Cole Custer, SHR show growth in second Xfinity season together

Posted on July 26, 2018July 26, 2018 by Zack Albert

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. — Tony Stewart says it’s been so long since he’s driven a NASCAR Xfinity Series car that he’s not sure how much help he’d be able to offer to Cole Custer, the full-time driver for Stewart-Haas Racing’s flagship Xfinity team.

At least now, Stewart says, the lines of communication for any potential advice are far more open that they used to be.

“That’s the great thing about Cole is that he’s coming out of his shell finally,” Stewart says. “I mean, for the first two years that I’d met this kid, he never said one word to me. I didn’t even know that he could speak. As time’s gone on now, he’s coming into his own, but it’s kind of that way with his racing, too. … We really don’t talk a lot about it. I mean, he does a really good job on his own. I almost feel like if I get in the middle of it, I’m only going to confuse him more than anything because the progress he’s making is good the way that he’s doing it.”

The 20-year-old driver’s shy streak may still be part of his personality, but Custer has shown signs of opening up — both with his interactions and his performance on the track. The California native sits fourth in the Xfinity Series standings ahead of Saturday’s U.S. Cellular 250 (5:20 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Iowa Speedway.

RELATED: Pocono, Iowa weekend schedule

Custer leads the Xfinity tour this season with four pole positions, and he ranks as second-best in top-five finishes with seven and top-10 finishes with 14 in the 18 races thus far. But he’s missing a tally in the win column, a void he’s aiming to fill with eight events remaining in the regular season.

“I think right now we’re fairly happy with where we’re at. I mean, we want to win races obviously and we need to catch up with the 20 and 22 guys,” Custer said, making mention of Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Penske entries that have accounted for seven Xfinity wins this year. “They’re fast and they’re leading laps every weekend. I think we can get there, we’re just going to have to dig a little bit deeper.

“Obviously I think we’re living in the top five right now, we just have to have everything kind of fall into place and have it be our weekend. I’m looking forward to the rest of the season, and I think we can make it happen.”

At the mild risk of looking too far ahead, Custer says the No. 00 Ford team is already making preparations to fine-tune its program ahead of the Xfinity Series’ seven-race playoffs, which open Sept. 21 at Richmond Raceway. They’ll have a year of postseason experience to draw upon, having come tantalizingly close to the final round in 2017.

MORE: Custer, Stewart reveal Darlington throwback

Had Custer & Co. kept their championship eligibility until the end — a berth he missed by just four points in the penultimate race — an Xfinity crown was well within their grasp. Custer played spoiler in the Homestead-Miami finale, capping his rookie season by leading 182 of 200 laps for his first Xfinity win.

Even with the title near-miss, the accomplishments placed Custer in elite territory in just the first season of Stewart-Haas Racing’s Xfinity operation. That growth has continued this year, strengthened by a partnership with Biagi-DenBeste Racing.

“I mean, to bring a rookie crew chief and a rookie driver into the series and do what they did last year and then see how it keeps progressing this year, I think everything’s moving along great,” Stewart says. “Obviously, we’ve had a partnership come on board in the last year and I think we’re really happy with the direction that the program’s going. In such a short amount of time to build it to what it is, it kind of follows suit with what we’ve done with the Cup program, so I think the sky’s the limit with it.”

As timelines go, SHR’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series program is celebrating its 10th anniversary in style. Kevin Harvick is fresh from his series-best sixth win of 2018, and teammate Clint Bowyer has visited Victory Lane twice this season. Kurt Busch and Aric Almirola have yet to break through for a checkered flag this year, but their consistency has placed both drivers among the front-running contenders most weeks.

RELATED: Key moments in SHR’s history

That sort of performance has trickled down to the Xfinity level at SHR, with a more vocal Custer front and center.

“Obviously, the morale gets up because we’re all one team,” Custer says. “Everybody’s winning, but we obviously want to do our part and start winning also. So it brings our level up, I feel like. We want to match their level, so I think it definitely helps the whole organization and obviously we share a little bit back and forth, so I think it’s a good thing for everybody.”

Posted on July 25, 2018July 25, 2018 by Chase Wilhelm

Numbers mean plenty when it comes to building out your Fantasy Live teams each week. NASCAR.com will examine the stats outlook for each track to help give you an edge as you go to set your lineups and bonus picks ahead of the race weekend.

Don’t forget to check back on NASCAR.com for additional insight from fantasy expert RJ Kraft as well as to watch Fantasy Fastlane with Jessica Ruffin and NBC Sports’ Steve Letarte.

Top five average running position (per loop data from 2005 to the present):

Driver	Average Running Position
Chase Elliott	9.724
Denny Hamlin	10.789
Erik Jones	10.848
Kurt Busch	11.110
Jimmie Johnson	11.911

Top five in stage points earned at Pocono in 2017-18:

Driver	Stage points	Stage wins
Kyle Busch	46	2
Kevin Harvick	43	1
Martin Truex Jr.	34	1
Brad Keselowski	33	0
Clint Bowyer	28	1

Top five in points earned in last three races at Pocono:

Driver	Race points	Race wins
Kyle Busch	148	1
Kevin Harvick	146	0
Martin Truex Jr.	139	1
Brad Keselowski	129	0
Chase Elliott	106	0

Most laps led in last three races at Pocono:

Driver	Laps led
Kyle Busch	187
Kevin Harvick	89
Martin Truex Jr.	67

Average starting position for last 10 winners: 8.5; only one driver has started outside the top 20 (Chris Buescher, 2016)

Active drivers to win pole: Kyle Busch (4), Jimmie Johnson (3), Denny Hamlin (3), Ryan Newman (2), Joey Logano (2), Kasey Kahne (2), Kurt Busch (2), Brad Keselowski (1), Ryan Blaney (1), Kyle Larson (1), Jamie McMurray (1), Martin Truex Jr. (1)

Active drivers to win at Pocono: Denny Hamlin (4), Kurt Busch (3), Jimmie Johnson (3), Kasey Kahne (2), Martin Truex Jr. (2), Ryan Blaney (1), Kyle Busch (1), Chris Buescher (1), Brad Keselowski, (1), Matt Kenseth (1), Joey Logano (1), Ryan Newman (1)

Most recent pole winner: Ryan Blaney, June of 2018

Last time pole-sitter won here: Kyle Busch, July of 2017

Where stage winners started from: First (twice), second, fourth, seventh (twice)

Winning manufacturers of last 10 races: Chevrolet-5, Toyota-3, Ford-2

Posted on July 25, 2018July 25, 2018 by Zack Albert

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. — Cole Custer’s throwback No. 00 Ford for Darlington Raceway weekend made its debut Wednesday afternoon at the Stewart-Haas Racing shop, with team co-owner Tony Stewart helping to pull the covers off a gleaming new Mustang. Whatever shape the car is in after Darlington, Stewart joked, it can’t be much worse than what happened to the original, a No. 00 Ford Galaxie driven by Stewart’s racing hero, A.J. Foyt.

Late in the 1965 NASCAR season opener at Riverside, Foyt’s car lost its brakes and careened into a trackside ditch, flipping violently in a cloud of dust and leaving medical crews fearing the worst. Foyt’s trademark toughness carried him through, an attribute that may come in handy for Custer when the NASCAR Xfinity Series hits the track “Too Tough to Tame” on Sept. 1.

RELATED: Key moments in SHR history

“It’s cool to run a really unique car and to run something with a connection to Tony and everything,” said Custer, who sits fourth in the series standings. “Obviously, A.J.’s a huge icon in our sport, so it’s just cool to do things like that where you have good connections, I would say.”

Those bonds especially ring true for Stewart, who campaigned the No. 14 — a car number long associated with Foyt — for the final eight seasons of his NASCAR career.

“I think it’s just really cool to honor guys that have been in the sport in the past,” Stewart said. “That throwback weekend, the paint schemes are cool, but when you have — like Cole says — when you’ve got a personal connection to the people that are attached to the paint schemes, it makes it that much more fun. …

“With Darlington, I told Cole, obviously the Darlington stripe’s what everybody gets. I don’t care what he does to this car, it’s not going to be near as bad as what happened to this car in real life.”

Courtesy of Stewart-Haas Racing

Foyt was all but declared dead by medics on the scene at the California road course some 53-plus years ago. After the crash, Foyt said that he’d never drive another car with numbers that read the same upside-down as right side up.

Custer, meanwhile, has embraced the symmetry of the double-zero, which he’s donned in the majority of his NASCAR national series starts. The special version of the car number that he’ll fly at Darlington borrow the looming eyeball design from Foyt’s original. Tuesday afternoon at SHR, Stewart paid particular attention to the smaller No. 00 rendering on the rear bumper.

“Whoever is behind you is going to feel like somebody’s looking at them the entire time, which I hope is the whole field,” Stewart said. “It’s weird because the eyes are toward the bottom so it’s kind of like they’re looking down. We were joking around earlier that if the car gets upside down, they’re going looking up like, ‘what happened?’ But it is kind of cool. It brings out that history.”

MORE: See all throwback schemes

Posted on July 25, 2018 by Staff Report

Jimmy Mullis survived a chaotic final stint of the NASCAR Peak Antifreeze iRacing Series at New Hampshire Motor Speedway to claim his first win in the series. Mullis made his final pit stop of the race on Lap 103 under green flag conditions and a few laps later a caution came out — just after Mullis un-lapped himself to get back on the lead lap. Mullis stayed out and took the lead under the caution and never looked back — surviving multiple late restarts to claim his first victory in the series.

Zak Novak, (Chicagoland winner from two weeks ago), finished runner-up after starting 17th. Ray Alfalla, Corey Vincent and Taylor Hurst rounded out the top five. With Novak and Hurst finishing in the top five, that placed three cars from LockDown Racing in the top five in the championship standings.

Before Mullis took the lead with 42 laps to go, the first half of the race was dominated by the No. 5 of Michael Conti, who led 72 laps. Conti had a difficult pit stop under green flag and lost all his track position – he was able to rebound and finish ninth however.

Before green flag pit stops began around Lap 100, Matt Bussa passed Conti and led 18 laps. The No. 34 machine was poised to make a charge at his first career win. Those hopes were diminished when he was a victim in one of several late-race incidents.

The cautions came fast and furious in the closing laps of the race. It began when the No. 3 of Jarl Teien had some issues on Lap 109, and from there the race seemingly turned into everyone frantically racing to the next caution. Those who had made their green flag pit stops early and had un-lapped themselves reaped the benefits of being ahead of most of the incidents.

With race 11 now in the books, there are now only two races until the playoffs begin. Ray Alfalla leads teammate Bobby Zalenski (who finished 12th), by five points in the regular season standings.

The race for the eighth and final spot in the playoffs currently belongs to Nick Ottinger, who leads Logan Clampitt by six points. Christian Challiner and Zack Novak are right on the heels of Ottinger, sitting 15 and 19 points behind, respectively. Tuesday’s winner Mullis is 13th in points, 36 points behind the cutoff.

The series heads to the Pocono Raceway in two weeks. In the past, Pocono has had plenty of late-race yellows turning the races completely upside down. With exciting restarts and pit strategy, it likely will have those battling for the final spot in the playoffs nervous throughout the entire race.

Ottinger historically runs very well at Pocono and will look to maximize his distance on the drivers directly behind him for the playoffs.

Posted on July 25, 2018 by Staff Report

Sports-car standout Andy Lally will return to the NASCAR Xfinity Series for three races this season, joining forces with DGM Racing.

RELATED: Full schedule for Pocono, Iowa

Lally, 43, will drive the Mario Gosselin-owned No. 90 Chevrolet at three road-course events, starting with the series’ Aug. 11 event at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. He’s also scheduled to participate in Xfinity events at Road America (Aug. 25) and the new Charlotte Motor Speedway road course (Sept. 29). Sponsorship for the Road America round will be provided by Henry Repeating Arms.

Lally — who competes full-time in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for Magnus Racing — scored the best finish of his Xfinity Series career at Mid-Ohio last season, placing fifth in his only start of 2017. He was named Sunoco Rookie of the Year for what’s now called the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2011.

DGM Racing also fields a full-time Xfinity Series entry for Alex Labbe in the No. 36 Chevrolet. Driving duties for DGM’s No. 90 Chevy have been split by three drivers: Josh Williams (15 starts), Brandon Brown (two starts) and Donald Theetge (one start, his series debut last weekend at New Hampshire).

Posted on July 25, 2018July 25, 2018 by Staff Report

Kyle Busch unveiled Wednesday the paint scheme he’ll run during the Bojangles’ Southern 500 Throwback Weekend at Darlington Raceway later this season (Sept. 2, 6 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App).

The 2015 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion will honor Ernie Irvan’s 1998 Skittles paint scheme as he looks to notch his second Southern 500 victory since his only win at the track a decade ago.

“It is a really, really awesome opportunity to finally get to Darlington with a throwback scheme with M&Ms, especially Skittles, this year and we got the Ernie Irvin 1998 season throwback,” Busch told NASCAR.com. “I am really excited about that and having Ernie and being a part of that and having him come in and do some stuff with us behind the scenes. It’s been awesome. Really looking forward to getting to the race track.”

Irvan placed 36th in the 1998 Southern 500, but notched a pair of runner-ups in 1990 and ’91.

Getty Images

Though the paint scheme might not have held much luck for Irvan at the track “Too Tough to Tame,” it did have a little mojo going for it that could rub off on the No. 18 Toyota.

“You know, Ernie sat on the pole with this paint scheme in the Brickyard race that year and of course some other successful races,” said Busch, who was 13 years old in 1998. “So we are looking forward to making Darlington a success for us and to get myself and our team and Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota another Southern 500 victory.”

The throwback announcement Wednesday came with a funny skit that saw Kyle Busch munching on Skittles. After every bite, an item in his shop turned into something old school.

A shop worker then grabbed a handful of the candies, tossed them in his mouth and watched as Busch himself turned into Irvan.

The throwback weekend at Darlington will be the track’s fourth race under the award-winning platform. This year’s theme, “Seven Decades of NASCAR,” embodies the sport’s storied history over 70 years.

MORE: Behind-the-scenes photos of Irvan with Busch

Posted on July 24, 2018July 24, 2018 by Team Release

Spartanburg, S.C. — Jeremy Clements Racing is excited to announce that they will run the 1960 Cup Champion Rex White’s “Gold Thunder” paint scheme in the VFW200 at Darlington Raceway “Celebrating 7 Decades of NASCAR” Labor Day Weekend. RepairableVehicles.com will fuel the #51 Camaro SS to honor not only White but moreover, Jeremy’s Great Uncle Louis Clements.

Louie Clements was a renowned engine builder and crew chief in the late 50’s and 60’s and in 1959 partnered with Rex White to form White and Clements Racing. From 1959 to 1962 White and Clements Racing accumulated 26 Cups wins. Topped off by winning the 1960 Grand National Championship with 2015 Hall of Famer inductee Rex White behind the wheel. During that time Louie won multiple Mechanic of the Year awards, won the first Pit Crew Challenge in 1962 and they also hired James Hylton who went on to win the NASCAR 1966 Rookie of the year. With this being the VFW 200 this also holds special remembrance as both Louie and Crawford were veterans of World War II.

“It’s so awesome to honor my Great Uncle Louie (Clements) this year as he had a great impact not only on our family racing history but also NASCAR,” stated Clements. “Darlington is one of my favorite tracks and what better way to pay tribute on throwback weekend by sticking with Family Tradition.” Clements went onto say.

This is the fourth year that Darlington will hold NASCAR throwback weekend. Jeremy will make his eighth career start at the famed raceway. Fans are welcome to join JCR again this year with our #RideWithJeremy Fan car. Please see Jeremy Clements Racing on Facebook or www.jeremyclements51.com for more details

Posted on July 24, 2018July 26, 2018 by Staff Report

Kevin Harvick explained his mindset during the dramatic New Hampshire race finish on his “Happy Hours” show on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Tuesday.

Harvick put the bump-and-run on Kyle Busch for the victory Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

“That’s a 10-point swing from a playoff standpoint,” Harvick said. “I just had it in my mind to be aggressive.”

After his New Hampshire win, Harvick took a two-point lead in playoff points over Busch. Martin Truex Jr., the last member of the group of drivers who have become known as the “Big 3,” is just six playoff points behind Harvick.

It was Harvick’s sixth win of the season; Busch has five and Truex Jr. has four. In the regular-season driver standings, Harvick trails Busch, the series leader, by 53. Truex is 104 points behind the leader.

Harvick also said the threat of rain was important in the decision to move Busch. With seven laps to go, sprinkles started to fall on the 1.058-mile track, and Harvick believed he had to make his move for the win quickly. Rain had already played a role Sunday, delaying the start of the race by more than three hours.

“You sit on the other side of this fence and you’re the guy who get moved out of the way — you think about this differently,” Harvick said. “For me, I was thinking about winning the race. It’s one of those situations where you choose to make a decision. At Michigan I felt like I needed to be more aggressive quickly and didn’t do that and lost the race.

“Kyle Busch is good at making his car wide. As you look at the situation at Loudon and where the groove was and all the things going on, it was going to be a tough situation to pass. I got up underneath him in Turn 4 and didn’t complete the pass and felt like it was time to go.”

Harvick said he’s moving on from the incident but understands the perspective is different for the winning driver and the runner-up. He compared Sunday’s events to his battle with Busch in the 2017 Pocono July race, which Busch won by 6 seconds over Harvick.

“I enjoy racing Kyle and race him hard. And I expect him to race me hard,” Harvick said. “Last year we were in the same role and different position when we went to Pocono. … I didn’t complain about it then, and I’m not going to complain about it now. But I can tell you that it’s different when you’re sitting here and one the race than it is when you’re sitting on the other side of the fence.”

Posted on July 24, 2018 by Staff Report

Two NASCAR Xfinity Series teams were assessed L1-level penalties after failing post-race inspection at New Hampshire, and another Xfinity team and the No. 24 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series team were given safety violations for having lug nuts not properly installed following last weekend’s New Hampshire races.

The No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, driven by William Byron and finishing 14th, received the safety violation following the Monster Energy Series’ Foxwoods Resorts Casino 301. Crew chief Darian Grubb was fined $10,000.

Meanwhile, the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet both failed post-race front body inspection heights after the Xfinity Series’ Lakes Region 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

The penalties were identical for both teams: Each crew chief (Mike Shiplett of the No. 42 Chevrolet and Eric Phillips of the No. 18 Toyota) was fined $10,000 and suspended from the next Xfinity Series race. Each team also was assessed with the loss of 10 driver points and 10 owner points.

The No. 18 Toyota, driven by Ryan Preece, finished third.

The No. 42 Chevrolet, driven by John Hunter Nemechek, finished fourth.

Additionally, the No. 52 Jimmy Means Racing Chevrolet did not have lug nuts properly installed following the Xfinity Series race; crew chief Timothy Brown was fined $5,000.

The No. 52 Chevrolet, driven by David Starr, finished 28th.

Posted on July 24, 2018 by Zack Albert

Roughly halfway through his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, Bubba Wallace still has plenty of time to make gains in his rookie campaign. But some of the focus is already shifting to next year with preliminary contract talks underway with Richard Petty Motorsports.

Tuesday morning, both driver and team owner indicated that the prospects of sticking together for 2019 are looking up.

“Bubba will be with us again next year from a standpoint that he’s still learning,” Richard Petty said at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, where the team’s throwback No. 43 Chevrolet for Darlington Raceway was unveiled. “He’s a rookie. A lot of these tracks, he’s never been to. We’ve got a new car, running a Chevrolet this year, first time with a Chevrolet, so we’re trying to learn the driver and the car, and all of us trying to learn together.

“It’s been a real learning process. Right now, we’re kind of too slow learning. We need to speed that up.”

Said Wallace: “We’re working on that right now. It’s a positive look for us. We’ve just started this deal, and we formed this relationship back as soon as I set foot on the grounds for Pocono last year, so we’re in a good spot, for sure. We’re still working on all the details, but I’m excited to be where I’m at right now.”

Wallace and Petty first joined forces with a four-race tryout last year when he filled in as Aric Almirola recovered from injury. That led to a full-time ride for this season, which has been a challenging one. Since dazzling the field with an emotional runner-up finish in the Daytona 500, Wallace now sits tied for 24th place in the Monster Energy Series standings.

Despite the sometimes rocky road in their first season together, Petty said he places some stock in having a measure of continuity behind the wheel.

“I feel like it’s just going to take a little while to make it jell,” Petty said. “It’s hardly ever that any team just comes in and does really good at the beginning of it. It takes two or three years for everybody to sort of settle in. Hopefully, we get settled in so we’re ready for next year.”

MORE: Darlington throwback schemes for 2018