Series championship. Briscoe finished fifth in the Xfinity Series championship standings last year, narrowly missing out on advancing to the Championship 4 and competing for the series title.

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 98 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang

Bristol is a track that is known to be very tough on drivers, but you earned top-five finishes in both races there last year. What does it take to be successful at Bristol?

“The key to being successful at Bristol is just being versatile. The track changes, the racing changes, and you just never know what’s going to happen. You also have to be good in traffic because when something happens, it happens fast. I think that’s where my dirt background helps. Bristol keeps you on your toes.”

This is the first short-track race of the year and, once again, you’ll take your first laps on the racetrack when the green flag drops. Is there a difference between having no practice at a track like Darlington or Charlotte compared to a short track like Bristol?

“I think they all equally present different challenges. Bristol will probably be the hardest for the team to unload close to what we need for the race just because of the travels and not knowing how the traction compound affects the car. Those are the two biggest things you look at in practice or qualifying, and it is harder to prepare for that.”

With the race being moved to Monday night from its original afternoon start time on Saturday, does that change anything in terms of the team’s preparation for the race?

“That’s something we definitely have to think about, but we race during the day and during the night at Bristol already, so we have data from last year that we can go back to. That’s something we didn’t have for Darlington or Charlotte, and I had to look for input from the Cup guys and other guys in the garage. We ran really well at Bristol last year, so I feel good about our chances of finishing up front in our HighPoint.com Ford Mustang.”

Chase Briscoe Bristol Performance Profile

No. 98 HighPoint.com Team Roster

Primary Team Members:

Driver: Chase Briscoe

Hometown: Mitchell, Indiana

Crew Chief: Richard Boswell

Hometown: Friendship, Maryland

Car Chief: Nick Hutchins

Hometown: Columbia, South Carolina

Engine Tuner: Craig Hermann

Hometown: Albany, New York

Spotter: Tim Fedewa

Hometown: Holt, Michigan

Over-The-Wall Crew:

Front Tire Changer: Ryan Mulder

Hometown: Sioux Center, Iowa

Rear Tire Changer: Chris Jackson

Hometown: Fort Mill, South Carolina

Tire Carrier: Jon Bernal

Hometown: Shelby, North Carolina

Fueler: Andrew Migliozzi

Hometown: Westborough, Massachusetts

Jackman: Sean Cotten

Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina

About HighPoint

HighPoint is a leading IT infrastructure and solutions company. With its customer-centric, results-driven approach to digital transformation, you get technology that works, delivered by people you want to work with. HighPoint builds lasting relationships with clients, employees and partners based on honesty, integrity, trust and a mutual commitment to growth and success. The company, founded in 1996, is a minority-owned business headquartered in Sparta, New Jersey, serving markets in the tri-state region and southeastern United States, with a presence in Charlotte, North Carolina, and overseas in London. To contact us or learn more about our solutions, please visit www.HighPoint.com.

Hunt Brothers Pizza Racing: Kevin Harvick Food City presents the Supermarket Heroes 500 Advance and Team Report

by MikeMay 30, 2020

KANNAPOLIS, North Carolina (May 29, 2020) – Kevin Harvick will compete in his fifth race in 15 days on Sunday, May 31 in the Food City presents the Supermarket Heroes 500 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. That’s a lot of races in 15 days, but not for someone like Harvick.

The driver of the No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) drove in four races in eight days back in 2007.

It was the year of the great rainout at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn. Harvick drove in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Michigan on Saturday, Aug. 18 and finished third. The Cup Series race ended up running on Tuesday, Aug. 21 after it was rained out Sunday and Monday.

Harvick then headed south to Bristol for the Xfinity Series race on Friday, Aug. 24 and finished 16th. Finally, on Saturday, Aug. 25, he finished 16th in the Bristol Cup Series race.

He raced a total of 1,055.7 miles during that 2007 stretch. By the end of this past Thursday night’s 500-kilometer race at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, he will have driven have driven 1,595.588 miles since the Cup Series resumed its suspended season April 17 with the first of two races at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. And he has another 250 miles coming up Sunday at Bristol.

So while the schedule has been odd, because of Harvick’s experience, he’s sort of been through this before. And he has been successful at Bristol before, as well.

Harvick has two wins, one pole, 12 top-five finishes, 19 top-10s and has led a total of 912 laps in his 38 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Bristol. His average start is 16.7, his average finish is 13.8 and he has a lap-completion rate of 96.7 percent – 18,401 of the 19,027 laps available.

He has competed in 29 NASCAR Xfinity Series races there with five wins, 15 top-fives and 24 top-10 finishes with two pole positions. He has driven in five NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series events at Bristol and has one win and four top-10s.

Harvick will also have the support of longtime partner Hunt Brothers Pizza at Bristol Sunday.

With more than 7,800 locations in 30 states, Hunt Brothers Pizza is the nation’s largest brand of made-to-order pizza in the convenience store industry. Hunt Brothers Pizza offers original and thin crust pizzas available as a grab-and-go Hunk perfect for today’s on-the-go lifestyle, or as a customizable whole pizza that is an exceptional value with All Toppings No Extra Charge®. Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, Hunt Brothers Pizza is family owned and operated with more than 25 years of experience serving great pizza to convenience store shoppers through its store partners. To find a Hunt Brothers Pizza location, download the Hunt Brothers Pizza app by visiting www.huntbrotherspizza.com/app/

Hunt Brothers Pizza has partnered with Harvick for 11 years and last visited victory lane with him when he won the 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. In 2019, Hunt Brothers moved up to the Cup Series as a primary sponsor for three races and, in 2020, will be on Harvick’s car five times.

Harvick has also won two Truck Series races with Hunt Brothers as a sponsor at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, and at Bristol, both in 2011. The company also sponsored him in the non-points NASCAR All-Star Race at Charlotte in 2014 and 2015. Harvick finished second in both races.

Harvick is hoping he can heat up at Bristol and score his second victory of 2020. And if he leads just one more lap, he will have led 10,000 laps in his SHR career dating back to 2014.

KEVIN HARVICK, Driver of the No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Is it hard to communicate inside the racecar at Bristol because everything happens so fast?

“It’s definitely loud and hard for the teams to hear. One of the hardest things at Bristol is just to see what’s going on. I have crashed at Bristol and gone back to watch it on TV and you’re like, ‘What in the hell were you doing? You just ran into four or five cars that have been sitting there for two seconds.’ But, Bristol is a very demanding racetrack. It’s very hard because things happen so fast, communication is hard. It’s easy to make a mistake or pile into a wreck. It’s easy to wreck somebody or to get into a fight. It’s easy to do a lot of things because there is just so much happening. It’s a tough place to race, to put it all together, and it’s mentally and physically exhausting.”

Can you talk about “the bounty” and Chase Elliott defeating Kyle Busch in the Truck Series race last Tuesday?

“I was sitting in my motorhome in Las Vegas and I woke up the next morning after Kyle (Busch) had won and saw a tweet from Kyle Larson that just had two cherries in it, which basically symbolizes cherry picking. When Delana (Harvick) and I used to own truck teams, that used to fly all over me, because I know how much time, effort and money it takes to get those trucks on the racetrack. I know how much work Kyle puts into putting those vehicles on the racetrack and I just thought, ‘What the heck, let’s put some money on the line and see if we can get some of these guys to come out and race in the Truck Series.’ You look at it the other night, with everything that has gone on in our sport with Chase (Elliott) and Kyle, to have them battling it out in the Truck Series and have Marcus Anthony Lemonis jump on board, it just wound up being a lot of fun. I really have a lot of respect for what Kyle Busch does and the effort he puts into putting those racetrucks on track and sometimes I think people forget the art of promoting. Sometimes you have to go out and give a little bit of nudge to create a little bit of excitement. As a fan, I love the Truck Series. I love to watch racing and, as a fan, I sat up with my son the other night watching and wondering what was going to happen. It was fun and exciting and it’s going to end up being a great donation once Chase decides where he wants take that $100,000 for charity during a time when there are so many things bigger than our sport right now. Our sport, once again, is going to step up just like we did during the first iRacing event at Homestead-Miami Speedway to donate some money to charity.”

Hunt Brothers Pizza Racing Team Report

Round 9 of 36 – Food City presents the Supermarket Heroes 500 – Bristol

Car No.: 4 – Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang

PR Contact: Joe Crowley, True Speed Communication (704) 875-3388 ext. 808 or Joe.Crowley@TrueSpeedCommunication.com)

Primary Team Members:

Driver: Kevin Harvick

Hometown: Bakersfield, California

Crew Chief: Rodney Childers

Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina

Car Chief: Robert Smith

Hometown: Whitewater, Wisconsin

Engine Builder: Roush-Yates Engines

Headquarters: Mooresville, North Carolina

Engine Specialist: Robert Brandt

Hometown: Mobile, Alabama

Spotter: Tim Fedewa

Hometown: Holt, Michigan

Over-The-Wall Crew Members:

Front Tire Changer: Shayne Pipala

Hometown: Frankfort Square, Illinois

Rear Tire Changer: Daniel Smith

Hometown: Concord, North Carolina

Tire Carrier: Mike “Shrek” Morneau

Hometown: Oxford, Maine

Gas Man: Evan Marchal

Hometown: Westfield, Indiana

Jackman: Stan Dolittle

Hometown: Ninety Six, South Carolina

Windshield: Shawn Hopkins (also serves as interior mechanic)

Hometown: Chesterfield, Virginia

Bristol Notes of Interest:

· Dynamic Duo: While this is Harvick’s 20th year in the NASCAR Cup Series, it’s his seventh with crew chief Rodney Childers, which is the longest pairing of any current driver-crew chief combination. Since joining forces at Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) in 2014, Harvick and Childers have combined to produce 27 points-paying victories, a victory in the non-points-paying 2018 NASCAR All-Star Race at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, 25 Busch poles, 111 top-five finishes and 161 top-10s while leading 9,999 laps. They won the 2014 championship, finished runner-up in the 2015 title chase to champion Kyle Busch, finished eighth in 2016 and third in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

· Harvick has career totals of 50 wins, 31 poles, 211 top-fives, 370 top-10s and 14,425 laps led in 690 starts.

· His most recent Cup Series win came on May 17 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.

· His most recent Busch Pole came in November 2019 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.

· Harvick’s 50 career NASCAR Cup Series victories puts him in a tie with NASCAR Hall of Famers Ned Jarrett and Junior Johnson for 12th on the all-time NASCAR Cup Series wins list. He is third on the active driver list behind Jimmie Johnson and Busch. Harvick is four wins behind Lee Petty for 11th on the all-time wins list.

· At the Homestead season finale in 2019, Harvick became just the 11th driver to have led 14,000 laps in his NASCAR career. He’s led 14,452 and trails 10th-place Busch, who has led 17,445, and Johnson, who is ninth with 18,862 laps led. Harvick has led 9,999 laps as an SHR driver.

· Points Position: Harvick arrives at Charlotte first in the NASCAR Cup Series standings with 331 points, 14 markers ahead of second-place Joey Logano.

· Harvick in the Monster Energy Cup Series at Bristol: Harvick has two wins, one pole, 12 top-five finishes, 19 top-10s and has led a total of 912 laps in his 38 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Bristol. His average start is 16.7, his average finish is 13.8 and he has a lap-completion rate of 96.7 percent – 18,401 of the 19,027 laps available.

· Xfinity and Trucks at Bristol: Harvick has competed in 29 NASCAR Xfinity Series races with five wins, 15 top-fives and 24 top-10 finishes with two pole positions. He has driven in five NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series events and has one win and four top-10s.

· Already Playoff Bound – Harvick qualified for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs with his win May 17 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.

· 111 and Counting – Harvick scored his 100th career win in NASCAR’s top three series with his March 2018 Las Vegas win. He now has 111 total victories – 50 in the Cup Series, 47 in the Xfinity Series and 14 in the Truck Series. Only three other drivers in NASCAR history have passed 100 wins in NASCAR’s top three series: Richard Petty, David Pearson and Busch.

Team Penske NASCAR Xfinity Series Race Report – Charlotte Motor Speedway

by MikeMay 26, 2020

Track: Charlotte Motor Speedway

Race: Alsco 300

Date: May 25, 2020

____________________________________

No. 22 Snap-on Ford Mustang – Austin Cindric

Start: 6th

Stage 1: 6th

Stage 2: 4th

Finish: 3rd

Status: Running

Laps Completed: 203/203

Laps Led: 30

Point Standings (behind first): 2nd (-8)

Notes:

Austin Cindric nearly scored the win in the Alsco 300 Monday evening at Charlotte Motor Speedway, leading 30 laps and scoring a third-place finish. The result was Cindric’s best at the 1.5-mile oval and his fifth-straight top-10 finish this season. The driver of the No. 22 Snap-on Ford Mustang moves from third to second-place in the NASCAR Xfinity Series driver standings, only eight markers behind leader Chase Briscoe.
Cindric started the 200-lap, 300-mile race in the sixth position after the lineup was set per random draw. Despite four cautions early, throughout the first 45-lap stage, Cindric’s Snap-on Ford fired off free. He ended the stage in sixth position. Crew chief Brian Wilson called Cindric to pit on lap 48 for four tires, fuel, and adjustments to aid the handling of his Mustang and restarted sixth when the race went back green on lap 52.
Stage 2 was uneventful for the Mooresville, N.C. native. The 45-lap segment ran caution free and Cindric, who ran inside the top-five throughout the stage, was credited with a fourth-place finish at the end of the stage on lap 90.
Cindric restarted the final stage from the third position and ran there until the green-flag pit cycle began. Shortly after completing his green flag stop on lap 148, the caution waived, cycling Cindric to the race lead with just 30 laps remaining. After a series of cautions resulting in overtime, Cindric lined up second, jumping to the race lead following a great restart. Cindric put on an impressive battle with NASCAR Cup Series Champion, Kyle Busch, but respectfully finished the 200-lap event in third coming to the checkered flag.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series is back in action May 30 at Bristol Motor Speedway at 3:30 p.m. with live coverage on FS1 and PRN.

Quote: “I am really proud of this team. I think we had a lot of opportunities to win the race tonight. If it goes green on a number of occasions I think the Snap-on Ford Mustang is the winner tonight. It just didn’t work out for us. I was on older tires and everyone else on older tires ended up crashing. It is hard to beat the best in the business on older tires. I got a great push from Daniel. I am shocked the restart zone went as well as it did. That was a big struggle for me all night. I knew I was going to have to defend in three and four and took the top in one and two. He just had way more grip than I did. The heat cycles were killer. I never lifted driving into three. I just gave up second but didn’t really care at that point. I just wanted to win the race. Overall it was a great night and I am really proud of my team. I came here with something that we have never come to the race track with. We had to work on it all night. It shows the strength of the team and I am really proud of the effort.”

Today. Tomorrow. Toyota Racing: Daniel Suárez Alsco Uniforms 500k at Charlotte Preview

by MikeMay 26, 2020

MOORESVILLE, North Carolina (May 25, 2020) – Daniel Suárez and the red, white and blue No. 96 Today. Tomorrow. Toyota Camry team for Gaunt Brothers Racing (GBR) can’t wait to get back to the 1.5-mile Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway oval for Wednesday night’s NASCAR Cup Series Alsco Uniforms 500k after an admittedly frustrating run in Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600.

Their sixth race together Sunday night – and third since the season resumed after a 70-day shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic – netted a 29th-place finish. That wouldn’t normally be cause for concern for a small, one-car team that’s tackling the entire Cup Series schedule for the first time in its 10-year history in NASCAR. But a series of mishaps, which included a penalty for a crewman over the wall too early, another penalty for speeding on pit road, a stuck lug nut on a green-flag pit stop, and a fueling issue that negated a planned strategy call midrace, left the team wondering what might have been with its patriotic-schemed Toyota that its driver said had so much more potential.

Thank goodness for second chances as Suárez and his teammates will get to find out during Wednesday night’s 500-kilometer event that will feel like a sprint race just three days removed from Sunday night’s 600-mile marathon. Last week, between their back-to-back races just down the road at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, Suárez and crew chief Dave Winston put their heads together and returned to the tricky, 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval with a Toyota that felt far better in Wednesday night’s race than it did the previous Sunday.

This Wednesday night, they’ll look to once again show that kind of marked improvement in the performance of their Today. Tomorrow. Toyota Camry, eliminate the kind of mishaps that hampered their efforts Sunday night, and put themselves in position to better their best finish this season of 21st, which came March 8 at Phoenix Raceway.

Daniel Suárez: Driver of the No. 96 Today. Tomorrow. Toyota. Camry for Gaunt Brothers Racing:

How are you and the team feeling about heading back to the Charlotte oval after Sunday’s night’s Coca-Cola 600?

“It’s always good to go back a second time, but it’s the last time we’re going to do it as far as the schedule is now, so we can’t get used to that. The goal is to be as prepared as possible for the first time you race at a track because we won’t have those second races after this. We all know what we have to do to be better prepared, to do a better job with simulation, and better preparation at the shop. Sunday night was very frustrating. We had some issues on pit road – a lot of mistakes – and we all know we need to minimize our mistakes because I felt our Today. Tomorrow. Toyota had the potential to be in the top-25. We’ve been breaking down every aspect of Sunday night’s race and are working on bringing a little better speed for Wednesday night – that, and minimizing mistakes.”

Do you expect it to be a totally different kind of race as it’s about half the distance you covered on Sunday night?

“It might be, but personally, I will treat it the same. I was being aggressive for 600 miles on Sunday night, just as I would be aggressive in a 300-mile race. It’s just the way I am. If I see an opportunity, I’m going to take it.”

It will be your fourth racing event operating under what might be called, for now at least, the temporary new normal with no fans, health screenings, etc. How has it been for you and the team?

“Having no fans there, I hope we never get used to that. Honestly, it’s not fun to race without fans all around. It still feels weird to show up at the track the way it has been so far. But obviously a lot of people are watching us on TV and that’s a really good thing because we can’t have fans in the stands. But as drivers, and especially in our sport, we’re all about the fans and the sponsors and we’re looking forward to the day when they will be back out there with us.”

Dave Winston, Crew Chief of the No. 96 Today. Tomorrow. Toyota. Camry for Gaunt Brothers Racing:

Your assessment of Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 and what you might expect as you head back to Charlotte Wednesday night?

“On a positive note, I felt like, especially on restarts, it was pretty fun to watch for a while and gave me hope that we have some speed in our Toyota, and then we could work on getting it better on the long runs. But we had issues where we ended up hurting ourselves, whether it was a bad stop, being over the wall too early and having to start at the back, Daniel sliding the tires and coming in too fast and then having to do a pass-through. There was a time where I felt like if it could go wrong, it did. Last week at Darlington, we went back the second time with a better car than we had in the first race, so the goal is to do the same this week, and also to not make the mistakes we did on Sunday night. It’ll be another night race and the track should be really good since it’ll be the fourth straight day of racing there, and the weather should be close to the same as Sunday.”

After a night like Sunday night, do you have to dig deep to remind yourself this is a long-term project and to keep everybody feeling positive?

“You always want to be positive and I think everybody is. Nobody’s giving up, there’s no question about that. We showed up with a lot of confidence because we did a simulation test for qualifying and we felt we would qualify in the top-20. That didn’t happen, so we immediately went into recovery mode, trying to see what we had to do to get the splitter off the track. It was humbling. That’s a good word for it. Reality set in after there was huge optimism for 36 hours, and all it took was a 31-second lap to change that optimism. We’ve been poring over the data, trying to figure out how to fix what went wrong, then what we can do to make the car better – things on the aero side, things to increase the performance side of the car. Daniel talks about this car having so much more potential. When he feels there’s more in the car, that’s always a good thing. We went to Darlington and felt there was more potential in the car after the first race. We went back and it was better in the second race. That’s the goal this week.”

No. 96 Today. Tomorrow. Toyota. Camry (Red, White & Blue Edition) Team Report
Race 8 of 36 – Alsco Uniforms 500k – Charlotte

Car No. 96: Today. Tomorrow. Toyota Camry (Red, White & Blue Edition)

PR Contact: Laz Denes with True Speed Communication (Laz.Denes@TrueSpeedCommunication.com)

Primary Team:

Driver: Daniel Suárez

Hometown: Monterrey, Mexico

Crew Chief: Dave Winston

Hometown: Miami, Florida

Technical Director: Nick Ollila

Hometown: Warren, Michigan

Car Chief: Mark Hillman

Hometown: Lockport, New York

Engine Specialist: Kirk Butterfield

Hometown: Carrollton, Ohio

Engine Builder: Toyota Racing Development

Headquarters: Costa Mesa, California

Spotter: Steve Barkdoll

Hometown: Garrison, Iowa

Over-The-Wall Crew:

Gas Man: Cory White

Hometown: Vinson, Iowa

Front Tire Changer: Mike Mead

Hometown: Sherrills Ford, North Carolina

Rear Tire Changer: Brandon Traino

Hometown: Cherry Hill, New Jersey

Tire Carrier: Mason Harris

Hometown: Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia

Jackman: Joel Bouagnon

Hometown: St. Charles, Illinois

Windshield: Mark Hillman

Hometown: Lockport, New York

Alsco Uniforms 500k Notes of Interest:

After piloting the No. 19 NASCAR Cup Series Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2017 and 2018, then the No. 41 Cup Series entry for Stewart-Haas Racing in 2019, Suárez joined the single-car No. 96 Toyota Camry effort for Gaunt Brothers Racing (GBR) for the full 2020 season.
Suárez will be attempting to make his 115th career NASCAR Cup Series start in Wednesday night’s Alsco Uniforms 500k at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway oval. He has career totals of eight top-five finishes, 32 top-10s and 241 laps led, with an average start of 16.1 and an average finish of 17.5. He also has qualified on the pole twice.
In five previous Cup Series outings on the 1.5-mile Charlotte oval, Suárez has a best start of sixth in last year’s Coca-Cola 600 in his Stewart-Haas Racing entry, and a best finish of sixth in the fall 2017 race in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. His average Charlotte oval start is 17.4 and average finish is 15.6.
Suárez has a pair of top-fives and another pair of top-10 finishes in five career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Charlotte. He qualified on the pole and led 111 laps before finishing eighth in the fall 2017 race in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, and has a best finish of third in the fall 2016 race en route to that year’s Xfinity Series championship.
In his lone career NASCAR Gander Outdoors & RV Truck Series race at Charlotte, Suárez started seventh, led six laps and finished 23rd in his Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota Tundra in the spring 2016 race.
Crew chief Dave Winston, a native of Miami, Florida, and a veteran of 66 Cup Series races atop the pit box, has called the shots at four previous races at Charlotte. Prior to Sunday’s night’s 29th-place finish in the Coca-Cola 600, he collaborated with driver Alex Bowman in the No. 23 BK Racing Toyota in the spring 2014 race, starting 29th and finishing 33rd. The duo came back for the fall 2014 race and started 33rd and finished 30th. His driver Michael McDowell started 32nd and finished 34th in the spring 2016 race driving the No. 95 Leavine Family Racing entry.
On May 11, GBR announced the addition of longtime motorsports veteran Nick Ollila as technical director. The native of Warren, Michigan, will oversee the team’s engineering department and returns to the United States after a three-year stint serving in the same capacity with Kelly Racing in the Virgin Australian Supercars Championship. Ollila and team owner Marty Gaunt first worked together in 1997 when the two were at Kranefuss-Haas Racing. Their NASCAR paths crossed again 10 years later when both worked at Red Bull Racing – Gaunt as general manager and Ollila as chief aerodynamicist. NASCAR is where Ollila has spent the bulk of his career, which includes being the drivetrain specialist at Rod Osterlund Racing in 1980 when Dale Earnhardt won the first of his seven Cup Series championships. Ollila’s racing career began at Team Penske in 1972 as a mechanic. He prepared cars for each of the series in which the organization competed, a lineup that included IndyCar, NASCAR, Can-Am, Formula 5000, sports cars and Formula One. NASCAR became Ollila’s focus in late 1976. He joined DiGard Racing as the team’s drivetrain specialist, working with NASCAR Hall of Famer Darrell Waltrip until the end of the 1978 season, whereupon he went to work for Osterlund. IndyCar and Penske beckoned in 1982, and Ollila returned as the team’s engine builder, enjoying four championships (1982, 1983, 1985 and 1988) and four Indianapolis 500 victories (1984, 1985, 1987 and 1988). That Penske connection led Ollila back to NASCAR in 1990, when he became the lead engineer for Hall of Fame driver Rusty Wallace. It was the beginning of a 20-year stint in NASCAR.
Wednesday night marks the fourth Cup Series start on the Charlotte oval for the No. 96 Gaunt Brothers Toyota. Prior to Sunday’s Xth-place finish in the Coca-Cola 600, driver Parker Kligerman drove to 27th-place finish from the 32nd starting position there in the 2018 Coca-Cola 600, and to a 26th-place finish from the 34th starting position in last year’s Coca-Cola 600.
Coca-Cola and CommScope continue their respective partnerships with Suárez at Gaunt Brothers Racing. The iconic Coca-Cola brand has been with Suárez since 2015 when he won the Xfinity Series rookie-of-the-year title. CommScope, a leader in communication network technology, has been with Suárez through its ARRIS and Ruckus Networks brands since 2014, when he first competed in the Xfinity Series.

No. 41 Autodesk Fusion 360/HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang: Cole Custer Alsco Uniforms 500k Race Advance

by MikeMay 26, 2020

KANNAPOLIS, North Carolina (May 25, 2020) – The No. 41 Autodesk Fusion 360/HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) with young driver Cole Custer returns to Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Wednesday for the fourth NASCAR Cup Series race since the COVID-19 pandemic halted the season back on March 9. Wednesday night’s race will be 500 kilometers, or 310 miles – a little more than half of Sunday night’s marathon Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte.

Custer’s Mustang will look a little different for Wednesday’s race with the Autodesk Fusion 360 livery sharing the No. 41 machine with HaasTooling.com. Autodesk is a leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software. Autodesk has been integral to SHR and the software has played a vital role in creating personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic. To better support its customers facing the new reality of working remotely, Autodesk has introduced a special Extended Access Program for several of its cloud collaboration products, including BIM 360 Docs, BIM 360 Design, Fusion 360, Fusion Team, AutoCAD Web and Mobile, and Shotgun. Additionally, during the pandemic, Autodesk’s goal is to connect resources and people looking to help with pressing needs. For projects or resources that could help communities with COVID-19 efforts, visit here.
Sharing the No. 41 Mustang with Autodesk is Gene Haas’ newest holding, HaasTooling.com. Haas Tooling was launched just weeks ago as a way for CNC machinists to purchase high quality cutting tools at great prices. Haas’ cutting tools are sold exclusively online at HaasTooling.com and shipped directly to end-users.
Sunday’s grueling 600-mile race at Charlotte is annually the longest event on the Cup Series calendar. Custer qualified 28th in the afternoon before climbing into the HaasTooling.com Mustang for his first ever Coca-Cola 600 that night. The Ford driver battled a tight-handling Mustang for the most of the night, and went one lap down at one point during the race. He was able to maneuver his way back onto the lead lap and ultimately finished 12th after gaining multiple positions on the final green-white-checkered restart. “We were able to get a solid finish,” Custer said. “We have a lot of good ideas and I learned a lot to come back better on Wednesday.” The finish was the SHR driver’s second top-12 of the 2020 season.
Wednesday’s race marks the 22-year-old Custer’s 11th career Cup Series start. Coming off Sunday’s 600-mile race, he’s looking to hit the reset button and improve in what will be much more like a sprint race. The nature of the current schedule, with weekend and midweek races that are one-day shows with no practice, gives the field the opportunity to run consecutive races at the same venue, which is extremely helpful to a rookie driver like Custer.
SHR has 66 starts at Charlotte with five pole awards and one victory earned by No. 4 Mustang driver Kevin Harvick in 2014. In total, the Kannapolis-based Ford team has eight top-fives and 23 top-10s there, along with 764 laps led.
Haas Automation, founded in 1983 by SHR co-owner Haas, is America’s leading builder of CNC machine tools. The company manufactures a complete line of vertical and horizontal machining centers, turning centers and rotary tables and indexers. All Haas products are constructed in the company’s 1.1-million-square-foot manufacturing facility in Oxnard, California, and distributed through a worldwide network of Haas Factory Outlets.
Even though Custer had a trio of starts in the Cup Series in 2018, 2020 officially marks his Rookie of the Year campaign in NASCAR’s most prestigious series. He’s competing for rookie honors with notables Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick. The three have battled against each other in the Xfinity Series and are making the full-time transition to the Cup Series together. Custer was the third-highest-finishing rookie at Charlotte Sunday night and looks to improve his position Wednesday evening.

Cole Custer: Driver of the No. 41 Autodesk/HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Now that you’ve completed your first 600-mile race, how do you feel?
“For my first 600 race, I actually thought it was going to feel longer than what it did. It goes by kind of fast when you’re constantly thinking about how to get your car better and how the track is going to change, and everything like that. It actually went a lot faster than I thought it would. It was just a night where you had to be there at the end, and we were.”
The bumps in turns three and four were a pretty prevalent topic in the Coke 600. Do you think the track surface has gotten that much worse? Or is it more of something to do with the tires and car setup?
“The track has definitely gotten rougher over the last couple of years. The track was built on a landfill, so it’s constantly changing and getting bumpier. I think it’s wearing out and getting to the point where you can start slipping and sliding more. It’s getting more fun. The bumps in turns three and four are making it more challenging and they jar your head around a lot, and make it hard on the drivers.”
Will Wednesday almost seem like a breeze since it’s a shorter race?
“Wednesday will definitely be a faster-paced race compared to the 600, where you’re just trying to make it to the end and fight all night. Wednesday’s race will probably have some crazier restarts and people being more aggressive. I think people might have a different attitude going from a really long race to a short race. It’s going to be different, but we just have to make sure we get a solid finish.”
What are some of the key things you guys will work on for Wednesday?
“Going into Wednesday, there are definitely some things that I can do better. We have some ideas with the car that we can do to get it a little bit better. Hopefully, we can run consistently in the top-15 and get a top-10 out of it. We just need to keep getting solid finishes. Overall, when you run 600 miles, you’re going to have some ideas on what you can do better the next time, so it should help us a lot going into Wednesday.”

No. 41 Autodesk Fusion 360/HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Team Report
Race 8 of 36 – Alsco Uniforms 500k – Charlotte

Car No. 41: Autodesk Fusion 360/HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Team Report

At Track PR Contact: Lauren Emling with True Speed Communication (Lauren.Emling@TrueSpeedCommunication.com)

Primary Team:

Driver: Cole Custer

Hometown: Ladera Ranch, California

Crew Chief: Mike Shiplett

Hometown: Amherst, Ohio

Engine Specialist: Evan Cupples

Hometown: Hudson, Illinois

Car Chief: Tony Cardamone

Hometown: Bristol, Virginia

Engine Builder: Roush Yates Engines

Headquarters: Mooresville, North Carolina

Spotter: Andy Houston

Hometown: Hickory, North Carolina

Over-The-Wall Crew:

Fuelman: Chad Emmons

Hometown: Tyler, Texas
Carrier: Dwayne Moore

Hometown: Griffin, Georgia

Jackman: Brett Morrell

Hometown: Windham, Maine

Front Changer: Josh Leslie

Hometown: Mount Clemens, Michigan

Rear Changer: Coleman Dollarhide
Hometown: Hickory, North Carolina

Charlotte Motor Speedway II Notes of Interest:

Cole Custer will make his second consecutive Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway NASCAR Cup Series start Wednesday night, bringing his total of career Cup Series starts to 11.
The Ford driver finished 12th in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. Custer was able to rally from one lap down with a tight-handling No. 41 Mustang to secure a solid finish. It was his second top-12 of the 2020 season.
2020 marks Custer’s first fulltime season in the Cup Series and he will contend for Rookie of the Year honors along with four other Cup Series competitors.
The 22-year-old rookie driver has seven NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Charlotte. He has finished in the top-10 six times, which includes one runner-up finish. He’s led a total of 59 laps at the 1.5-mile track. He’s also made one NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series start at Charlotte, which ended with a 13th-place finish.

No. 10 Smithfield Ford Racing: Aric Almirola Charlotte II Race Advance

by MikeMay 25, 2020

KANNAPOLIS, North Carolina (May 25, 2020) – Aric Almirola and the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) will head back to Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Wednesday night for its second of back-to-back races at the 1.5-mile oval.

Almirola and the No. 10 Smithfield Ford team endured a difficult evening at Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600. After starting in the rear from adjustments made on the car after slight contact with the wall in qualifying, the No. 10 team persevered and made its way back to the top-10 after 398 laps. On the final restart, Almirola was shuffled to the middle lane with no help and finished 16th. If it weren’t for the final caution, Almirola would have been the highest-finishing SHR driver and third-highest Ford driver.

As the Smithfield Ford team heads back to the 1.5-mile oval, it will take some things it learned from Sunday night’s race and apply it to Wednesday night’s 208-lap race, which is nearly half of the Coca Cola 600’s.

“Sunday was a long day,” Almirola said. “We battled loose-handling conditions, then neutral, then extremely tight conditions with those long runs and it made it so difficult to pass. We won’t have those same issues coming back here on Wednesday with the stage lengths being so much shorter, so that’s something that we’ll have to adapt to. It’s nearly half of Sunday’s race, so you’re going to see completely different strategies from teams.”

Almirola will again run a special red, white and blue patriotic paint scheme with Smithfield adorning the hood. Smithfield Foods Inc., who will sponsor Almirola’s car this weekend and at the majority of races this season, is an American food company with agricultural roots and a global reach. Its 40,000 U.S. employees are dedicated to producing “Good food. Responsibly®,” and have made it one of the world’s leading vertically integrated protein companies.

Last weekend, Almirola ran the same patriotic paint scheme that featured United States Army SPC Seth Blevins, who paid the ultimate sacrifice in 2011 in Eastern Kunar Province, Afghanistan, when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive device.

“It was a big deal,” Almirola said. “I was honored to have him and his family on my car. We get to do whatever we want, whenever we want, because he paid the ultimate sacrifice.”

The 36-year-old Almirola has eight NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Charlotte and garnered one top-five finish, three top-10s and has completed 99.4 percent of all possible laps. He also has two Charlotte starts in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series, which both resulted in top-10 finishes.

Almirola has three top-10s this season and sits 10th in the driver standings with 208 points – 83 behind first-place SHR teammate Kevin Harvick.

After a rollercoaster of difficulties and perseverance Sunday night, Almirola has a simple approach to his second Charlotte race in three days.

“We’ll regroup and get ’em on Wednesday night,” he said. “We did it in Darlington.”

Aric Almirola: Driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Will there be takeaways from the Coke 600 to apply to a race with almost half the laps?

“Yes and no. We’re still racing at night, so that applies, but we won’t see those extremely long runs. The team and I have to take our notes from shorter runs similar to what we’ll see Wednesday night. It will be action-packed, and track position and perfection on pit road will be even more important because there won’t be many laps to catch up.”

What do you do to prepare yourself for four races in 11 days?

“I’ve done a lot of heat training and I stay extremely active on my bike at home. It’s something I have always seen as a boost to my career. I know I’m physically prepared when I get in that car and, at the end of the race, I feel hydrated and ready to go.”

No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang Team Report
Round 7 of 36 – Alsco Uniforms 500k – Charlotte Motor Speedway

Car No. 10: Smithfield Ford Mustang Team Report

At Track PR Contact: Dakota Hunter with True Speed Communication (Dakota.Hunter@TrueSpeedCommunication.com)

Primary Team:

Driver: Aric Almirola

Hometown: Tampa, Florida

Crew Chief: Mike Bugarewicz

Hometown: Lehighton, Pennsylvania

Car Chief: Jerry Cook

Hometown: Toledo, Ohio

Engine Builder: Roush Yates Racing

Headquarters: Mooresville, North Carolina

Engine Tuner: Matt Moeller

Hometown: Monroe, New York

Spotter: Joel Edmonds

Hometown: Dobson, North Carolina

Over-The-Wall Crew:

Gas Man: James “Ace” Keener

Hometown: Fortuna, California

Front Tire Changer: Clay Robinson

Hometown: Simi Valley, Calif.

Tire Carrier: Tyler Bullard

Hometown: King, North Carolina

Rear Tire Changer: Chris McMullen

Hometown: Canton, Michigan

Jackman: Corbin Martin

Hometown: Winston Salem, North Carolina

Notes of Interest:

● Almirola will make his 15th NASCAR Cup Series start at Charlotte Wednesday night to bring his total of career Cup Series starts to 324.

o The Smithfield driver is looking to capture his fourth top-10 finish of the season.

Almirola has one career Cup Series top-10 finish at Charlotte, along with one pole award – both earned in 2012.

● Career: Almirola has career totals of two wins, two poles, 18 top-five finishes, 64 top-10s and 543 laps led in 323 starts.

● The 35-year-old has eight NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Charlotte with one top-five finish, three top-10s and a lap-completion rate of 99.4 percent. Almirola also has two starts in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series at Charlotte, which both resulted in top-10 finishes.

● Points: Almirola sits 10th in the driver standings with 209 points – 83 behind leader Kevin Harvick.

● Last win: Almirola’s Oct. 14, 2018 win at Talladega was his most recent in the Cup Series.

● Crew chief Mike Bugarewicz is in his fifth full-time season at SHR and his first with Almirola. To learn more click here.