@nascarcasm: Can we send race tracks some cardboard cutouts?

Posted on September 4, 2020 by @nascarcasm

Dear race tracks,

Hi, it’s me, the annoying guy from the internet.

I don’t want to take up too much of your time, but I have a small favor to ask.

I realize that over the course of the past few months, I have accomplished nothing. That’s where you come in.

You’ve likely seen the current trend where stadiums place cardboard standups of individuals in some of the seats that are required to stay vacant. Dover International Speedway took the leap for its recent doubleheader, too.

You probably see where this is going.

What I’m looking for is just one of you to volunteer to make my dream come true. To make me feel like I really accomplished something these past few months. Again, I’ve accomplished nothing. I am an empty husk of a man, who has only worn sweatpants and hoodies for six months. I am a walking tragedy. I’ve made one bar of soap last four months.

Therefore, my co-worker Steve Luvender and I would like to send a few cardboard stand-ups to your race track and for you to place them in a few of the seats that will be easily seen on TV. In order for this to succeed, we MUST get Rick Allen to emit his famous chuckle.

What will the stand-ups be? Just a few of our frequently used images on Twitter. The ones we’ve overused and beaten into smithereens. Below is a schematic we’ve thrown together.

Chris Graythen | Getty Images

As you can see we’re not looking to take up an entire grandstand. Not even a whole row. And we promise they won’t bother you for the entire race.

If you’re willing to accommodate my wish, and don’t everyone spring at the opportunity at once, please tweet me back and we can begin the creation process.

The only additional thing we ask is that you devise a way to firmly attach the stand-ups to the seats. We don’t want these things getting caught in the wind. I’m not saying that a caution for a cardboard Brett Moffitt wouldn’t be hilarious, but I just don’t want to be tangentially responsible for it.

Anyways, get back to me when you can. I have cardboard, and I have dreams.

@NASCARCASM

Posted on September 4, 2020 by Team Release

CONCORD, N.C. (Sept 4, 2020) – Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) announced today it has entered into partnerships with two organizations: Caregility, a clinical collaboration and communications company and Yorktel, a leading provider of collaboration and managed service solutions. Both companies are owned by YTC Holdings.

Yorktel has a 35-year history partnering with customers across the globe to design, develop and manage digital transformation solutions that increase user productivity in the modern workplace. The company has a deep pedigree in collaboration technologies that has proven critical for business, government, education and healthcare operations continuity, particularly during the COVID crisis. Their extensive knowledge in collaboration technologies has allowed them to develop easy to use work from home solutions and enhanced webcasting and streaming media solutions that have become critical needs during this pandemic.

Caregility offers a cloud-based Platform as a Service solution specifically designed to support two-way audio and video communication for telehealth applications. The company’s communications platform was created to enhance the experience of both the patient and the provider in virtually any remote telehealth situation from the ICU to the home. Caregility’s telehealth solution has enabled healthcare providers to quickly scale during the current COVID-19 pandemic, enabling them to provide virtual care for hundreds of thousands of patients across the US.

The partnership with Yorktel and Caregility includes branding on the No. 1 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, driven by former Daytona 500 and NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) Champion Kurt Busch, beginning with and throughout the 10 races that make-up the 2020 NASCAR Playoffs. The 2020 NASCAR season is a milestone year for Kurt Busch as he made his 700th start at the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 5th. Busch is one of only 17 drivers in NASCAR history to reach the 700-start milestone. Busch will also make his eighth consecutive and 14^th overall appearance in the NCS Playoffs

“In the new business environment of virtual distancing, remote collaboration, and “work anywhere” initiatives, we are looking for new and innovative ways to build awareness of the Yorktel and Caregility brands,” commented Ron Gaboury, CEO, Yorktel & Caregility. “We are looking forward to using the Ganassi Racing platform as a means to broaden the reach and impact of both companies.”

“We’re excited to have Yorktel and Caregility join the organization,” commented Doug Duchardt, COO, Chip Ganassi Racing. “To have their partnership begin as we kick-off the 2020 NASCAR Playoffs is certainly a fun way to mark the occasion. With everything that our country has been through this year, it is enlightening to begin learning about what the respective companies offer to enterprise, public sector, and healthcare providers in these challenging times. We look forward to growing the partnership through the 2020 NASCAR Playoffs and beyond.”

Posted on September 4, 2020 by Chase Wilhelm

The success has been plentiful while the respect has been mutual between Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick throughout the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Harvick leads the way with seven victories, while Hamlin’s six triumphs give both drivers a healthy bonus-points cushion on the other 14 drivers heading into the Round of 16 of the NASCAR Playoffs. Top-seeded Harvick sits at 2,057 points, 10 points ahead of Hamlin, while Hamlin holds an 18-point advantage on third-place Brad Keselowski.

You’d think the rivalry would be fierce. But the exact opposite has been the case – a highly competitive relationship fueled by the desire to conquer the other, mixed with a genuine appreciation for what each is accomplishing as veterans of the sport.

During the second day of NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Media Days on Thursday, Hamlin noted he doesn’t anticipate that changing in the postseason for two reasons – age (Hamlin is 39, Harvick 44) and circumstances.

“I don’t think so simply because the championship is won in the final race where I think if this was a 10-week playoff where the champion was crowned after his 10-race performance then yeah, maybe there’s an opportunity there for head games or whatever it might be,” Hamlin said. “Even though I think we’re pretty much old and too old for that. We have a lot of respect between each other, our teams do as well, and we’re going to battle each other at some point in these playoffs.”

Harvick, this year’s regular-season champion and the 2014 Cup Series champ, hasn’t put too much of his energy into focusing on Hamlin, but he has spent more time concentrating on his own No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team.

“I think everybody is aware of where everybody is and who is doing good and who is doing bad,” Harvick said. “Yeah, it’s definitely not something that we’ve been calling each other up and saying, ‘Hey, what do you think?’ It’s the distance understanding of what each other is doing and who is doing what and just trying to do the best you can for your team.”

RELATED: Meet the 2020 playoff field

The postseason kicks off with Sunday night’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (6 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), a track where Hamlin and Harvick split victories in a doubleheader that served as NASCAR’s return from the COVID-19 stoppage.

As a heavyweight battle all the way to the Championship 4 brews between the two fighters, there’s so much on the line. Harvick looks to earn his second championship, while Hamlin will try to erase the multiple years of heartbreak after falling short of a first title on multiple occasions, including at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2019.

Hamlin thinks both he and Harvick belong in the finale, but the friendly dynamic could change in those 312 laps in the desert if that ends up being the case.

“I think the right scenario is that we’re at Phoenix (Raceway) together battling it out for the championship,” Hamlin said. “There’s a lot of work that has to get done to get us to that point, but that’s probably the right thing when you think about how a championship should be crowned. Our format is a little different and you have to go out and win that final one. I don’t think that we will race each other any different than what we have all season long. The only time it would ever change would be in that final race.”

Of course, all the success in the first 26 races pushed aside, neither driver is a shoo-in for the grand finale. Even if both drivers are able to get there, Harvick knows it will be a tall task for both of them to put together a perfect race to seal the championship, given the high level of competition among fellow playoff drivers.

“Winning a championship today isn’t how (Dale) Earnhardt and (Richard) Petty did it,” Harvick said. “I think it’s a much different style of winning a championship than what it used to be … I think as you look at that it’s very difficult to get yourself to the last race of the season and be one of those four cars and trying to be able to race for let alone win a championship.”

Posted on September 4, 2020February 1, 2021 by Staff Report

Chase and Jaret Curtis are having nearly identical seasons racing street stocks across the northeast this summer.

The duo are first and second in the street stock points standings at Monadnock Speedway, and both are in the top 10 in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Racing Series Division II standings.

The twin seasons make sense for the brothers, who are also twins.

The Curtis brothers, from Rutland, Massachusetts, have raced at Monadnock — a NASCAR-sanctioned quarter-mile high-banked asphalt oval track in Winchester, New Hampshire — the most this season, choosing to race at their home track as much as possible to try for a track championship. Chase currently leads Jaret by four points in the track‘s street stock standings.

Monadnock Speedway | Facebook | Twitter

But racing across the northeast at other tracks including Lee USA Speedway, Hudson Speedway, and Claremont Motorsports Park has helped the brothers climb the national points standings as well. Chase is currently third in Division II with three wins and 13 top fives in 15 starts, and Jaret is fifth with two wins and 12 top fives in 13 starts. Jaret is coming off a win last weekend.

“We‘re always around the same speed so we‘re always running together,” Jaret said. “Usually near the front.”

The 16-year-olds started racing when they were 11 after going to races throughout their childhood.

The sport is a family one for the Curtises. Both their grandfathers, their dad, and uncles had cars. The brothers would go to Monadnock, about 45 minutes from their home, to watch their dad race street stocks when they were growing up.

“It‘s kind of just been in the family,” Jaret said. “We were going to the track before we were even born. We‘ve been kind of just going to the track every year because we were watching our dad. He still races sometimes but just now it‘s kind of just focusing on us.”

“Every summer I just remember going to the races watching our dad,” Chase said. “Now we‘re fortunate to get the chance to race and we really enjoy it.”

The family sport became a love for both brothers as they found their own success.

“I think it‘s kind of just how much work and how much stuff has to go right to finish good,” Jaret said. “When you get a top-3 you have a lot of joy.”

The family goes to the track every week with both cars in a double trailer, and a big cheering section not far behind.

“It‘s pretty fun for everybody, including everybody that comes to watch,” Chase said. “We have a lot of our family that comes to watch a lot. A lot of my friends come. Everybody enjoys it.”

Hudson Speedway | Claremont Motorsports Park | Lee USA Speedway

Even though the brothers admit they‘re competitive with each other, they also use their unique chance having a competitor in the same house as an opportunity to work with each other and help the other get better. If one brother finds something that works on his car they can give it to the other to use.

They also work together during races, doing little things like helping if one gets stuck on the outside.

That doesn‘t mean they don‘t try to best the other on the track, though.

“We‘re pretty competitive. Actually last time out we were first and second and there was a restart at the end of the race,” Chase said. “Jaret got me this time.”

“It‘s a lot of joking around usually. Everybody talks about racing a lot during the week. We look forward to it,” Jaret said.

Having a close-knit group among the team also brings more chances for good weeks.

“It‘s also good having us because if one person has a bad night the other person can still have a good night and it can still be a good week,” Jaret said.

With the season shortened by the coronavirus pandemic, the brothers decided from the get-go to go for a points championship at Monadnock, but when they realized how well they were doing nationally they added a Division II championship and UNOH Youth Achievement Award to their season list of goals.

The youth achievement award recognizes the top drivers 17-and-under, regardless of division. Chase is second in the national standings and Jaret is fifth.

They‘ll both be trying to run twice a week the rest of the season to help with NASCAR points.

NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Division II standings | Monadnock Speedway points standings

The brothers have no problem competing against one another for those prizes, either. It‘s something they know will continue for the foreseeable future.

“Maybe when we start to do our things in life that might change but as of now we‘ll probably be staying together,” Jaret said.

Posted on September 4, 2020February 1, 2021 by Staff Report

THOMPSON, Conn. — Doug Coby has won five times on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at Thompson Speedway Motorspors Park, and he’s started on the front row for all five. Three times, he’s won from the pole.

He’ll get another chance Thursday night in the Thompson 150 after collecting his 31st career Mayhew Tools Dominator Pole Award in qualifying.

Coby’s No. 10 Mayhew Tools Chevrolet lapped the .625-mile oval in 19.005 seconds (118.079 mph) for his first pole of 2020. His career total is third all-time behind only NASCAR Hall of Famer Mike Stefanik (48) and Tony Hirschman (41).

Championship points leader Justin Bonsignore, who was fastest in practice and the final car to qualify, will start on the front row after a lap of 19.063 (118.030) came up just short of Coby.

Craig Lutz qualified third at 19.152 (117.481).

Patrick Emerling and Eric Goodale were fourth and fifth, respectively. Anthony Nocella qualified sixth, followed by former tour champion and current NASCAR Cup Series driver Ryan Preece, Ron Silk, Ronnie Williams and Timmy Solomito.

The Thompson 150 will stream live on TrackPass on NBC Gold.

Posted on September 4, 2020February 1, 2021 by Staff Report

THOMPSON, Conn. — Ron Silk is back.

After taking a race off to recalibrate, it took the Norwalk, Connecticut, driver just two starts to drive the No. 85 Stuart’s Automotive Chevrolet to Victory Lane. Silk capitalized on a heartbreaking turn of events for Ryan Preece Thursday night, and then drove away from the field on a green-white-checkered restart to capture the Thompson 150 at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park.

RELATED: Complete Race Results

It was the 14th career win for the 2011 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion and his fifth at Thompson.

Ron Silk holds on for the ud83cudfc1

14th career #NWMT win & 5th at @ThompsonSpdwy pic.twitter.com/5SBgYgd698

— NASCAR Roots (@NASCARRoots) September 4, 2020

The victory was Silk’s first since August of 2019 at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway.

After starting the 2020 season with a sixth, a 27th and 10th, Silk and the Kevin Stuart-owned team elected to bypass the trip out to Pennsylvania on Aug. 22. The move paid off, as Silk led 114 laps in a runner-up effort at New Hampshire’s Monadnock Speedway on Saturday, and then turned around and won at Thompson.

It was an improbable win, as Silk lost the lead to Preece in the closing laps. But Preece, a former Whelen Modified Tour champion and current NASCAR Cup Series driver making his first tour start of the season, had fuel issues under the subsequent caution that brought him down pit lane and ended his night.

Ryan Preece.
Race Leader … out of gasu2049 #NWMT | @_TrackPass pic.twitter.com/YKvO7tivH9

— NASCAR Roots (@NASCARRoots) September 4, 2020

On the final restart of the night, Silk fended off championship points leader Justin Bonsignore and Craig Lutz and drove away with the win.

Bonsignore entered the night having won seven of the last eight tour races at Thompson. He led 57 laps before settling for a runner-up finish. Jon McKennedy finished third and Chris Pasteryak fourth. Doug Coby, who won the Mayhew Tools Dominator Pole Award earlier in the evening and led a race-high 66 laps, wound up fifth.

Bonsingore, who collected his sixth top five in six races, pushed his lead to 18 over Coby and 32 over McKennedy.

Dave Salienza, Ronnie Williams, Anthony Nocella, Matt Swanson and Tyler Rypkema rounded out the top 10. Following the final restart, Lutz wound up 12th while Preece was credited with a 19th-place finish.

The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour heads to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the third annual Full Throttle Fall Final Weekend. The Musket 200 presented by Whelen, which pays $20,000 to win, will be Saturday, Sept. 12 at noon, and will air live on TrackPass on NBC Gold.

Posted on September 3, 2020September 3, 2020 by Zack Albert

Leave it to Kyle Busch to make Tony Stewart a verb.

Busch, the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion, limps into this year’s playoffs in much the same way that Stewart did in 2011 — confoundingly winless. The rest of Stewart’s season that year became the stuff of storybook endings, as if he’d awakened from a deep slumber to win five of the 10 playoff events and secure his third Cup Series title.

RELATED: Meet the 2020 playoff field

Busch seems ready to embrace the same sort of dramatic comeback to score his third championship, but says his fortunes will need a similar turnaround. As Busch said two weeks ago, taking grand liberties with parts of speech, he’ll have to “Tony Stewart it.”

“I don’t know what changed in his year or what happened, but anything is possible for sure,” Busch said Thursday during the second day of Media Day appearances for the 16 playoff drivers. “We’ve seen it done before. Maybe there’s another way of being able to do it again, but this time it will certainly be different than his time was or any time that I’ve ever been in the Playoffs under this structure, being on the outside looking in to try to get through each round. The opportunity is there. That is certainly where we’re at is a Tony Stewart-type performance here and in the final 10 weeks we’ll certainly get it done.

“The last time I checked, we’re still last year’s reigning champions so we’ve got that opportunity to be able to do that. We’ve got the team behind us – the crew chief, the sponsors, everybody that we can make anything happen. We just have to go out there and do it.”

Busch and the rest of the title-eligible drivers begin their playoff quests with Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM) at Darlington Raceway. The 35-year-old veteran for Joe Gibbs Racing enters as the 14th seed in the 16-driver playoff field, facing the prospects of the first winless campaign in his full-time Cup Series career.

MORE: Media Days’ best quotes

Busch has come close this season, finishing second three times already. His 11 top-five finishes are tied for the third-most in the series, by far the most among drivers without a win in 2020. Busch’s other statistical measures have been respectable, but not on par with his usual powerhouse-level results as five DNFs have also dragged down his stature.

His exasperation at times this season has been palpable. But the prospects of a Stewart-esque rally in the playoffs loom, an outcome teammate Denny Hamlin believes is fully possible.

“I know he’s got race-winning equipment,” said Hamlin, a six-time winner this year. “Yeah, are they off-key right now? Yes, a little bit, but certainly if anyone has a chance to get hot, it could be Kyle and his team. They know what they’re doing, they’ve got championship pedigree and they know how to get through these 10 weeks. They’ve shown that many, many times by making it to the final four even when they haven’t been at their best. Certainly, it’s a team that will be a threat.”

Busch successfully shed the underdog label in both of his two championship campaigns. In 2015, he came back from severe injuries to his legs and feet in a crash at the Xfinity Series opener in Daytona, missing 11 races before a midseason tear brought him back into contention. Last season, he overcame the much-ballyhooed Big 3 of Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. to win the final race for title No. 2.

As much as a title defense would mean, Busch said getting back to Victory Lane would almost carry more weight. It also might prompt him to “Tony Stewart it” back into the Championship 4 fray.

“It’s really important,” Busch said of his consecutive years winning streak. “Think about it, it’s a 16-year investment that we’ve placed on that, being able to win a race in 16 consecutive seasons, so hopefully we can keep that going and get it to 17 and then to 18 or however many that I’m here. It would be nice if I’m able to keep winning races all the way through my career each and every single year that I’m out there. This year has just not lent itself to our favor so far, but the playoffs start now and we’re still in this thing.”

Posted on September 3, 2020 by Holly Cain

The NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series will hold its first race at the historic Darlington Raceway in nearly a decade with Sunday afternoon’s South Carolina Education Lottery 200 (2 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Not only will drivers be tasked with figuring out the notoriously “Too Tough To Tame” oval without any practice, they will be doing so with playoff implications on the line. Only two races remain to set the 10-driver championship-eligible field for the 2020 playoff run.

There are no former winners in the field. The last to drive a truck to Darlington’s Victory Lane was Kasey Kahne in 2011. In six Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series races at Darlington (from 2005-11) – four were won by Dodge and two by Toyota.

In 2011 – the last truck race at Darlington – seven of the drivers currently in the top 10 of the standings were younger than 17. Sheldon Creed, for example, who has a series-best three wins was only 13 years old when that race was run in 2011. Tyler Ankrum, who is ranked ninth in the standings, was only 10 years old when Kahne was celebrating his run at Darlington.

Of the current top 10 in the standings, only reigning champion Matt Crafton has raced a truck at Darlington previously. He has four top-10 finishes in six starts with a career best of fourth place in 2011. Another veteran, Johnny Sauter, who is also still hoping to race into playoff contention, has two previous Darlington starts with a best of fourth place in 2010.

It all creates a distinctive feel of intrigue and intensity – a new venue at a must-win time for so many of the competitors with only two races remaining in the regular season.

Creed’s victory at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway last weekend certainly had big playoff implications. It was his third win of the season (and his career), and that is most among the full-timers to date, placing him as the current top-seeded driver. His good day, however, was Todd Gilliland’s bad day, and the two were intertwined.

Gilliland, driver of the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford, led a race-best 75 laps and scored key points winning both Stage 1 and Stage 2. But he was wiped out of contention by Creed as the two contended for the lead early in the third stage. Gilliland was able to continue racing but finished 24th and now sits on the playoff bubble, only 13 points to the playoff-eligible good over 11th-place Derek Kraus.

It puts a lot of pressure on the Darlington outcome for both.

For the last eight races, Gilliland, 20, has alternated between a top-10 finish and a result of 20th or worse. In the last four races, for example, Gilliland was fifth at Michigan International Speedway and then 33rd the next race at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course. He was fourth at Dover International Speedway and then 24th last week at Gateway.

Moffitt and Creed will start Sunday’s race from the front row, followed by Hill and Smith in Row 2.

Posted on September 3, 2020 by Holly Cain

With four races remaining to set the 2020 NASCAR Xfinity Series playoff field, this Saturday’s Sport Clips Haircuts VFW 200 at Darlington Raceway (12:30 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) may be one of the most pivotal afternoons of the late season.

Darlington — with all its nuances and unpredictability — is typically considered a season wildcard event. And the final points position in the 12-driver playoff field is as close-quartered competitively as the cars will be on the 1.366-mile historic track this weekend.

RELATED: Complete Darlington schedule

Only one full-time Xfinity Series driver, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe, has won previously at Darlington. Briscoe scored the victory this May in a race that was not originally on the schedule but added as NASCAR carefully re-opened its season in South Carolina during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The race featured a very competitive battle among Briscoe, who led 45 laps, Kyle Busch, who led 45 laps, and Xfinity full-timer Noah Gragson, who led a race-high 46 laps and won Stage 1.

Interestingly, half the current playoff-eligible field earned best Darlington finishes this spring, from current points leader Austin Cindric (fourth in May) to Gragson (fifth), to veteran Justin Allgaier (third) to Ross Chastain (eighth).

The uptick in finish is perhaps a very encouraging sign for Chastain, who is ranked third in points earned but eighth in the playoff standings — best among drivers still looking for their first win of 2020. Not only did Chastain earn his best Darlington finish this May, the track was the site of a superb showing in 2018 — even if the 25th-place finish doesn’t properly reflect the effort.

In 2018, while driving a short schedule of races for Chip Ganassi, Chastain won the pole position and led a dominant 90 of the opening 112 laps of the 147-lap Darlington race — winning both the opening two stages. But while racing veteran Kevin Harvick for the lead on Lap 111, the two collided, ending Harvick’s day and derailing any hope of Chastain earning his first career Xfinity Series win. That would come two weeks later, however, driving Ganassi’s car to a victory in Las Vegas.

With the near-miss in 2018 and a career-best finish this spring, Chastain — who now drives the No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet — is undoubtedly eager to see if Darlington can be his first victory venue of the 2020 season.

Certainly a victory this week would boost the playoff hopes for Brandon Brown and Jeremy Clements too, who are separated by only 32 points contesting that final 12th-place position. Brown, the driver of the No. 68 family-owned Chevrolet, scored his best finish (13th) in four Darlington starts this May. That was one position behind Clements in his family-owned No. 51 Chevrolet.

Clements has 10 starts at the track, earning his only top 10 (eighth place) in 2016. Brown is still looking for his first top 10.

Justin Haley will be starting from pole position alongside Briscoe. Cindric will start fourth. Clements will start 13th, and Brown will start 17th.

Posted on September 3, 2020 by Zack Albert

In the opening stage of media-day rotations before the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, one name kept coming up in the discussion of underdogs primed to make a deeper postseason run than might be expected: Aric Almirola.

Teammates and otherwise unaffiliated drivers alike pointed to the Stewart-Haas Racing veteran, who ticks plenty of boxes as a trendy sleeper pick. For Almirola, if others think he’s flying below the radar, so be it.

“I’m good if they do. It makes no difference to me what anybody else thinks, and that’s an attitude I’ve had for a long time,” said Almirola, who is making his third straight playoff appearance since joining SHR in 2018. “I’m the type of guy that just really puts my head down and goes to work with my race team, and that’s all I really care about if is working with (crew chief Mike) Bugarewicz and the guys on my team. What anybody else thinks, I really don’t care because only I and my race team really know what we’re capable of and areas where we need to improve and areas where we’re doing a good job.

“I am excited about the playoffs. I do feel like we have a lot of potential. We’ve run really well. We’ve made some mistakes along the way that we certainly have to clean up going into the playoffs to be a contender, but I do feel like our speed and the way that we’ve been running, the capability is certainly there.”

Almirola hasn’t won this year, a prime factor in his omission from the short list of heavy favorites. But the 36-year-old driver has already posted career-high numbers in other categories this season, tallying a personal-best with five top-five finishes and 287 laps led (well more than his previous high of 181 two years ago).

Almirola’s 2020 stats haven’t illuminated the highlight reel in the way the performance of SHR teammate Kevin Harvick (seven wins) or Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin (six wins) has. But he does hold two of the Cup Series’ most steady streaks this year — a run of five consecutive top-five results contained in a stretch of nine straight top 10s in the summer months.

“The 10 (of Almirola) has been kind of sneaky and just consistent — nothing flashy, but just kind of doing his thing — so I would say that’s one car that can probably get pretty far through,” Team Penske driver Joey Logano said. “They’ve got pretty good speed, they don’t make many mistakes and they just kind of get through. The first couple of rounds that’s one of the things that this playoff system rewards the first couple rounds is being consistent.”

Those gains have come under the guidance of Bugarewicz, who was installed as crew chief of the No. 10 Ford as part of an offseason shake-up at SHR. Almirola described him as “probably the most intense crew chief that I’ve ever had,” detailing his sleepless work ethic, his fiery competitive drive and a meticulous detail-oriented approach.

All of those factors have given him boundless confidence entering the playoffs, plus a clear head knowing his contract status for 2021 is secure. Almirola and sponsor Smithfield re-upped for next year shortly after the regular-season finale, removing one less possible distraction from the team’s playoff list.

“So far, I’ve been able to have some success. I still want more,” Almirola said. “I still have a burning desire to win more races, lead more laps and ultimately win a championship, but, so far, we’ve been successful.”