Denny Hamlin is 30/1 to win 2021 Food City Dirt Race at Bristol

Denny Hamlin

11 FedEx Freight Toyota
Joe Gibbs Racing

Race: Food City Dirt Race
Date/Time: March 28/3:30 p.m. ET
Distance: 250 laps/125 miles
Track Length: .533 miles
Track Shape: Oval
2020 Winner (pavement): Brad Keselowski

Express Notes:

Press Kit: Download the 2021 FedEx Racing press materials at www.fedexracing.com/presskit, including bios for Denny Hamlin, Chris Gabehart and Joe Gibbs Racing leadership, program highlights and statistics.

Atlanta Recap: Denny Hamlin padded his championship points lead with his third straight top-five finish, bringing home a fourth-place result at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The #11 FedEx Express team started the race on the pole and led the first 27 laps but didn’t have the speed to be out front beyond that early surge. Hamlin and his pit crew were fast all day, but not fast enough to pass the dominant car of Kyle Larson, who led 269 laps and appeared headed for the win until Ryan Blaney passed him for the lead with nine laps to go. The fourth-place run was Hamlin’s fifth top-five finish in the season’s six races and enough to extend his lead atop the standings to 43 points.

Bristol Outlook: The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway for Sunday’s 250-lap event on a temporary, dirt-covered track for the series’ first dirt race in more than 50 years. Hamlin’s dirt-racing experience is in his distant past. He competed on dirt courses on karts in his childhood and in a handful of late model races more than a decade ago. Hamlin is a two-time winner at the traditional, paved Bristol track.

Hamlin Statistics:
Track: Bristol Motor Speedway (pavement)
Races: 30
Wins: 2
Top-5: 9
Top-10: 14
Laps Led: 829
Avg. Start: 13.2
Avg. Finish: 14.7

Hamlin Conversation – Bristol:

How are you and the team preparing the car to race on Bristol’s dirt track as it differs from normal surfaces?

“Our cars aren’t built for dirt, but we’ll make adjustments to the chassis and whatever’s needed. I personally have very little dirt experience, but I love dirt racing. I’m a fan of it. Hopefully it will live up to the hype.”

How do you think the field is going to adapt to such a different type of racing?

“It’s going to be different than anything we’ve done before. Who knows how it will turn out? But all the Cup guys know how to put on a show, regardless of their dirt experience, so I’m confident we’ll do that.”

FedEx Freight Along for the Ride at Bristol: For the Food City Dirt Race at the Bristol Motor Speedway, FedEx Freight recognizes the company’s northwest Kingsport, Tenn., service center by featuring the call letters KPT on the #11 FedEx Freight race car. The Kingsport service center, opened in 1995, has approximately 80 team members who are committed to making every FedEx experience outstanding.

Chase Briscoe one of the favorites (14/1) to win Bristol Dirt Race

 

CHASE BRISCOE Bristol Dirt Advance No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Food City Dirt Race (Round 7 of 36) ● Time/Date: 3:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 28 ● Location: Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway ● Layout: .533-mile dirt oval ● Laps/Miles: 250 laps / 125 miles ● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 75 laps / Stage 2: 75 laps / Final Stage: 100 laps ● TV/Radio: FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang, can often be found at the Millbridge Speedway dirt track in Salisbury, North Carolina on Wednesday nights with his mini sprint team. Sometimes he even climbs behind the wheel himself to prepare for one of the few dirt races he allows himself to compete in as he builds his NASCAR resume. But this weekend, Briscoe’s racing worlds come together as the NASCAR Cup Series returns to dirt at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway for the Food City Dirt Race.   ● Briscoe cut his teeth racing on the dirt tracks of Southern Indiana, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. The third-generation racer’s first time behind the wheel of a racecar came in 2001 driving a quarter midget. He won his first heat race and then won the feature event later that evening. Briscoe moved on to mini sprints and, when he was 13, stepped into a 410 sprint car. In his first race, he finished 10th in a 40-car field.   ● That was 2008, his rookie 410 sprint car season in which he made 37 starts. Briscoe racked up eight top-five finishes and 17 top-10s, including a win in the last race of the season at Paragon Speedway, where he broke four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon’s record as being the youngest person to win a 410 sprint car race. Upon besting the NASCAR Hall of Famer’s record at the age of 13, Briscoe said, “It was pretty special to me to realize what I’d done, but I know I have to keep working. I don’t think about it a whole lot. I just go out every time like it’s just another race to try and win.”   ● Briscoe made the transition to stock car racing at the age of 19, but he stuck to his roots by competing in a handful of dirt racing events each year, and he consistently added to the win column. In 2016, Briscoe competed in the Tulsa Shootout for Andy and Scott Bradley in the winged and non-winged mini sprint divisions. He won both features, picking up two of the event’s Golden Driller trophies to kick off a year that would see Briscoe earn six ARCA Racing Series wins en route to the series championship and Rookie of the Year honors. He also entered the Chili Bowl Nationals that same year driving a Haas Automation-branded car owned by his Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) teammate Cole Custer.   ● Each year since 2015, Briscoe has competed in the Chili Bowl Nationals in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In his most recent outing this past January, he advanced to the B-Feature during the final night of racing and finished eighth after starting 17th.   ● Chase’s grandfather, Richard Briscoe, is a legendary sprint car team owner, crew chief and car builder who over time has fielded entries for 37 different drivers, including such renowned wheelmen as Chuck Amati, Dave Blaney, Dick Gaines, Jack Hewitt, Steve Kinser and Rich Vogler. Chase’s father, Kevin Briscoe, raced sprint cars for more than 20 years and won more than 150 feature events. He claimed track championships at Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt, Indiana, and Bloomington (Ind.) Speedway five times, including one streak of three in a row.   ● This weekend will also mark Briscoe’s return to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. For the first time since 2019, he will compete in Saturday’s Pinty’s Truck Race on Dirt in the No. 04 Huffy Bicycles/Tex-A-Con Cut Stone Ford F-150 for Roper Racing. Briscoe made three Truck Series starts on the dirt track at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. He finished no worse than seventh in each and earned the win in the 2018 event, starting from third and leading a total of 54 laps en route to capturing the event’s Golden Shovel trophy in his only Truck Series start of the season in the No. 27 Ford.   ● Six races into his first fulltime NASCAR Cup Series season, Briscoe leads the Rookie of the Year standings by 30 points over Anthony Alfredo. With Rookie of the Year honors in the Truck Series (2017) and Xfinity Series (2019), Briscoe is looking to join Erik Jones and William Byron as only the third driver in history to claim the title in all three of NASCAR’s national touring series.

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

You are the rookie Cup Series driver for SHR and have been going through quite the learning process, but now you get to race on dirt, something that is more in your comfort zone. Is this a dirt guy’s race to win? “It’s going to be a unique race. The dirt guys, to some extent, will have a little bit of an advantage but, once the track goes away, once it starts to rubber up, it’s going to be more like a pavement race. I think the only advantage a dirt guy really has is they’re able to read the dirt and kind of know which lanes are starting to change and where we need to be running at certain times of the race. But all of the guys in the Cup Series are really good drivers. Guys like Kevin Harvick, they’re going to figure it out and they’re going to be fast. We might be a little better early in the day when it’s elbows up and you really have to pitch the car around, but I wouldn’t consider myself a favorite. I’d like to be in the hunt by the end of it.”    You have a history of winning the first event on tracks like the Roval and the Indianapolis road course. Do you believe you can add to that list this weekend and add another stock car win on dirt to your resume? “It would be great to be able to do that. I don’t know what it is about new tracks. I guess it’s because it’s more of a level playing field and we’re all just trying to figure it out. Our cars don’t drive like dirt cars at all, but being able to figure it out and win the Eldora Truck Series race certainly helps my cause. The truck on dirt is more similar to what we’re going to be doing compared to running a sprint car or midget to prepare. I by no means expect to be the best guy out there – there are so many strong competitors in the Cup Series – but it is a great opportunity to go out, run well and potentially lock into the playoffs. I know my team is putting a lot of emphasis on that race because of my dirt background. Hopefully I can use that to my advantage and be around at the end of it.”   We know you had aspirations of making it to NASCAR, but did you ever dream you would get to run a Cup car on dirt? “When the Eldora Truck Series race started, I felt like it was a possibility that the Cup Series would potentially get a dirt race, but I’d be the first one to tell you that I didn’t think it would happen at Bristol. I figured we would just go to a dirt track that we already had. For them to do it at Bristol, I can’t imagine how hard that is from a facility standpoint of bringing all that dirt in and all of these things for three weekends of racing, but I’m super excited. I think the Cup Series has needed the dirt race for a really long time. All the drivers have a way to kind of tie back into our grassroots and dirt guys never really had that. We have a short track, we have a road course, we have an intermediate, we have a superspeedway, but we never had a dirt track and, at least as a fan, I’ve always wanted to see the Cup Series drivers challenged in every single discipline. We finally have that now with the dirt race, so I can’t wait to be a part of it. I’m just excited as a fan to see it, as well.”   You’ve had plenty of career moments in your relatively short stock car career – ARCA champion, Rookie of the Year in ARCA, the Truck Series and Xfinity Series, nine Xfinity Series wins in a single season. You’ve also got a few notable stats as a dirt racer, the earliest of which was in 2008, your first full season racing 410 sprint cars. At 13 years old, you broke Jeff Gordon’s record as the youngest driver to win in a 410 sprint car. Did you realize then what an accomplishment that was? “At the time, I think I knew it was an accomplishment but it wasn’t something I thought about constantly. I had more work to do. I had watched my grandpa win all these races with guys like Jack Hewitt and Steve Kinser, and my dad had won a ton. I just wanted to do what they were doing. Getting that win meant that I was following in their footsteps and adding to the family’s racing history. That’s what we did. Now when I look back, yeah, it’s a special thing. The further I get in my NASCAR career, the more I realize the significance in those little moments. I don’t take any of them for granted. I’m blessed to have an opportunity to race, and I know each time one of those moments happens that it could be the last. I want to advance my career and race for years to come, and of course things like that help, but it’s just a moment.”

Cole Custer is 80/1 to win Bristol Dirt Race

 

COLE CUSTER Bristol Dirt Advance No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Food City Dirt Race (Round 7 of 36) ● Time/Date: 3:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 28 ● Location: Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway ● Layout: .533-mile high-banked, dirt oval ● Laps/Miles: 250 laps / 125 miles ● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 75 laps / Stage 2: 75 laps / Final Stage: 100 laps ● TV/Radio: FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Cole Custer’s 46th career NASCAR Cup Series start will be a history-making one when he and his fellow competitors take a weekend away from pavement racing for Sunday’s highly anticipated Food City Dirt Race on the Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway half-mile oval. It has been more than 50 years since the Cup Series last competed on a dirt track.   ● The 23-year-old Custer, last year’s Cup Series Rookie of the Year, is no stranger to competing on dirt in a NASCAR event. He drove the No. 00 JR Motorsports entry in the 2015 and 2016 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races on the half-mile dirt oval at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. He qualified 24th and finished 29th in the July 2015 race, then came back a year later to finish sixth from 23rd on the starting grid.    ● Custer’s preparation for this weekend included joining several of his fellow Cup Series competitors in last week’s Bristol Dirt Nationals. He drove in the 604 Late Model division Saturday but saw his heat race end prematurely after a first-lap accident. He had a strong run in the last-chance qualifying race but fell just short of advancing into the main event.   ● Custer arrives at Bristol 22nd in the Cup Series standings, 172 points behind leader Denny Hamlin, after his 18th-place finish on the 1.5-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway oval last Sunday. After the first six races last year, Custer was 24th in the championship.   ● The two Truck Series appearances by Custer on the dirt at Eldora came during a successful seven-year run by the series that began in 2013. The inaugural race there in July 2013 marked the first time in more than four decades a top NASCAR series had competed on dirt – the last being Sept. 30, 1970 at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh, where Richard Petty took the 117th of his record 200 career NASCAR Cup Series wins. Like the annual Eldora Truck Series races, it was on a Wednesday night and contested on a half-mile oval. There was never a repeat winner in the Truck Series race at Eldora, and six of its seven winners are entered in the Food City Dirt Race – Austin Dillon (2013), Bubba Wallace (2014), Christopher Bell (2015), Kyle Larson (2016), Chase Briscoe (2018) and Stewart Friesen (2019). The lone winner not entered at Bristol is 2017 victor Matt Crafton.   ● Returning to Custer’s No. 41 Ford Mustang for SHR is team co-owner Gene Haas’ newest holding, Haas Tooling, which was launched 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. HaasTooling.com products became available nationally last July, and the cutting tools available for purchase at HaasTooling.com have proven to be even more important during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as CNC machines have become vital to producing personal protective equipment. 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.

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

How excited were you when you heard there was going to be a dirt race at Bristol? “I was excited, but probably scared at the same time (laughs). When we first heard about it, our thought was, ‘Oh, boy, how are we going to figure this out? How’s this going to work?’ Everybody knows it’s going to be one of those races where nobody knows what to expect. There’s going to be a lot of adapting when we show up and trying to figure it out because it’s going to be brand new for a lot of people – for everybody, really, because we’ve never run Cup cars on dirt. As we’ve gotten closer, I think it’s a lot more about just making it work. I raced a little bit of dirt when I was younger. I wouldn’t say I’m a professional or anything, but it was something that was really fun and it was something I’ve always wanted to get back to. I’m really excited to get back on the dirt for the race and even the practice and heats leading up to it.”   You had the chance to drive a late model last weekend in the Bristol Dirt Nationals. How was that experience for you? “It was fun going and doing the Dirt Nationals last weekend. We didn’t have the luck we wanted – we actually got wrecked in our heat race on lap one. We had to run the LCQ (last-chance qualifying race) and we passed a lot of cars and didn’t make it into the main event. But it was just fun to get back into local-style racing and something that makes racing fun again, driving a car on dirt and kind of being like a kid again and learning a new thing. So it was something that was really cool to go and get to do in a less-stressful environment than what we’re used to, I guess. It was definitely good to see it and be a part of it and to see the track.”   How might that experience help you this weekend? “Going into this weekend, I think what will help me from running last weekend was mostly just being able to see what the track did and how it changed throughout the day, how it dried out as the dirt got run on, and how the moisture affected it, those were all helpful. But those cars are so much different that it’s hard take much more from that into this weekend. It was just getting a feel for the track and getting your mindset right.”   What do you think will be the key to running well on the dirt this weekend? “I think it’s going to be important to get through your heat race good and kind of start your race off good because, if you start behind, it can definitely kind of throw you for a loop and then you’re kind of fighting and maybe you do something that you don’t want to and you get yourself in a bad position. I think the heat race is important, and then it’s going to be a lot about attrition, especially for a lot of the pavement guys. I think just staying clean is going to be one of the biggest things, and not making mistakes and just being there at the end, because there are going to be a lot of guys who do make mistakes and it’s going to be a matter of limited mistakes. It’s going to be a lot to take in, and every track and every race matters, so it’ll be a matter of trying to collect as many points as you can so you can have a good shot at the playoffs.”   With just two 50-minute practice sessions Friday to get ready for Saturday’s heat races, what kinds of things have you done off the track that could help you this weekend? “First of all, talking with guys in dirt racing who know what they’re doing, asking the advice of what to expect, what to look for in the track, stuff like that, that’s been very valuable. Also, even simulator stuff – iRacing is helpful just trying to get ideas. We have a lot of resources at SHR with Tony (Stewart) and Chase (Briscoe). I’ve definitely picked Chase’s brain on what to expect and what I should be looking for. He was always good in the Truck Series at Eldora. And, obviously, Tony, he’s one of the best dirt racers of all time, so any ideas from him are going to help a lot.”   Who do you expect will do well this weekend? “I think it’s going to be the guys who have raced a lot of dirt before, obviously guys like Kyle Larson and Ricky Stenhouse and Chase (Briscoe) – those guys are going to be good just because they’ve raced a lot of dirt before and at a high level. There are going to be some guys who are pavement racers who are going to get up there and race, but I think we’re going to try to make sure we cross the T’s and dot the I’s and hopefully not make any huge mistakes, and hopefully have some speed in it.”

Aric Almirola is 80/1 to win Bristol Dirt Race

 

Aric Almirola Bristol Dirt Advance No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Food City Dirt Race (Round 7 of 36) ● Time/Date: 3:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 28 ● Location: Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway ● Layout: .533-mile, high-banked, dirt oval ● Laps/Miles: 250 laps/133.25 miles ● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 75 laps / Stage 2: 75 laps / Final Stage: 100 laps ● TV/Radio: FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

●  Dirt Racing History: Almirola had seven starts starting in 2006 in the Prelude to the Dream charity event that Stewart-Haas Racing co-owner Tony Stewart hosted from 2005 to 2012 at his Eldora Speedway half-mile dirt oval in Rossburg, Ohio. Almirola scored a best finish of third and earned four top-10 finishes in those six outings. Almirola also won an exhibition race at the short track in Talladega, Alabama.    ●  A Little-Known Fact: Almirola started his racing career on dirt. He raced go-karts at Dirt Devil Speedway in Land O’Lakes, Florida, which was built and owned by his grandfather Sam Rodriguez, who was a well-known sprint dirt car racer. Not only did Almirola start his racing career on dirt, he learned valuable lessons about how to operate a dirt track from age 11 to 18.    ●  Almirola has prepped for the Bristol Dirt race by testing various local dirt tracks in a dirt late model and IMCA modified.    ●  Career Stats: Almirola has career totals of two wins, two poles, 24 top-five finishes, 79 top-10s and 842 laps led in 358 NASCAR Cup Series starts.   ●  Almirola will participate in the iRacing Pro Invitational Series virtual event on the Bristol dirt oval at 8 p.m. EDT Wednesday. It will be broadcast live on FS1.    ●  Smithfield Foods celebrates 10 years of partnership with Almirola this season with a special campaign called Taste Victory. As one of the most active partners in NASCAR, Smithfield plans to engage fans all year long by hosting a microsite that provides the opportunity to win when Almirola wins or finishes inside the top-10. When Almirola wins, one fan wins $10,000, and 10 fans win a gift card for each top-10 finish. The microsite also doubles as an Aric Almirola fan page and entertainment source where fans can get behind the wheel of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford with a custom racing game, and learn more about Almirola with fast facts, favorite recipes and custom content about his life on and off the track. Visit www.tastevictory.com to learn more. Thanks to Almirola’s Feb. 11 win in the Duel qualifying race for the Daytona 500, one lucky fan has already won $10,000.    ●  Beyond the 10 YouTube Series: In 2021, Almirola continues to share his life beyond the No. 10 Smithfield Ford with season three of his award-winning YouTube series. Fans and media can subscribe on YouTube to see Almirola’s personality on and off the track. Episodes have already featured life as a dad, a husband and an athlete, and it gives fans a unique perspective on what goes on in the life of a professional NASCAR driver. Fans can also follow Almirola’s social media channels: @Aric_Almirola on Twitter and Instagram, and @AricAlmirola on Facebook.    ●  The Smithfield Ford team sits 26th in the championship standings with 87 points, 190 behind leader Denny Hamlin.   ●  Crew chief Mike Bugarewicz is in his sixth full-time season at SHR and his second with Almirola. To learn more, click here.

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

Talk about your dirt racing background.    “Growing up, I went to the dirt track to watch my grandpa race dirt sprint cars, so that’s all I knew – scraping mud off of racecars. When I was growing up, my grandfather was always making fun of people who raced on asphalt. He said asphalt was for ‘gettin’ to the racetrack.’ Then when I started go-kart racing, all of the racing was on dirt. It was a very different discipline and so that’s what I learned from. My grandpa actually built his own dirt go-kart track, so when I was 11 all the way to 18 years old, I helped prepare the track every single weekend there was an event at his track. I was very familiar with watering, grading and prepping the track and everything that was needed to go into making a good surface for the weekend. I have a lot of memories from starting on dirt, but as I started to stock-car race I transitioned to asphalt. My grandfather was a firm believer that if I was going to make it in NASCAR, I would need to become a great asphalt racer because he thought dirt racing would teach me bad habits. It’s been a long time since I’ve done much dirt racing. I think the last time I raced dirt was the Prelude (to the Dream) that Tony Stewart hosted. I think I have eight total races in a racecar on dirt. I’ve had mild success at that. I have confidence and I feel really good about going back to my roots.”   How has it been testing local short tracks to get a feel for what this weekend will be like?    “Since I haven’t been on a dirt track in quite a while, we decided it would be best to get some reps on a dirt track. We went to a couple different dirt tracks in a full-blown IMCA modified, and the biggest thing was making sure the tracks dry slicked like we expect the surface to be at Bristol. We expect our cars to have way more horsepower than we can hook up, so we tried to manipulate a stock car the best way we could, but still at the end of the day you’re in a light stock car and it’s not going to be the same. I think that’s across the board. Everyone kind of feels that way. Just because you have experience on dirt doesn’t mean you’re going to be good this weekend. I think we all agree that these Cup cars aren’t going to drive anything like that. We went mostly to get experience on the dirt and be comfortable with sliding around, working on throttle control, and all of the things you need to be successful on dirt. All of the dust and dirt flying around, we don’t have that asphalt racing, so just going through all of the little nuances to try to be prepared the best you can even though you can’t test exactly how that will be at Bristol.”   What do they mean when they compare racing on Bristol dirt to driving at a place like Martinsville or Richmond?      “What I’ve heard from a lot of people is it’s not like typical dirt-car racing. You don’t have the car really hung out sideways, standing in the gas and just slinging mud. The cars drive a lot straighter on the dirt. These big heavy stock cars do. They’re not running super sideways. You’re not driving them like you would a typical dirt car, so I think that’s what everybody has really referenced, that the cars are not way up on the left side and dug in with the right side tires. There are just a lot of differences in the way the dirt cars drive and the way they race versus how I’m expecting it from what I hear and what I gather our Cup cars to drive on dirt.”

Odds to win 2021 Food City Dirt Race at Bristol

WESTGATE LAS VEGAS SUPERBOOK

NASCAR CUP SERIES

ODDS TO WIN 2021 FOOD CITY DIRT RACE

BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY (DIRT)

SUNDAY, MARCH 28. 2021 - 3:40 PM ET

Kyle LARSON 2/1
Christopher BELL 7/1
Chase BRISCOE 14/1
Austin DILLON 16/1
Stewart FRIESON 16/1
Tyler REDDICK 20/1
Ricky STENHOUSE JR 20/1
Kyle BUSCH 20/1
Chase ELLIOTT 20/1
Ryan BLANEY 20/1
Bubba WALLACE 25/1
Alex BOWMAN 25/1
Denny HAMLIN 30/1
Kurt BUSCH 30/1
Joey LOGANO 30/1
Kevin HARVICK 30/1
Martin TRUEX JR 30/1
Mike MARLAR 30/1
Ryan NEWMAN 40/1
Brad KESELOWSKI 60/1
Matt DIBENEDETTO 60/1
William BYRON 60/1
Shane GOLOBIC 60/1
Chris WINDOM 60/1
Michael McDOWELL 80/1
Ty DILLON 80/1
Aric ALMIROLA 80/1
Chris BUESCHER 80/1
Cole CUSTER 80/1
Ross CHASTAIN 100/1
Erik JONES 80/1
Daniel SUAREZ 300/1
JJ YELEY 500/1
Ryan PREECE 1000/1
Anthony ALFREDO 2000/1
Corey LAJOIE 5000/1
Quin HOUFF 5000/1
Cody WARE 5000/1
Josh BILICKI 5000/1

Denny Hamlin begins 10-race 2021 aNASCAR ProInvitational Series Wednesday night at Bristol Dirt

Hamlin to Compete in 2021 eNASCAR ProInvitational Series

Season Outlook: Denny Hamlin will compete in the 10-race 2021 season of the eNASCAR ProInvitational Series, the iRacing series that showcases top-level NASCAR drivers performing in simulators on virtual racetracks. The series launched in 2020 during NASCAR’s nine-week hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, giving drivers the opportunity to continue competing while working from home.

Hamlin won two ProInvitational Series races in 2020 – the inaugural event at Homestead-Miami Speedway and the series finale at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Just as memorable as the wins was an incident during the Talladega Superspeedway race when Hamlin’s seven-year-old daughter inadvertently turned off his simulator’s monitors mid-race, causing him to finish last.

FedEx, the primary sponsor of the #11 Toyota in the NASCAR Cup Series, will once again carry over into the iRacing series as Hamlin kicks off the season Wednesday in the virtual FedEx Freight Toyota.

Hamlin iRacing Statistics:
Starts:169
Wins: 32
Top-5s: 77
Poles: 31

Series Schedule (FS1):
Wednesday, March 24 – Bristol Dirt (8 p.m. ET)
Wednesday, April 21 – Talladega (7 p.m. ET)
Wednesday, May 5 – Darlington (8 p.m. ET)
Wednesday, May 19 – COTA (7 p.m. ET)
Wednesday, June 2 – Track TBD (8 p.m. ET)
*Second half of schedule (NBC) to be released at a later date

Cole Custer is 200/1 to win 2021 Folds of Honor 500

 

COLE CUSTER Atlanta Advance No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

●  Event:  Folds of Honor 500 (Round 6 of 36) ●  Time/Date:  3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 21 ●  Location:  Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia ●  Layout:  1.54-mile oval ●  Laps/Miles:  325 laps / 500.5 miles ●  Stage Lengths:  Stage 1: 105 laps / Stage 2: 105 laps / Final Stage: 115 laps ●  TV/Radio:  FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Cole Custer will make his 45th career NASCAR Cup Series start when he and his No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) return to Atlanta Motor Speedway for Sunday’s Folds of Honor 500. When the series last visited the 1.5-mile oval last June, the 23-year-old native of Ladera Ranch, California, started 31st and finished 19th for his sixth top-20 in what was just the 10th start of his Cup Series Rookie of the Year season. It was his first Cup Series start at Atlanta.   ● In his three Atlanta starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Custer’s best was his most recent, when he qualified his No. 00 SHR Ford on the pole and finished second by .191 of a second to Christopher Bell in the February 2019 race. Custer finished 10th in his Atlanta Xfinity Series debut in 2017 before returning in 2018 to qualify fourth but seeing his race end early after a lap-10 accident.   ● Custer first race at Atlanta came in the February 2016 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, when he started sixth and finished 17th in the No. 00 entry for JR Motorsports.   ● In the time since his first Atlanta start, Custer captured his first Cup Series win at another 1.5-mile track on July 12 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta. The win not only clinched a spot in the 16-driver playoffs, it put him in an elite category with only nine other drivers who have won in each of NASCAR’s top three national series, as well as in ARCA and one of NASCAR’s developmental series -- in his case, the K&N Pro Series. Only 33 other drivers have won in each of NASCAR’s top three national series.   ● Custer arrives at Atlanta 20th in the Cup Series standings, 150 points behind leader Denny Hamlin, after his 31st-place finish on the mile oval at Phoenix Raceway last Sunday. A late-race accident not of his doing spoiled his bid for a top-10 finish. Custer opened the season with a pair of strong outings in the Daytona 500 (11th) and the following week on the Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway road course (13th). He was two laps away from his eighth career top-10 at Homestead-Miami Speedway three weekends ago when a tire began coming apart while he was running eighth and forced him to limp his No. 41 Ford home to a 28th-place finish. After the first four races last year, Custer was 24th in the championship.   ● Returning to Custer’s No. 41 Ford Mustang for SHR is team co-owner Gene Haas’ newest holding, Haas Tooling, which was launched 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. HaasTooling.com products became available nationally last July, and the cutting tools available for purchase at HaasTooling.com have proven to be even more important during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as CNC machines have become vital to producing personal protective equipment. 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.

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

What do you think about the racing at Atlanta? Why do drivers love it so much? “I think the biggest thing about Atlanta is it’s just a driver’s racetrack where it’s so worn out that you can really control a lot with how you’re driving the car, how you wear out the tires, which line you run. So, you can really do a lot as a driver.”   It’s been a bit of an up-and-down start to season for you, so far. Does your sophomore campaign feel much different than your rookie season? “For sure. I think there are a lot less nerves. In your rookie season, you’re racing against guys you were watching on TV since you were a little kid. Some of that, the first half of your rookie season, is pretty shocking, some of the guys you’re racing. Once you get over that, it’s just like everybody’s a normal driver. This year, that’s not even an issue.”   You earned your first Cup Series win in that rookie season, putting you in some elite company. What will it take to get the next one? “Winning that first one definitely gives you a lot of confidence for the second win to come. It’s not easy, by any means, to win in the Cup Series. But I think we have the team to do it and I think I’ve learned a ton since we won that race, so it’s just a matter of putting it all together on any given weekend.”   Atlanta was the first race that was postponed during the virus outbreak last year. How has your ability to perform evolved with the abbreviated weekend schedules and COVID-19 protocols into the first part of this season? “We came into this year with a lot better idea of what we have going on. Our first race back at Darlington last May, we didn’t know. It was so much different than what we were used to, but now we have a good rhythm of how the schedule works and stuff like that, and we know what we kind of want to bring to the racetrack for the schedule that we have and everything like that. I think it’s been going even smoother this year and it’s just a matter of trying to look at all your notes from last year and trying to make sure you’re as prepared and as thorough as you can going into the next one.”   With no practice or qualifying, how much more important is your preparation through simulation and watching video? “That’s really nothing that’s new. I think we’ve all watched a ton of film even before when we had practice. We’d watch a ton before the race and be completely ready. Now, you just kind of had to change what you’re looking at and how much of it you’re looking at, so you don’t really have to look at old practice sessions and stuff like that. It actually simplifies things at times, too, because you don’t have to look at as much stuff and you don’t have as many things to mess up through the weekend. There are gains and losses, I guess, but definitely for the younger guys it would probably be a little bit nice to have some practice.”

Kyle Busch is 10/1 to win 2021 Folds of Honor 500 at Atlanta

 

KYLE BUSCH Sending a Message   HUNTERSVILLE, North Carolina (March 16, 2021) – As the NASCAR Cup Series heads to the sixth race of the season at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Kyle Busch is hoping to “send a message” in more ways than one.   Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&M’S Messages Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR), will have M&M’S Messages on board for Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta. First launched in 2020, each M&M’S Messages pack features a unique expression delivered by the iconic M&M’S spokescandies to help people connect and find humor in everyday life.   This year, Kyle Busch’s No.18 M&M’S Messages Toyota features two very appropriate phrases. “Thanks for Being as Awesome as I Am” will debut at Atlanta this weekend while another appropriate phrase, “I’m Not Competitive, I Just Hate Losing,” will adorn the car next weekend at the Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway dirt race.   M&M’S Messages packs are featured in the beloved fan-favorite flavors – Milk Chocolate, Peanut, Peanut Butter and Caramel. Fans can find M&M’S Messages on shelves at retailers nationwide for a limited time, or they can order their favorite M&M’S Messages packaging design by visiting mms.com.   There’s another way Busch is hoping to send a message this weekend, and that would be by bringing home his third win at the 1.5-mile oval. His first win there might have been his most memorable. It was just his fourth start for JGR, Mars Wrigley, and Toyota, and Busch brought home the victory, which was the first of many for the driver-sponsor combo. Since then, Busch has amassed 53 total wins and two Cup Series championships, including another victory at Atlanta in 2013. A win Sunday in the M&M’S Messages Toyota would certainly send a message that the No. 18 team will be a championship contender yet again.   To further support the M&M’S Messages scheme, fans can tweet their favorite expression from one of 28 different M&M’S Messages packs available using the hashtag #MMSSweepstakes. The promotion, which opened this week and will close Sunday, March 28 at 9 a.m. EDT, aims to bring better moments and more smiles to the faces of M&M’S Racing and Kyle Busch fans across the country. As part of the promotion, select fans will be randomly chosen to win signed M&M’S Racing hats and diecasts, in addition to the grand prize – a signed piece of Busch’s No.18 M&M’S Toyota Camry.   So, as the Cup Series heads back to Atlanta this weekend, Busch and the M&M’S Messages team look to take lessons from their 2008 and 2013 race wins on the lightning-fast oval and bring home his third Cup Series win at the track and 58th of his career. Busch would like nothing more than to send a winning message and bring home his first win of the 2021 season.

KYLE BUSCH, Driver of the No. 18 M&M'S Messages Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing:

What are your expectations going to Atlanta?   “Atlanta is one of those places where anything can happen and we’ll definitely have to be on our toes there this weekend with our M&M’S Messages Camry. You have to have good grip there, you have to have good (tire) fall-off – you have to be fast to start a run, yet you don’t want to fall off more than anybody else. So you have to take care of your stuff and bide your time a little bit. That lends itself to options by the driver to either push hard early (in the run) or save a little and be there late.”   With the way the racing is on the 1.5-mile and 2-mile ovals, are you doing anything differently with the aero on those types of tracks?   “It’s the same for everybody. You’re trying to shut off the guy behind you. You’re trying to shut his air off. That’s why the blocking is so bad, even at some of these places. The guys out front, they’ll mirror drive wherever the heck you’re going to make sure they shut your air off so you have to get out of the gas and stay out of the gas and lose momentum, and they can get a gap on you so they don’t have to deal with you again. As soon as you sort of lose that lead draft, if you’re not fast enough to catch back up to that guy in front of you, then you just continually seem to lose ground.”   How has the challenge of getting to know and working with a new crew chief going in terms of communication?   “I think it’s been good. It’s going to take a little bit of time. I would think that as we probably go a few more races, we would just have to look at our setup, how we start, how we end some of these races, then what tracks we’re going to that mimic this. We go to Kansas, for example – I would take this setup right there, look at the two Vegas and Kansas setups from last year, look at this Vegas setup, and see how we want to build our Kansas setup. Maybe we can take some things from Homestead, where we can apply them to Atlanta. Try to come up with a way of being able to do it, forget about the simulator. That’s where it gets complicated and challenging. We’re trying to utilize and make that tool better so we can really go out there and look like heroes.”   What are your memories of racing at Atlanta? “I’ve won a few Truck Series races there. That was fun. I won for the first time in an Xfinity race there a few years ago, so that was very cool. I finished second three or four times, so it had been an Achilles heel for me, I guess. The Cup races there, I’ve either been really good or really bad, it seems. There have been times where I’ve been really good throughout the event. I don’t know what it is, but I just can’t seem to keep the grip in my car for the long haul, as long as you need to throughout a run.”

Aric Almirola is 100/1 to win Sunday at Atlanta

 

Aric Almirola Atlanta Advance Pit Boss Grills Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Folds of Honor 500 (Round 6 of 36) ● Time/Date: 3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 21 ● Location: Atlanta Motor Speedway ● Layout: 1.5-mile oval ● Laps/Miles: 325 laps / 500.5 miles ● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 105 laps / Stage 2: 105 laps / Final Stage: 115 laps ● TV/Radio: FOX / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

●  History at Atlanta Motor Speedway: This will mark Almirola’s 11th NASCAR Cup Series start at the 1.5-mile oval. Almirola has two top-10 finishes, four top-15 finishes, one pole and led 36 laps in 2019. He also has three NASCAR Xfinity Series starts with a best finish of eighth, and three NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts with a best finish of third.   ●  In Almirola’s most recent start at Atlanta, he started second and ran inside the top-five before a loose wheel forced an unscheduled pit stop and put him multiple laps down. He finished 17th.   ●  Career Stats: Almirola has career totals of two wins, two poles, 24 top-five finishes, 79 top-10s and 842 laps led in 357 starts.   ●  Last weekend at Phoenix Raceway, Almirola ended his streak of bad luck with an 11th-place finish after starting 32nd and rebounding from a midrace speeding penalty that dropped him back to 22nd. The finish earned him his best starting position at Atlanta since he qualified third for the season-opening Daytona 500. It was also the first race of the season where Almirola earned stage points.   ●  Pit Boss® Grills will sponsor Almirola’s No. 10 Ford Mustang for the second race in a row this weekend at Atlanta. Almirola will sport a unique paint scheme dedicated to the Pit Boss Grills Platinum Series sold exclusively at Walmart. Pit Boss Grills is the fastest growing brand in the grilling industry, offering the best value per square inch in the pellet grill market, doing so with innovation, excellence and a distinctly customer-driven approach. Pit Boss takes pride in delivering the best possible products, at an affordable price, crafting grills that are Bigger. Hotter. Heavier™ than the competition.For more information, visit  PitBoss-Grills.com, or the company’s accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube.    ●  Pit Boss Race Day Recipes: Almirola and NASCAR released delicious race day recipes for fans to enjoy last year. Click the links that follow for Almirola’s fan tutorial for Jalapeño Poppers, Smithfield Brats, and Smithfield Pork Tenderloin Skewers on his Pit Boss Sportsman 1100 Pellet Grill.   ●  Beyond the 10 YouTube Series:In 2021, Almirola continues to share his life beyond the No. 10 Smithfield Ford with season three of his award-winning YouTube series. Fans and media can subscribe on YouTube to see Almirola’s personality on and off the track. Episodes have already featured life as a dad, a husband and an athlete, and it gives fans a unique perspective on what goes on in the life of a professional NASCAR driver. Fans can also follow Almirola’s social media channels: @Aric_Almirola on Twitter and Instagram, and @AricAlmirola on Facebook.    ●  The Smithfield Ford team sits 26th in the championship standings with 70 points, 166 behind leader Denny Hamlin.   ●  Crew chief Mike Bugarewicz is in his sixth fulltime season at SHR and his second with Almirola. To learn more, click here.

Aric Almirola, Driver of the No. 10 Pit Boss Grills Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

What’s it like racing at Atlanta?   “Drivers love to race at tracks that are old and worn out because it gives us options. It seems like the times we go to repaves, it gets very narrow and we can only run right in a single groove. When we go to Atlanta, it’s got a lot of character. It’s rough. It’s bouncy. It’s worn out and you slip and slide. We like having that control of cars sliding around and driving it. We really enjoy tracks like Atlanta.”   Do you feel relieved to have put a solid race together at Phoenix last weekend after bad luck struck early in the season?   “It felt great for our Pit Boss Grills Ford team to finally get a solid day all around. We needed that kind of a day where we ran in the top-10.  We scored some stage points and we finished 11th. Even then, we had a speeding penalty and started from the rear, and were still able to race for a top-10. We’re going to have a much better starting position this weekend at Atlanta, which will help us race for stage points early and continue to build the momentum. We know what we’re capable of and, Sunday, finally proved what kind of team we have this year.”    How confident are you to put together a run like last year?   “I am confident. We’ve got a really great race team. We did it last year.  We went on a run of top-10 and top-five finishes for a couple of months straight, so it’s possible. We just have to get back on track. We got off to a rough start and sometimes that happens.  Life doesn’t always go the way you want it to and you go through some rough patches, but it doesn’t stay that way forever, especially with a great race team like we have. We will start getting the good finishes.  We’re a great race team and I have all the confidence in the world that we will start putting the finishes on the board that we need to.”   Pit Boss Grills will be on the car for the second consecutive weekend. What does it mean to have a company like Pit Boss back your career?    “It means everything. To have the Thiessens and everyone at Pit Boss Grills on board this year is incredible. My entire career in racing has been backed by grilling and cooking. Smithfield has been with us for 10 years, and we’re just now getting into the grilling season, so it couldn’t be better timing to have them on board. We're repping the Platinum Series this weekend and it's really changed my grilling game. The Platinum series is the next chapter in grilling. We had our best finish this year with Pit Boss on the car, and we’re excited to continue that momentum for them this weekend at Atlanta, where we’ve run well before.”