Posted on by Chase Wilhelm

CONCORD, N.C. – Looking to rekindle the magic from years past, Roush Fenway Racing heads into the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season with an intriguing organizational dynamic.

New No. 17 Ford Mustang driver Chris Buescher links up with former Richard Childress Racing crew chief Luke Lambert. Lambert worked with No. 6 driver Ryan Newman for five seasons at RCR, recording a victory at Phoenix Raceway and 19 top fives in five full-time seasons.

Heading into his second season with Roush, Newman will stick with crew chief Scott Graves. It was Graves who called the shots for Buescher during his 2015 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship-winning season, earning three wins and 16 top fives in a two-year span together.

Although Newman made the 2019 NASCAR Playoffs, the organization has lacked some of the consistency necessary to compete with the top teams in recent years. But it appears the tide may be starting to slowly turn at the Concord, North Carolina, shop. Newman is optimistic the driver-crew chief synergy will continue that trend.

RELATED: Roush Fenway unveils new sponsor for Newman

“Organizationally, I think having Luke and Chris be a part of our teamwork is going to be huge,” Newman said. “When I say our teamwork, it’s not Scott and I, it’s the organization. Just working together to be stronger in unison.”

Newman thinks lofty goals like making the Championship 4 can be within reach if both teams improve upon unloading faster cars off the haulers this season. Newman cited that last season, the team was unable to focus on qualifying trim because its race trim needed work, which limited its chances at a higher starting position for each race. Newman thinks this can be accomplished with the lineup they have established for this season.

“The cross-synergies of me and Scott and Chris and Luke and the fact that we were both related at some points in our past life,” Newman said. “So, to have the four key guys … to be affiliated with each other in the past and to know we are not aligned the way we were, but we are still aligned together for the greater good for Roush Fenway Racing to work toward our goal this season. I think that that’s one of our strengths now.

“I think Chris will have a learning curve with Luke, but I can help Chris because I know Luke. Scott can help Luke because he knows Chris and those types of things. You don’t get that opportunity many times.”

For Buescher, many familiar faces greeted him walking through the shop for the first time since 2015. The Roush homecoming gives Buescher his best chance to date for more Cup Series victories. Between relationships already established from his Xfinity days at Roush and the strengths Newman, Lambert and Graves bring to the table, Buescher thinks the timetable of a typical eight-to-10 week process of getting comfortable with a new team can be drastically cut.

“I think that’s something we’ll be able to get down to just a couple weeks,” Buescher said. “Really be able to get back from that West Coast swing and have a good understanding of each other and be able to get rid of worrying about the feelings part and the personalities part and get worried about race cars.

“There’s not really a bunch of strangers in this scenario and that should help speed the process along. It is tough when nobody understands personalities of any others. Nobody wants to step on toes, nobody wants to come off as rude or overbearing or any of those things. I think everyone has a good sense of someone else in the process so that should streamline some of our learning curve.”

If the organization can get through the three-race stretch of West Coast races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Auto Club Speedway and Phoenix without a hitch, Buescher strongly believes success for the No. 17 team can come as early as Bristol Motor Speedway in April. Buescher’s predecessor, new JTG Daughtery Racing driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr., also put together strong runs there in the past.

“I always ran well at Bristol on the Xfinity side,” Buescher said. “I’ve seen the Roush cars and the Roush chassis, not even just Roush, but even that Front Row car run very competitively at Bristol and that’s always been a strong suit of this organization. With it being probably my strongest track as well, yes, there’s a lot of confidence going into that one. That could be a great opportunity for us to go win a race.”

Buescher is well aware the vision that he and the entire organization share for the future will not come overnight. It’ll be a grind, but he’s confident they can collectively get Roush back to its winning ways.

“It’s been there before, and it can get back,” Buescher said. “Now to see it back on that upswing heading back toward that. Not there yet, but pieces in place and things heading in the right direction gives me hope. We definitely have opportunities ahead of us, and we’ve got work ahead of us as well.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Matt DiBenedetto and NASCAR officials offered positive first impressions Wednesday during the Xfinity Series’ first test on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road-course layouts.

DiBenedetto drove a Team Penske No. 22 Ford on a pair of configurations — a 12-turn layout and a 14-turn circuit — to help determine the best setting for the July 4 event at the historic speedway. Track owner Roger Penske joined other officials Jan. 15 to announce that the Xfinity Series would use the IMS road course for the first time this season.

MORE: 2020 Xfinity Series schedule

During a lunchtime news conference, DiBenedetto said he was still figuring out his approach to the more technical sections in the track’s infield, adding that the tighter twists reminded him of Sonoma and Mid-Ohio, but that the faster portions of the course had parallels with Watkins Glen. The 12-turn layout (2.28 miles) uses the oval’s first turn as a sweeping right-hander before the frontstretch; the 14-turn configuration (2.41 miles) bypasses the oval’s Turn 1 with a sharp infield chicane.

2020 Jan22 Matt Dibenedetto Indy Main Image
@nascarcasm

DiBenedetto also joked about making the proper turn out of the Indianapolis garage; stock cars will run clockwise for the first time at the Brickyard this summer.

“The part that I liked the most about this course is that it actually does have multiple passing opportunities,” said DiBenedetto, who will join Wood Brothers Racing for the Cup Series season this year. “That was one of the things we wanted to evaluate is how it’s going to race, how technical it is and the passing zones. So the cool thing is what we love as road racers is heavy braking zones. … There’s high-speed stuff, there’s low-speed stuff, so it’s pretty much everything we could ask for from a competitor’s standpoint for race-ability.”

Xfinity Series director Wayne Auton said that competition officials would analyze the data from the test to make a determination about which course layout will be used and the length of the race and its stages. Auton said in-car camera footage would be shared with the drivers, and teams would share the data to help get a baseline for set-ups at the IMS road course.

Auton added that Goodyear officials attended the test, trying a pair of tire combinations — one used recently at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval and the other used at both Mid-Ohio and Road America.

“The one thing with the engineers that are here and Matt’s input inside the race car is we look at the gearing to make sure that we aren’t too slow with RPMs when you get into the slower turns that we have here, or that you’re not hitting the (rev-limiter) chip going down this long front straightaway or the long back straightaway that upsets the engine,” Auton said. “There’s a lot of data that we’ll look to the team for. Matt’s input inside the race car is valuable. He’s given us already a lot of information today with the couple of runs that we’ve already done that will be very valuable for us to take back to our engineers. … We’ll evaluate it, and see how we do.”

DiBenedetto was chosen as the driver for the test with the caveat that he would be ineligible to enter the July 4 event. He said that it was the lone minor regret from what’s been a time of great personal transition — joining the Wood Brothers soon after his release from Leavine Family Racing.

“It’s been a lot of change in a short time, and it’s been a whirlwind,” DiBenedetto said. “So I don’t even know how to answer that of just how cool my life has been in the past handful of months really since not long after Bristol last year. So a lot’s changed for me personally and my family, and I couldn’t have possibly dreamt up all the big things and the little things. I mean, I’d consider this one of the big things — opportunities like this are things I’ll never forget the rest of my life.

“I’ll be able to say forever that, hey, I got asked by Mr. Penske himself, that whole team, by NASCAR, folks at IMS — everyone — to come and be the first ever to run the road course and test it out for the NASCAR Xfinity gang. So there’s a lot of amazing things for me personally that have been happening that I’ll never forget and always appreciate.”

Posted on by Sean Montgomery

Editor’s note: Today’s Front Row Motorsports preview continues NASCAR.com’s countdown of team previews for the NASCAR Cup Series season, ranked in order of best finish in last year’s owner standings.

MORE: Changes to know for the 2020 season

FRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS
Manufacturer: Ford
Engine: Roush Yates
Drivers: Michael McDowell, John Hunter Nemechek
Crew chiefs: Drew Blickensderfer (McDowell), Seth Barbour (Nemechek)

What’s new: Nemechek will make his full-time Cup Series debut at the Daytona 500 in February, driving the No. 38 Ford Mustang. The organization is pivoting back to a two-car effort in 2020.

Team strength: Fielding just two full-time cars in the Cup Series – minus one from the past two seasons – Front Row will be able to shift more focus and assets toward veteran McDowell and young Nemechek. The strategic combination of experience and youthful energy should provide a refreshing team outlook and new excitement for 2020.

The Action Network Best Bet: McDowell is always a driver I target at superspeedways. He had two top-five finishes last season – the Daytona 500 at Daytona and the 1000Bulbs.com 500 at Talladega – so I’m looking to take him in top-10 finish prop bets whenever the Cup Series visits those racetracks. – PJ Walsh

Racing Insights Number to Know: Six. Six of the organization’s eight top-five finishes have come at superspeedways, including a pair in 2019. – Racing Insights

MICHAEL MCDOWELL: No. 34 Ford

2019 Stats: Two top fives, 10 top 20s, 18 laps led; 24.2 average finish
2020 Championship Odds: 5,000-1
Fantasy Live picks: Daytona, Watkins Glen, Charlotte Roval
Outlook: McDowell may be a consistent threat to win at superspeedways after posting the highest finish of his career at Talladega and the second-highest at Daytona in 2019. He’s also a sneaky driver at road courses. Three of his four top 10 starting positions came in the second half of last year, so look for him to bring more consistent qualifying speed throughout the 2020 season.

JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK: No. 38 Ford

2019 Stats (Xfinity/Cup): Six top fives, 19 top 10s and a 12.5 average finish in 33 NXS starts/23.7 average finish in three NCS starts
2020 Championship Odds: 5,000-1
Fantasy Live picks: Talladega, Daytona, Michigan
Outlook: Alongside a star-studded rookie class, Nemechek aims to be right in the mix for Sunoco Rookie of the Year this season. The 22-year-old got his feet wet filling in for Matt Tifft at the close of the 2019 season and now takes over the seat that David Ragan occupied for the past three seasons.

NASCAR.com 2020 team previews schedule

Jan. 20: Teams outside the top 30
Jan. 21: Go Fas Racing
Jan. 22: Front Row Motorsports
Jan. 23: Richard Petty Motorsports
Jan. 24: Germain Racing
Jan. 27: Leavine Family Racing
Jan. 28: Richard Childress Racing
Jan. 29: JTG Daugherty Racing
Jan. 30: Wood Brothers Racing
Jan. 31: Roush Fenway Racing
Feb. 3: Hendrick Motorsports
Feb. 4: Chip Ganassi Racing
Feb. 5: Team Penske
Feb. 6: Stewart-Haas Racing
Feb. 7: Joe Gibbs Racing

Posted on by Team Release

CONCORD, N.C. (January 22, 2020) – Roush Fenway Racing has announced a partnership with Castrol for the high-performance lubricant brand to be the team’s official oil partner. In addition, Castrol will serve as a primary sponsor on Ryan Newman’s No. 6 NASCAR Cup Series entry in select events.

“We are really excited to have Castrol on board as our official oil partner,” said NASCAR Hall of Famer and team co-owner Jack Roush. “Castrol has been a leader in engine lubrication for as long as I can recall. They have a history of competing with great success at the highest levels of motorsports. I’m looking forward to the edge we feel they will provide our race cars going forward and we can’t wait to launch our partnership in Daytona.”

MORE: 2020 NASCAR schedule

2020 Jan22 Ryan Newman Castrol Main Image
Roush Fenway Racing

Roush Fenway Fords will run Castrol Oil exclusively in all of its Ford machines, with Castrol’s debut as a primary sponsor coming at Auto Club Speedway on March 1.

“Jack has a hard-earned reputation for success in NASCAR and all of us at Castrol are thrilled by the opportunity to join the Roush Fenway team,” said David Bouet, Castrol’s US president.

“Castrol has a long history of partnership and success with many Ford teams – in NHRA, World Rally and with the iconic Ford GTs in endurance. We look forward to using this proven race expertise and our leading performance technology to build on the team’s record of success.”

NASCAR veteran Ryan Newman has powered the No. 6 into a solid contender, propelling the iconic Ford Mustang back into the NASCAR playoffs last season with 14 top-10 finishes. Chris Buescher, who brought home Jack Roush’s eighth NASCAR championship in 2015, returns to Roush Fenway to pilot the No. 17 in 2020.

Posted on by Staff Report

Richard Childress Racing revealed Wednesday the No. 3 Chevrolet that veteran NASCAR Cup Series driver Austin Dillon will pilot in the 62nd annual running of the Daytona 500.

The black, orange, gray and white scheme will function as his primary Bass Pro Shops livery for the ’20 Cup Series season and will be the colors he’s sporting as he attempts to collect his second career victory in the Great American Race (Feb. 16, 2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Dillon won the 2018 Daytona 500.

RELATED: Buy Daytona 500 tickets | Full 2020 schedule

And maybe it’s just us, but we see a little ‘Intimidator’ in there.

Posted on by Staff Report

Daytona International Speedway has smiled on a variety of drivers in its 61 years of hosting its annual 500-mile classic. Daytona 500 winners have spanned the spectrum of favorites (Elliott, Roberts, Petty, Yarborough to name a few), underdogs (Bayne, Cope et al) and champions who endured agonizing waits before finally coming through (the elder Earnhardt and Waltrip).

Seven former Daytona 500 winners are expected on the entry list for this year’s Great American Race (Feb. 16, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM). Several candidates — favorites and underdogs alike — are poised to join that list with their first victory in NASCAR’s crown jewel.

MORE: 2020 Speedweeks schedule

The calendar is creeping toward February, so NASCAR.com’s Alex Weaver and Zack Albert attempt to get a jump on Speedweeks with their picks for a first-time Daytona 500 champ.

Albert: Brad Keselowski. There’s often conjecture and debate surrounding the best drivers to never win a NASCAR championship. How about the best superspeedway racer to never win a Daytona 500? That’s also a short list, and Brad Keselowski’s name rises to the top of it.

This year’s running will mark Keselowski’s 11th try at the Great American Race. While the style of racing at Daytona is similar to that at Talladega Superspeedway, Keselowski’s strongest suit has been at the Alabama venue, which has produced five of his 30 Cup Series victories. The 35-year-old driver has won just once at Daytona (July 2016), but his runs at the 2.5-mile track since then have free-fallen. He’s crashed out of five of the last six Daytona races.

Keselowski’s Team Penske teammates — Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano — have fared better in recent 500s, so the organization’s power there remains a strong suit. Many factors make Daytona difficult to win, but Keseslowski’s career-long superspeedway savvy makes him a top choice to break through this year.

Weaver: Matt DiBenedetto. Daytona is typically associated with the words “survive and advance.” It’s a track where anything can happen and any driver can end up in Victory Lane — just control your own destiny. Which driver has modeled his career around hard work, talent and the survival mentality? Let’s add the fact that he is now driving for an organization with a rich history in the Daytona 500. Matt DiBenedetto is heading to Daytona with one thing on his mind — creating more history for the Wood Brothers in the No. 21 Ford.

It was shaping up as the greatest day of DiBenedetto’s career as he was a legitimate threat to win in February of 2019. Leavine Family Racing had his No. 95 out front for 49 laps, more than any driver in the 40-car field. DiBenedetto was in fourth position at the time of the 21-car pileup in Turn 3 on Lap 192 when the wreck ensued. The heartbreak of last year’s finish should light a fire for him this season. If his car can stay off the tow truck, DiBenedetto has shown that he is capable of a strong finish at Daytona – he finished ninth in 2017.  We all know that there is no driving force more powerful than redemption.

DiBenedetto is now in some of the best equipment in the garage – while it will be a leap going from a Toyota to a Ford – he now has the help of Team Penske’s notebook and allies like Keselowski, Blaney and Logano. What better of a fate could the 28-year-old have than to shake off the ghosts of Daytona past and start the 2020 season as a Daytona 500 winner? I’ll bet you 50 push-ups that DiBenedetto will give it everything he’s got.

Posted on by Zack Albert

NASCAR officials on Tuesday expanded the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series playoff field from eight drivers to 10, a move that goes into effect for the 2020 season.

The Gander Trucks postseason schedule will remain at seven races, but the expansion will alter the elimination format that pares drivers from championship eligibility. That structure will now feature:

  • Three races in the Round of 10, after which two drivers will be eliminated.
  • Three races in the Round of 8, after which four drivers will be eliminated.
  • The Championship 4 finale, which will determine the series champion Nov. 6 at Phoenix Raceway.

The playoff format previously followed an opening Round of 8, another three races in the Round of 6 and the Championship 4. Brad Moran, managing director for the Gander Trucks Series, said that the emergence of more top-level teams and the heightened degree of competition made the decision to increase the playoff field a natural one.

“The way the format was structured in the Gander Truck Series with the Round of 8, Round of 6, Round of 4, we were leaving some excitement on the table,” Moran said. “Maybe three or four years ago, not so much, but certainly the last couple of years with the series strengthening to the position it’s in right now, we really felt putting 10 teams into the playoffs for a Round of 10 is just going to make it that much more exciting and interesting, and will put a lot of emphasis on winning races, which is what we try to do.”

RELATED: Changes to know for 2020

NASCAR introduced eliminations to the Cup Series playoffs in the 2014 season. Similar formats followed for the Xfinity Series and Gander Trucks two years later. The Cup Series postseason field features 16 drivers; 12 drivers qualify for the Xfinity Series playoffs each year.

Moran said that competition officials had been weighing a potential expansion by comparing final standings from previous seasons, ultimately arriving at a 10-driver field for the Gander Trucks tour. It also provides some late-season cohesion: Now all three national series will feature a Round of 8 that cuts the playoff fields in half before the championship finales.

“It seemed like the right number,” Moran said. “We only start 32 trucks, we have a great group of owners, and we did not want to water down our playoffs, but the two additional trucks kind of changes the whole layout. It changes the whole ecosystem of the playoffs. People are going to be that much more aggressive to get one of those 10 spots, and it does marry up with the other two series when we get to the Round of 8.”

Moran said that NASCAR competition officials analyzed past seasons before opting to expand the field, but cautioned that the decision was not a hasty reaction to last year’s regular-season outcome. ThorSport talent Ben Rhodes was the first driver to miss out on the playoffs, and rising stars Harrison Burton and Todd Gilliland — both drivers for highly regarded Kyle Busch Motorsports — also surprisingly failed to make the cut. All three are NASCAR Next alumni.

“That has nothing to do with it,” Moran said. “Last time I checked, KBM won an owner’s championship this year, so no, that had nothing to do with our thinking. (Expansion) has been talked about internally since the beginning of last year, and we just didn’t want to jump the gun on doing it. We have a good solid footing in this series now and the strength of the series is really the deciding factor of why to do this.”

MORE: 2019 Gander Trucks standings | 2020 schedule

Like the other two national circuits, the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series features a shuffled 2020 playoff schedule that’s among NASCAR’s most varied. Both the first and last races in the playoffs are new: The postseason opens at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway and ends at Phoenix Raceway, host to all three series’ finales for the first time.

The 2020 schedule remains unchanged for the newly expanded playoffs:

  • Round of 10: Gateway (Aug. 21), Canadian Tire (Sept. 6), Bristol (Sept. 17)
  • Round of 8: Las Vegas (Sept. 25), Talladega (Oct. 3), Martinsville (Oct. 30)
  • Championship 4: Phoenix (Nov. 6).

“We really felt it was good for the ownership of the trucks, for the owners, for their sponsors. The time was right,” Moran said. “It’s going to add more excitement for the fans watching, and it’s giving everyone the opportunity so it should put the intensity level for our playoffs off the charts.”

Posted on by RJ Kraft

For the past five seasons, Martin Truex Jr. has been one of the top drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series. He teamed with crew chief Cole Pearn for 24 wins (second-most from 2015-2019), one championship and four appearances in the Championship 4. In two of the last three seasons, Truex won within the first five races of the season.

After Pearn’s decision to step away from NASCAR, Truex will have a new crew chief atop the box in James Small. The Australia native was previously a lead engineer and has been with him in some capacity for the past three seasons. In addition, Jeff Curtis is back after a one-year stint with Chip Ganassi Racing to be the lead engineer for the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 team; he had been on Truex’s title-winning team in 2017. Car chief Blake Harris remains with the team.

RELATED: Small named crew chief for No. 19 team | 2020 schedule

But will there be an adjustment period that keeps Truex out of Victory Lane for a bit with a new voice calling the shots, or will he just keep on racking up the wins from the outset? NASCAR.com’s RJ Kraft and Pat DeCola debate where Truex and his new crew chief will first find Victory Lane together in 2020.

KRAFT: Truex’s 2020 season should mirror something similar to his 2019 campaign. He did not record a win until the ninth race of the season, but then clicked off four in eight races. I think there will be a bit of adjustment with Small now atop the box, but the continuity of having Harris as well as Curtis back in the fold will keep the strong runs coming, even if they don’t result in wins.

I have MTJ’s first 2020 victory coming at Homestead-Miami Speedway — the sixth race of the season on March 22. I enjoy a good poetic story line and the Truex-Small pairing delivering at the track where Truex came up just short of championships in the past two seasons would be quite interesting.

Once he gets that first one with Small, I expect the wins to come in bunches with a notable Texas-sized drought (0-for-29) also coming to an end the next weekend.

RELATED: All of Truex’s Cup wins | Changes to know for 2020

DECOLA: I like the way you’re thinking, RJ, and I agree that it won’t take too long before Small and Truex connect on their first win, but I’ll do you one even bolder: The ’17 champ won’t even get out of February before landing in Victory Lane.

We obviously can’t rule anybody out for Daytona, but I’m more keyed in on the pair getting it done a week later at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Truex is the most recent winner at the Nevada track — his fifth straight finish there of eighth or better — and also dominated this race in his title season.

To me, the No. 19 group put together the best full season in 2019, only getting stronger as the campaign drew on. Things were clicking on all cylinders the entire postseason run and I expect much of that momentum will translate over to 2020 as the rules package stays largely the same for intermediate tracks.

It’s reasonable to expect some learning curves or drop-off after the departure of Pearn, but if we’ve learned anything about the crew chief over the years, he doesn’t seem like the type of guy to up and leave without making absolutely certain that his crew remains in the best possible position to succeed. I imagine Small is immensely prepared for this opportunity and the transition will be pretty much seamless.

Expect Truex and Co. to pick up right where they left off and celebrate a win in 2020 in the blink of an eye.

Posted on by Sean Montgomery

Editor’s note: Today’s Go Fas preview continues NASCAR.com’s countdown of team previews for the NASCAR Cup Series season, ranked in order of best finish in last year’s owner standings.

MORE: Changes to know for the 2020 season

GO FAS RACING
Manufacturer: Ford
Engine: Roush Yates
Driver: Corey LaJoie
Crew Chief: Ryan Sparks

What’s new: With Sparks moving to the No. 32 team’s helm after a lengthy spell as a member of Richard Childress Racing and a newly formed technical alliance with Stewart-Haas Racing, this team’s season outlook continues to trend in an upward direction.

Team strength: LaJoie and crew posted only four DNFs in 2019, leading to the best average finish of his career at 25.9. If the No. 32 stays out of trouble, the team has shown it possesses the ability to navigate through the pack.

The Action Network Best Bet: An alliance with SHR provides more upside for LaJoie this season. I’ve already bet him to win the Daytona 500, and will be keeping a close eye on his performance early in the season to see if there are opportunities to back him before the market catches up. — PJ Walsh

COREY LAJOIE

2019 Stats: Two top 10s, seven top 20s; highest finish — sixth at Daytona in July.
2020 Championship Odds: N/A – listed within “the field” at 40-1.
Racing Insights Number to Know: Five. The number of top 10s in team history — a number LaJoie could match in 2020.
Fantasy Live picks: Talladega, Daytona, Indianapolis.

Outlook: After showing flashes of speed and notching a handful of impressive runs in 2019, look for LaJoie and the Go Fas team to perhaps double the numbers posted a year ago. While the majority of his best finishes last season came at superspeedways, expect improvements and increased consistency across the variation of tracks.

NASCAR.com 2020 team previews schedule

Jan. 20: Teams outside the top 30
Jan. 21: Go Fas Racing
Jan. 22: Front Row Motorsports
Jan. 23: Richard Petty Motorsports
Jan. 24: Germain Racing
Jan. 27: Leavine Family Racing
Jan. 28: Richard Childress Racing
Jan. 29: JTG Daugherty Racing
Jan. 30: Wood Brothers Racing
Jan. 31: Roush Fenway Racing
Feb. 3: Hendrick Motorsports
Feb. 4: Chip Ganassi Racing
Feb. 5: Team Penske
Feb. 6: Stewart-Haas Racing
Feb. 7: Joe Gibbs Racing

Posted on by Staff Report

Stewart-Haas Racing announced Tuesday that HighPoint will become the organization’s IT solutions provider, adding primary sponsorship for 10 races in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

HighPoint will begin its primary support of the No. 98 Ford and driver Chase Briscoe in the Xfinity season opener at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 15. The IT company — based in Sparta, New Jersey — will be an associate sponsor for all other races. SHR renewed its deal with Briscoe on Jan. 6.

RELATED: Briscoe re-ups with SHR

2020 Jan21 Chase Briscoe 2 Main Image
Stewart-Haas Racing

The partnership provides Stewart-Haas Racing with another source of technical support ahead of the 2020 season.

“Walk around our race shop during the week and the garage area on a race weekend and you’ll see how our race cars and our entire industry relies on technology,” said Mike Verlander, vice president of sales and marketing, SHR. “From engine diagnostics to fuel-mileage calculations, our business is dependent on service and technology solutions. Every company needs what HighPoint provides, and we’ll work diligently to facilitate those introductions.”

Briscoe finished fifth in the Xfinity Series standings last year, taking the circuit’s Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors. He won at Iowa Speedway and corraled the first two Xfinity pole positions of his career.

“Even though we race stock cars, there’s nothing stock about what we do,” Briscoe said in a news release provided by the team. “The science of our cars is impressive, but the technology that goes into building our Ford Mustangs and then making them perform is even more advanced. Our IT needs are pretty complex, and we demand a lot from our technology every day, whether it’s at the shop or at the track. HighPoint is more than just a sponsor — they’re a partner that helps us perform.”